The Medieval Life of King Alfred the Great: A Translation and Commentary on the Text Attributed to Asser

by A. Smyth

Overview

Very few King's earn the appellation 'Great'. Alfred is the only English King honoured with this name and is credited with various successes (the foundation of a navy, English education system and religious revival). His memory looms large in the English Imagination. The medieval 'Life' of King Alfred of Wessex purports to be written by Asser, a monk in the King's service. This account of one of England's best loved and most famous kings has been accepted as offering evidence on most aspects of life in early medieval England and beyond. It was used in Victorian times to create a 'Cult' of Alfred. Alfred Smyth offers a carefully annotated translation of the 'Life' together with a long commentary. He argues that the 'Life' is a forgery which has profound implications not only for our understanding of the early English and medieval past but also for the nature of biography and history. This close scholarly rendering of the text allows the reader access to the intricacies of medieval history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781349402281
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan UK
Publication date:	11/28/2001
Edition description:	1st ed. 2002
Pages:	280
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.03(d)

About the Author

ALFRED SMYTH is Director of Research and Head of the Graduate School, Canterbury Christ Church University College. Formerly Master of Keynes College, University of Kent and Warden of St. George's House, Windsor Castle.

Table of Contents

Abbreviations Introduction [A]Translation of the Life of King Alfred [B] Commentary A Tour Around the Manuscripts The Author of the Life The Author's Latin Style The Author's Use of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle Why Was the Life of King Alfred Written at Ramsay in C.A.D. 1000? Index

Editorial Reviews

Alfred the Great was a ninth-century scholar-king celebrated for saving southern England from pagan invaders. It has been generally believed that a monk named Asser, who was employed by Alfred, penned the medieval Life of King Alfred, the biography that propelled him to mythic proportions. Smyth's book, a translation of this text together with a long commentary, denounces the Life as a forgery. He contends that the text was actually written more than 100 years after the king's death by the historical scholar Byrhtferth of Ramsey using The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as his framework. Well aware of the controversy surrounding such an accusation, Smyth meticulously documents his reasoning. He shows that no "substantial information on many aspects of the King's life" is ever given in the Life and that it is rife with historical inaccuracies. In great detail, Smyth outlines the incredible similarities in language, style, and vocabulary between Byrhtferth's other works and the Asser text, as well as the "all-embracing dependence of a supposedly ninth-century writer on The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle source." This dense and highly intellectual book would be of interest only to scholars of this particular historical period. Recommended for academic collections. Isabel Coates, Canada Customs & Revenue Agency, Ont. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

'Alfred Smyth's The Medieval Life of King Alfred the Great is a pathbreaking work...a sophisticated introduction and study of the entire field of Alfredian biography, ancient and modern...The Medieval Life of King Alfred the Great also serves as an excellent introduction to the text of the Life itself and to the controversies surrounding its creation and history.' - Professor Daniel Melia, University of California, Berkeley

'Alfred Smyth's new translation and commentary challenges consensus opinion at every level...an extensive commentary relates the Life to the new and still-developing awareness of historical writing in the late Anglo-Saxon period...Smyth's text asks new questions and provides new answers, offering a more complex account of the origins of England, and of English History, than has been possible to date.' - Tom Shippey, Saint Louis University, Missouri

'...this translation...is useful for presenting a version without many of the previous editorial emendations...' - J.L. Leland, Choice

Reviews from previous book:

'Smyth's book, then, must stand as the definitive account of the reign.' - Peter Ackroyd, The Times

'This is a glorious book. It rescues a great English ruler from some of the more obtuse concepts and prejudices of our own time, and builds more carefully on ninth-century foundations than any other biography yet published.' - Eric Christiansen, The Spectator

From the Publisher