The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1915-06-27
And eat II up half dove
Than thus to stay Till t he enough,
And so thy manners show.

I'll thwack thee on the snout';
which made the patient king, good man,
or her to stand in oouDt.
Alfred often stood in doubt" but
the swineherd's was a person Of ex-
cellent assurance.
In 1884 Robert Powell published a
Life described as a 1medley of legen-
dairy absurdities and fulsome adula-
ton" Sir John Spe!man's Life OF
Alfred the Great credulous and un-
critical. vas yet a great advance In
the direction Of scholarliness. With
the Impulse to scientific study of BRIT
ish archaeology that marked the open
ing OF the eighteenth century the crit
ical study Of Alfredian institutions
may be said to have been begun. Be-
tween 1850 and 1850 the history was
a favorlte topic with dramatists and
poets. and the spirit of the time Is
shown in such titles as THE Patriot
King" The Battle u %Eddington. or
British Liberty Alfred, or the Magic
Banner" DR.. Johnson contemplated
a Life. as Milton had planned "a
the Isle of Athelney. The millenary
celebration In 1901 gavc new impetus
to the study Of the Alfredian era. IN
this country the good king was at
that time acclaimed founder Of the
Anglo-SaXon race"
For the youth of the son of Ethel
wulf, King of the West Saxons. thsre
Is little to draw upon aside from the
Ang;o-SlXon chronicle and the writ
ings Of Asser. the We.shman. Bishop
Of D~evonshire and Cornwall tSher-
borne). Asser's book. DE Rebus
Gestis .Elfredi.' was for some time
but IL now. stripped of interpretations,
accepted, with all its verbosity, pro-
liNity. "wearisome repetitions and
tedious moraiizing." as truthful and
authoritative. without Asser there
would be mighty little Alfred.
Alfred was eighteen when. in S66,
his brother Ethelred became ruler Of
the West SaXons. Asser's allusion to
him as "Secondarius' implies some
thing more in his position than heir
apparent to the throne. a sort of "au-
thorized viceroyalty." The two
brothers fell heir to the tremendous
'"IN Va Wv va Nil'll ldilu tEdllS
a threat greater than It had ever met
as an organized invasion differs from
a thrusting raid. the beginning II a
systematic policy OF conquest and
settlement in Britain. East Anglia
was easy prey for the 'horsed vi.
kings who pressed on ovsr the Hum.
her into Deira and seized York. Ing.
var. the 'Ivar the Boneless" of the
sagas. "a typical Norman statesman
sly as a fox. vas the brain of the in.
vaslon, while his brother Tuba. "typi.
cal Norman soldier" led the men-at.
arms. In SOS the invading host.
turned back into Mercia; the southern
kingdoms were mex in the schedule
Alfred had his first sight of the vi.
kings at Nottingham. In that baC
time Edmund Of the East Anglican,
fell into the hands of the enemy an,
was cruelty slain. over the remain.
of the martyr king rose one Of tn,
most splendid abbeys of medieval Eng
land. and the royal manor of Bedrics
worth. his burial place. grew into IN,
populous town Of st. Edmund's Bury
or Burg" War is OF the devil, but /
brings the saints to the front.
Defeating the Danes at Ashdown
Ethelred and Alfred neglected to fol.
low up their victory. The raids con
tinued. and for S7l. the year Of Ethel,
reds death and Alfred's accession, tn,
Chronicle records nine folk fights
or pitched battles. After the battl.
of Wilton the West Saxons were
driven to make terms, paying a heav.
price for the temporary immunity o
their kingdom. In the next four year.
"WesseX has no history" Alfred spen
this period organizing his people ant
his soldiers. In SIS the Danes re
newed their scheme Of conquest. an,
in S16.WesseX again became the the
atre" of war. Alfred is now an ad
m.ral, putting out TO sea with a flee
and defeating Sever shiploads o
Vikings" 1t was in May of ST.. wheel
the Viking fleet of a hundred sail la.
in the Seine, threatening Charles tn
Bald on m side while the Pope wa
appealing TO him on the other for mel
and money, that the tax Of 500
pounds of silver was raised to pa.
the Mortimer in the Seine. to Undue
them to leave the Kingdom; tribut
to the heather Of the North as tn
price Of opportunity TO fight the in
fidel' Saracens of the South. Doubt
less the ships promptly made for tn
English coast, replacing those that la.
sunk bdlow the cliffs of Swanage.
Guthrum's army drove into Alfred
land, West Saxon resistance collapsed
many Of the people cmigrated eros
| ~ - 49, lf,,- L,l Ill, 81.
test in Atheiney; like the wander
ing Bruce, like Napoleon on Elba
The legendary Alfred skulks by high
ways and hedges, through woods an
fields. to be scolded by peasants an
comforted by saints in an exile whic
lasts three years. The historic Alfre
passed some four months In consoll
dating his forces for a fnal crushin
blow at the main body of the Dane!
while he held the west country agains
Guthrum's %outposts, and carried on
skirmishlng warfare in the Somerse
moor Businesses"
The hardships of those weeks
they were real privations and danger
but not the traditional woes Of
"forsaken Outcast"-were abundant
compensated by the succession of vic
tories ono Waterloo that eliminate
with Ethandune. one of several pos
sible Eddingtons, but most probabl
the one in Wiltshire, and tie sui
render of Guthrum, his baptism g
Athelstan, and the treaty hat gay
him an East Anglican kingdom con
prising Norfolk, Suffolk and Essc
with the modern counties of Can
bridge and Huntington and parts
H~crtfordshire and Bedfordshirc. viii