1Based on the Chronicle under 855.

2MS. Cudam. So always, but see the Chronicle.

3Bede, Eccl. Hist. 3. 7: ‘The West Saxons, formerly called Gewissae.’ Plummer comments in his edition, 2. 89: ‘It is probably connected with the “visi” of “Visigoths,” meaning “west,” and hence would indicate the western confederation of Saxon tribes; ... “Gewis” is probably an eponymous hero manufactured out of the tribe-name.’ The gw of Gegwis is a Welsh peculiarity (Stevenson).

4MS., Stev. Seth (but Stevenson suggests Sceaf in his variants, referring to the Chronicle under 855).

5MS. Cainan, but see Gen. 5. 12 in R.V.

6Partly from the Chronicle, but the whole account of Alfred’s father and mother is original.

7From the Chronicle under 530 and 534.

8Unidentified.

9From the Chronicle.

10Possibly Wigborough, in the parish of South Petherton in Somersetshire (Stevenson).

11Minster in Sheppey, founded by St. Sexburh in the seventh century; it disappeared during the Danish ravages (Stevenson).

12From the Chronicle.

13MS. Cantwariorum civitatem; Chron. Cantwaraburg.

14Based upon the Chronicle.

15Stevenson is inclined to reject this customary identification with Oakley, in Surrey.

16The source—the Chronicle—says: ‘And there made the greatest slaughter among the heathen army that we have heard reported to the present day.’

17From the Chronicle.

18Mainly from the Chronicle.

19The ‘North Welsh’ of the Chronicle.

20Based upon the Chronicle.

21MS. in regem.

22MS. infantem.

23‘A letter from the pope to Alfred’s father, regarding the ceremony at Rome, has been fortunately preserved for us in a twelfth-century collection of papal letters, now in the British Museum.... The letter is as follows: “Edeluulfo, regi Anglorum [marginal direction for rubricator]. <F>ilium vestrum Erfred, quem hoc in tempore ad Sanctorum Apostolorum limina destinare curastis, benigne suscepimus, et, quasi spiritalem filium consulatus cingulo <cinguli emend. Ewald> honore vestimentisque, ut mos est Romanis consulibus, decoravimus, eo quod in nostris se tradidit manibus”’ (Stevenson). The Chronicle has: ‘... consecrated him as king, and took him as bishop-son.’ See p. 29.

24Based upon the Chronicle.

25Thanet.

26From the Chronicle.

27Based upon the Chronicle.

28Charles the Bald.

29Original.

30Comprising Somerset, Devon, and Cornwall.

31Chiefly original.

32From the Chronicle.

33Prudentius of Troyes (in Annales Bertiniani, an. 856, ed. Waitz, p. 47), says of Bishop Hincmar: ‘Eam ... reginÆ nomine insignit, quod sibi suÆque genti eatenus fuerat insuetum.’

34Original.

35Offa’s Dike; it extended from the mouth of the Dee to that of the Severn.

36Original.

37Charlemagne.

38‘Pavia was on the road to Rome, and was hence frequented by English pilgrims on their journey to the latter’ (Stevenson). The Chronicle says under 888: ‘Queen Æthelswith, who was King Alfred’s sister, died; and her body lies at Pavia.’ ‘With this story of Eadburh’s begging in that city we may compare the statement of St. Boniface, written about 747, as to the presence of English prostitutes or adulteresses in the cities of Lombardy, Frankland, or Gaul (DÜmmler, EpistolÆ Karolini Ævi 1. 355; Haddan and Stubbs, Councils 3. 381). At the date of this letter the Lombards still spoke their native Germanic tongue, and it is probable that as late as Eadburh’s time it was still the predominant speech in Lombardy’ (Stevenson).

39Mostly original.

40In Alfred’s will (Cart. Sax. 2. 177. 9) he refers to this as ‘AÞulfes cinges yrfegewrit’ (Stevenson).

41That is, for the good of his soul.

42Lat. manentibus.

43A mancus was thirty pence, one-eighth of a pound.

44Original.

45From Florence of Worcester. The Annals of St. Neots have: ‘and buried at Steyning’ (Stemrugam).

46This last statement is incorrect.

47From the Chronicle under 860. As Æthelbert was already in possession of Kent, Surrey, and Sussex, it should rather be said that he added Wessex.

48From the Chronicle under 860.

49Chiefly from the Chronicle under 865 and 866.

50The earlier part from the Chronicle.

51Probably meaning the mouths of the Rhine (Stevenson).

52Original.

53Curto, a word showing Frankish influence.

54Original. Stevenson would refer this event to a date earlier than 855.

55From Florence of Worcester.

56So Pauli and Stevenson interpret legit.

57Original.

58Cf. chap. 88.

59The liberal arts were seven, consisting of the trivium—grammar, logic, and rhetoric—and the quadrivium—arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy. This course of study was introduced in the sixth century. Asser here employs the singular, artem, which might be translated by ‘education.’

60See Alfred’s own statement in Appendix I, p. 69.

61Original.

62Alfred says (Preface to the Pastoral Care): ‘Thanks be to Almighty God that we have any teachers among us now.’ In this same Preface he mentions, among those who aided him in the translation, Archbishop Plegmund, Bishop Asser, our author, and the two priests Grimbold and John. Cf. chaps. 77, 78, 79, 81, 88, and Appendix I, p. 71.

63Stevenson brackets this clause.

64Mostly from the Chronicle.

65This clause must refer to the first line of the chapter, as there is no previous mention of the Northumbrians.

66From the Chronicle.

67Original.

68‘Subarravit, formed from sub and arrha, represents literally the English verb wed, which refers to the giving of security upon the engagement of marriage.... [It] is glossed by beweddian in Napier’s Old English Glosses’ (Stevenson).

69William of Malmesbury calls her Æthelswith.

70Of the Gaini nothing is known.

71Largely from the Chronicle.

72‘A compound of tig (Modern Welsh ty, “house”), and guocobauc (Modern Welsh gogofawg), an adjective derived from gogof, “cave.” ... The name ... is certainly applicable to Nottingham, which has long been famous for the houses excavated out of the soft sandstone upon which it stands’ (Stevenson). The word Nottingham itself, however, has not this meaning.

73Here and elsewhere in the text often spelled Æthered.

74From the Chronicle.

75In Norfolk.

76Mostly from the Chronicle.

77Chiefly from the Chronicle.

78Five and one-half miles southwest of Reading.

79Added from Florence of Worcester by Stevenson.

80Chiefly from the Chronicle.

81The Berkshire Downs (Stevenson).

82Stevenson is convinced that Æscesdun, though interpreted as ‘mons fraxini,’ cannot mean ‘the hill of the ash,’ but that Ash is here a man’s name.

83Perhaps mediam is a scribal error for unam or primam (Stevenson).

84There is a note on the Germanic shield-wall in my edition of Judith (305ª), in the Belles Lettres Series.

85All original except final clause.

86Supplied by Stevenson from Florence of Worcester.

87Mostly original.

88Probably Reading.

89From the Chronicle.

90Before this sentence occurs the following in the Latin: Quibus cum talia prÆsentis vitÆ dispendia alienigenis perperam quÆrentibus non sufficerent. This may represent a sentence in the author’s draft that was intended, owing to change of construction, to be omitted (Stevenson).

91In Hampshire.

92Mostly from the Chronicle.

93In Dorsetshire.

94Paraphrased and amplified from the Chronicle.

95A tributary of the Nadder, which it joins near Wilton.

96Or, perhaps, ‘fewness,’ reading paucitatem for peraudacitatem (Stevenson).

97Mostly from the Chronicle.

98From the Chronicle.

99Chiefly from the Chronicle.

100In Derbyshire.

101Among the Germans there were Colonies (ScholÆ) of the Frisians, Franks, and Lombards, as well as of the Saxons.

102Now Santo Spirito in Sassia, near the Vatican.

103From the Chronicle.

104The valley of the Clyde.

105Here spelled Gothrum.

106From the Chronicle.

107Chiefly from the Chronicle.

108In Dorsetshire.

109Dorchester.

110For the usual DornsÆte.

111Here the Chronicle has ‘on the holy arm-ring,’ on which the Danes, it would seem, were accustomed to swear.

112Here the Chronicle has: ‘They, the mounted army, stole away from the fierd [the English forces] in the night into Exeter.’ This, of course, is the true account, while the statement in Asser is incredible.

113Exe.

114From the Chronicle.

115See chap. 46.

116Largely from the Chronicle.

117At this point Archbishop Parker interpolated, from the Annals of St. Neots, the story of Alfred and the cakes. This story, however, cannot be proved to antedate the Norman Conquest.

118The first clause from the Chronicle; the rest original.

119Name unknown.

120Hingwar.

121Or South Wales. See chap. 80.

122Site unknown.

123Mostly from the Chronicle.

124In Somersetshire.

125Unknown.

126Or perhaps better, Iglea; see Stevenson’s note on the word, p. 270 of his edition. He says: ‘It is probably an older name of Southleigh Wood, or of part of it.’

127Based upon the Chronicle.

128In Wiltshire.

129Supplied by Stevenson from the Chronicle.

130Properly, as one of thirty, according to the Chronicle.

131Chrism is the term employed for the mixture of oil and balsam employed in the rite of confirmation, and sometimes for the ceremony of confirmation itself. In the early church, this ceremony immediately followed baptism, and was performed by the laying on of hands. In the Roman church it is obligatory on all Catholics, and no baptism is theoretically complete without it. It is performed by a bishop (only exceptionally by a priest). The ceremony begins with the bishop’s rising and facing the person or persons to be confirmed, his pastoral staff in his hand, and saying: ‘May the Holy Ghost come upon you, and the power of the Holy Ghost keep you from sins’ (Handbook to Christian and Ecclesiastical Rome: Liturgy in Rome, London, 1897, pp. 169–171). The rite is described in Egbert’s Pontifical, which may be taken as representing the custom in the church of Alfred’s time. Lingard says (Anglo-Saxon Church, London, 1858, 1. 297): ‘According to that pontifical, the bishop prayed thus: “Almighty and Everlasting God, who hast granted to this thy servant to be born again of water and the Holy Ghost, and hast given to him remission of his sins, send down upon him thy sevenfold Holy Spirit, the Paraclete from heaven, Amen. Give to him the spirit of wisdom and understanding, Amen—the spirit of counsel and fortitude, Amen—the spirit of knowledge and piety, Amen. Fill him with the spirit of the fear of God and our Lord Jesus Christ, and mercifully sign him with the sign of the holy cross for life eternal.” The bishop then marked his forehead with chrism, and proceeded thus: “Receive this sign of the holy cross with the chrism of salvation in Christ Jesus unto life eternal.” The head was then bound with a fillet of new linen to be worn seven days, and the bishop resumed: “O God, who didst give thy Holy Spirit to thine apostles, that by them and their successors he might be given to the rest of the faithful, look down on the ministry of our lowliness, and grant that into the heart of him whose forehead we have this day anointed, and confirmed with the sign of the cross, thy Holy Spirit may descend; and that, dwelling therein, he may make it the temple of his glory, through Christ our Lord.” The confirmed then received the episcopal blessing, and communicated during the mass.’

The chrism-loosing was the ceremony of unbinding the fillet, apparently.

132MS. Ædificia; Stevenson, beneficia.

133Chiefly from the Chronicle.

134Gloucester, Worcester, etc.

135Mostly from the Chronicle.

136Mostly from the Chronicle.

137See Stevenson’s interesting note.

138From the Chronicle.

139Ibid.

140Ibid.

141Ibid.

142Mostly from the Chronicle.

143Largely from the Chronicle.

144Mostly from the Chronicle.

145Cf. chap. 60.

146The MS. has dormiret, but perhaps for domum iret, since the Chronicle has hamweard wendon (Stevenson); so perhaps we should read ‘was on its way home.’

147Chiefly from the Chronicle.

148Louis the Stammerer.

149Cf. chap. 59.

150Charles the Bald.

151Cf. chaps. 11 and 13.

152From the Chronicle.

153From Duisburg, about January, 884 (Stevenson).

154There was a battle in Frisia, about December, 884, and a later one in Saxony (Stevenson).

155Mainly from the Chronicle.

156The North Sea.

157Brittany.

158Louis the German.

159Louis the Pious.

160Mainly from the Chronicle.

161From the Chronicle.

162Based upon the preface to Eginhard’s Life of Charlemagne.

163See chap. 21.

164Original.

165Perhaps the hemorrhoids.

166Interpolated some time between 893 and 1000 A.D.

167In Alfred’s prayer at the end of his translation of Boethius, one of the petitions is: ‘Deliver me from foul lust and from all unrighteousness.’

168Original.

169This is the beginning of a corrupt sentence, of which nothing has been made.

170MS. Eadredo.

171See Appendix I, p. 70.

172See chaps. 24 and 88.

173Original.

174Cf. Alfred’s jewel, and the book upon it by Professor Earle.

175See chaps. 23 and 75.

176Our first accounts of Arctic exploration are from his pen. For his interest in geographical discovery see the narratives of Ohthere and Wulfstan, in his translation of Orosius. In 897, according to the Chronicle, he was experimenting with new war-galleys: ‘They were almost twice as long as the others. Some had sixty oars, some more. They were swifter, steadier, and higher than the others, and were built, not on a Frisian or Danish model, but according to his personal notions of their utility.’

177There were Frisians in his fleet in 897 (Chronicle).

178Northmen; such were Ohthere and Wulfstan (see note 1, above).

179Three such came to him in 891 (Chronicle).

180MS. Armorici. See chap. 102.

181Or, ‘degrees’; cf. p. 60.

182See chap. 101.

183Matt. 6. 33.

184Ps. 85. 8.

185Cf. chap. 88; Stevenson gives a number of parallels from ancient and mediÆval authors, beginning with Lucretius (3. 9) and Seneca (Epist. 84.3).

186Cf. chap. 24.

187Original.

188See Appendix I, p. 69. In Alfred’s will he gives Werfrith (WÆrferth) a hundred marks.

189See Appendix I, p. 71.

190Perhaps Bishop of Ramsbury (909 A.D.). The later MSS. of the Chronicle say, under the year 883: ‘And in the same year Sighelm and Æthelstan took to Rome the alms that King Alfred sent, and also to India to St. Thomas’ and St. Bartholomew’s.’

191Or, ‘chaplains.’ See p. 61, note 6.

192Original.

193Probably from the monastery of St. Bertin, at St. Omer (Pas-de-Calais). See Appendix I, p. 71, and Appendix II, pp. 75 ff.

194Cf. chap. 94, and Appendix I, p. 71.

195Original.

196Perhaps Dean, near Eastbourne, in Sussex.

197Five miles southwest of Chepstow. ‘There was an abbey there, where a traveling ecclesiastic would be likely to stay, and it was on the great Roman road to South Wales, by which a traveler from Wessex to St. Davids would proceed’ (Stevenson).

198The MS. seems to be corrupt at this point, so that what I have given is a loose conjectural rendering of the Latin: ... et illa adjuvaretur per rudimenta Sancti Dequi in omni causa, tamen pro viribus.

199Original.

200Pembrokeshire and part of Carmarthenshire.

201‘Rhodri Mawr (the Great), King of Gwyneth, who acquired the rule of the whole of North and Mid-Wales and Cardigan’ (Stevenson).

202Old name of Glamorgan and part of Monmouthshire.

203In Monmouthshire.

204Alfred.

205See chaps. 8 and 56.

206Original.

207Perhaps Landford in Wiltshire.

208In Alfred’s Preface to his translation of Boethius we are told: ‘[He made this translation as well as he could], considering the various and manifold worldly cares that oft troubled him both in mind and body.’ The similarity of phrase is striking.

209Both in Somersetshire; these monasteries are otherwise unknown.

210Largely from the Chronicle.

211Largely from the Chronicle.

212Namely, Alfred.

213A mistranslation from the Chronicle; it should read, ‘were not in captivity,’ etc.

214Here follows Camden’s famous (forged?) interpolation about Grimbald and Oxford.

215Much expanded from the Chronicle.

216From the Chronicle.

217Charles the Fat.

218Burgundy.

219Chiefly from the Chronicle.

220Cf. chap. 84.

221Original.

222Original.

223Cf. chap. 24.

224Author unknown.

225Cf. chap. 76.

226Original.

227Luke 23. 42.

228The following phrases, introduced at this point, seem to be corrupt: Hic aut aliter, quamvis dissimili modo, in regia potestate.

229November 11.

230Alfred calls the passages which he translated from St. Augustine’s Soliloquies by the name of ‘flowers’ or ‘blossoms’ (blostman). See Hargrove’s edition (Yale Studies in English XIII), and his version into modern English (Yale Studies in English XXII).

231The application of the word to a work of St. Augustine’s gave it great currency in the Frankish Latin of the period.

232The Handbook seems to have been known to William of Malmesbury (d. 1143); cf. his Gesta Pontificum, pp. 333, 336.

233Original.

234Unknown.

235Cf. note 5, chap. 80.

236... unicuique ubicumque male habet.

237Original.

238Cf. chap. 74.

239MS. corrupt: De cotidiana nationum.

240This makes no sense; yet the Latin is: quÆ in Tyrreno mari usque ultimum HiberniÆ finem habitant.

241Cf. chap. 70.

242Perhaps Elias III, patriarch from about 879 to 907; the MS. reads Abel. Stevenson’s emendation is supported by the fact that certain medical recipes are related to have been sent to Alfred by the patriarch Elias (Cockayne, Leechdoms 2. 290).

243Stevenson says: ‘Possibly he intended to refer to the use of the precious metals in sacred edifices. We are told, on the doubtful authority of William of Malmesbury, that King Ine built a chapel of gold and silver at Glastonbury. A ninth-century writer records that Ansegis, abbot of Fontenelle, 806–833, partly decorated a spire of the abbey with gilt metal, and another writer of that period mentions the golden doors of the “basilica” of St. Alban in his description of the imperial palace at Ingelheim. Giraldus Cambrensis ascribes the use of golden roofs or roof-crests to the Romans at Caerleon-on-Usk. The idea that a king’s palace ought to be decorated with the precious metals is probably an outcome of the late Roman rhetoric and Byzantine magnificence.’

244The early part of the sentence is corrupt in the MS.

245The figure is found as early as Sophocles and Aristophanes.

246Original.

247This corresponds to the OE. sawle Þearf.

248The Latin has: inter cetera diuturna et nocturna bona. Stevenson does not emend, but it seems as though we should read diurna. Compare, for example, in Stevenson’s edition, 78. 14, 35, 39; 99. 10; 100. 11; 103. 9.

249Cf. chap. 55. The second monastery was for nuns, and at Shaftesbury; see chap. 98.

250Original.

251Original.

252Cf. chap. 78.

253Cf. chap. 78.

254Original.

255Supplied by Stevenson.

256Original.

257Matt. 27. 64.

258Original.

259Original.

260Cf. chap. 92.

261Original.

262This passage is somewhat corrupt.

263Gen. 4. 7, in the old Latin version, following the Septuagint.

264Prov. 21. 1.

265Original.

266Cf. the Chronicle under 894: ‘The King had divided his forces into two, so that one half was constantly at home, the other half in the field.’

267Original.

268Or, ‘rank’ (dignitatem), as in line 3 of the chapter.

2692 Cor. 9. 7.

270Original.

271Incorrectly quoted from the Pastoral Care 3. 20: ‘Ne quÆdam quibus nulla, ne nulla quibus quÆdam, ne multa quibus pauca, ne pauca prÆbeant quibus impendere multa debuerunt.’

272See chaps. 75 and 76.

273See chaps. 74 and 81.

274See chaps. 78 and 94.

275Original.

276Not from the Bible, but from St. Augustine’s Enchiridion de Fide, chap. 20: ‘Qui enim vult ordinate dare eleemosynam, a se ipso debet incipere.’

277Reading divitiis for the divinis of the text.

278Cf. chap. 99.

279Original.

280Or, ‘chaplains.’ See p. 41, note 5.

281‘As these six candles weighed 72 pennyweights, each one was of the weight of 12d. The weight of the OE. penny was 22½ Troy grains, so that each candle would weigh roughly ? oz. avoirdupois. As the candles were twelve inches long, they would be very thin in proportion to their length. A modern beeswax candle burns at a considerably quicker rate than is here assumed, but we do not think this condemns the figures given in this chapter as imaginary. The candle of Alfred’s time was probably not moulded, and the wick would not be made of cotton, as in the modern ones. Rushes, tow, and the hards of flax were used for wicks. Aldhelm refers to the use of linen or flax wicks, but also to those made of rushes. It is therefore hardly possible to reproduce the candles used by Alfred for the purpose of testing this chapter’ (Stevenson).

282Reading fenestras for the fenestrarum of the text.

283Meanings doubtful.

284‘Ducange objected that horn lanterns were known to the Greeks and Romans long before Alfred’s time. But the passages adduced by Salmasius, to whom he refers, and such others as we have been able to gather, do not clearly describe a horn lantern lit by a candle, but rather screens formed of horn to place round oil lamps. It is possible, therefore, that Alfred may really be the inventor of the horn lantern as we know it. The door in the side, which would be rendered necessary by the change of the candles every four hours, is here described, and seems to be a new feature’ (Stevenson).

285Original.

286The name of the diocese and of the bishop of course varied in the different copies.

287Cf. p. 11, note 2.

288The books.

289From Rev. Joseph Stevenson’s translation of The Book of Hyde, in Church Historians of England (London, 1854), Vol. 2, Part 2, pp. 499–503. The translator states that the text of the letter printed by Wise in his edition of Asser (see Stevenson’s edition of Asser, p. 308) ‘has been employed in correcting the many obscurities and errors of the copy inserted in the Liber de Hida.’ Of the letter our editor says: ‘It ... seems to be genuine. There is no conceivable motive for forging such a letter. We can discover no grounds for Pauli’s condemnation of it.... As Malmesbury, Gesta Regum, c. 122 (p. 130), states that Grimbald was sent to Alfred at his request by the Archbishop of Rheims, he would seem to have been acquainted with this letter.’