TRANSLATED FROM THE TEXT OF STEVENSON’S EDITION BY ALBERT S. COOK Professor of the English Language and Literature in Yale University GINN & COMPANY BOSTON · NEW YORK · CHICAGO · LONDON Copyright , 1906 By ALBERT S. COOK ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 66.1 The Athenæum Press GINN & COMPANY · PROPRIETORS · BOSTON · U.S.A. TO THE FRIENDS OF HONEST AND CAPABLE GOVERNMENT IN AMERICA...

The issue of Stevenson’s long and eagerly expected edition of Asser’s Life of King Alfred has provided an opportunity to supply the ever increasing number of the great king’s admirers with a more satisfactory rendering into English of this, perhaps the most precious document, notwithstanding all its faults, for the comprehension of his life and character. The authenticity of the Life was impugned by Thomas Wright in 1841, by Sir Henry Howorth in 1876–77, and by an unknown writer in 1898, and it

To my lord Alfred, king of the Anglo-Saxons, the worshipful and pious ruler of all Christians in the island of Britain, Asser, least of all the servants of God, wisheth thousandfold prosperity for both lives, according to the desires of his heart. 1. Alfred’s Birth and Genealogy. 1 —In the year of our Lord’s incarnation 849, Alfred, King of the Anglo-Saxons, was born at the royal vill of Wantage, in Berkshire (which receives its name from Berroc Wood, where the box-tree grows very abundantly). H

King Alfred bids greet Bishop Wærferth with his words lovingly and with friendship; and I let it be known to thee that it has very often come into my mind what wise men there formerly were throughout England, both of sacred and secular orders; and what happy times there were then throughout England; and how the kings who had power over the nation in those days obeyed God and His ministers; how they preserved peace, morality, and order at home, and at the same time enlarged their territory abroad

To Alfred, the most glorious and most Christian King of the Angles, Fulco, by the grace of God Archbishop of Rheims, and servant of the servants of God, wisheth both the sceptre of temporal dominion, ever triumphant, and the eternal joys of the kingdom of heaven. And first of all we give thanks to our Lord God, the Father of lights, and the Author of all good, from whom is every good gift and every perfect gift, who by the grace of His Holy Spirit hath not only been pleased to cause the light of