[125] Tunc ille statim tollens librum de manu sua magistrum adiit et legit. Quo lecto matri retulit et recitavit.—Asser, De Rebus Gestis Aelfredi, § 23.
[126] As Mr. Stevenson suggests, if et be a copyist’s mistake for qui (both represented by contractions), the difficulty would vanish.
[127] This is pointed out by Mr. Oman in “Collected Essays” in Alfred the Great.
[128] Florence of Worcester’s words (borrowed from St. Edmund’s earliest biographer Abbo), “Ex antiquorum Saxonum prosapia oriundus,” seem, according to the usage of the time, to refer to the Old Saxons of the continent. If he had meant merely to say “from an old Saxon family,” he would probably have said “antiqua” rather than “antiquorum”.
[129] Studies in Church Dedications (ii., 327), by Miss Arnold-Forster.
[130] In describing the events of this year the writer follows the guidance of the late Mr. W. H. Simcox, who personally identified most of the battle-sites, and the results of whose investigations are contained in an excellent paper in the English Historical Review, i., 218–34.
[131] The title of the Danish battle leaders, next in rank to the king.
[132] On philological grounds Mr. Stevenson disputes the propriety of this translation and asserts that Aesc must be the name of a person. The present appearance of Ashdown Hills seems, however, to correspond admirably with Asser’s description. It is better not to complicate the discussion by an argument derived from the strange figure of a White Horse (so-called) cut upon their northern side, as that figure, with all its picturesque interest, is not a safe guide to a historical identification.
[133] At this point the Chronicle of St. Neots, a late and untrustworthy authority written perhaps early in the twelfth century, inserts the well-known story of the burning of the cakes, which does not form part of the genuine text of Asser’s Life.
[134] The site of this fortress has been much discussed but is not yet satisfactorily settled. See Stevenson’s Asser, p. 262.