Asserius: DE REBUS GESTIS AELFREDI

Domino meo venerabili piissimoque omnium Brittanniae insulae Christianorum rectori, Aelfred, Anglorum Saxonum regi, Asser, omnium servorum Dei ultimus, millemodam ad vota desideriorum utriusque vitae prosperitatem.

To my lord, the venerable and most pious ruler of all the Christians of the island of Britain, Alfred, king of the Anglo-Saxons, Asser, the least of all the servants of God, [wishes] prosperity in a thousand ways, in accordance with the vows of the desires of both lives.

1. Anno Dominicae Incarnationis DCCCXLIX natus est Aelfred, Angul-Saxonum rex, in villa regia, quae dicitur Uuanating, in illa paga, quae nominatur Berrocscire: quae paga taliter vocatur a Berroc silva, ubi buxus abundantissime nascitur. Cuius genealogia tali serie contexitur: Aelfred rex, filius Aethelwulfi regis; qui fuit Ecgberhti; qui fuit Ealhmundi; qui fuit Eafa; qui fuit Eoppa; qui fuit Ingild; Ingild et Ine, ille famosus Occidentalium rex Saxonum, germani duo fuerunt, qui Ine Romam perrexit, et ibi vitam praesentem finiens honorifice, caelestem patriam, cum Christo regnaturus, adiit; qui fuerunt filii Coenred; qui fuit Ceoluuald; qui fuit Cudam; qui fuit Cuthwine; qui fuit Ceaulin; qui fuit Cynric; qui fuit Creoda; qui fuit Cerdic; qui fuit Elesa; qui fuit Geuuis, a quo Britones totam illam gentem Geguuis nominant; qui fuit Brond; qui fuit Beldeag; qui fuit Uuoden; qui fuit Frithowald; qui fuit Frealaf; qui fuit Frithuwulf; qui fuit Finn Godwulf; qui fuit Geata, quem Getam iamdudum pagani pro deo venerabantur. Cuius Sedulius poeta mentionem facit in Paschali metrico carmine, ita dicens:

1. In the year of the Lord’s Incarnation 849 Aelfred, king of the Anglo-Saxons, was born in the royal vill which is called Uuanating, in that shire which is named Berrocscire: which shire is so called from the Berroc wood, where box-tree grows most abundantly. Whose genealogy is woven together in such a sequence: Aelfred the king, son of King Aethelwulf; who was [son] of Ecgberht; who was [son] of Ealhmund; who was [son] of Eafa; who was [son] of Eoppa; who was [son] of Ingild; Ingild and Ine, that famous king of the West Saxons, were two brothers—who, Ine, went to Rome, and there, ending the present life honorably, approached the heavenly fatherland, to reign with Christ; who were sons of Coenred; who was [son] of Ceolwald; who was [son] of Cuda; who was [son] of Cuthwine; who was [son] of Ceaulin; who was [son] of Cynric; who was [son] of Creoda; who was [son] of Cerdic; who was [son] of Elesa; who was [son] of Geuuis, from whom the Britons name that whole people Geguuis; who was [son] of Brond; who was [son] of Beldeag; who was [son] of Woden; who was [son] of Frithowald; who was [son] of Frealaf; who was [son] of Frithuwulf; who was [son] of Finn, son of Godwulf; who was [son] of Geata, whom the pagans long ago used to venerate as a god. Of whom the poet Sedulius makes mention in the Paschal metrical song, thus saying:

cum sua gentiles studeant figmenta poetae
grandisonis pompare modis, tragicoque boatu
ridiculove Getae seu qualibet arte canendi
saeva nefandarum renovent contagia rerum,
et scelerum monumenta canant, rituque magistro
plurima Niliacis tradant mendacia biblis:
cur ego Daviticis assuetus cantibus odas
chordarum resonare decem, sanctoque verenter
stare choro, et placidis caelestia psallere verbis,
clara salutiferi taceam miracula Christi?

while the pagan poets strive to parade their figments
with grand-sounding modes, and with tragic bellowing
or the ridiculous Geta, or by whatever art of singing,
they renew the savage contagions of unspeakable things,
and sing the monuments of crimes, and, with ritual as teacher
hand down to Niliac papyri very many mendacities:
why should I, accustomed to Davidic songs, make odes
to resound on ten strings, and reverently to stand
in the holy choir, and to psalm celestial things with placid words,
keep silence about the clear miracles of Christ the Savior?

Qui Geata fuit Taetuua; qui fuit Beauu; qui fuit Sceldwea; qui fuit Heremod; qui fuit Itermod; qui fuit Hathra; qui fuit Huala; qui fuit Beduuig; qui fuit Seth; qui fuit Noe; qui fuit Lamech; qui fuit Mathusalem; qui fuit Enoch; qui fuit Malaleel; qui fuit Cainan; qui fuit Enos; qui fuit Seth; qui fuit Adam.

Who was Geat; who was Tætwa; who was Beaw; who was Sceldwea; who was Heremod; who was Itermod; who was Hathra; who was Hwala; who was Bedwig; who was Seth; who was Noah; who was Lamech; who was Methuselah; who was Enoch; who was Mahalalel; who was Cainan; who was Enos; who was Seth; who was Adam.

2. De genealogia matris eius. Mater quoque eiusdem Osburh nominabatur, religiosa nimium femina, nobilis ingenio, nobilis et genere; quae erat filia Oslac, famosi pincernae Aethelwulfi regis. Qui Oslac Gothus erat natione; ortus enim erat de Gothis et Iutis, de semine scilicet Stuf et Wihtgar, duorum fratrum et etiam comitum, qui, accepta potestate Uuectae insulae ab avunculo suo Cerdic rege et Cynric filio suo, consobrino eorum, paucos Britones eiusdem insulae accolas, quos in ea invenire potuerunt, in loco, qui dicitur Guuihtgaraburhg, occiderunt.

2. Of the genealogy of his mother. His mother likewise was named Osburh, a woman exceedingly religious, noble in native talent, and noble also in lineage; who was the daughter of Oslac, the famous cup-bearer of King Aethelwulf. This Oslac was a Goth by nation; for he was sprung from the Goths and the Jutes, of the seed, namely, of Stuf and Wihtgar, two brothers and likewise companions, who, having received the authority of the island of Uuecta from their maternal uncle King Cerdic and from Cynric his son, their cousin, slew the few Britons, inhabitants of the same island, whom they were able to find in it, in a place which is called Guuihtgaraburhg.

Ceteri enim accolae eiusdem insulae ante aut occisi erant aut exules aufugerant.

For the other inhabitants of the same island had previously either been slain, or had fled as exiles.

3. Anno Dominicae Incarnationis DCCCLI, nativitatis autem Aelfredi regis tertio, Ceorl, Domnaniae comes, cum Domnaniis contra paganos pugnavit in loco, qui dicitur Uuicganbeorg, et Christiani victoriam habuerunt. Et ipso eodem anno primum hiemaverunt pagani in insula, quae vocatur Sceapieg, quod interpretatur 'insula ovium'; quae sita est in Tamesi flumine inter East-Seaxum et Cantuarios, sed ad Cantiam propior est quam ad East-Seaxum; in qua monasterium optimum constructum est.

3. In the year of the Lord’s Incarnation 851, and in the third year of King Aelfred’s birth, Ceorl, count of Domnania, with the Domnanians fought against the pagans in a place which is called Uuicganbeorg, and the Christians had the victory. And in that very same year the pagans first wintered in the island which is called Sceapieg, which is interpreted ‘island of sheep’; which is situated in the river Thames between the East-Saxons and the Kentish, but is nearer to Kent than to the East-Saxons; in which an excellent monastery was constructed.

4. Eodem quoque anno magnus paganorum exercitus cum trecentis et quinquaginta navibus in ostium Tamesis fluminis venit et Doruberniam, id est Cantwariorum civitatem, (quae est sita in aquilonari ripa Tamesis fluminis, in confinio East-Seaxum et Middel-Seaxum, sed tamen ad East-Seaxum illa civitas cum veritate pertinet) depopulati sunt, et Beorhtulfum, Merciorum regem, cum omni exercitu suo, qui ad proeliandum contra illos venerat, in fugam verterunt.

4. In the same year also a great army of the pagans came with 350 ships into the mouth of the River Thames, and they devastated Dorubernia, that is, the city of the Kentish (which is situated on the northern bank of the River Thames, on the border of the East-Saxons and the Middle-Saxons, yet in truth that city pertains to the East-Saxons), and they turned Beorhtulf, king of the Mercians, with all his army—who had come to do battle against them—into flight.

5. His ibi ita gestis, praedictus paganorum exercitus perrexit in Suthrie, quae paga sita est in meridiana Tamesis fluminis ripa ab occidentali parte Cantiae. Et Aethelwulfus, Saxonum rex, et filius suus Aethelbaldus cum omni exercitu in loco, qui dicitur Aclea, id est 'in campulo quercus,' diutissime pugnaverunt; ibique, cum diu acerrime et animose ex utraque parte pugnatum esset, maxima pars paganae multitudinis funditus deleta et occisa est, ita qualiter nunquam in aliqua regione in una die, ante nec post, ex eis occisam esse audivimus, et Christiani victoriam honorifice tenuerunt et loco funeris dominati sunt.

5. With these things thus done there, the aforesaid army of the pagans proceeded into Suthrie, which district is situated on the southern bank of the river Thames on the western side of Kent. And Æthelwulf, king of the Saxons, and his son Æthelbald, with the whole army, in the place that is called Aclea, that is, 'in the little field of the oak,' fought for a very long time; and there, when for a long time it had been fought most fiercely and spiritedly on both sides, the greatest part of the pagan multitude was utterly destroyed and slain, in such wise that never in any region in one day, before nor after, have we heard so many of them to have been slain; and the Christians held the victory honorably and were masters of the place of slaughter.

6. Eodem quoque anno Aethelstan, et Ealhere comes magnum paganorum exercitum in Cantia, in loco, qui dicitur Sandwic, occiderunt, et ex navibus eorum novem naves ceperunt; ceteri per fugam elapsi sunt.

6. In the same year also Aethelstan and Count Ealhere killed a great army of pagans in Kent, in the place which is called Sandwich, and from their ships they captured nine ships; the rest escaped by flight.

7. Anno Dominicae Incarnationis DCCCLIII, nativitatis autem Aelfredi regis quinto, Burgred, Merciorum rex, per nuncios deprecatus est Aethelwulfum, Occidentalium Saxonum regem, ut ei auxilium conferret, quo mediterraneos Britones, qui inter Merciam et mare occidentale habitant, dominio suo subdere potuisset, qui contra eum immodice reluctabantur. Nec segnius Aethelwulfus rex, legatione eius accepta, exercitum movens, Britanniam cum Burghredo rege adiit, statimque ut ingreditur, gentem illam devastans, dominio Burgredi subdit. Quo facto, domum revertitur.

7. In the year of the Lord’s Incarnation 853, and of the birth of King Aelfred the fifth, Burgred, king of the Mercians, through messengers entreated Aethelwulf, king of the West-Saxons, that he would confer aid upon him, whereby he might be able to subject to his dominion the midland Britons, who dwell between Mercia and the western sea, who were resisting him immoderately. Nor more slowly did King Aethelwulf, his embassy having been received, moving his army, go with King Burgred to the land of the Britons; and immediately, as he enters, devastating that nation, he subjects it to the dominion of Burgred. This done, he returns home.

8. Eodem anno Aethelwulfus rex praefatum filium suum Aelfredum, magno nobilium et etiam ignobilium numero constipatum, honorifice Romam transmisit. Quo tempore dominus Leo Papa apostolicae sedi praeerat, qui praefatum infantem Aelfredum oppido ordinans unxit in regem, et in filium adoptionis sibimet accipiens confirmavit.

8. In the same year King Aethelwulf sent his aforesaid son Alfred to Rome with honor, crowded with a great number of nobles and even of the ignoble; at which time the Lord Pope Leo presided over the apostolic see, who, indeed ordaining the aforesaid infant Alfred, anointed him as king, and, receiving him to himself as a son of adoption, confirmed him.

9. Eodem quoque anno Ealhere comes, cum Cantuariis, et Huda, cum Suthriis, contra paganorum exercitum in insula, quae dicitur in Saxonica lingua Tenet, Britannico autem sermone Ruim, animose et acriter belligeraverunt, et primitus Christiani victoriam habuerunt, prolongatoque diu proelio ibidem ex utraque parte plurimi ceciderunt et in aqua mersi suffocati sunt, et comites illi ambo ibidem occubuerunt. Necnon et eodem anno Aethelwulfus, Occidentalium Saxonum rex, post Pascha filiam suam Burgredo Merciorum regi in villa regia, quae dicitur Cippanhamme, nuptiis regaliter factis, ad reginam dedit.

9. In the same year as well Ealhere the count, with the Kentishmen, and Huda, with the men of Surrey, fought courageously and fiercely against the army of the pagans on the island which is called in the Saxon tongue Tenet, but in the British speech Ruim; and at first the Christians had the victory, and the battle being prolonged for a long time, there very many on both sides fell and, plunged in the water, were suffocated, and both those counts perished there. Likewise also in the same year Aethelwulf, king of the West Saxons, after Easter, at the royal villa which is called Chippenham, the nuptials having been royally celebrated, gave his daughter to Burgred, king of the Mercians, to be queen.

10. Anno Dominicae Incarnationis DCCCLV, nativitatis autem praefati regis septimo, magnus paganorum exercitus tota hieme in praefata Scepige insula hiemaverunt.

10. In the year of the Lord’s Incarnation 855, and in the seventh year of the nativity of the aforesaid king, a great army of the pagans wintered for the whole winter in the aforesaid island of Scepige.

11. Eodem anno Aethelwulfus praefatus venerabilis rex decimam totius regni sui partem ab omni regali servitio et tributo liberavit, in sempiternoque graphio in cruce Christi, pro redemptione animae suae et antecessorum suorum, uni et trino Deo immolavit. Eodemque anno cum magno honore Romam perrexit, praefatumque filium suum Aelfredum iterum in eandem viam secum ducens, eo quod illum plus ceteris filiis diligebat, ibique anno integro remoratus est. Quo peracto, ad patriam suam remeavit, adferens secum Iuthittam, Karoli, Francorum regis, filiam.

11. In the same year Æthelwulf, the aforesaid venerable king, freed a tenth part of his whole kingdom from all royal service and tribute, and by an everlasting charter upon the cross of Christ, for the redemption of his soul and of his ancestors, he offered it to the one and triune God. And in the same year he went to Rome with great honor, again leading with him on the same journey his aforesaid son Alfred, because he loved him more than his other sons, and there he lingered for a whole year. This accomplished, he returned to his own country, bringing with him Judith, daughter of Charles, king of the Franks.

12. Interia tamen, Aethelwulfo rege ultra mare tantillo tempore immorante, quaedam infamia contra morem omnium Christianorum in occidentali parte Selwuda orta est. Nam Aethelbaldus rex, et Ealhstan, Scireburnensis ecclesiae episcopus, Eanwulf quoque Summurtunensis pagae comes coniurasse referuntur, ne unquam Aethelwulf rex, a Roma revertens, iterum in regno reciperetur. Quod inauditum omnibus seculis ante infortunium, episcopo et comiti solummodo perplurimi reputant, ex quorum consilio hoc factum esse perhibetur.

12. Meanwhile, however, with King Aethelwulf lingering beyond the sea for so short a time, a certain infamy, contrary to the custom of all Christians, arose in the western part of Selwood. For King Aethelbald, and Ealhstan, bishop of the church of Sherborne, and Eanwulf as well, earl of the Somerton district, are reported to have conspired, lest ever King Aethelwulf, returning from Rome, should again be received into the kingdom. Which misfortune, unheard-of in all ages before, very many ascribe solely to the bishop and the earl, by whose counsel this is reported to have been done.

Multi quoque regali solummodo insolentiae deputant, quia et ille rex in hac re et in multis aliis perversitatibus pertinax fuit, sicut quorundam hominum relatu audivimus: quod et rei sequentis approbavit effectus. Nam redeunte eo a Roma, praedictus filius regis Aethelwulfi cum omnibus suis consiliariis, immo insidiariis, tantum facinus perpetrare tentati sunt, ut regem a regno proprio repellerent: quod nec Deus ita fieri permisit, nec nobiles totius Saxoniae consenserunt. Nam, ne irremedicabile Saxoniae periculum, belligerante patre et filio, quin immo tota cum gente ambobus rebellante, atrocius et crudelius per dies singulos quasi clades intestina augeretur, ineffabili patris clementia et omnium astipulatione nobilium, adunatum antea regnum inter patrem et filium dividitur, et orientales plagae patri, occidentales filio e contrario deputantur.

Many also assign it solely to royal insolence, because that king was pertinacious in this matter and in many other perversities, as we have heard by the relation of certain men: which the outcome of the ensuing affair likewise approved. For upon his return from Rome, the aforesaid son of King Aethelwulf, with all his counsellors—nay rather, his conspirators—attempted to perpetrate so great a crime as to repel the king from his own kingdom: which neither did God permit to be done thus, nor did the nobles of all Saxony consent. For, lest an irremediable peril to Saxony, with father and son waging war, nay rather with the whole nation rebelling against both, should be aggravated more grievously and more cruelly day by day like an internal calamity, by the ineffable clemency of the father and the assent of all the nobles, the kingdom previously united is divided between father and son, and the eastern regions are assigned to the father, the western, conversely, to the son.

Ubi enim pater iusto iudicio regnare debuerat, illic iniquus et pertinax filius regnabat; nam occidentalis pars Saxoniae semper orientali principalior est.

For where the father ought by just judgment to have reigned, there the iniquitous and pertinacious son was reigning; for the western part of Saxony is always more principal than the eastern.

13. Adveniente igitur Aethelwulfo rege a Roma, tota illa gens, ut dignum erat, in adventu senioris ita gavisa est, ut, si ille permitteret, pertinacem filium suum Aethelbaldum cum omnibus suis consiliariis a totius regni sorte expellere vellent. Sed ille, ut diximus, nimia clementia et prudenti consilio usus, ne ad regni periculum perveniret, ita fieri noluit; et Iuthitham, Karoli regis filiam, quam a patre suo acceperat, iuxta se in regali solio sine aliqua suorum nobilium controversia et odio, usque ad obitum vitae suae, contra perversam illius gentis consuetudinem, sedere imperavit. Gens namque Occidentalium Saxonum reginam iuxta regem sedere non patitur, nec etiam reginam appellari, sed regis coniugem, permittit.

13. Therefore, with King Aethelwulf arriving from Rome, that whole people, as was fitting, rejoiced so at the advent of the elder that, if he would allow it, they wished to expel his stubborn son Aethelbald, together with all his counsellors, from any share of the whole kingdom. But he, as we have said, using excessive clemency and prudent counsel, lest it come to the peril of the realm, would not have it so; and Judith, the daughter of King Charles, whom he had received from her father, he commanded to sit beside him on the royal throne, without any controversy or hatred on the part of his nobles, until the end of his life, contrary to the perverse custom of that people. For the nation of the West Saxons does not permit a queen to sit beside the king, nor even to be called queen, but permits her to be called the king’s spouse.

Quam controversiam, immo infamiam, de quadam pertinaci et malevola eiusdem gentis regina ortam fuisse, maiores illius terrae perhibent; quae omnia contraria seniori suo et omni populo ita peregit, ut non solum suum proprium odium mereretur, ut a reginali solio proiceretur, sed etiam omnibus suis subsequutricibus eandem pestiferam tabem post se submitteret. Pro nimia namque illius reginae malitia omnes accolae illius terrae coniuraverunt, ut nullum unquam regem super se in vita sua regnare permitterent, qui reginam in regali solio iuxta se sedere imperare vellet. Et quia, ut opinor, multis habetur incognitum unde haec perversa et detestabilis consuetudo in Saxonia, ultra morem omnium Theotiscorum, primitus orta sit, paulo latius mihi videtur intimandum.

Which controversy—nay rather, infamy—the elders of that land attest to have arisen from a certain pertinacious and malevolent queen of that same people; who carried through all things in opposition to her lord and to the whole people in such wise that she not only deserved their own hatred, so as to be cast down from the regal throne, but also transmitted after herself to all her female attendants the same pestiferous taint. For by reason of that queen’s excessive malice all the inhabitants of that land conspired that they would never at any time permit any king to reign over them in his lifetime who should wish to command that a queen sit beside him on the royal throne. And because, as I suppose, it is held unknown by many whence this perverse and detestable custom in Saxony, beyond the usage of all the Teutons, first arose, it seems to me that it should be set forth a little more at large.

Quod a domino meo Aelfredo, Angul-saxonum rege veredico, etiam saepe mihi referente, audivi; quod et ille etiam a veredicis multis referentibus, immo ex parte non modica illud factum commemorantibus, audierat.

Which I heard from my lord Alfred, the truth‑telling king of the Anglo‑Saxons, he too often reporting it to me; which also he had heard from many truth‑tellers relating it, nay, from no small part commemorating that deed as having been done.

14. Fuit in Mercia moderno tempore quidam strenuus atque universis circa se regibus et regionibus finitimis formidolosus rex, nomine Offa, qui vallum magnum inter Britanniam atque Merciam de mari usque ad mare fieri imperavit. Cuius filiam, nomine Eadburh, Beorhtric Occidentalium Saxonum rex, sibi in coniugium accepit. Quae confestim accepta regis amicitia et totius pene regni potestate, more paterno tryannice vivere incepit, et omnem hominem exercrari, quem Beorhtric diligeret, et omnia odibilia Deo et hominibus facere, et omnes, quos posset, ad regem accusare, et ita aut vita aut potestate per insidias privare.

14. There was in Mercia in modern time a certain strenuous and to all the kings and neighboring regions around him formidable king, named Offa, who ordered a great rampart to be made between Britain and Mercia from sea unto sea. Whose daughter, named Eadburh, Beorhtric, king of the West Saxons, took to himself in marriage. She, immediately upon having obtained the king’s friendship and almost the whole power of the realm, began, in her father’s manner, to live tyrannically, and to execrate every man whom Beorhtric loved, and to do all things odious to God and to men, and to accuse to the king all whom she could, and thus to deprive them either of life or of power by plots.

Et si a rege illud impetrare non posset, veneno eos necabat; sicut de adolescente quodam regi dilectissimo hoc factum compertum habetur, quem cum ad regem accusare non posset, veneno eum necavit. De quo veneno etiam praefatus ille Beorhtric rex inscienter gustasse aliquid refertur: neque enim illa venenum dare regi proposuerat, sed puero; sed rex praeoccupavit, inde ambo periere.

And if she could not obtain that from the king, she would kill them with poison; as it is held as ascertained that this was done in the case of a certain youth most dear to the king, whom, since she could not accuse to the king, she killed with poison. Of which poison, moreover, the aforesaid King Beorhtric also is reported to have unknowingly tasted something: for she had not purposed to give poison to the king, but to the boy; but the king forestalled it, and so both perished.

15. Defuncto igitur Beorhtrico rege, cum illa inter Saxones diutius fieri non posset, ultra mare navigans, cum innumerabilibus thesauris, Karolum illum famosissimum Francorum regem adiit. Ad quam, cum ante solarium multa regi afferens dona staret, Karolus ait: 'Elige, Eadburh, quem velis inter me et filium meum, qui mecum in solaro isto stat.' At illa, sine deliberatione stulte respondens, ait: 'Si mihi electio conceditur, filium tuum, in quantum te iunior est, eligo'. Cui Karolus respondens et arridens ait: 'Si me eligeres, haberes filium meum; sed quia filium meum elegisti, nec me nec illum habebis.' Dedit tamen illi unum magnum sanctimonialium monasterium; in quo, deposito seculari habitu et sanctimonialium indumento assumpto, perpaucis annis abbatissae fungebatur officio. Sicut enim irrationabiliter in propria vixisse refertur, ita multo irrationabilius in aliena gente vivere deprehenditur.

15. Therefore, with King Beorhtric dead, since she could no longer remain among the Saxons, sailing beyond the sea with innumerable treasures, she approached Charles, that most famous king of the Franks. To whom, as she stood before the solar bringing many gifts to the king, Charles said: ‘Choose, Eadburh, which you wish between me and my son, who stands with me in this solar.’ But she, foolishly answering without deliberation, said: ‘If the choice is granted to me, I choose your son, inasmuch as he is younger than you.’ To her Charles, replying and smiling, said: ‘If you had chosen me, you would have had my son; but because you have chosen my son, you shall have neither me nor him.’ Nevertheless he gave to her one great monastery of nuns; in which, her secular habit laid aside and the habit of nuns assumed, for very few years she performed the office of abbess. For just as she is reported to have lived irrationally among her own people, so she is found to live much more irrationally among a foreign nation.

Nam a quodam suae propriae gentis homine constuprata, demum palam deprehensa, de monasterio, imperio Karoli regis, deiecta, in paupertate et miseria leto tenus vituperabiliter vitam duxit; ita ut ad ultimum, uno servulo comitata, sicut a multis videntibus eam audivimus, cotidie mendicans, in Pavia miserabiliter moreretur.

Having been violated by a certain man of her own nation and at last openly detected, she was, by the command of King Charles, cast out of the monastery, and she led her life in poverty and misery, disgracefully, even to death; so that in the end, accompanied by one little servant, as we have heard from many who saw her, begging daily, she died miserably in Pavia.

16. Vixit ergo Aethewulfus rex duobus annis postquam a Roma pervenit; in quibus, inter alia multa praesentis vitae bona studia, cogitans de suo ad universitatis viam transitu, ne sui filii post patris obitum indebite inter se disceptarent, hereditariam, immo commendatoriam, scribi imperavit epistolam: in qua et regni inter filios suos, duos scilect seniores, et propriae hereditatis inter filios et filiam et etiam propinquos, pecuniarum, quae post se superessent, inter animam et filios et etiam nobiles suos, divisionem ordinabiliter literis mandari procuravit. De qua prudenti consideratione pauca de pluribus posteris imitanda scribere decrevimus, scilicet, quae ad necessitatem animae maxime pertinere intelliguntur. Nam cetera, quae ad humanam dispensationem pertinent, in hoc opusculo inserere necesse non est, ne fastidium prolixitate legentibus vel etiam audire desiderantibus procreaverit.

16. Therefore Aethewulf the king lived two years after he came from Rome; in which, among many other good pursuits of the present life, thinking about his passage to the way of the universe, lest his sons, after their father’s death, should dispute among themselves improperly, he ordered a letter to be written—hereditary, nay rather commendatory: in which he also took care that the division of the kingdom among his sons, namely the two elder, and of his own inheritance among his sons and his daughter and even his kinsmen, and of the monies which should remain after him, between his soul and his sons and also his nobles, should be entrusted to letters in orderly fashion. Concerning which prudent consideration we have resolved to write a few out of many things to be imitated by posterity, namely those which are understood to pertain most to the necessity of the soul. For the other things, which pertain to human dispensation, it is not necessary to insert in this little work, lest it generate weariness by prolixity for those reading or even desiring to listen.

Pro utilitate namque animae suae, quam a primaevo iuventutis suae flore in omnibus procurare studuit, per omnem hereditariam terram suam semper in decem manentibus unum pauperem, aut indigenam aut peregrinum, cibo, potu et vestimento successoribus suis, usque ad ultimam diem iudicii, post se pascere praecepit; ita tamen, si illa terra hominibus et pecoribus habitaretur et deserta non esset. Romae quoque omni anno magnam pro anima sua pecuniam, id est trecentas mancussas, portari praecepit, quae taliter ibi dividerentur: scilicet centum mancussas in honorem Sancti Petri, specialiter ad emendum oleum, quo impleantur omnia luminaria illius apostolicae ecclesiae in vespera Paschae, et aequaliter in galli cantu, et centum mancussas in honorem Sancti Pauli, eadem condicione, ad comparandum oleum in ecclesia Sancti Pauli Apostoli ad implenda luminaria in vespera Paschae et in galli cantu, centum quoque mancussas universali papae apostolico.

For the utility of his soul, which from the prime flower of his youth he strove in all things to procure, through all his hereditary land he ordered that always in every ten hides one poor man, either indigenous or peregrine, be fed by his successors after him with food, drink, and clothing, until the last day of judgment; provided, however, that that land was inhabited by men and cattle and was not deserted. At Rome also every year he ordered a great sum of money, that is 300 mancusses, to be carried for his soul, which should be divided there in this manner: namely, 100 mancusses in honor of Saint Peter, specially for buying oil, with which all the luminaria of that apostolic church may be filled on the evening of Easter, and equally at cockcrow; and 100 mancusses in honor of Saint Paul, under the same condition, to purchase oil in the church of Saint Paul the Apostle to fill the luminaria on the evening of Easter and at cockcrow; and 100 mancusses also to the universal apostolic pope.

17. Defuncto autem Aethelwulfo rege, Aethelbald, filius eius, contra Dei interdictum et Christianorum dignitatem, necnon et contra omnium paganorum consuetudinem, thorum patris sui ascendens, Iuthittam, Karoli, Francorum regis, filiam, cum magna ab omnibus audientibus infamia, in matrimonium duxit, effrenisque duobus et dimidio annis Occidentalium Saxonum post patrem regni gubernacula rexit.

17. But when King Æthelwulf had died, Æthelbald, his son, against God’s interdiction and the dignity of Christians, and likewise against the consuetude of all pagans, ascending his father’s marriage-bed, took Judith, daughter of Charles, king of the Franks, to wife, with great infamy to all who heard; and, unbridled, for two and a half years after his father he held the reins of the kingdom of the West Saxons.

18. Anno Dominicae Incarnationis DCCCLX, nativitatis autem Aelfredi regis duodecimo, Aethelbald, et in Scireburnan sepultus, et Aethelberht, frater suus, Cantiam et Suthrigam, Suth-Seaxam quoque suo dominio, ut iustum erat, subiunxit. In cuius diebus magnus paganorum exercitus, de mari adveniens, Wintoniam civitatem hostiliter invadens depopulatus est. Cui, cum ad naves cum ingenti praeda reverterentur, Osric, Hamtunensium comes, cum suis, et Aethelwulf comes, cum Bearrocensibus, viriliter obviaverunt, consertoque proelio oppido pagani passim trucidantur, et, cum diutius resistere non possent, muliebriter fugam arripiunt, et Christiani loco funeris dominati sunt.

18. In the year of the Lord’s Incarnation 860, in the twelfth of the birth of King Alfred, Æthelbald—also buried in Sherborne—and Æthelberht, his brother, joined to his dominion, as was just, Kent and Surrey, and the South-Saxons as well. In whose days a great army of the pagans, coming from the sea, by a hostile invasion laid waste the city of Winchester. As they were returning to their ships with a huge booty, Osric, earl of the Hamtunenses, with his own men, and Earl Æthelwulf with the Berkshire men, met them manfully; and, the battle being joined, the pagans are everywhere cut down in great numbers, and, when they could no longer resist, they womanishly take to flight; and the Christians held mastery of the place of slaughter.

19. Aethelberht itaque, quinque annis regno pacifice et amabiliter atque honorabiliter gubernato, cum magno suorum dolore, universitatis viam adiit, et in Scireburnan iuxta fratrem suum honorabiliter sepultus requiescit.

19. Therefore Aethelberht, the kingdom having been governed peacefully and amiably and honorably for five years, with great grief of his own people went the way of all, and in Sherborne, honorably buried beside his brother, he rests.

20. Anno Dominicae Incarnationis DCCCLXIV pagaini hiemaverunt in insula Tanet, et firmum foedus cum Cantuariis pepigerunt. Quibus Cantuarii pecuniam pro foedere servato reddere promiserunt. Interea tamen, vulpino more pagani, noctu clam castris erumpentes, foedere disrupto et promissionem pecuniae spernentes (sciebant enim maiorem pecuniam se furtiva praeda quam pace adepturos), totam orientalem Cantiae plagam depopulati sunt.

20. In the Year of the Lord’s Incarnation 864 the pagans wintered in the Isle of Thanet, and made a firm treaty with the Kentishmen. The Kentishmen promised to render money in return for the treaty being kept. Meanwhile, however, in vulpine fashion the pagans, breaking out secretly from their camp by night, with the treaty broken and spurning the promise of money (for they knew they would obtain greater money by furtive plunder than by peace), laid waste the whole eastern region of Kent.

21. Anno Dominicae Incarnationis DCCCLXVI, nativitatis autem Aelfredi regis decimo octavo, Aethelred, Aethelberhti regis frater, Occidentalium Saxonum regni gubernacula suscepit. Et eodem anno magna paganorum classis de Danubia Britanniam advenit, et in regno Orientalium Saxonum, quod Saxonice 'East-Engle' dicitur, hiemavit, ibique ille exercitus maxima ex parte equester factus est. Sed, ut more navigantium loquar, ne diutius navim undis et velamentis concedentes, et a terra longius enavigantes longum circumferamur inter tantas bellorum clades et annorum enumerationes, ad id, quod nos maxime ad hoc opus incitavit, nobis redeundum esse censeo, scilicet aliquantulum, quantum meae cognitioni innotuit, de infantilibus et puerilibus domini mei venerabilis Aelfredi, Angulsaxonum regis, moribus hoc in loco breviter inserendum esse existimo.

21. In the year of the Lord’s Incarnation 866, but of the birth of King Aelfred the eighteenth, Aethelred, brother of King Aethelberht, took up the helm of the kingdom of the West Saxons. And in the same year a great fleet of pagans came to Britain from Danubia, and wintered in the kingdom of the East Angles, which in Saxon is called 'East-Engle', and there that army was made for the most part cavalry. But, to speak in the manner of sailors, lest by yielding the ship any longer to waves and canvas, and by sailing farther from land, we be borne a long way round amid so many disasters of wars and enumerations of years, I judge that we must return to that which chiefly incited us to this work, namely, that a little—so far as has become known to my knowledge—about the infant and boyhood habits of my lord, the venerable Aelfred, king of the Anglo-Saxons, ought to be briefly inserted in this place.

22. Nam, cum communi et ingenti patris sui et matris amore supra omnes fratres suos, immo ab omnibus, nimium diligeretur, et in regio semper curto inseparabiliter nutriretur, accrescente infantili et puerili aetate, forma ceteris suis fratribus decentior videbatur, vultuque et verbis atque moribus gratiosior. Cui ab incunabulis ante omnia et cum omnibus praesentis vitae studiis, sapientiae desiderium cum nobilitate generis, nobilis mentis ingenium supplevit; sed, proh dolor! indigna suorum parentum et nutritorum incuria usque ad duodecimum aetatis annum, aut eo amplius, illiteratus permansit.

22. For, since by the common and immense love of his father and mother he was cherished above all his brothers—nay rather, by all excessively—and was always reared inseparably in the royal court, as his infant and boyish age increased, he seemed in form more seemly than his other brothers, and more gracious in countenance and words and manners. To him, from the cradle, before all things and along with all the studies of this present life, the desire of wisdom, together with the nobility of his lineage, supplied the native genius of a noble mind; but, alas! through the unworthy negligence of his parents and nurturers, up to the twelfth year of his age, or even beyond, he remained illiterate.

Sed Saxonica poemata die noctuque solers auditor, relatu aliorum saepissime audiens, docibilis memoriter retinebat. In omni venatoria arte industrius venator incessabiliter laborat non in vanum; nam incomparabilis omnibus peritia et felicitate in illa arte, sicut et in ceteris omnibus Dei donis, fuit, sicut et nos saepissime vidimus.

But in Saxon poems, a diligent auditor day and night, very often hearing them by the relation of others, being apt to be taught he retained them by heart. In every hunting art, as an industrious hunter, he labored unceasingly not in vain; for he was incomparable to all in skill and felicity in that art, as also in all the other gifts of God, as we very often saw.

23. Cum ergo quodam die mater sua sibi et fratribus suis quendam Saxonicum poematicae artis librum, quem in manu habebat, ostenderet, ait: 'Quisquis vestrum discere citius istum codicem possit, dabo illi illum.' Qua voce, immo divina inspiratione, instinctus, et pulchritudine principalis litterae illius libri illectus, ita matri respondens, et fratres suos aetate, quamvis non gratia, seniores anticipans, inquit: 'Verene dabis istum librum uni ex nobis, scilicet illi, qui citissime intelligere et recitare eum ante te possit?' Ad haec illa, arridens et gaudens atque affirmans: 'Dabo,' infit, 'illi.' Tunc ille statim tollens librum de manu sua, magistrum adiit et legit. Quo lecto, matri retulit et recitavit.

23. Therefore when on a certain day his mother showed to him and his brothers a certain Saxon book of the poetic art, which she held in her hand, she said: 'Whoever of you can learn this codex more quickly, I will give it to him.' At this word—nay, impelled by divine inspiration—and enticed by the beauty of the book’s principal initial letter, thus answering his mother, and anticipating his brothers older in age, though not in favor, he said: 'Will you truly give that book to one of us, namely to him who can most quickly understand and recite it before you?' To this she, smiling and rejoicing and affirming: 'I will give,' she says, 'to him.' Then he at once, taking the book from her hand, went to a master and read. When it had been read, he brought it back and recited it to his mother.

24. Post haec cursum diurnum, id est celebrationes horarum, ac deinde psalmos quosdam et orationes multas; quos in uno libro congregatos in sinu suo die noctuque, sicut ipsi vidimus, secum inseparabiliter, orationis gratia, inter omnia praesentis vitae curricula ubique circumducebat. Sed, proh dolor! quod maxime desiderabat, liberalem scilicet artem, desiderio suo non suppetebat, eo quod, ut loquebatur, illo tempore lectores boni in toto regno Occidentalium Saxonum non erant.

24. After these things, the diurnal course, that is, the celebrations of the Hours, and then certain psalms and many prayers; which, gathered in one book, he, for the sake of prayer, carried with him inseparably in his bosom day and night, as we ourselves saw, everywhere through all the courses of this present life. But, alas! what he especially desired—namely, the liberal art—did not supply his desire, because, as he used to say, at that time good readers were not in the whole kingdom of the West-Saxons.

25. Quod maximum inter omnia praesentis vitae suae impedimenta et dispendia crebris querelis et intimis cordis sui suspiriis fieri affirmabat: id est, eo quod illo tempore, quando aetatem et licentiam atque suppetentiam discendi habebat, magistros non habuerat; quando vero et aetate erat provectior et incessabilius die noctuque, immo omnibus istius insulae medicis incognitis infirmitatibus, internisque atque externis regiae potestatis sollicitudinibus, necnon et paganorum terra marique infestationibus occupatus, immo etiam perturbatus, magistros et scriptores aliquantula ex parte habebat, legere ut non poterat. Sed tamen inter praesentis vitae impedimenta ab infantia usque ad praesentem diem in eodem insaturabili desiderio, sicut nec ante destituit, ita nec etiam adhuc inhiare desinit.

25. He affirmed, with frequent complaints and the inmost sighs of his heart, that this was the greatest among all the impediments and dispendia of his present life: namely, that at that time when he had the age, the license, and the sufficiency for learning, he had not had teachers; but when indeed he was more advanced in age and more incessantly, day and night, nay with illnesses unknown to all the physicians of this island, and with the internal and external anxieties of royal power, as well as with the infestations of pagans by land and sea, occupied—nay even perturbed—then he had teachers and scribes in some small part, so that he could not read. Yet nevertheless, amid the impediments of present life from infancy up to the present day, in that same insatiable desire, just as he did not cease before, so even now he does not cease to long for it.

26. Anno Dominicae Incarnationis DCCCLXVII, nativitatis Aelfredi praefati regis decimo nono, praedictus paganorum exercitus de Orientalibus Anglis ad Eboracum civitatem migravit, quae in aquilonali ripa Humbrensis fluminis sita est.

26. In the year of the Lord’s Incarnation 867, in the nineteenth year from the birth of Alfred, the aforesaid king, the aforesaid army of pagans migrated from the East Angles to the city of York, which is situated on the northern bank of the Humber river.

27. Eo tempore maxima inter Northanhymbros discordia diabolico instinctu orta fuerat, sicut semper populo, qui odium incurrerit Dei, evenire solet. Nam Northanhymbri eo tempore, ut diximus, legitimum regem suum, Osbyrht nomine, regno expulerant, et tyrannum quendam, Aella nomine, non de regali prosapia progenitum, super regni apicem constituerant. Sed, advenientibus paganis, consilio divino et optimatum adminiculo, pro communi utilitate, discordia illa aliquantulum sedata, Osbyrht et Aella, adunatis viribus congregatoque exercitu, Eboracum oppidum adeunt.

27. At that time the greatest discord among the Northumbrians had arisen by diabolical instigation, as it is wont always to befall a people who have incurred the hatred of God. For the Northumbrians at that time, as we said, had driven their lawful king, named Osbyrht, from the kingdom, and had set over the summit of the realm a certain tyrant, named Aella, not begotten from royal progeny. But, with the pagans arriving, by divine counsel and with the aid of the nobles, for the common utility, that discord being somewhat allayed, Osbyrht and Aella, their forces united and the army assembled, approach the town of York.

Quibus advenientibus, pagani confestim fugam arripiunt, et intra urbis moenia se defendere procurant. Quorum fugam et pavorem Christiani cernentes, etiam intra urbis moenia eos persequi et murum frangere instituunt; quod et fecerunt. Non enim tunc adhuc illa civitas firmos et stabilitos muros illis temporibus habebat.

Upon their arrival, the pagans immediately take to flight and endeavor to defend themselves within the city’s walls. Seeing their flight and terror, the Christians resolve even to pursue them within the city’s walls and to break the wall—which they did. For at that time that city did not yet have firm and stabilized walls.

Cumque Christiani murum, ut proposuerant, fregissent, et eorum magna pars in civitatem simul cum paganis intrasset, pagani, dolore et necessitate compulsi, super eos atrociter irrumpunt, caedunt, fugant, prosternunt intus et extra. Illic maxima ex parte omnes Northanhymbrensium coetus, occisis duobus regibus, deleti occubuerunt. Reliqui vero, qui evaserunt, pacem cum paganis pepigerunt.

And when the Christians had broken the wall, as they had proposed, and a great part of them had entered the city together with the pagans, the pagans, driven by grief and necessity, burst atrociously upon them; they cut them down, put them to flight, and prostrated them within and without. There, with the two kings slain, almost all the companies of the Northumbrians were destroyed and perished. The rest, however, who escaped, made peace with the pagans.

28. Eodem anno Ealhstan, episcopus Scireburnensis ecclesiae, viam universitatis adiens, postquam episcopatum per quinquaginta annos honorabiliter rexerat, in pace in Scireburnan sepultus est.

28. In the same year Ealhstan, bishop of the church of Sherborne, taking the road of the universe, after he had honorably governed the bishopric for fifty years, was buried in peace at Sherborne.

29. Anno Dominicae Incarnationis DCCCLXVIII, nativitatis Aelfredi regis vigesimo, idem ipse praefatus ac venerabilis Aelfred rex, secundarii tamen tunc ordine fretus, uxorem de Mercia, nobilem scilicet genere, filiam Aethelredi Gainorum comitis, qui cognaminabatur Mucill, subarravit et duxit. Cuius feminae mater Eadburh nominabatur, de regali genere Merciorum regis; quam nos ipsi propriis oculorum nostrorum obtutibus non paucis ante obitum suum annis frequenter vidimus, venerabilis scilicet femina, per multos annos post obitum viri sui castissima vidua leto tenus permansit.

29. In the year of the Lord’s Incarnation 868, in the twentieth of King Alfred’s nativity, the same aforementioned and venerable King Alfred—then, however, relying on the secondary rank—betrothed and took to wife a woman from Mercia, noble indeed by lineage, the daughter of Æthelred, count of the Gaini, who was surnamed Mucill. The mother of this woman was named Eadburh, of the royal stock of the king of the Mercians; whom we ourselves, with the sight of our own eyes, many years before her death often saw—namely a venerable woman—who for many years after the death of her husband remained a most chaste widow, even to her decease.

30. Eodem anno praedictus paganorum exercitus Northanhymbros relinquens, in Merciam venit, et Snotengaham adiit (quod Britannice 'Tigguocobauc' interpretatur, Latine autem 'speluncarum domus'), et in eodem loco eodem anno hiemaverunt. Quibus illic advenientibus, confestim Burhred, Merciorum rex, et omnes eiusdem gentis optimates nuncios ad Aethered, Occidentalium Saxonum regem, et Aelfred, fratrem, dirigunt, suppliciter obsecrantes, ut illi illis auxiliarentur, quo possent contra praefatum pugnare exercitum. Quod et facile impetraverunt.

30. In the same year the aforesaid army of the pagans, leaving the Northumbrians, came into Mercia and approached Snotengaham (which in British is interpreted ‘Tigguocobauc’, but in Latin ‘the house of caves’), and in that same place in the same year they wintered. Upon their arriving there, at once Burhred, king of the Mercians, and all the optimates of that same people send messengers to Aethered, king of the West Saxons, and to Aelfred, his brother, suppliantly beseeching that they would aid them, so that they might be able to fight against the aforesaid army. And this too they easily obtained.

Nam illi fratres, non segnius promissione, congregato ex omni parte sui immenso exercitu, Merciam adeunt, et usque ad Snotengaham, bellum unanimiter quaerentes, perveniunt. Cumque pagani, tuitione arcis muniti, bellum dare negarent et Christianis frangere murum non suppeteret, pace inter Mercios et paganos facta, duo illi fratres Aethered et Aelfred cum suis cohortibus domum reversi sunt.

For those brothers, no less vigorously than their promise, with an immense army gathered from every quarter of their own, go to Mercia and come as far as Snotengaham, seeking battle with one mind. And when the pagans, fortified by the protection of the citadel, refused to give battle, and the Christians lacked the means to break the wall, with peace made between the Mercians and the pagans, those two brothers Aethered and Aelfred returned home with their cohorts.

31. Anno Dominicae Incarnationis DCCCLXIX, nativitatis autem Aelfredi regis vigesimo primo, praefatus paganorum exercitus iterum ad Northanhymbros equitans Eboracum civitatem adiit, et ibi anno integro mansit.

31. In the year of the Lord’s Incarnation 869, and in the twenty-first of the birth of King Alfred, the aforesaid army of the pagans, riding again to the Northumbrians, went to the city of York, and there remained for a full year.

32. Anno Dominicae Incarnationis DCCCLXX, nativitatis autem Aelfredi regis vigesimo secundo, supra memoratus paganorum exercitus per Merciam in Orientales Anglos transivit, et ibi in loco, qui dicitur Theodford hiemavit.

32. In the year of the Lord’s Incarnation 870, but of the birth of King Alfred, the twenty-second, the aforementioned army of the pagans passed through Mercia into the East Angles, and there in a place which is called Thetford they wintered.

33. Eodem anno Eadmund, Orientalium Anglorum rex, contra ipsum exercitum atrociter pugnavit. Sed, proh dolor! paganis nimium gloriantibus, ipso cum magna suorum parte ibidem occiso, inimici loco funeris dominati sunt, et totam illam regionem suo dominio subdiderunt.

33. In the same year Edmund, king of the East Angles, fought fiercely against that army. But, alas! with the pagans boasting excessively, he himself, with a great part of his men, was slain there; the enemies became masters of the place of slaughter, and they subjected that whole region to their dominion.

34. Eodem anno Ceolnoth, archiepiscopus Doroberniae, viam universitatis adiens, in eadem civitate in pace sepultus est.

34. In the same year Ceolnoth, archbishop of Canterbury, going the way of all, was buried in peace in the same city.

35. Anno Dominicae Incarnationis DCCCLXXI, nativitatis autem Aelfredi regis vigesimo tertio, exosae memoriae paganorum exercitus Orientales Anglos deserens et regnum Occidentalium Saxonum adiens, venit ad villam regiam, quae dicitur Raedigam, in meridiana Tamesis fluminis ripa sitam, in illa paga, quae dicitur Bearrocscire; tertioque adventus sui ibidem die comites eorum cum magna illius parte in praedam equitaverunt, aliis vallum inter duo flumina Tamesen et Cynetan a dextrali parte eiusdem regiae villae facientibus. Quibus Aethelwulf, Bearroccensis pagae comes, cum suis sodalibus in loco, qui dicitur Englafeld, obviavit, et animose ex utraque parte ibidem pugnatum est. Cumque ibi diu utrique resisterent, altero paganorum comite occiso, et maxima exercitus parte deleta, ceterisque fuga elapsis, Christiani victoriam accipientes, loco funeris dominati sunt.

35. In the Year of the Lord’s Incarnation 871, and in the twenty-third year of the birth of King Alfred, the army of the pagans of hateful memory, deserting the East Angles and approaching the kingdom of the West-Saxons, came to the royal villa which is called Raedig, situated on the southern bank of the river Thames, in that shire which is called Bearrocshire; and on the third day of their arrival there their counts, with a great part of it, rode out for plunder, while others were making a rampart between the two rivers, the Thames and the Cynetan, on the right-hand side of the same royal villa. To these Aethelwulf, count of the Bearroc shire, with his companions gave meeting in the place which is called Englafeld, and spiritedly on both sides battle was fought there. And when for a long time both sides held out there, one of the pagans’ counts having been slain, and the greatest part of the army destroyed, and the rest slipping away in flight, the Christians, receiving the victory, were masters of the place of the slaughter.

36. His ibi ita gestis, post quatuor dies Aethered, rex et Aelfred, frater eius, adunatis viribus congregatoque exercitu, Raedigum adierunt. Cumque usque ad portam arcis pervenissent, caedendo et prosternendo quoscunque de paganis extra arcem invenissent, pagani non segnius certabant, lupino more, totis portis erumpentes, totis viribus bellum perquirunt. Ibique diu et atrociter ex utraque parte dimicatum est, sed, proh dolor!

36. These things thus done there, after four days Aethered, the king, and Aelfred, his brother, with their forces united and the army assembled, went to Raedig. And when they had come up to the gate of the citadel, cutting down and casting down whomsoever of the pagans they found outside the citadel, the pagans fought no less keenly, in wolfish fashion, bursting forth through all the gates, they prosecuted the war with all their strength. And there for a long time and fiercely it was fought on either side, but, alas!

Christianis demum terga vertentibus, pagani, victoriam accipientes, loco funeris dominati sunt, ibique Aethelwulfus praefatus comes inter ceteros occubuit.

with the Christians at last turning their backs, the pagans, receiving victory, dominated the place of slaughter, and there Aethelwulf, the aforesaid count, fell among the others.

37. Quo dolore et verecundia Christiani commoti, iterum post quatuor dies contra praefatum exercitum in loco, qui dicitur Aescesdun, quod Latine 'mons fraxini' interpretatur, totis viribus et plena voluntate ad proelium prodeunt. Sed pagani, in duas se turmas dividentes, aequali testudines parant -- habebant enim tunc duos reges et multos comites -- concedentes mediam partem exercitus duobus regibus et alteram omnibus comitibus. Quod Christiani cernentes, et etiam ipsi exercitum in duas turmas oppido dividentes, testudines non segnius construunt.

37. By that grief and shame the Christians, moved, again after four days, against the aforesaid army at the place which is called Aescesdun, which in Latin is interpreted 'ash-tree mountain,' go forth to battle with all their strength and full will. But the pagans, dividing themselves into two squadrons, prepare equal tortoise-formations -- for they then had two kings and many counts -- granting the half of the army to the two kings and the other to all the counts. Which the Christians, perceiving, and they too dividing the army into two squadrons indeed, construct the tortoise-formations no less briskly.

Sed Aelfred citius et promptius cum suis, sicut ab his, qui viderunt, veredicis referentibus audivimus, ad locum proelii advenit: nimirum erat enim adhuc frater suus Aethered rex in tentorio in oratione positus, audiens missam, et nimium affirmans se inde vivum non discessurum antequam sacerdos missam finiret, et divinum pro humano nolle deserere servitium; et ita fecit. Quae regis Christiani fides multum apud Dominum valuit, sicut in sequentibus apertius declarabitur.

But Alfred, more swiftly and more promptly with his men, as we have heard from truthful reporters who saw it, arrived at the place of battle: for indeed his brother Aethered the king was still in the tent, set in prayer, hearing the mass, and strongly affirming that he would not depart thence alive before the priest should finish the mass, and that he was unwilling to desert the divine service for the human; and so he did. Which faith of the Christian king availed much with the Lord, as will be shown more plainly in what follows.

38. Decreverant ergo Christiani, ut Aethered rex cum suis copiis contra duos paganos reges sumeret proelium, Aelfred vero, suus frater, cum suis cohortibus contra omnes paganorum duces belli sortem sumere debere sciret. Quibus ita firmiter ab utraque parte dispositis, cum rex in oratione diutius moraretur et pagani parati ad locum certaminis citius advenissent, Aelfred, tunc secundarius, cum diutius hostiles acies ferre non posset, nisi aut bello retrorsum recederet, aut contra hostiles copias ante fratris adventum in bellum prorumperet, demum viriliter aprino more Christianas copias contra hostiles exercitus, ut ante proposuerant, tamen quamvis rex adhuc non venerat, dirigens, divino fretus consilio et adiutorio fultus, testudine ordinabiliter condensata, confestim contra hostes vexilla movet.

38. Therefore the Christians had decreed that King Aethered with his own forces should take up the battle against the two pagan kings, but Aelfred, his brother, with his own cohorts should know that he must take up the lot of war against all the pagan leaders. With things thus firmly arranged on both sides, when the king delayed longer in prayer and the pagans, prepared for the place of contest, had arrived more quickly, Aelfred, then the secondary, since he could no longer endure the hostile battle-lines, unless either he should retreat backward from the war, or should burst forth into battle against the hostile forces before his brother’s advent, at last, manfully in boar-fashion, directing the Christian forces against the hostile armies as they had proposed before, yet although the king had not yet come, relying on divine counsel and supported by aid, with the testudo compacted in orderly fashion, straightway moves the standards against the foes.

39. Sed hoc in loco nescientibus intimandum est, quod ille locus certaminis belligerantibus inaequalis erat; nam pagani editiorem locum praeoccupaverant, Christiani ab inferiori loco aciem dirigebant. Erat quoque in eodem loco unica spinosa arbor, brevis admodum, quam nos ipsi nostris propriis oculis vidimus, circa quam ergo hostiles inter se acies, cum ingenti omnium clamore, illi perperam agentes, isti pro vita et dilectis atque patria pugnaturi, hostiliter conveniunt. Cumque aliquandiu animose et nimium atrociter hinc inde utrique pugnarent, pagani divino iudicio Christianorum impetum diutius non ferentes, maxima suarum copiarum parte occisa, opprobriosam fugam cepere; quo in loco alter de duobus paganorum regibus et quinque comites occisi occubuerunt, et multa millia paganae partis in eodem loco, et insuper per totam campestrem Aescesdun latitudinem ubique dispersa, longe lateque occisa corruerunt.

39. But at this point it must be intimated to the unknowing that that place of the contest was unequal for the belligerents; for the pagans had pre‑occupied the higher ground, the Christians were directing their battle‑line from the lower ground. There was also in the same place a single thorny tree, very short indeed, which we ourselves with our own eyes saw; around which, therefore, the hostile battle‑lines, with an immense shout from all, those men acting amiss, these about to fight for life and loved ones and fatherland, come together in hostile fashion. And when for some time on either side both fought spiritedly and most fiercely, the pagans, by divine judgment, being no longer able to bear the onset of the Christians, with the greater part of their forces slain, took to a shameful flight; in which place one of the two kings of the pagans and five earls were slain and lay dead, and many thousands of the pagan side in the same place—and moreover, scattered everywhere over the whole champaign breadth of Aescesdun—fell slain far and wide.

Cecidit ergo Baegscecg rex et Sidroc ille senex comes et Sidroc iunior comes, et Osbern comes, et Fraena comes, et Hareld comes, et totus paganorum exercitus in fugam usque ad noctem et etiam usque ad diem sequentem, quousque ad arcem qui evaserant pervenerunt, versus est, quos Christiani usque ad noctem persecuti sunt ubique prosternentes.

Therefore fell King Baegscecg, and Sidroc, that elder earl, and Sidroc the younger earl, and Earl Osbern, and Earl Fraena, and Earl Hareld; and the whole army of the pagans was turned to flight until night and even until the following day, until those who had escaped reached the fortress, whom the Christians pursued until night, laying them low everywhere.

40. Quibus cum talia praesentis vitae dispendia alienigenis perperam quaerentibus non sufficerent. His ibi gestis, iterum post quatuordecim dies Aethered rex una cum fratre suo Aelfred, adunatis viribus contra paganos pugnaturi, Basengas adierunt. Quibus hinc inde hostiliter convenientibus, et diu resistentibus, pagani victoriam accipientes, loco funeris dominati sunt.

40. and since such losses of the present life did not suffice for the foreigners who were wrongly seeking them, with these things done there, again after fourteen days King Aethered, together with his brother Aelfred, their forces gathered to fight against the pagans, went to Basengas. As they on both sides came together in hostile array and long resisted, the pagans, receiving the victory, were masters of the place of slaughter.

Quo proelio peracto, de ultramarinis partibus alius paganorum exercitus societati se adiunxit.

With that battle completed, from overseas regions another army of the pagans joined the confederacy.

41. Et eodem anno post Pascha Aethered rex praefatus, regno quinque annis per multas tribulationes strenue atque honorabiliter cum bona fama gubernato, viam universitatis adiens, in Winburnan monasterio sepultus, adventum Domini et primam cum iustis resurrectionem expectat.

41. And in the same year, after Easter, the aforesaid King Aethered, the kingdom for five years, through many tribulations, strenuously and honorably, with good repute, having been governed, entering upon the way of all, was buried in the monastery of Winburnan, and awaits the Advent of the Lord and the first resurrection with the just.

42. Eodem anno Aelfred supra memoratus, qui usque ad id temporis, viventibus fratribus suis, secundarius fuerat, totius regni gubernacula, divino concedente nutu, cum summa omnium illius regni accolarum voluntate, confestim fratre defuncto suscepit. Quod etiam vivente praedicto fratre suo, si dignaretur accipere, facillime cum consensu omnium potuerat invenire, nempe quia et sapientia et cunctis moribus bonis cunctos fratres suos praecellebat, et insuper eo quod nimium bellicosus et victor prope in omnibus bellis erat. Cumque regnare prope quasi invitus uno mense impleto coeperat -- nimirum enim non putabat se, nisi divino fultum auxilio, tantam paganorum unquam posse solum sufferre austeritatem, quin etiam viventibus suis fratribus, cum magna multorum detrimenta sustinuisset -- contra universum paganorum exercitum in monte, qui dicitur Wiltun, qui est in meridiana ripa fluminis Guilou, de quo flumine tota illa paga nominatur, cum paucis et nimium inaequali numero acerrime belligeravit, et cum hinc inde utrique hostiliter et animose non parva diei parte pugnarent, pagani ad integrum suum periculum propriis suis conspectibus cernentes, et hostium infestationem diutius non ferentes, terga in fugam verterunt.

42. In the same year Alfred, above-mentioned, who up to that time, while his brothers were alive, had been second-in-command, took up the helm of the whole kingdom, the divine nod granting it, with the fullest consent of all the inhabitants of that kingdom, immediately upon his brother’s death. This he could very easily have secured even while his aforesaid brother lived, if he had deigned to accept it, with the agreement of all—namely because he excelled all his brothers both in wisdom and in all good morals, and moreover because he was exceedingly warlike and a victor in almost all battles. And when, with scarcely one month completed, he had begun to reign almost as if unwilling—for indeed he did not think that he could ever by himself endure so great a harshness of the pagans unless supported by divine aid, and even while his brothers were living he had borne great losses of many—he fought most fiercely with few men and with a greatly unequal number against the entire army of the pagans on the hill which is called Wilton, which is on the southern bank of the river Guilou, from which river that whole district is named; and when on this side and that both parties were fighting hostilely and spiritedly for no small part of the day, the pagans, seeing with their own eyes their complete peril, and no longer enduring the enemy’s onslaught, turned their backs in flight.

Sed, proh dolor! peraudacitatem persequentium decipientes, iterum in proelium prodeunt, et victoriam capientes, loco funeris dominati sunt. Nec hoc cuiquam mirabile videatur, quod Christiani parvum in proelio numerum habebant: erant enim Saxones maxima ex parte in eodem uno anno octo contra paganos proeliis populariter attriti, in quibus octo proeliis unus rex paganorum et novem duces cum innumeris cohortibus occisi periere, exceptis cotidianis et nocturnis irruptionibus innumerabilibus, quas Aelfred saepe memoratus et singuli duces illius gentis cum suis et etiam perplures ministri regis contra paganos infatigabiliter studiose exercebant.

But, alas! beguiling the over-boldness of the pursuers, they come forth into battle again, and, seizing victory, they were masters of the place of the funeral. Nor let this seem marvelous to anyone, that the Christians had a small number in the battle: for the Saxons, for the most part, in that same single year, had been worn down by eight battles against the pagans, fought by the general levy, in which eight battles one king of the pagans and nine leaders, with innumerable cohorts, were slain and perished, except for the innumerable daily and nightly irruptions which Alfred, so often mentioned, and each several leader of that people with his own men, and very many of the king’s ministers, tirelessly and zealously carried out against the pagans.

In quibus frequentissimis irruptionibus quot millia paganae expeditionis occisa perierunt, nisi soli Deo, incognitum est; exceptis his, qui in octo supra memoratis proeliis trucidati sunt.

In which most frequent irruptions, how many thousands of the pagan expedition were slain and perished is unknown save to God alone; with the exception of those who in the eight above-mentioned battles were slaughtered.

43. Eodem quoque anno Saxones cum iisdem paganis, ea condicione, ut ab eis discederent, pacem pepigerunt; quod et impleverunt.

43. In the same year also the Saxons made peace with those same pagans, on the condition that they should withdraw from them; which they also fulfilled.

44. Anno Dominicae Incarnationis DCCCLXXII, nativitatis autem Aelfredi regis vigesimo quarto, praefatus paganorum exercitus Lundoniam adiit, et ibi hyemavit, cum quo Mercii pacem pepigerunt.

44. In the Year of the Lord’s Incarnation 872, but of the nativity of King Alfred the twenty-fourth, the aforesaid army of the pagans went to London, and wintered there, with whom the Mercians made peace.

45. Anno Dominicae Incarnationis DCCCLXXIII, nativitatis autem Aelfredi regis vigesimo quinto, saepe memoratus exercitus Lundoniam deserens, in Northanhymbrorum regionem perrexit, et ibi hyemavit in paga, quae dicitur Lindesig; cum quo iterum Mercii pacem pepigerunt.

45. In the year of the Lord’s Incarnation 873, and of the birth of King Alfred the twenty-fifth, the oft‑mentioned army, deserting London, proceeded into the region of the Northumbrians, and there wintered in the district which is called Lindesig; with whom the Mercians again made peace.

46. Anno Dominicae Incarnationis DCCCLXXIV, nativitatis autem Aelfredi regis vigesimo sexto, supra memoratus saepe exercitus Lindissig deserens, Merciam adiit, et hyemavit in loco, qui dicitur Hreopedune. Burghredum quoque Merciorum regem regnum suum deserere et ultra mare exire et Romam adire contra voluntatem suam coegit, vigesimo secundo regni sui anno; qui, postquam Romam adierat, non diu vivens, ibi defunctus est, et in Schola Saxonum in ecclesia Sanctae Mariae honorifice sepultus, adventum Domini et primam cum iustis resurrectionem expectat. Pagani quoque post eius expulsionem totum Merciorum regnum suo dominio subdiderunt, quod tamen miserabili condicione cuidam insipienti ministro (cuius nomen erat Ceolwulf) eodem pacto custodiendum commendaverunt, ut qualicunque die illud vellent habere interim, pacifice illis assignaret.

46. In the year of the Lord’s Incarnation 874, and in the twenty-sixth of King Alfred’s birth, the oft‑mentioned army, abandoning Lindissig, went to Mercia and wintered in the place which is called Hreopedune. It also compelled Burgred, king of the Mercians, to abandon his kingdom and to go overseas and to go to Rome against his will, in the twenty‑second year of his reign; who, after he had gone to Rome, not living long, died there, and, in the School of the Saxons in the church of Saint Mary, honorably buried, awaits the Advent of the Lord and the first resurrection with the just. The pagans also, after his expulsion, subjected the whole kingdom of the Mercians to their dominion, which nevertheless, under a miserable condition, they entrusted to a certain foolish minister (whose name was Ceolwulf) to be kept on the same pact: that on whatever day they might wish to have it meanwhile, he would peaceably assign it to them.

Quibus in eadem condicione obsides dedit et iuravit, nullo modo se voluntati eorum contradicere velle, sed oboediens in omnibus esse.

To whom, on the same condition, he gave hostages and swore that in no way did he wish to contradict their will, but to be obedient in all things.

47. Anno Dominicae Incarnationis DCCCLXXV, nativitatis autem Aelfredi regis vigesimo septimo, supra memoratus saepe exercitus Hreopedune deserens, in duas se divisit turmas: cuius altera pars cum Healftene in regionem Northanhymbrorum perrexit, et ibi hiemavit iuxta flumen, quod dicitur Tine, et totam Northanhymbrorum regionem suo subdidit dominio, necnon et Pictos et Stratcluttenses depopulati sunt. Altera quoque pars cum Gothrum et Osscytil et Anvind, tribus paganorum regibus, ad locum, qui dicitur Grantebrycge, pervenit, et ibi hiemavit.

47. In the year of the Lord’s Incarnation 875, but of the birth of King Aelfred the twenty-seventh, the oft-mentioned army, abandoning Hreopedune, divided itself into two troops: of which one part with Healftene proceeded into the region of the Northumbrians, and there wintered near the river which is called the Tyne, and subjected the whole region of the Northumbrians to their dominion, and they also ravaged both the Picts and the Strathclydians. The other part too, with Gothrum and Osscytil and Anvind, three kings of the pagans, came to the place which is called Grantebrycge, and there wintered.

48. Eodem anno Aelfred rex navali proelio in mare contra sex naves paganorum belligeravit, et unam ex eis cepit, ceteris per fugam elapsis.

48. In the same year King Aelfred fought a naval battle on the sea against six ships of the pagans, and captured one of them, the others escaping by flight.

49. Anno Dominicae Incarnationis DCCCLXXVI, nativitatis autem Aelfredi regis vigesimo octavo, saepe memoratus paganorum exercitus noctu de Grantebrycge exiens, castellum, quod dicitur Werham, intravit; quod monasterium sanctimonialium inter duo flumina Frauu et in paga, quae dicitur Britannice Durngueir, Saxonice autem Thornsaeta, tutissimo terrarum situ situm est, nisi ab occidentali parte tantummodo, ubi contigua terra est. Cum quo exercitu Aelfred rex foedus firmiter ea condicione, ut ab eo discederent, pepigit: cui ille exercitus electos obsides, quantos solus nominavit, sine ulla controversia dedit, necnon et sacramentum in omnibus reliquiis, quibus ille rex maxime post Deum confidebat, iuravit, (in quibus nec alicui genti prius iurare voluit) citissime de regno suo se exiturum esse. Sed, more suo, solita fallacia utens, et obsides et iuramentum atque fidem promissam non custodiens, nocte quadam, foedere disrupto, omnes equites, quos habebat, occidit, versusque inde ad alium locum, qui dicitur Saxonice Exanceastre, Britannice autem Cairuuisc, Latine quoque civitas in orientali ripa fluminis Uuisc sita est, prope mare meridianum, quod interluit Galliam Britanniamque, inopinate direxit, et ibi hyemavit.

49. In the Year of the Lord’s Incarnation 876, and the twenty-eighth of the birth of King Aelfred, the oft‑mentioned army of the pagans, going out by night from Grantebrycge, entered the stronghold which is called Werham; which nunnery, between two rivers Frauu and in the district which is called in British Durngueir, but in Saxon Thornsaeta, is situated in a most secure position of lands, except only on the western side, where the land is contiguous. With which army King Aelfred made a firm pact on this condition, that they would depart from him: to whom that army, without any controversy, gave chosen hostages, as many as he alone named, and swore an oath upon all the relics in which that king, next after God, most especially put his trust (upon which he had not before been willing to swear to any nation), that they would very swiftly depart from his kingdom. But, in their usual manner, using their accustomed deceit, and not keeping the hostages and the oath and the pledged faith, on a certain night, the treaty having been broken, they killed all the horsemen that they had, and from there turned unexpectedly toward another place, which is called in Saxon Exanceastre, but in British Cairuuisc, and in Latin also a city situated on the eastern bank of the river Uuisc, near the southern sea, which washes between Gaul and Britain, and there they wintered.

50. Eodem quoque anno Halfdene, rex illius partis Northanhymbrorum, totam regionem sibimet et suis divisit, et illam cum suo exercitu coluit.

50. In the same year also Halfdene, king of that part of the Northumbrians, divided the whole region for himself and his own men, and cultivated it with his army.

51. Ipso anno, mense Augusto, ille exercitus perrexit in Merciam, et illam regionem Merciorum partim dedit Ceolwulfo, cuidam insipienti regis ministro, partim inter se divisit.

51. In that same year, in the month of August, that army proceeded into Mercia, and it partly gave that region of the Mercians to Ceolwulf, a certain foolish minister of the king, and partly divided it among themselves.

52. Anno Dominicae Incarnationis DCCCLXXVIII, nativitatis autem Aelfredi regis trigesimo, supra memoratus saepe exercitus Eaxeancestre deserens, Cippanham, villam regiam, quae est sita in sinistrali parte Wiltunscire, in orientali ripa fluminis, quod Britannice dicitur Abon, adiit, et ibi hyemavit. Et multos eiusdem gentis ultra mare compulit hostiliter et penuria atque pavore navigare, et maxima ex parte omnes illius regionis habitatores suo subdiderunt dominio.

52. In the year of the Lord’s Incarnation 878, and in the thirtieth of the nativity of King Alfred, the oft-mentioned army above, abandoning Eaxeancestre, came to Cippanham, a royal vill, which is situated in the left-hand part of Wiltshire, on the eastern bank of the river which in British is called Abon, and there wintered. And they compelled many of that same people, by hostility and by want and by fear, to sail beyond the sea; and, for the greatest part, they brought all the inhabitants of that region under their dominion.

53. Eodem tempore Aelfred saepe supra memoratus rex, cum paucis suis nobilibus et etiam cum quibusdam militibus et fasellis, per sylvestria et gronnosa Summurtunensis pagae loca in magna tribulatione inquietam vitam ducebat. Nihil enim habebat quo uteretur, nisi quod a paganis et etiam a Christianis, qui se paganorum subdiderant dominio, frequentibus irruptionibus aut clam aut etiam palam subtraheret.

53. At the same time Alfred, the often above-mentioned king, with a few of his nobles and also with certain soldiers and skiffs, was leading an uneasy life in great tribulation through the sylvan and marshy places of the Summurtun district. For he had nothing which he might use, except what he would withdraw by frequent raids, either secretly or even openly, from the pagans and even from the Christians who had subjected themselves to the dominion of the pagans.

54. Eodem anno frater Inwari et Healfdene cum viginti et tribus navibus de Demetica regione, in qua hyemaverat, post multas ibi Christianorum strages factas, ad Domnaniam enavigavit, et ibi a ministris regis cum mille et ducentis infelici exitu perperam agens occisus est ante arcem Cynuit; quia in eadem arce multi ministri regis cum suis se concluserant confugii causa. Sed cum pagani arcem imparatam atque omnino immunitam, nisi quod moenia nostro more erecta solummodo haberet, cernerent, -- non enim effringere moliebantur, quia et ille locus situ terrarum tutissimus est ab omni parte, nisi ab orientali, sicut nos ipsi vidimus, -- obsidere eam coeperunt, putantes homines illos manum cito daturos fame et siti et obsessione coactos, quia nulla aqua illi arci contigua est. Quod non ita, ut putabant, evenit.

54. In the same year the brother of Ivar and Hálfdan, with 23 ships, from the Demetian region in which he had wintered, after many slaughters of Christians had there been wrought, sailed out to Dumnonia, and there, before the stronghold of Cynuit, acting wrongly with an unhappy outcome, he was slain by the king’s ministers together with 1,200; because in that same stronghold many of the king’s ministers with their men had shut themselves in for the sake of refuge. But when the pagans saw the stronghold unprepared and altogether unfortified, except that it had walls erected only in our fashion, -- for they were not endeavoring to break in, since that place, by the position of the ground, is safest on every side except from the east, as we ourselves have seen, -- they began to besiege it, thinking those men would quickly give their hand in surrender, compelled by hunger and thirst and blockade, because no water is contiguous to that stronghold. Which did not turn out as they supposed.

Nam Christiani, antequam talem penuriam omnino subire paterentur, divinitus instigati, multo melius iudicantes aut mortem aut victoriam mereri, diluculo super paganos ex improviso irrumpunt, et a primo tempore hostes hostiliter cum rege suo maxima ex parte, paucis ad naves per fugam elapsis, prosternunt.

For the Christians, before they would at all allow themselves to undergo such want, divinely instigated, judging much better to merit either death or victory, at daybreak they burst unexpectedly upon the pagans, and from the first moment they laid the enemies low in hostile fashion, together with their king, for the most part, a few slipping away to the ships by flight.

55. Eodem anno post Pascha Aelfred rex cum paucis fecit arcem in loco, qui dicitur Aethelingaeg, et de ipsa arce semper cum fassellis Summurtunensis contra paganos infatigabiliter rebellavit. Iterumque in septima hebdomada post Pascha ad Petram Aegbryhta, quae est in orientali parte saltus, qui dicitur Seluudu, Latine autem 'sylva magna,' Britannice 'Coit Maur,' equitavit; ibique obviaverunt illi omnes accolae Summurtunensis pagae et Wiltunensis, omnes accolae Hamtunensis pagae, qui non ultra mare pro metu paganorum navigaverant; visoque rege, sicut dignum erat, quasi redivivum post tantas tribulationes recipientes, immenso repleti sunt gaudio, et ibi castra metati sunt una nocte. Diluculo sequenti illucescente, rex inde castra commovens, venit ad locum, qui dicitur Aecglea, et ibi una nocte castra metatus est.

55. In the same year, after Easter, King Aelfred with a few men built a fort in the place which is called Aethelingaeg, and from that fort he incessantly made war against the pagans, tirelessly, with small bands of the men of Somerset. And again, in the seventh week after Easter, he rode to Egbert’s Stone, which is in the eastern part of the forest that is called Seluudu, in Latin “great wood,” in British “Coit Maur”; and there met him all the inhabitants of the shire of Somerset and of Wiltshire, all the inhabitants of the shire of Hampshire who had not sailed beyond the sea for fear of the pagans; and, seeing the king, as was fitting, receiving him as if revived to life after so many tribulations, they were filled with immense joy, and there they pitched camp for one night. At daybreak on the following day, the king, moving the camp from there, came to the place which is called Aecglea, and there he pitched camp for one night.

56. Inde sequenti mane illucescente vexilla commovens ad locum, qui dicitur Ethandun, venit, et contra universum paganorum exercitum cum densa testudine atrociter belligerans, animoseque diu persistens, divino nutu, tandem victoria potitus, paganos maxima caede prostravit, et fugientes usque ad arcem percutiens persecutus est, et omnia, quae extra arcem invenit, homines scilicet et equos et pecora, confestim caedens homines, surripuit, et ante portas paganicae arcis cum omni exercitu suo viriliter castra metatus est. Cumque ibi per quatuordecim dies remoraretur, pagani fame, frigore, timore, et ad extremum desperatione perterriti, pacem ea condicione petierunt, ut rex nominatos obsides, quantos vellet, ab eis acciperet, et ille nullum eis daret, ita tamen qualiter nunquam cum aliquo pacem ante pepigerant. Quorum legatione audita rex suatim utens, misericordia motus, nominatos, quantos voluit, obsides ab eis accepit.

56. Thence, at the next morning’s first light appearing, setting the standards in motion he came to the place which is called Ethandun, and, waging war fiercely against the whole army of the pagans with a dense testudo-formation, and bravely persisting for a long time, by divine nod at length gaining victory, he laid the pagans low with the greatest slaughter, and, pursuing the fugitives while striking them, he drove them up to the fortress; and everything that he found outside the fortress—namely men and horses and cattle—immediately cutting down the men, he seized, and before the gates of the pagan fortress he manfully pitched camp with all his army. And when he lingered there for fourteen days, the pagans, terrified by hunger, cold, fear, and at last by desperation, sought peace on this condition: that the king should receive from them named hostages, as many as he wished, and that he should give them none—in such a manner, however, as they had never before made peace with anyone. On hearing their embassy, the king, using his own judgment and moved by mercy, received from them the named hostages, as many as he wished.

Quibus acceptis, pagani insuper iuraverunt se citissime de suo regno exituros, necnon et Godrum, rex eorum, Christianitatem subire et baptismum sub manu Aelfredi regis accipere promisit. Quae omnia ille et sui, ut promiserant, impleverunt. Nam post hebdomadas Godrum, paganorum rex, cum triginta electissimis de exercitu suo viris, ad Aelfred regem prope Aethelingaeg in loco, qui dicitur Alre, prevenit.

Having received these, the pagans moreover swore that they would depart from his kingdom very swiftly; and Godrum, their king, likewise promised to submit to Christianity and to receive baptism at the hand of King Aelfred. All of which he and his men, as they had promised, fulfilled. For after some weeks Godrum, king of the pagans, with thirty men most select from his army, came in advance to King Aelfred near Aethelingaeg, at a place which is called Alre.

Quem Aelfred rex in filium adoptionis sibi suscipiens, de fonte sacro baptismatis elevavit. Cuius chrismatis solutio octavo die in villa regia, quae dicitur Waedmor, fuit. Qui, postquam baptizatus fuit, duodecim noctibus cum rege mansit.

Aelfred the king, receiving him to himself as a son of adoption, lifted him up from the sacred font of baptism. The solution of the chrism for him was on the eighth day in the royal villa which is called Waedmor. He, after he had been baptized, remained with the king for twelve nights.

Cui rex cum suis omnibus multa et optima beneficia largiter dedit.

To whom the king, with all his men, lavishly gave many and most excellent benefits.

57. Anno Dominicae Incarnationis DCCCLXXIX, nativitatis autem Aelfredi regis trigesimo primo, praefatus paganorum exercitus de Cippanhamme, ut promiserat, consurgens, Cirrenceastre adiit, quae Britannice Cairceri nominatur, quae est in meridiana parte Huicciorum, ibique per unum annum mansit.

57. In the year of the Lord’s Incarnation 879, but of the birth of King Aelfred the 31st, the aforesaid army of the pagans, rising up from Cippanhamme as it had promised, went to Cirencester, which in British is named Cairceri, which is in the southern part of the Hwicce, and there it remained for one year.

58. Eodem anno magnus paganorum exercitus de ultramarinis partibus navigans in Tamesin fluvium venit, et adunatus est superiori exercitui, sed tamen hyemavit in loco, qui dicitur Fullonham, iuxta flumen Tamesin.

58. In the same year a great army of the pagans, sailing from transmarine parts, came into the river Thames, and was joined to the earlier army; but nevertheless it wintered in the place which is called Fullonham, near the river Thames.

59. Eodem anno eclipsis solis inter nonam et vesperam, sed propius ad nonam, facta est.

59. In the same year an eclipse of the sun took place between the ninth hour and evening, but closer to the ninth hour.

60. Anno Dominicae Incarnationis DCCCLXXX, nativitatis autem Aelfredi regis trigesimo secundo, saepe memoratus paganorum exercitus Cirrenceastre deserens, ad Orientales Anglos perrexit, ipsamque regionem dividens coepit inhabitare.

60. In the year of the Lord’s Incarnation 880, and of the birth of King Aelfred the thirty-second, the often-mentioned army of the pagans, abandoning Cirencester, went to the East Angles, and, partitioning that very region, began to inhabit it.

61. Eodem anno exercitus paganorum, qui in Fullonham hiemaverat, Britannicam insulam deserens, iterum ultra mare navigans, ad Orientalem Franciam perrexit, et per unum annum in loco, qui dicitur Gendi, mansit.

61. In the same year the army of the pagans, which had wintered at Fullonham, leaving the island of Britain, sailing again across the sea, went to Eastern Francia, and for one year remained in a place which is called Gendi.

62. Anno Dominicae Incarnationis DCCCLXXXI, nativitatis autem Aelfredi regis trigesimo tertio, praefatus exercitus superius in Franciam perrexit. Contra quem Franci pugnaverunt, et, finito proelio, pagani, equis inventis, equites facti sunt.

62. In the Year of the Lord’s Incarnation 881, and of the birth of King Aelfred the thirty-third, the aforesaid army went into Francia, as above. Against whom the Franks fought, and, the battle finished, the pagans, horses having been found, became horsemen.

63. Anno Dominicae Incarnationis DCCCLXXXII, nativitatis autem Aelfredi regis trigesimo quarto, praefatus exercitus suas naves per flumen, quod dicitur Mese, sursum tanto longe in Franciam pertraxit, et ibi uno anno hyemavit.

63. In the year of the Lord’s Incarnation 882, and of the birth of King Alfred the thirty-fourth, the aforesaid army dragged their ships up the river which is called the Meuse, so far up into Francia, and there wintered for one year.

64. Et eodem anno Aelfred, Angulsaxonum rex, navali proelio contra paganicas naves in mare congressus est; ex quibus duas cepit naves, occisis omnibus, qui in eis erant. Duarumque aliarum navium duo principes, cum omnibus suis sociis, valde proelio et vulneribus fatigati, depositis armis, curvo poplite, et supplicibus precibus, dederunt se regi.

64. And in the same year Aelfred, king of the Anglo-Saxons, engaged in a naval battle against pagan ships at sea; of these he captured two ships, all who were in them having been slain. And the two leaders of two other ships, with all their companions, being greatly wearied by battle and wounds, with their arms laid down, on bended knee, and with suppliant prayers, surrendered themselves to the king.

65. Anno Dominicae Incarnationis DCCCLXXXIII, nativitatis autem regis Aelfredi trigesimo quinto, praefatus exercitus naves suas per flumen, quod dicitur Scald, contra flumen navigans, ad monasterium sanctimonialium, quod dicitur Cundoth, traxit, et ibi anno uno mansit.

65. In the year of the Lord’s Incarnation 883, and of King Alfred’s birth the thirty-fifth, the aforesaid army hauled its ships up the river called the Scheldt, sailing against the stream, to the nunnery called Cundoth, and there it remained for one year.

66. Anno Dominicae Incarnationis DCCCLXXXIV, nativitatis autem Aelfredi regis trigesimo sexto, praefatus exercitus in duas se turmas divisit: una etenim turma in Orientalem Franciam perrexit, et altera ad Britanniam veniens, Cantiam adiit, civitatemque, quae Hrofesceastre Saxonice dicitur, in orientali ripa fluminis Medwaeg sitam, obsedit. Ante huius portam pagani castellum sibimet firmum subito fabricaverunt; nec tamen illam civitatem expugnare potuerunt, quia cives illi se viriliter defenderunt, quousque Aelfred rex, cum magno exercitu adiutorium illis conferens, supervenit. Et tunc pagani, relicta arce sua, et omnibus equis, quos de Francia secum adduxerant, derelictis, maxima parte necnon captivorum suorum in arce dimissa, adveniente subito rege, ad naves suas confestim confugiunt, et Saxones statim derelictos a paganis captivos et equos diripiunt.

66. In the year of the Lord’s Incarnation 884, but of the birth of King Aelfred the thirty-sixth, the aforesaid army divided itself into two bands: for one band proceeded into Eastern Francia, and the other, coming to Britain, went to Kent, and besieged the city which in Saxon is called Hrofesceastre, situated on the eastern bank of the river Medway. Before this city’s gate the pagans suddenly built for themselves a strong fort; yet they could not storm that city, because those citizens defended themselves manfully, until King Aelfred, bringing aid to them with a great army, came upon the scene. And then the pagans, their stronghold abandoned, and all the horses which they had brought with them from Francia left behind, with the greater part of their captives also left in the fort, as the king suddenly arrived, fled straightway to their ships, and the Saxons immediately plundered the captives and the horses abandoned by the pagans.

Pagani itaque, magna necessitate compulsi, eadem aestate iterum Franciam adierunt.

Therefore the pagans, compelled by great necessity, in the same summer went again to France.

67. Eodem anno Aelfred, Angulsaxonum rex, classem suam de Cantia, plenam bellatoribus, in Orientales Anglos dirigens, praedandi causa, transmisit. Cumque ad ostium Sture fluminis advenissent, confestim tredecim naves paganorum, paratae ad bellum, obviaverunt eis, initoque navali proelio, hinc inde acriter pugnantes, pagani omnes occisi et omnes naves cum omni pecunia eorum captae sunt. Cumque inde victrix regia classis dormiret, pagani, qui Orientalium Anglorum regionem habitabant, congregatis undecunque navibus, eidem regiae classi in ostio eiusdem fluminis in mari obviaverunt, consertoque navali proelio, pagani victoriam habuerunt.

67. In the same year Alfred, king of the Anglo-Saxons, sent his fleet from Kent, full of warriors, directing it toward the East Angles for the sake of plundering, sending it across. And when they had come to the mouth of the River Stour, straightway thirteen ships of the pagans, prepared for war, met them, and a naval battle having been joined, fighting keenly on both sides, all the pagans were slain and all the ships with all their money were captured. And when from there the victorious royal fleet was sleeping, the pagans who inhabited the region of the East Angles, with ships gathered from wherever, met that same royal fleet at the mouth of the same river on the sea; and a naval battle having been engaged, the pagans had the victory.

68. Eodem quoque anno Carlomannum, Francorum Occidentalium regem, aprorum venationem agentem, singularis congressione horrendo dente dilacerans miserabili funere percussit. Cuius frater Hlothuuicus superiori anno defunctus est; qui et ipse erat etiam Francorum rex: ipsi etenim ambo filii Hlothuuici regis Francorum erant. Qui etiam Hlothuuicus supra memorato anno, quo eclipsis solis facta est, defunctus est; ipse quoque Hlothuuicus filius Karoli Francorum regis erat, cuius filiam Iuthittam Aethelwulfus, Occidentalium Saxonum rex, ad reginam sibi paterna voluntate suscepit.

68. In that same year as well, Carloman, king of the Western Franks, while conducting a hunt of boars, a boar, in a single encounter, tearing him with a horrendous tusk, struck him down with a wretched death. His brother Hlothuuicus died in the previous year; and he too was also king of the Franks: for both of them were sons of Hlothuuicus, king of the Franks. This same Hlothuuicus also died in the above-mentioned year, in which a solar eclipse occurred; and this Hlothuuicus too was the son of Charles, king of the Franks, whose daughter Judith Aethelwulf, king of the Western Saxons, received as queen for himself with the father’s consent.

69. Eodem quoque anno magnus paganorum exercitus de Germania in regionem Antiquorum Saxonum, quae Saxonice dicitur Eald Seaxum, supervenit. Contra quos, adunatis viribus, iidem Saxones et Frisones bis in uno illo anno viriliter pugnavere. In quibus duobus bellis Christiani, divina opitulante misericordia, victoriam habuere.

69. In the same year also a great army of pagans from Germany came upon the region of the Ancient Saxons, which in Saxon is called Eald Seaxum. Against them, with forces united, the same Saxons and Frisians fought manfully twice in that same year. In these two battles the Christians, with divine mercy giving aid, had the victory.

70. Eodem quoque anno Carolus, Alamannorum rex, Occidentalium Francorum regnum et omnia regna, quae sunt inter mare Tyrrhenum et illum marinum sinum, qui inter Antiquos Saxones et Gallos adiacet, voluntario omnium consensu accepit, absque Armoricano regno. Qui Karolus Hlothuuici regis filius fuit; ipse vero Hlothuuicus germanus Karoli regis Francorum, patris Iuthittae, reginae praedictae, erat: qui etiam duo germani fuerunt filii Hlothuuici; Hlothuuic vero ille filius Caroli Pipini.

70. In the same year also Charles, king of the Alemanni, received the kingdom of the Western Franks and all the kingdoms which are between the Tyrrhenian Sea and that sea-gulf which lies adjacent between the Old Saxons and the Gauls, by the voluntary consent of all, except the Armorican kingdom. This Charles was the son of King Louis; and that Louis was the brother of Charles, king of the Franks, the father of Judith, the aforesaid queen: who also, the two brothers, were sons of Louis; and that Louis was the son of Charles, Pippin’s.

71. Eodem anno beatae memoriae Marinus papa universitatis viam migravit. Qui Scholam Saxonum in Roma morantium, pro amore et deprecatione Alfredi, Angulsaxonum regis, ab omni tributo et telonio benigne liberavit. Qui etiam multa dona praedicto regi illa vice transmisit: inter quae dedit etiam non parvam illius sanctissimae ac venerabilissimae crucis partem, in qua Dominus noster Iesus Christus pro universali hominum salute pependit.

71. In the same year Pope Marinus, of blessed memory, departed this life. He kindly freed the School of the Saxons dwelling in Rome, for the love and at the petition of Alfred, king of the Anglo-Saxons, from every tribute and toll. He also on that occasion transmitted many gifts to the aforesaid king: among which he likewise gave no small portion of that most holy and most venerable Cross, on which our Lord Jesus Christ hung for the universal salvation of humankind.

72. Eodem quoque anno ille paganorum exercitus, qui in Orientalibus Anglis habitavit, pacem, quam cum Aelfredo rege pepigerat, opprobriose fregit.

72. In the same year also, that army of the pagans, which dwelt among the East Angles, opprobriously broke the peace which it had stipulated with King Alfred.

73. Igitur, ut ad id, unde digressus sum, redeam, ne diuturna enavigatione portum optatae quietis omittere cogar, aliquantulum, quantum notitiae meae innotuerit, de vita et moribus et aequa conversatione, atque, ex parte non modica, res gestas domini mei Aelfredi, Angulsaxonum regis, postquam praefatam ac venerabilem de Merciorum nobilium genere coniugem duxerit, Deo annuente, succinctim ac breviter, ne qua prolixitate narrandi nova quaeque fastidientium animos offendam, ut promisi, expedire procurabo.

73. Therefore, that I may return to that whence I have digressed, lest by a prolonged navigation I be compelled to miss the harbor of the desired quiet, I will endeavor, somewhat, so far as has become known to my knowledge, concerning the life and morals and equitable conduct, and, in no small part, the deeds of my lord Aelfred, king of the Anglo-Saxons, after he took to wife, God assenting, the aforesaid and venerable consort from the stock of Mercian nobles, succinctly and briefly, lest by any prolixity of narrating I offend the minds of the fastidious with every new thing, as I promised, to set forth.

74. Cum ergo nuptias honorabiliter in Mercia factas, inter innumerabiles utriusque sexus populos, sollemniter celebraret, post diuturna die noctuque convivia, subito et immenso atque omnibus medicis incognito confestim coram omni populo correptus est dolore. Incognitum enim erat omnibus, qui tunc aderant, et etiam hucusque cotidie cernentibus -- quod, proh dolor! pessimum est, tantam diuturnitatem a vigesimo aetatis suae anno usque quadragesimum, et eo amplius, annum per tanta annorum curricula incessanter protelasse -- unde talis dolor oriebatur.

74. Therefore, when he was solemnly celebrating in Mercia the nuptials honorably effected, among innumerable peoples of both sexes, after long banquets by day and by night, he was suddenly seized, in the sight of all the people, by a pain immense and unknown to all physicians, immediately. For it was unknown to all who were then present, and even to those who up to this day behold him daily -- which, alas! is the worst, that so great a duration, from the twentieth year of his age up to the fortieth, and beyond, has been incessantly prolonged through so many courses of years -- whence such a pain arose.

Multi namque favore et fascinatione circumstantis populi hoc factum esse autumabant; alii diaboli quadam invidia, qui semper bonis invidus existat; alii inusitato quodam genere febris; alii ficum existimabant, quod genus infestissimi doloris etiam ab infantia habuit. Sed quodam tempore, divino nutu, antea, cum Cornubiam venandi causa adiret, et ad quandam ecclesiam orandi causa divertisset, in qua Sanctus Gueriir requiescit, suatim utens -- erat enim sedulus sanctorum locorum visitator etiam ab infantia, orandi et eleemosynam dandi gratia -- diu in oratione tacita prostratus, ita Domini misericordiam deprecabatur, quatenus omnipotens Deus pro sua immensa clementia stimulos praesentis et infestantis infirmitatis aliqua qualicunque leviori infirmitate mutaret, ea tamen condicione, ut corporaliter exterius illa infirmitas non appareret, ne inutilis et despectus esset. Timebat enim lepram aut caccitatem, vel aliquem talem dolorem, qui homines tam cito et inutiles et despectos suo adventu efficiunt.

For many were asserting that this had happened by the favor and fascination of the surrounding populace; others, by a certain envy of the devil, who always stands envious toward the good; others, by a certain unusual kind of fever; others thought it was the ficus (a kind of most troublesome pain), which kind he had had even from infancy. But at a certain time, by divine nod, earlier, when he was going to Cornwall for the sake of hunting, and had turned aside for the sake of praying to a certain church in which Saint Gueriir rests, following his wont — for he was a assiduous visitor of holy places even from infancy, for the sake of praying and of giving alms — long prostrate in silent prayer, thus he was imploring the Lord’s mercy, that Almighty God, for His immense clemency, would change the stings of the present and harassing infirmity into some somewhat lighter infirmity of whatever sort, yet on this condition, that that infirmity should not appear outwardly in the body, lest he be useless and despised. For he feared leprosy or blindness, or some such pain which by its arrival makes men so quickly both useless and despised.

Oratione autem finita, coeptum iter arripuit, et non multo post tempore, ut in oratione deprecatus fuerat, se ab illo dolore medicatum esse divinitus sensit, ita ut funditus eradicaretur, quamvis et hunc dolorem in primaevo iuventutis suae flore devota oratione et frequenti Deo supplicatione pius supplex nactus fuerat. Nam, ut de benevola mentis suae devotione Deo succinctim ac breviter, quamvis praeposterato ordine, loquar, cum in primaevo iuventutis suae flore, antequam propriam coniugem duceret, mentem suam propriam in Dei mandatis stabilire vellet, et se a carnali desiderio abstinere non posse cerneret, offensam Dei incurrere, si aliquid contrarium voluntati illius perageret, saepissime, galli cantu et matutinis horis clam consurgens, ecclesias et reliquias sanctorum orandi causa visitabat; ibique diu prostratus orabat, quo Deus Omnipotens, propter suam misericordiam, mentem illius amore suae servitutis multo robustius per aliquam infirmitatem, quam posset sustinere, non tamen quo eum indignum et inutilem in mundanis rebus faceret, ad se penitus convertens corroboraret. Cumque hoc saepius magna mentis devotione ageret, post aliquantulum intervallum praefatum fici dolorem Dei munere incurrit, in quo, diu et aegre per multos annos laborans, se, etiam de vita, desperabat, quousque, oratione facta, a se penitus eum amovit.

But when the prayer was finished, he seized the begun journey, and not long thereafter, just as he had entreated in prayer, he felt that he had been medicated—healed—divinely from that pain, so that it was eradicated from the root; although this pain, in the flower of his earliest youth, the pious suppliant had incurred by devout prayer and frequent supplication to God. For, to speak succinctly and briefly—though in a preposterous order—about the benevolent devotion of his mind to God: when, in the flower of his early youth, before he took his own wife, he wished to stabilize his mind in the commandments of God, and saw that he could not abstain from carnal desire, fearing that he would incur the offense of God if he did anything contrary to His will, very often, at cockcrow and at the matutinal hours, rising secretly, he used to visit churches and the relics of the saints for the sake of prayer; and there, long prostrate, he prayed that Almighty God, for His mercy, would corroborate his mind with the love of His service much more robustly through some infirmity which he could endure—yet not such as would make him unworthy and useless in worldly matters—by converting him wholly to Himself. And when he did this very often with great devotion of mind, after a little interval he incurred, by God’s gift, the aforesaid “fig” pain (ficus), in which, long and sorely laboring through many years, he despaired even of life, until, prayer having been made, He removed it from him utterly.

Sed, proh dolor! eo amoto, alius infestior in nuptiis, ut diximus, eum arripuit, qui a vigesimo aetatis suae anno usque ad quadragesimum quintum eum die noctuque incessabiliter fatigavit; sed, si aliquando Dei misericordia unius diei aut noctis vel etiam unius horae intervallo illa infirmitas seposita fuerat, timor tamen ac tremor illius execrabilis doloris unquam eum non deserit, sed quasi inutilem eum, ut ei videtur, in divinis et humanis rebus propemodum effecit.

But, alas! when that was removed, another, more pestiferous in marriage, as we have said, seized him, which from the twentieth year of his age up to the forty-fifth wearied him day and night incessantly; but if at any time by the mercy of God for an interval of one day or night, or even of one hour, that infirmity had been set aside, nevertheless the fear and trembling of that execrable pain never deserted him, but made him, as it seems to him, almost useless in divine and human affairs.

75. Nati sunt ergo ei filii et filiae de supradicta coniuge sua Aethelflaed primogenita, post quam Eadwerd, deinde Aethelgeofu, postea Aelfthryth, deinde Aethelweard natus est, exceptis his, qui in infantia morte praeveniente praeoccupati sunt; cuius numerus est Aethelflaed, adveniente matrimonii tempore, Eadredo, Merciorum comiti, matrimonio copulata est; Aethelgeofu quoque monasticae vitae regulis, devota Deo virginitate, subiuncta et consecrata, divinum subiit servitium; Aethelweard, omnibus iunior, ludis literariae disciplinae, divino consilio et admirabili regis providentia, cum omnibus pene totius regionis nobilibus infantibus et etiam multis ignobilibus, sub diligenti magistrorum cura traditus est. In qua schola utriusque linguae libri, Latinae scilicet et Saxonicae, assidue legebantur, scriptioni quoque vacabant, ita, ut antequam aptas humanis artibus vires haberent, venatoriae scilicet et ceteris artibus, quae nobilibus conveniunt, in liberalibus artibus studiosi et ingeniosi viderentur. Eadwerd et Aelfthryth semper in curto regio nutriti cum magna nutritorum et nutricum diligentia, immo cum magno omnium amore, et ad omnes indigenas et alienigenas humilitate, affabilitate et etiam lenitate, et cum magna patris subiectione huc usque perseverant.

75. Sons and daughters, therefore, were born to him by his above-said consort: Aethelflaed the firstborn, after whom Eadwerd, then Aethelgeofu, afterward Aelfthryth, then Aethelweard was born, excepting those who were pre-occupied by a death coming beforehand in infancy; whose number is as follows: Aethelflaed, when the time of marriage arrived, was joined in matrimony to Eadred, earl of the Mercians; Aethelgeofu also, to the rules of monastic life, with virginity devoted to God, being joined and consecrated, undertook the divine service; Aethelweard, youngest of all, to the exercises of literary discipline, by divine counsel and the admirable providence of the king, together with almost all the noble children of the whole region and even many ignoble ones, was entrusted under the careful oversight of masters. In which school books of both tongues, namely Latin and Saxon, were assiduously read; they also devoted themselves to writing, so that before they had strengths fit for the human arts—namely hunting and the other arts which befit nobles—they appeared studious and ingenious in the liberal arts. Eadwerd and Aelfthryth, always nurtured in the royal court with great diligence of male and female attendants, nay rather with the great love of all, and toward all natives and foreigners with humility, affability, and even mildness, and with great subjection to their father, thus far persevere.

Nec etiam illi sine liberali disciplina inter cetera praesentis vitae studia, quae nobilibus conveniunt, otiose et incuriose permittuntur, nam et psalmos et Saxonicos libros et maxime Saxonica carmina studiose didicere, et frequentissime libris utuntur.

Nor are they even permitted, without liberal discipline, to be idle and careless in the other pursuits of the present life that befit nobles; for they have diligently learned the psalms and Saxon books, and especially Saxon poems, and they make very frequent use of books.

76. Interea tamen rex, inter bella et praesentis vitae frequentia impedimenta, necnon paganorum infestationes et cotidianas corporis infirmitates, et regni gubernacula regere, et omnem venandi artem agere, aurifices et artifices suos omnes et falconarios et accipitrarios canicularios quoque docere, et aedificia supra omnem antecessorum suorum consuetudinem venerabiliora et pretiosiora nova sua machinatione facere, et Saxonicos libros recitare, et maxime carmina Saxonica memoriter discere, aliis imperare, et solus assidue pro viribus studiosissime non desinebat. Divina quoque ministeria et missam scilicet cotidie audire, psalmos quosdam et orationes et horas diurnas et nocturnas celebrare, et ecclesias nocturno tempore, ut diximus, orandi causa clam a suis adire solebat et frequentabat. Eleemosynarum quoque studio et largitati indigenis et advenis omnium gentium, ac maxima et incomparabili contra omnes homines affabilitate atque iocunditate, et ignotarum rerum investigationi solerter se iungebat.

76. Meanwhile, however, the king, amid wars and the frequent impediments of the present life, as well as the infestations of the pagans and the daily infirmities of the body, did not cease both to steer the reins of the kingdom and to practice every art of hunting, to teach his goldsmiths and all his craftsmen and his falconers and hawkers, and even the dog-handlers, to make buildings more venerable and more precious beyond all the custom of his predecessors by his own new contrivance, to recite Saxon books, and especially to learn Saxon songs by heart, to command others, and by himself continually, as far as his strength allowed, to be most studious. He also used to attend to divine ministries and, namely, to hear Mass daily, to celebrate certain psalms and prayers and the day and night hours, and he would approach churches at night-time, as we have said, secretly from his own people for the sake of praying, and frequent them. He likewise joined himself zealously to the study and largess of alms for natives and incomers of all nations, and, with a very great and incomparable affability and pleasantness toward all men, he applied himself diligently to the investigation of things unknown.

Franci autem multi, Frisones, Galli, pagani, Britones, et Scotti, Armorici sponte se suo dominio subdiderant, nobiles scilicet et ignobiles; quos omnes, sicut suam propriam gentem, secundum suam dignitatem regebat, diligebat, honorabat, pecunia et potestate ditabat. Divinam quoque scripturam a recitantibus indigenis, aut etiam, si casu quodam aliunde adveniret, cum alienigenis pariter preces audire sedulus et sollicitus solebat. Episcopos quoque suos et omnem ecclesiasticum ordinem, comites ac nobiles suos, ministeriales etiam et omnes familiares admirabili amore diligebat.

Many Franks, Frisians, Gauls, pagans, Britons, and Scots, Armoricans, had of their own accord subjected themselves to his dominion, nobles and ignobles alike; all of whom, just as his own proper people, he governed according to their dignity, he loved, he honored, he enriched with money and power. He also used to be assiduous and solicitous to hear the divine Scripture from natives reciting, or even, if by some chance someone came from elsewhere, to hear prayers together with foreigners equally. His bishops too, and the whole ecclesiastical order, his counts and nobles, even his ministerials and all his familiars, he loved with admirable love.

Filios quoque eorum, qui in regali familia nutriebantur, non minus propriis diligens, omnibus bonis moribus instituere et literis imbuere solus die noctuque inter cetera non desinebat. Sed quasi nullam in his omnibus consolationem haberet, et nullam aliam intrinsecus et extrinsecus perturbationem pateretur, ita tamen cotidiana et nocturna anxius tristitia ad Dominum et ad omnes, qui sibi familiari dilectione adsciti forent, querelaretur et assiduo gemebat suspirio, eo quod Deus Omnipotens eum expertem divinae sapientiae et liberalium artium fecisset: in hoc pium et opinatissimum atque opulentissimum Salomonem Hebraeorum regem aequiparans, qui primitus, despecta omni praesenti gloria et divinitiis, sapientiam a Deo deposcit, et etiam utramque invenit, sapientiam scilicet et praesentem gloriam, sicut scriptum est, 'Quaerite ergo primum regnum Dei et iustitiam eius, et haec omnia praestabuntur vobis.' Sed Deus, Qui est semper inspector internarum mentium, meditationum et omnium bonarum voluntatum instigator, necnon etiam, ut habeantur bona desiderata, largissimus administrator, neque enim unquam aliquem bene velle instigaret, nisi et hoc, quod bene et iuste quisque habere desiderat, largiter administraret, instigavit mentem eius interius, non extrinsecus: sicut scriptum est, 'Audiam, quid loquatur in me dominus Deus.' Coadiutores bonae meditationis suae, qui eum in desiderata sapientia adiuvare possent, quo ad concupita perveniret, quandocunque posset, acquireret; qui subinde -- velut apis prudentissima, quae primo mane caris e cellulis consurgens aestivo tempore, per incerta aeris itinera cursum veloci volatu dirigens, super multiplices ac diversos herbarum, holerum, fruticum flosculos descendit, probatque quid maxime placuerit atque domum reportat -- mentis oculos longum dirigit, quaerens extrinsecus quod intrinsecus non habebat, id est in proprio regno suo.

He also, no less solicitous for the sons of those who were nurtured in the royal household than for his own, did not cease, day and night among other things, to institute them in all good morals and to imbue them with letters. But as though he had no consolation in all these things, and suffered no other perturbation within or without, nevertheless, anxious with daily and nightly sadness, he would make complaint to the Lord and to all who had been admitted to him by familiar affection, and he groaned with continual sighing, for this reason: that God Almighty had made him devoid of divine wisdom and of the liberal arts; in this equating himself to the pious and most renowned and opulent Solomon, king of the Hebrews, who at the first, all present glory and riches despised, asked wisdom from God, and even found both, namely wisdom and present glory, as it is written, 'Therefore seek first the kingdom of God and His justice, and all these things shall be bestowed upon you.' But God, Who is always the inspector of inward minds, the instigator of meditations and of all good wills, and also, in order that the desired goods may be had, the most lavish administrator—for He would never at any time instigate anyone to will well, unless He also most generously administered that which each one desires to have well and justly—stirred his mind within, not from without: as it is written, 'I will hear what the Lord God will speak within me.' Helpers of his good meditation, who could aid him in the desired wisdom, in order that he might arrive at the things longed for, he would procure whenever he could; who forthwith -- just as the most prudent bee, which first thing in the morning rises from the cells in summer-time, directing its course with swift flight through the uncertain paths of the air, descends upon the manifold and diverse little flowers of herbs, vegetables, shrubs, tests what has most pleased and carries it home -- he directs the eyes of his mind far, seeking from without what he did not have within, that is, in his own kingdom.

77. At tunc Deus quaedam solatia regiae benevolentiae, tam benevolam et iustissimam querelam illius diutius non ferens, veluti quaedam luminaria, transmisit Werfrithum, scilicet Wigernensis ecclesiae episcopum, in divina scilicet scriptura bene eruditum, qui, imperio regis, libros Dialogorum Gregorii papae et Petri sui discipuli de Latinitate primus in Saxonicam linguam, aliquando sensum ex sensu ponens, elucabratim et elegantissime interpretatus est; deinde Plegmundum, Mercium genere, Dorobernensis ecclesiae archiepiscopum, venerabilem scilicet virum, sapientia praeditum; Aethelstan quoque et Werwulfum, sacerdotes et capellanos, Mercios genere, eruditos. Quos quatuor Aelfred rex de Mercia ad se advocaverat, et multis honoribus et potestatibus extulit in regno Occidentalium Saxonum, exceptis his, quae Plegmundus archiepiscopus et Werfrithus episcopus in Mercia habebant. Quorum omnium doctrina et sapientia regis indesinenter desiderium crescebat et implebatur.

77. But then God, not bearing any longer his so benevolent and most just complaint, sent certain consolations for the royal benevolence, as it were certain lights: he sent Werfrith, namely bishop of the church of Worcester, well instructed in the divine scripture, who, at the king’s command, was the first to translate from Latinity into the Saxon tongue the books of the Dialogues of Pope Gregory and of Peter his disciple, sometimes setting sense from sense, lucidly and most elegantly; then Plegmund, a Mercian by race, archbishop of the church of Canterbury, a venerable man, endowed with wisdom; and Aethelstan and Werwulf as well, priests and chaplains, Mercians by race, learned men. These four King Aelfred had summoned to himself from Mercia, and he exalted them with many honors and powers in the kingdom of the West-Saxons, excepting those things which Archbishop Plegmund and Bishop Werfrith had in Mercia. By the teaching and wisdom of all of them the king’s desire unceasingly grew and was fulfilled.

Nam die noctuque, quandocunque aliquam licentiam haberet, libros ante se recitare talibus imperabat -- non enim unquam sine aliquo eorum se esse pateretur -- quapropter pene omnium librorum notitiam habebat, quamvis per se ipsum aliquid adhuc de libris intelligere non posset. Non enim adhuc aliquid legere inceperat.

For day and night, whenever he had any leisure, he commanded that books be recited before him by such men -- for he would never allow himself to be without some of them -- wherefore he had knowledge of nearly all the books, although by himself he could not yet understand anything from the books. For he had not yet begun to read anything.

78. Sed, cum adhuc nec in hoc quoque regalis avaritia, sed tamen laudabilis, grata esset, legatos ultra mare ad Galliam magistros acquirere direxit, indeque advocavit Grimbaldum, sacerdotem et monachum, venerabilem videlicet virum, cantatorem optimum, et omni modo ecclesiasticis disciplinis et in divina scriptura eruditissimum, et omnibus bonis moribus ornatum; Iohannem quoque, aeque presbyterum et monachum, acerrimi ingenii virum, et in omnibus disciplinis literatoriae artis eruditissimum, et in multis aliis artibus artificiosum. Quorum doctrina regis ingenium multum dilatatum est, et eos magna potestate ditavit et honoravit.

78. But since as yet not even in this matter was the royal avarice—yet praiseworthy—gratified, he sent envoys across the sea to Gaul to acquire masters, and from there he summoned Grimbald, a priest and monk, to wit a venerable man, a most excellent cantor, and in every way most learned in ecclesiastical disciplines and in divine Scripture, and adorned with all good morals; John as well, likewise a presbyter and monk, a man of most keen ingenium, and in all disciplines of the literary art most erudite, and skillful in many other arts. By whose teaching the king’s natural talent was greatly enlarged, and he enriched and honored them with great power.

79. His temporibus ego quoque a rege advocatus de occiduis et ultimis Britanniae finibus ad Saxoniam adveni, cumque per multa terrarum spatia illum adire proposueram, usque ad regionem Dexteralium Saxonum, quae Saxonice Suth-Seaxum appellatur, ductoribus eiusdem gentis comitantibus, perveni. Ibique illum in villa regia, quae dicitur Dene, primitus vidi. Cumque ab eo benigne susceptus fuissem, inter cetera sententiarum nostrarum famina, me obnixe rogabat, ut devoverem me suo servitio et familiaris ei essem, et omnia, quae in sinistrali et occidentali Sabrinae parte habebam, pro eo relinquerem: quae etiam maiori mihi remuneratione reddere pollicebatur.

79. In these times I too, summoned by the king, came from the occidental and uttermost borders of Britain to Saxony, and since I had purposed to approach him through many stretches of lands, I arrived as far as the region of the Right-hand Saxons, which in Saxon is called Suth-Seaxum, with guides of that same people accompanying. And there I first saw him in the royal villa which is called Dene. And when I had been kindly received by him, among other matters in the speeches of our discourse he earnestly besought me that I would devote myself to his service and be familiar to him, and that I would leave for his sake all the things which I had on the left-hand and occidental side of the Sabrina; which things he also promised to render back to me with greater remuneration.

Quod et faceret. Respondi ego 'Me talia incaute et temerarie promittere non posse. Iniustum enim mihi videbatur, illa tam sancta loca, in quibus nutritus et doctus ac coronatus fueram, atque ad ultimum ordinatus, pro aliquo terreno honore et potestate derelinquere, nisi coactus et compulsus.' Ad quod ille ait: 'Si nec tibi hoc suppetat subire, saltem dimidiam partem servitii tui mihi accommoda, ita ut per sex menses mecum fueris et tantundem in Britannia.' Ad quod ego taliter respondi 'Nec hoc suaviter et temerarie sine consilio meorum posse promittere.' At vero, cum illum meum servitium, sed nesciebam quare, desiderare cognoscerem, promisi, me iterum ad eum post sex menses, sospite vita, reversurum, cum tali responso, quod mihi et meis utile ac sibi placabile esset.

Which he would also have done. I replied: ‘I cannot promise such things incautiously and rashly. For it seemed unjust to me to abandon those so holy places in which I had been nourished and taught and crowned, and at last ordained, for some earthly honor and power, unless forced and compelled.’ To this he said: ‘If it does not lie within you to undertake this, at least lend me half of your service, such that for six months you be with me and just as much in Britain.’ To this I replied thus: ‘Nor can I promise even this lightly and rashly without the counsel of my own.’ But indeed, when I perceived that he desired my service—though I did not know why—I promised that I would return to him again after six months, life being spared, with such an answer as would be useful to me and mine and acceptable to himself.

Cumque hoc sibi responsum videretur probabile, dato revertendi pignore statuto tempore, quarto die ab eo equitantes ad patriam remeavimus. Sed, cum ab eo discesseramus, in Wintonia civitate febris infesta me arripuit; in qua sedule per duodecim menses et una hebdomada die noctuque sine aliqua vitae spe laboravi. Cumque statuto tempore ad eum, sicut promiseram, non pervenissem, transmisit ad me indiculos, qui me ad eum equitare festinarent, et causam remorationis perquirerent.

And when this answer seemed to him acceptable, a pledge of returning at the appointed time having been given, on the fourth day, riding away from him, we returned to our homeland. But, after we had departed from him, in the city of Winchester a baleful fever seized me; in which I labored unceasingly for twelve months and one week, day and night, without any hope of life. And when at the appointed time I had not reached him, as I had promised, he sent to me messengers, who should hasten me to ride to him, and should inquire the cause of the delay.

Sed, cum equitare ad eum non possem, alium transmisi ad eum indiculum, qui remorationis meae causam illi patefaceret et, si de illa infirmitate resipiscere possem, me velle implere quae promiseram, renunciaret. Discedente igitur infirmitate, ex consilio et licentia nostrorum omnium, pro utilitate illius sancti loci et omnium in eo habitantium, regi, ut promiseram, eius servitio me devovi ea condicione, ut per sex menses omni anno cum eo commanerem, aut, si simul possem, sex menses protelare, aut etiam per vices, ut tribus mensibus in Britannia, ut tribus in Saxonia commanerem, et illa adiuvaretur per rudimenta Sancti Degui in omni causa, tamen pro viribus. Sperabant enim nostri, minores tribulationes et iniurias ex parte Hemeid regis sustinere, -- qui saepe depraedabatur illud monasterium et parochiam Sancti Degui, aliquando expulsione illorum antistitum, qui in eo praeessent, sicut et Nobis archiepiscopum, propinquum meum, et me expulit aliquando sub ipsis, -- si ego ad notitiam et amicitiam illius regis qualicunque pacto pervenirem.

But, since I could not ride to him, I sent to him another little messenger to lay open to him the cause of my delay and to report that, if I could recover from that infirmity, I was willing to fulfill what I had promised. Therefore, the sickness withdrawing, by the counsel and license of all of ours, for the utility of that holy place and of all dwelling in it, to the king, as I had promised, I devoted myself to his service on this condition: that for six months every year I would remain with him, or, if I could continuously, to prolong six months, or even by turns, that for three months in Britain, and for three in Saxony, I would remain; and that it might be aided by the rudiments of Saint Degui in every cause, yet according to strength. For our people hoped to sustain lesser tribulations and injuries on the part of King Hemeid -- who often despoiled that monastery and the parish of Saint Degui, sometimes by the expulsion of those prelates who presided in it, just as he also expelled Nobis the archbishop, my kinsman, and sometimes expelled me under them -- if I should attain to the acquaintance and friendship of that king by whatever pact.

80. Illo enim tempore et multo ante omnes regiones dexteralis Britanniae partis ad Aelfred regem pertinebant et adhuc pertinent: Hemeid scilicet, cum omnibus habitatoribus Demeticae regionis, sex filiorum Rotri vi compulsus, regali se subdiderat imperio; Houil quoque filius Ris, rex Gleguising, et Brochmail atque Fernmail filii Mouric, reges Guent, vi et tyrannide Eadred, comitis, et Merciorum compulsi, suapte eundem expetivere regem, ut dominium et defensionem ab eo pro inimicis suis haberent. Helised quoque filius Teudubr, rex Brecheniauc, eorundem filiorum Rotri vi coactus, dominium regis praefati suapte requisivit. Anaraut quoque filius Rotri, cum suis fratribus, ad postremum amicitiam Northanhymbrorum deserens, de qua nullum bonum nisi damnum habuerat, amicitiam regis studiose requirens ad praesentiam illius advenit, cumque a rege honorifice receptus esset, et ad manum episcopi in filium confirmationis acceptus, maximisque donis ditatus, se regis dominio cum omnibus suis eadem condicione subdidit, ut in omnibus regiae voluntati sic oboediens esset, sicut Aethered cum Merciis.

80. For at that time, and long before, all the regions of the right-hand part of Britain belonged to King Aelfred and still belong: Hemeid, namely, with all the inhabitants of the Demetian region, forced by the violence of the six sons of Rotri, had subjected himself to the royal imperium; Houil also, son of Ris, king of Gleguising, and Brochmail and Fernmail, sons of Mouric, kings of Guent, compelled by the violence and tyranny of Eadred, the earl, and of the Mercians, of their own accord sought the same king, that they might have dominion and defense from him against their enemies. Helised too, son of Teudubr, king of Brecheniauc, constrained by the violence of those same sons of Rotri, of his own accord sought the dominion of the aforesaid king. Anaraut also, son of Rotri, with his brothers, at last deserting the friendship of the Northanhymbrians, from which he had had no good except harm, earnestly seeking the friendship of the king came into his presence; and when he had been honorably received by the king, and at the bishop’s hand accepted as a son by confirmation, and enriched with very great gifts, he subjected himself to the king’s dominion with all his own on the same condition, that in all things he should be obedient to the royal will, just as Aethered with the Mercians.

81. Nec in vanum illi omnes regis amicitiam acquisiverunt. Nam, qui desideraverunt potestatem terrenam augere, invenerunt; qui pecuniam, pecuniam; qui familiaritatem, familiaritatem; qui utramque, utramque. Omnes autem habuerunt amorem et tutelam ac defensionem ab omni parte, qua rex seipsum cum suis omnibus defendere potuit.

81. Nor did they all acquire the king’s friendship to no purpose. For those who desired to augment terrestrial power, found it; those who desired money, money; those who desired familiarity, familiarity; those who desired both, both. But all had love and tutelage and defense on every side, insofar as the king was able to defend himself with all his own.

Cum igitur ad eum advenissem in villa regia, quae dicitur Leonaford, honorabiliter ab eo susceptus sum, et cum eo illa vice octo mensibus in curto mansi, in quibus recitavi illi libros quoscunque ille vellet, et quos ad manum haberemus. Nam haec est propria et usitatissima illius consuetudo die noctuque, inter omnia alia mentis et corporis impedimenta, aut per se ipsum libros recitare, aut aliis recitantibus audire. Cumque ab eo frequenter licentiam revertendi quaererem et nullo modo impetrare possem, tandem cum et licentiam omnino exposcere statuissem, diluculo vigiliae Natalis Domini advocatus ad eum, tradidit mihi duas epistolas, in quibus erat multiplex supputatio omnium rerum, quae erant in duobus monasteriis, quae Saxonice cognominantur Cungresbyri et Banuwille, et mihi eodem die tradidit illa duo monasteria cum omnibus, quae in eis erant, et sericum pallium valde pretiosum et onus viri fortis de incenso, adiciens his verbis 'non ideo dedisse parva illa, quod sequenti tempore nollet dare maiora'. Nam sequentis temporis successu ex improviso dedit mihi Exanceastre, cum omni parochia, quae ad se pertinebat, in Saxonia et in Cornubia, exceptis cotidianis donis innumerabilibus in omni genere terrestris divitiae, quae hoc in loco percensere longum est, ne fastidium legentibus procreent.

Accordingly, when I had come to him at the royal villa which is called Leonaford, I was honorably received by him, and on that occasion I stayed with him eight months in court, in which I recited to him whatever books he wished, and whatever we had at hand. For this is his own and most usual custom day and night, amid all other impediments of mind and body, either to recite books by himself or to listen to others reciting. And when I frequently sought from him leave to return and could by no means obtain it, at last, when I had resolved to demand leave outright, at daybreak on the vigil of the Nativity of the Lord, being summoned to him, he handed me two letters, in which there was a manifold computation (inventory) of all the things that were in two monasteries, which in Saxon are surnamed Cungresbyri and Banuwille, and on that same day he handed over to me those two monasteries with everything that was in them, and a silk pallium very precious, and a strong man’s load of incense, adding with these words, “I did not therefore give those small things because in the time to come I would be unwilling to give greater.” For with the succeeding course of time, unexpectedly he gave me Exanceastre, with the whole parish that pertained to it, in Saxon-land and in Cornwall, besides daily gifts innumerable in every kind of earthly wealth, which it is long to reckon in this place, lest they beget weariness for readers.

Sed nullus existimet, pro vana aliqua gloria aut adulatione aut maioris honoris quaerendi gratia, me talia hoc in loco dona commemorasse: quod coram Deo nec ideo fecisse testor, se ut nescientibus propalarem, quam profusus in largitate ille sit. Tunc confestim dedit mihi licentiam equitandi ad illa duo monasteria omnibus bonis referta, et inde ad propria revertendi.

But let no one suppose, for some vain glory or adulation or for the sake of seeking a greater honor, that I have commemorated such gifts in this place: for before God I testify that I did not do this for that reason, but so that I might make known to the unknowing how profuse he is in largess. Then immediately he gave me license to ride to those two monasteries, replete with all goods, and from there to return to my own.

82. Anno Dominicae Incarnationis DCCCLXXXVI, nativitatis autem Aelfredi trigesimo octavo, saepe memoratus exercitus regionem fugiens iterum et in Occidentalium Francorum regionem venit, naves suas intrans in flumen, quod Signe dicitur, sursum contra longe navigans Parisiam civitatem adiit, et ibi hiemavit, et castra metatus est in utraque parte fluminis prope ad pontem, ut transitum pontis civibus prohiberet -- quia illa civitas in medio fluminis sita est in insula parva -- obseditque illam civitatem anno illo integro. Sed, Deo misericorditer favente et civibus viriliter se defendentibus, munitionem irrumpere non potuit.

82. In the year of the Lord’s Incarnation 886, and of the birth of Alfred the thirty-eighth, the often-mentioned army, fleeing the region again, came into the region of the Western Franks, entering their ships into the river which is called the Seine, and, sailing far upstream against the current, they approached the city of Paris, and there they wintered, and pitched camp on either side of the river near the bridge, so as to prohibit the citizens’ passage of the bridge -- because that city is situated in the middle of the river on a small island -- and they besieged that city for that whole year. But, God mercifully favoring and the citizens manfully defending themselves, they were not able to break into the fortification.

83. Eodem anno Aelfred, Angulsaxonum rex, post incendia urbium stragesque populorum, Lundoniam civitatem honorifice restauravit et habitabilem fecit; quam Aetheredo, Merciorum comiti, commendavit servandam. Ad quem regem omnes Angli et Saxones, qui prius ubique dispersi fuerant aut cum paganis sub captivitate erant, voluntarie converterunt, et suo dominio se subdiderunt.

83. In the same year Alfred, king of the Anglo-Saxons, after the burnings of cities and the slaughters of peoples, honorably restored the city of London and made it habitable; which he entrusted to Aethelred, ealdorman of the Mercians, to be kept. To this king all the Angles and the Saxons, who previously had been everywhere dispersed or were in captivity with the pagans, turned voluntarily, and subjected themselves to his dominion.

84. Anno Dominicae Incarnationis DCCCLXXXVII, nativitatis autem Aelfredi regis trigesimo nono, supra memoratus paganorum exercitus Parisiam civitatem derelinquens incolumem, eo quod aliter proficere sibimet non poterat, classem suam sub illo ponte sursum contra Signe longe remigando, tam diu direxit, donec ad ostium fluminis, quod Materne nominatur, pervenisset; tunc Sigonam deserentes in ostium Materne divertunt, contra quod diu ac longe navigantes, demum non sine labore usque ad locum, qui dicitur Caziei, id est villa regia, pervenerunt. In quo loco hiemaverunt integro anno. Sequenti anno in ostium fluminis, quod dicitur Iona, intraverunt, non sine magno regionis damno, et illic remorati sunt anno uno.

84. In the Year of the Lord’s Incarnation 887, and the thirty-ninth of the birth of King Aelfred, the above-mentioned army of the pagans, leaving the city of Paris unharmed, for the reason that otherwise it could not make progress for itself, directed its fleet by rowing a long way upstream under that bridge against the Signe, until it had reached the mouth of the river which is named Materne; then, abandoning the Sigona, they turn aside into the mouth of the Materne, and, sailing against it long and far, at last not without toil they came as far as the place which is called Caziei, that is, a royal villa. In that place they wintered for a whole year. In the following year they entered into the mouth of the river which is called Iona, not without great damage to the region, and they tarried there for one year.

85. Eodem anno Carolus, Francorum rex, viam universitatis adiit; sed Earnulf, filius fratris sui, sexta, antequam defunctus esset, hebdomada, illum regno expulerat. Quo statim defuncto, quinque reges ordinati sunt, et regnum in quinque partibus conscissum est, sed tamen principalis sedes regni ad Earnulf iuste et merito provenit, nisi solummodo quod in patruum suum indigne peccavit. Ceteri quoque quatuor reges fidelitatem et oboedientiam Earnulfo, sicut dignum erat, promiserunt: nullus enim illorum quator regum hereditarius illius regni erat in paterna parte, nisi Earnulf solus.

85. In the same year Charles, king of the Franks, took the way of the universe; but Arnulf, his brother’s son, six weeks before he had died, had driven him out from the kingship. When he had straightway died, five kings were appointed, and the kingdom was torn into five parts; yet nevertheless the principal seat of the realm came to Arnulf justly and on merit, save only that he sinned unworthily against his paternal uncle. The other four kings also promised fealty and obedience to Arnulf, as was fitting: for none of those four kings was hereditary to that kingdom on the paternal side, except Arnulf alone.

Quinque itaque reges confestim, Karolo moriente, ordinati sunt, sed imperium penes Earnulf remansit. Talis ergo illius regni divisio fuit: nam Earnulf orientales regiones Hreni fluminis, Hrothuulf quoque internam partem regni accepit, Oda etiam occidentale regnum, Beorngar et Witha Langobardiam, nec non et illas regiones, quae in illa parte montis sunt. Nec tamen tanta et talia regna inter se pacifice servaverunt.

Accordingly, five kings at once, as Charles was dying, were ordained, but the imperium remained with Earnulf. Such, then, was the division of that kingdom: for Earnulf received the eastern regions of the Rhine river; Hrothuulf likewise received the inner part of the kingdom; Oda also the western kingdom; Beorngar and Witha, Lombardy, and likewise those regions which are on that side of the mountain. Nevertheless they did not maintain such great and such realms peaceably among themselves.

Nam bis pleno proelio inter se belligeravere, et illa regna persaepe devastaverunt invicem, et unusquisque alterum expulit de regno.

For twice they waged war against each other in full battle, and those kingdoms very often devastated one another, and each expelled the other from the kingdom.

86. Eodem quoque anno, quo ille exercitus Parisiam civitatem deserens Caziei adiit, Aethelhelm, comes Wiltunensium, Aelfredi regis et Saxonum eleemosynam Romam duxit.

86. In the same year also, when that army, abandoning the city of Paris, approached Caziei, Aethelhelm, count of the Wiltunians, led to Rome the alms of King Aelfred and of the Saxons.

87. Eodem quoque anno saepe memoratus Aelfred, Angulsaxonum rex, divino instinctu legere et interpretari simul uno eodemque die primitus inchoavit. Sed, ut apertius ignorantibus pateat, causam huius tardae inchoationis expedire curabo.

87. In that same year as well, the often-mentioned Aelfred, king of the Anglo-Saxons, by divine instigation first began to read and to interpret simultaneously on one and the selfsame day. But, so that it may be more clearly evident to the uninformed, I will take care to set forth the cause of this tardy inception.

88. Nam cum quodam die ambo in regia cambra resideremus, undecunque, sicut solito, colloquia habentes, ex quodam quoddam testimonium libro illi evenit ut recitarem. Quod cum intentus utrisque auribus audisset et intima mente sollicite perscrutaretur, subito ostendens libellum, quem in sinum suum sedulo portabat, in quo diurnus cursus et psalmi quidam atque orationes quaedam, quas ille in iuventute sua legerat, scripti habebantur, imperavit, quod illud testimonium in eodem libello literis mandarem. Quod ego audiens et ingeniosam benevolentiam illius ex parte, atque etiam tam devotam erga studium divinae sapientiae voluntatem eius cognoscens, immensas Omnipotenti Deo grates, extensis ad aethera volis, tacitus quamvis, persolvi, Qui tantam erga studium sapientiae devotionem in regio corde inseruerat.

88. For on a certain day, when we both were sitting in the royal chamber, having, as was usual, conversations from here and there, it happened that I recited to him from a certain book a certain testimony (passage). Which, when he had heard with both ears intent, and was anxiously searching it out in his inmost mind, suddenly showing a little book which he assiduously carried in his bosom—in which the daily cursus and certain psalms and certain prayers, which he had read in his youth, were contained in writing—he commanded that I should commit that testimony to letters in that same booklet. Hearing this, and recognizing in part his ingenious benevolence, and also his will so devoted toward the study of divine wisdom, I rendered immense thanks to Almighty God, with palms stretched to the aether, although silent, who had implanted so great a devotion toward the study of wisdom in a royal heart.

Sed, cum nullum locum vacuum in eodem libello reperirem, in quo tale testimonium scribere possem -- erat enim omnino multis ex causis refertus -- aliquantisper distuli, et maxime quia tam elegans regis ingenium ad maiorem divinorum testimoniorum scientiam provocare studebam. Cui, cum me, ut quanto citius illud scriberem, urgeret, inquam: 'placetne tibi, quod illud testimonium in aliqua foliuncula segregatim scribam? Incognitum est enim, si aliquando aliquod taliter aut plura reperiamus, quae tibi placuerint, testimonia; quod si inopinate evenerit, segregasse gaudebimus.' Quod ille audiens, 'ratum esse consilium' inquit.

But, since I found no empty place in that same little book in which I could write such a testimony -- for it was altogether crammed for many reasons -- I deferred it for a little while, and especially because I was striving to provoke the king’s elegant ingenium to a greater knowledge of the divine testimonies. When he pressed me to write it as quickly as possible, I said: 'Does it please you that I write that testimony separately on some little leaf? For it is unknown whether at some time we may find one or even several testimonies of this sort that would please you; and if this should happen unexpectedly, we shall rejoice to have set them apart.' Hearing this, he said, 'the plan is ratified.'

Quod ego audiens et gaudens festinus quaternionem promptum paravi, in cuius principio illud non iniussus scripsi, ac in illa eadem die non minus quam tria alia sibi placabilia testimonia, illo imperante, in eodem quaternione, ut praedixeram, scripsi. Ac deinde cotidie inter nos sermocinando, ad haec investigando aliis inventis aeque placabilibus testimoniis, quaternio ille refertus succrevit, nec immerito, sicut scriptum est 'super modicum fundamentum aedificat iustus et paulatim ad maiora defluit,' velut apis fertilissima longe lateque gronnios interrogando discurrens, multimodos divinae scripturae flosculos inhianter et incessabiliter congregavit, quis praecordii sui cellulas densatim replevit.

Hearing this and rejoicing, I quickly prepared a ready quire, in the beginning of which I, not unbidden, wrote that passage; and on that same day, no fewer than three other testimonies agreeable to him, at his command, I wrote in the same quire, as I had foretold. And then, by conversing daily among ourselves, and, to these, by searching out other equally agreeable testimonies found, that quire swelled, well-filled; nor undeservedly, as it is written, “upon a modest foundation the just man builds, and little by little he flows on to greater things”; like a most fertile bee, ranging far and wide and plying her inquiries everywhere, he eagerly and unceasingly gathered manifold little blossoms of divine Scripture, with which he densely filled the cells of his heart.

89. Nam primo illo testimonio scripto, confestim legere et in Saxonica lingua interpretari, atque inde perplures instituere studuit, ac veluti de illo felici latrone cautum est, Dominum Iesum Christum, Dominum suum, immoque omnium, iuxta se in venerabili sanctae Crucis patibulo pendentem cognoscente; quo subnixis precibus, inclinatis solummodo corporalibus oculis, quia aliter non poterat, erat enim totus confixus clavis, submissa voce clamaret: 'Memento mei, cum veneris in regnum tuum, Christe,' qui Christianae fidei rudimenta in gabulo primitus inchoavit discere. Hic aut aliter, quamvis dissimili modo, in regia potestate sanctae rudimenta scripturae, divinitus instinctus, praesumpsit incipere in venerabili Martini solemnitate. Quos flosculos undecunque collectos a quibuslibet magistris discere et in corpore unius libelli, mixtim quamvis, sicut tunc suppetebat, redigere, usque adeo protelavit quousque propemodum ad magnitudinem unius psalterii perveniret.

89. For once that testimony was first written, he straightway strove to read it and to interpret it in the Saxon tongue, and from it to instruct very many; and just as it is recorded about that happy thief, who, recognizing the Lord Jesus Christ—his Lord, nay of all—hanging next to him upon the venerable gibbet of the holy Cross; and, relying on prayers to him, with only his bodily eyes lowered—since he could do no otherwise, for he was wholly fastened with nails—cried in a subdued voice: “Remember me, when you shall have come into your kingdom, O Christ,” he who first began to learn the rudiments of the Christian faith upon the gibbet. This man, however, otherwise, though in a dissimilar way, in his royal power, divinely instigated, presumed to begin the rudiments of sacred Scripture on the venerable solemnity of Martin. And he prolonged learning those little blossoms, gathered from wherever by whatever masters, and, albeit in mixed fashion, as it then was at hand, to digest them into the body of a single booklet, to such a degree that it well-nigh reached the magnitude of a single psalter.

Quem enchiridion suum, id est manualem librum, nominari voluit, eo quod ad manum illum die noctuque solertissime habebat; in quo non mediocre, sicut tunc aiebat, habebat solatium.

which he wished to be called his enchiridion, that is, a manual book, because he kept it at hand day and night most diligently; in which, as he then used to say, he had no mean solace.

90. Sed, sicut a quodam sapiente iamdudum scriptum est

90. But, just as it was long since written by a certain wise man

invigilant animi, quibus est pia cura regendi,

the minds keep vigil, for whom there is a pious care of ruling,

magnopere invigilandum mihi censeo in eo, quod ante aliquam, quamvis dissimili modo, similitudinem inter illum felicem latronem et regem composuerim: namque patibulum exosum est unicuique, ubicunque male habet. Sed quid faciat, si non possit se inde eripere aut etiam effugere, vel qualicunque arte causam suam meliorare ibidem commorando? Debet ergo, velit, nolit, cum moerore et tristitia sufferre, quod patitur.

I judge that I must be greatly vigilant in this, that earlier I have composed a certain, although in a dissimilar mode, similitude between that fortunate thief and the king: for the gibbet is hateful to everyone, wherever it goes ill with him. But what is he to do, if he cannot snatch himself thence or even escape, or by whatever art better his cause by lingering in the same place? He must therefore, whether he will or not, with mourning and sadness, suffer what he endures.

91. Erat itaque rex, ille multis tribulationum clavis confossus, quamvis in regia potestate constitutus; nam a vigesimo aetatis anno usque ad quadragesimum quintum annum, quem nunc agit, gravissima incogniti doloris infestatione incessanter fatigatur, ita ut ne unius quidem horae securitatem habeat, qua aut illam infirmitatem non sustineat aut sub illius formidine lugubriter prope constitutus non desperet. Praeterea assiduis exterarum gentium infestationibus, quas sedulo terra marique sine ullius quieti temporis intervallo sustinebat, non sine materia inquietabatur. Quid loquar de frequentibus contra paganos expeditionibus et bellis et incessabilibus regni gubernaculis?

91. Thus the king—that man pierced through with many nails of tribulations—although established in royal power; for from the twentieth year of his age up to the forty-fifth year, which he is now passing, he is incessantly wearied by a most grievous infestation of an unknown pain, such that he does not have the security even of a single hour, an hour in which he would either not be enduring that infirmity, or, set almost beneath its dread, would not mournfully despair. Moreover, by the continual incursions of foreign nations, which he assiduously sustained by land and sea without any interval of quiet time, he was not disquieted without cause. What shall I say of the frequent expeditions and wars against the pagans, and of the unceasing steering of the kingdom?

De cotidiana nationum, quae in Tyrreno mari usque ultimum Hiberniae finem habitant? Nam etiam de Hierosolyma ab El patriarcha epistolas et dona illi directas vidimus et legimus. De civitatibus et urbibus renovandis et aliis, ubi nunquam ante fuerant, construendis?

About the quotidian affairs of the nations who dwell in the Tyrrhenian Sea as far as the furthest boundary of Hibernia? For we have also seen and read letters and gifts from Jerusalem, sent to him by Patriarch EL. About cities and towns to be renewed, and others to be built where they had never been before?

Aedificiis aureis et argenteis incomparabiliter, illo edocente, fabricatis? De aulis et cambris regalibus, lapideis et ligneis suo iussu mirabiliter constructis? De villis regalibus lapideis antiqua positione motatis et in decentioribus locis regali imperio decentissime constructis?

Edifices of gold and of silver, incomparably fashioned, with him instructing? About regal halls and chambers, of stone and of wood, marvelously constructed at his command? About regal stone villas, removed from their ancient position and, in more seemly places, by royal authority most fittingly constructed?

Qui maxima, excepto illo dolore, perturbatione et controversia suorum, qui nullum aut parvum voluntarie pro communi regni necessitate vellent subire laborem. Sed tamen ille solus divino fultus adminiculo susceptum semel regni gubernaculum, veluti gubernator praecipuus, navem suam multis opibus refertam ad desideratum ac tutum patriae suae portum, quamvis cunctus propemodum lassis suis nautis, perducere contendit, haud aliter titubare ac vacillare, quamvis inter fluctivagos ac multimodos praesentis vitae turbines, non sinebat. Nam assidue suos episcopos et comites ac nobilissimos, sibique dilectissimos suos ministros, necnon et praepositos, quibus post Dominum et regem omnis totius regni potestas, sicut dignum, subdita videtur, leniter docendo, adulando, hortando, imperando, ad ultimum inoboedientes, post longam patientiam, acrius castigando, vulgarem stultitiam et pertinaciam omni modo abominando, ad suam voluntatem et ad communem totius regni utilitatem sapientissime usurpabat et annectebat.

His greatest trial, besides that pain, was the perturbation and controversy of his own people, who would voluntarily consent to undergo no labor, or only a small one, for the common necessity of the kingdom. Yet nevertheless he alone, supported by divine aid, the helm of the kingdom once assumed, like a principal governor-helmsman, strove to conduct his ship, laden with many resources, to the desired and safe harbor of his fatherland, although with almost all his sailors weary; nor did he allow it to totter and vacillate otherwise, though amid the wave-wandering and manifold whirlwinds of the present life. For continually his bishops and counts and the most noble—and to himself most beloved—ministers, and likewise the provosts, to whom, after the Lord and the king, all the power of the whole kingdom, as is fitting, seems subjected, by gently teaching, by adulating, by exhorting, by commanding, and at last, the disobedient, after long patience, by chastising more sharply, while in every way abominating vulgar stupidity and obstinacy, he most wisely appropriated and attached to his own will and to the common utility of the whole kingdom.

At si inter haec regalia exhortamenta propter pigritiam populi imperata non implentur, aut tarde incepta tempore necessitatis ad utilitatem exercentium minus finita non provenirent, ut de castellis ab eo imperatis adhuc non inceptis loquar, aut nimium tarde inceptis ad perfectum finem non perductis, et hostiles copiae terra marique irrumperent, aut, ut saepe evenit, utraque parte, tunc contradictores imperialium diffinitionum inani poenitentia pene exinaniti verecundabantur. Inanem enim poenitentiam scriptura teste nomino, qua homines innumerabiles nimio detrimento pluribus insidiis perpetratis saepe perculsi dolent. Sed quamvis per hanc rem, heu, proh dolor!

But if, amid these regal exhortations, the commands are not carried out because of the people’s sloth, or, having been begun late in a time of necessity, do not turn out, because not finished, to the utility of those executing them—so that I may speak of the castles ordered by him, not yet begun, or begun far too late and not brought to a perfect end—and hostile forces should burst in by land and by sea, or, as often happens, from both sides, then the contradictors of the imperial definitions, nearly emptied by empty repentance, were abashed. For I call it empty repentance, Scripture being witness, whereby innumerable men, often smitten with excessive loss after many ambushes have been perpetrated, lament. But although through this matter, alas, ah, grief!

eulogii miserabiliter contristentur, et perditis eorum patribus, coniugibus, liberis, ministris, servis, ancillis, operibus et omni supellectili flebiliter commoveantur, quid detestabilis iuvat poenitentia, quando nec occisis suis propinquis succurrere valent, nec captivos suos a captivitate exosa redimere, nec etiam interdum sibimet, qui evaserint, adiuvare valent, quoniam propriam unde sustentent vitam non habent. Sera igitur poenitentia nimium attriti poenitent, et regalia praecepta incuriose despexisse dolent, et regalem sapientiam totis vocibus collaudant, et quod ante refutaverunt, totis viribus implere promittunt, id est de arcibus construendis et ceteris communibus communis regni utilitatibus.

they are miserably saddened with eulogies, and are tearfully stirred by the loss of their fathers, spouses, children, attendants, slaves, handmaids, works, and all household furnishings; what does detestable penitence avail, when they are able neither to succor their slain kinsmen, nor to redeem their captives from hateful captivity, nor even at times to help themselves—those who have escaped—since they do not have their own means whereby they might sustain life. Therefore, with late penitence, excessively worn down, they repent, and they grieve that they have carelessly despised the regal precepts, and with all voices they highly praise royal wisdom, and what before they refuted, they promise to fulfill with all their strength, that is, concerning the building of fortresses and the other common utilities of the common realm.

92. De voto quoque et proposito excellentissimae meditationis suae, quam semper inter prospera et adversa sua nullo modo praetermittere poterat, praetereundum esse hoc in loco utiliter non existimo. Nam, cum de necessitate animae suae solito cogitaret, inter cetera diuturna et nocturna bona, quibus assidue et maxime studebat, duo monasteria construi imperavit: unum monachorum in loco, qui dicitur Aethelingaeg, quod permaxima gronna paludosissima et intransmeabili et aquis undique circumcingitur, ad quod nullo modo aliquis accedere potest nisi cauticis, aut etiam per unum pontem, qui inter duas arces operosa protelatione constructus est: in cuius pontis occidentali limite arx munitissima praefati regis imperio pulcherrima operatione consita est; in quo monasterio diversi generis monachos undique congregavit et in eodem collocavit.

92. Concerning the vow and also the purpose of his most excellent meditation, which amid his prosperous and adverse circumstances he was by no means ever able to omit, I do not think it useful in this place to pass over in silence. For when, as was his custom, he reflected on the necessity of his soul, among the other diurnal and nocturnal goods to which he applied himself assiduously and most earnestly, he commanded that two monasteries be built: one for monks in the place which is called Aethelingaeg, which is encircled on every side by a very great fen, most marshy and impassable, and by waters, to which in no way can anyone approach except by skiffs, or even by a single bridge which, between two fortresses, has been constructed by laborious extension: on the western limit of which bridge a most strongly fortified fortress, by the command of the aforesaid king, was set with most beautiful workmanship; in which monastery he gathered monks of diverse kinds from every side and settled them there.

93. Nam primitus, quia nullum de sua propria gente nobilem ac liberum hominem, nisi infantes, qui nihil boni eligere nec mali respuere pro teneritudine invalidae aetatis adhuc possunt, qui monasticam voluntarie vellet subire vitam, habebat; nimirum quia per multa retroacta annorum curricula monasticae vitae desiderium ab illa tota gente, nec non et a multis aliis gentibus, funditus desierat, quamvis perplurima adhuc monasteria in illa regione constructa permaneant, nullo tamen regulam illius vitae ordinabiliter tenente, nescio quare, aut pro alienigenarum infestationibus, qui saepissime terra marique hostiliter irrumpunt, aut etiam pro nimia illius gentis in omni genere divitiarum abundantia, propter quam multo magis id genus despectae monasticae vitae fieri existimo; ideo diversi generis monachos in eodem monasterio congregare studuit.

93. For at the first, because he had no noble and free man of his own people who would willingly undergo the monastic life, except infants, who by the tenderness of an infirm age are not yet able to choose the good nor to reject the evil, for this reason—since through many courses of years gone by the desire of monastic life had utterly ceased from that whole people, and likewise from many other peoples, although very many monasteries still constructed remain in that region, yet with no one holding the rule of that life in an orderly manner, I know not why, either on account of infestations of foreigners, who most often break in as enemies by land and sea, or also on account of the excessive abundance of that people in every kind of riches, on account of which I consider that kind of monastic life to come to be much more despised—therefore he strove to gather monks of diverse kinds in the same monastery.

94. Primitus Iohannem, presbyterum monachum, scilicet Eald-saxonum genere, abbatem constituit; deinde ultramarinos presbyteros quosdam et diaconos. Ex quibus, cum nec adhuc tantum numerum, quantum vellet, haberet, comparavit etiam quamplurimos eiusdem gentis Gallicae, ex quibus quosdam infantes in eodem monasterio edoceri imperavit, et subsequenti tempore ad monachicum habitum sublevari. In quo etiam monasterio unum paganicae gentis edoctum in monachico habitu degentem, iuvenem admodum, vidimus, non ultimum scilicet eorum.

94. First he appointed John, a presbyter-monk, namely of the Old Saxons by race, as abbot; then certain overseas presbyters and deacons. Of these, since he did not yet have so great a number as he wished, he also procured very many of that same Gallic nation, from whom he ordered certain infants to be taught in the same monastery, and in subsequent time to be raised up to the monastic habit. In which monastery we also saw one, educated from a pagan people, living in the monastic habit, a very young man—namely, not the last of them.

95. Facinus quoque in eodem monasterio quodam tempore perpetratum muti taciturnitate silentii oblivioni traderem, quamvis indignum facinus est, quia per totam scripturam impiorum turpia facta inter venerabilia iustorum, sicut zizania et lolium in tritici segetibus, interseminantur: bona scilicet ut laudentur, sequantur, aequiparentur, sectatores quoque eorum omni honore venerabili digni habeantur; mala vero vituperentur, execrentur, et ut omnino effugiantur, imitatores quoque eorum omni odio et despectione ac vindicta corripiantur.

95. I would consign to oblivion, by the mute taciturnity of silence, a crime also perpetrated at a certain time in the same monastery, although it is a base deed, because throughout all Scripture the shameful deeds of the impious are intersown among the venerable things of the just, like tares and darnel in the wheat fields: the good, namely, so that they may be lauded, followed, equaled, and their followers be held worthy of every venerable honor; but the evil, on the other hand, so that they may be vituperated, execrated, and altogether fled from, and their imitators be chastised with every hatred and contempt and with vengeance.

96. Nam quodam tempore, cum instinctu diabolico quidam sacerdos et diaconus, Gallici genere, ex praefatis monachis, invidia quadam excitati contra suum abbatem praefatum Iohannem, nimium latenter in tantum amaricati sunt, ut Iudaico more dominum suum dolo circumvenirent et proderent. Nam duos eiusdem gentis Gallicae servulos praemio conductos ita fraudulenter docuerunt, ut nocturno tempore, cum omnes delectabili corporis quiete graviter dormirent, patefactam armati intrarent ecclesiam; quam post se iterum solito more clauderent et unicum abbatis adventum in ea absconditi praestolarentur. Cumque solus solito orandi causa ecclesiam latenter intraret, et ante sanctum altare flexis ad terram genubus se inclinaret, hostiliter irruentes in eum, tunc eum ibidem occiderent.

96. For at a certain time, when by diabolic instigation a certain priest and a deacon, of the Gallic race, from the aforesaid monks, stirred by a certain envy against their abbot, the aforesaid John, became so bitter in utmost secrecy that, in Judaic fashion, they would circumvent and betray their lord by deceit. For they so fraudulently instructed two servant-boys of the same Gallic nation, hired for a reward, that at night-time, when all were sleeping heavily in the delectable repose of the body, they, armed, would enter the church once it was opened; then, in the usual way, they would close it again behind them, and, hidden, await the abbot’s solitary arrival in it. And when he, alone, for the customary cause of praying, should secretly enter the church, and before the holy altar, with knees bent to the ground, should incline himself, rushing upon him like enemies, then they would kill him there on the spot.

Cuius corpus exanime inde trahentes ante ostium cuiusdam meretricis, quasi illic occisus esset in meretricando, iactarent. Quod etiam machinaverunt, crimen crimini addentes, sicut dictum est: 'Et erit novissimus error peior priore.' Sed divina misericordia, quae semper innocentibus solet subvenire, impiam impiorum meditationem maxima ex parte frustrata est, quo non per omnia evenirent, sicut proposuerant.

C dragging his lifeless body from there, they would cast it before the door of a certain prostitute, as though he had been killed there in harlotry. This too they contrived, adding crime to crime, as it is said: 'And the last error will be worse than the first.' But divine mercy, which is accustomed always to come to the aid of the innocent, for the most part frustrated the impious plotting of the impious, so that it did not in every respect come to pass as they had proposed.

97. Omni itaque mala doctrina a malis doctoribus malis auditoribus elucubratim exposita et condicta, nocte adveniente atque suppetenti, et impunitate promissa, latrunculi duo armati in ecclesia concluserunt, adventum abbatis praestolantes. Cumque media nocte Iohannes solito furtim, nemine sciente, orandi gratia ecclesiam intrasset et flexis genibus ante altare incurvaret, tunc duo illi latrunculi ex improviso dispoliatis gladiis in eum irrumpunt et crudelibus afficiunt vulneribus. Sed ille ut solito ac semper acris ingenio et, ut audivimus de eo a quibusdam referentibus, bellicosae artis non expers, si in meliori disciplina non studeret, statim ut sonitus latronum audivit, priusquam videret, insurgens acriter in eos, antequam vulneratur, et vociferans, quantum poterat reluctabatur, inclamitans daemones esse et non homines; non enim aliter sciebat, quia nec hoc homines ausos esse existimabat.

97. Therefore, with every evil doctrine by evil teachers to evil hearers elaborately set forth and preconcerted, night approaching and now at hand, and impunity promised, two armed brigands shut themselves in the church, awaiting the abbot’s arrival. And when at midnight John, as was his wont, secretly, no one knowing, for the sake of prayer had entered the church and, with knees bent, bowed before the altar, then those two brigands, unexpectedly, with swords unsheathed, burst in upon him and inflict him with cruel wounds. But he—being, as was his wont and ever of a keen disposition, and, as we have heard about him from certain reporters, not unversed in the warlike art, had he not been pursuing a better discipline—immediately, as soon as he heard the sound of the robbers, before he saw, rising up sharply against them, before he was wounded, and vociferating, resisted as much as he could, crying out that they were demons and not men; for he did not know otherwise, since he did not suppose that men would have dared this.

Vulneratus est tamen antequam sui advenirent. Sui ergo hoc rumore expergefacti et etiam, audito daemonum nomine, perterriti utrique et inexpertes, et etiam illi, Iudaico more, domini sui proditores, hinc inde ad ecclesiae ostia concurrunt, sed antequam advenirent, latrunculi praecipiti cursu ad proximantia sibi gronnae latibula, semivivum abbatem relinquentes, confugiunt. Monachi vero seniorem suum semivivum colligentes, cum gemitu et moerore domum reportaverunt, sed nec etiam illi dolosi minus lachrymabantur innocentibus.

Nevertheless he was wounded before his own men arrived. His own, therefore, awakened by this rumor and, on hearing the name of demons, terrified and unpracticed, and even those, in Judaic fashion, betrayers of their lord, from this side and that run together to the doors of the church; but before they arrived, the brigands, at a headlong run, fled for refuge to the nearby grotto-hideouts, leaving the abbot half-alive. The monks, however, gathering up their elder half-alive, with groaning and mourning carried him home; yet even those treacherous men were weeping no less than the innocent.

Sed Dei misericordia tantum facinus impunitum fieri non permittente, latrunculi, qui hoc perpetraverunt, omnes tanti sceleris persuasores capti ligatique per varia tormenta morte turpissima periere. His ita relatis, ad incepta redeamus.

But, the mercy of God not permitting so great a deed to go unpunished, the bandits who perpetrated this, and all the instigators of so great a crime, having been captured and bound, perished by a most shameful death through various torments. With these things thus related, let us return to our undertaking.

98. Aliud quoque monasterium iuxta orientalem portam Sceftesburg, habitationi sanctimonialium habile, idem praefatus rex aedificari imperavit; in quo propriam filiam suam Aethelgeofu, devotam Deo virginem, abbatissam constituit, cum qua etiam aliae multae nobiles moniales in monastica vita Deo servientes in eodem monasterio habitant. Quae duo monasteria terrarum possessionibus et omnibus divitiis locupletatim ditavit.

98. Another monastery also, near the eastern gate of Sceftesburg, suitable for the habitation of nuns, the same aforesaid king commanded to be built; in which he appointed his own daughter Aethelgeofu, a virgin devoted to God, abbess, with whom also many other noble nuns, serving God in the monastic life, dwell in the same monastery. These two monasteries he endowed in lavish abundance with possessions of lands and with all riches.

99. His ita diffinitis, solito suo more intra semetipsum cogitabat, quid adhuc addere potuisset, quod plus placeret ad piam meditationem; non inaniter incepta, utiliter inventa, utilius servata est. Nam iamdudum in lege scriptum audierat, Dominum decimam sibi multipliciter redditurum promisisse atque fideliter servasse, decimamque sibi multipliciter redditurum fuisse. Hoc exemplo instigatus et antecessorum morem volens transcendere, dimidiam servitii sui partem, diurni scilicet et nocturni temporis, nec non etiam dimidiam partem omnium divitiarum, quae annualiter ad eum cum iustitia moderanter acquisitae pervenire consueverant, Deo devote et fideliter toto cordis affectu pius meditator se daturum spopondit; quod et quantum potest humana discretio discernere et servare, subtiliter ac sapienter adimplere studuit.

99. With these things thus defined, in his accustomed manner he pondered within himself what he might still add that would please more for pious meditation; not in vain was what had been begun; what had been usefully found was more usefully kept. For long since he had heard written in the Law that the Lord had promised to render the tenth back to him manifoldly and had faithfully kept it, and that He would render the tenth back to him manifoldly. Instigated by this example and wishing to transcend the custom of his predecessors, he vowed that he, a pious meditator, would give to God devoutly and faithfully, with the whole affection of his heart, the half of his service—namely of the diurnal and nocturnal time—and likewise the half of all riches which were accustomed annually to come to him, moderately acquired with justice; and this, so far as human discretion can discern and preserve, he strove to fulfill subtly and wisely.

Sed ut solito suo more cautus evitaret, quod in alio divinae scripturae loco cautum est: 'Si recte offeras, recte autem non dividas, peccas,' quod Deo libenter devoverat quomodo recte dividere posset, cogitavit, et, ut dixit Salomon, 'Cor regis in manu Domini,' id est consilium; consilio divinitus invento omnium uniuscuiusque anni censuum successum bifarie primitus ministros suos dividere aequali lance imperavit.

But, that he might avoid, in his customary cautious manner, what is provided in another place of divine Scripture: 'If you offer rightly, but do not divide rightly, you sin,' he considered how he could rightly divide what he had gladly vowed to God; and, as Solomon said, 'The heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord,' that is, counsel; counsel having been divinely found, he commanded his ministers, first, to divide with an equal balance into two parts the proceeds of all the tributes of each and every year.

100. His ita divisis, partem primam secularibus negotiis pertinere addixit, quam etiam in tribus partibus sequestrari praecepit, cuius primam divisionis partem suis bellatoribus annualiter largiebatur, item suis ministris nobilibus, qui in curto regio vicissim commorabantur, in pluribus ministrantes ministeriis. Ita enim ordinabiliter agebatur regalis familiaritas tribus omni tempore vicissitudinibus: in tribus namque cohortibus praefati regis satellites prudentissime dividebantur, ita ut prima cohors uno mense in curto regio die noctuque administrans commoraretur, menseque finito et adveniente alia cohorte, prima domum redibat, et ibi duobus, propriis quivis necessitatibus studens, commorabatur mensibus.

100. With these things thus divided, he assigned the first part to secular affairs, which he also ordered to be sequestered into three parts, of which the first portion of the division he annually bestowed upon his warriors, and likewise upon his noble ministers, who in the royal court in turn resided, ministering in several ministries. For thus in orderly fashion the royal household was conducted with three rotations at all times: for into three cohorts the attendants of the aforesaid king were most prudently divided, such that the first cohort for one month in the royal court, administering day and night, would reside; and when the month was finished and another cohort arrived, the first returned home, and there for two months, each attending to his own necessities, remained.

Secunda itaque cohors mense peracto, adveniente tertia, domum redibat, ut ibi duobus commoraretur mensibus. Sed et illa, finito unius mensis ministerio et adveniente prima cohorte, domum redibat, ibidem commoratura duobus mensibus. Et hoc ordine omnibus vitae praesentis temporibus talium vicissitudinum in regali curto rotatur administratio.

Thus the second cohort, the month having been completed and the third arriving, returned home, to stay there for two months. Likewise that one, the ministry of one month having been finished and the first cohort arriving, returned home, to remain there for two months. And in this order, through all the times of the present life, the administration of such vicissitudes in the royal court is rotated.

101. Talibus itaque primam de tribus praedictis partibus partem, unicuique tamen secundum propriam dignitatem et etiam secundum proprium ministerium largiebatur; secundam autem operatoribus, quos ex multis gentibus collectos et comparatos propemodum innumerabiles habebat, in omni terreno aedificio edoctos: tertiam autem eiusdem partem advenis ex omni gente ad eum advenientibus longe propeque positis et pecuniam ab illo exigentibus, etiam et non exigentibus, unicuique secundum propriam dignitatem, mirabili dispensatione laudabiliter et, sicut scriptum est 'Hilarem datorem diligit Deus,' hilariter impendebat.

101. Thus he bestowed the first part of the three aforesaid portions, yet to each according to his own dignity and also according to his own ministry; but the second to the operators, whom he had, gathered and procured from many nations, almost innumerable, instructed in every kind of earthly building; and the third part of the same he expended upon newcomers from every nation coming to him, placed far and near, and demanding money from him, and even those not demanding, to each according to his own dignity, with wondrous dispensation laudably and, as it is written, 'God loves a cheerful giver,' cheerfully.

102. Secundam vero partem omnium divitiarum suarum, quae annualiter ad eum ex omni censu perveniebant et in fisco reputabantur, sicut iam paulo ante commemoravimus, plena voluntate Deo devovit, et in quatuor partibus aequis etiam curiose suos ministros illam dividere imperavit, ea condicione, ut prima pars illius divisionis pauperibus uniuscuiusque gentis, qui ad eum veniebant, discretissime erogaretur. Memorabat etiam in hoc, quantum humana discretio custodire poterat, illius sancti papae Gregorii observandam esse sententiam, qua discretam mentionem dividendae eleemosynae ita dicens agebat: 'Nec parvum cui multum, nec multum cui parvum, nec nihil cui aliquid, nec aliquid cui nihil.' Secundam autem duobus monasteriis, quae ipse fieri imperaverat, et servientibus in his Deo, de quibus paulo ante latius disseruimus; tertiam scholae, quam ex multis suae propriae gentis nobilibus et etiam pueris ignobilibus studiosissime congregaverat; quartam circum finitimis in omni Saxonia et Mercia monasteriis, et etiam quibusdam annis per vices in Britannia et Cornubia, Gallia, Armorica, Northanhymbris, et aliquando etiam in Hybernia, ecclesiis et servis Dei inhabitantibus, secundum possibilitatem suam, aut ante distribuit, aut sequenti tempore erogare proposuit, vita sibi et prosperitate salva.

102. But the second part of all his riches, which annually came to him from every census and were reckoned in the fisc, as we have already a little before recalled, he devoted to God with full will, and he commanded his ministers to divide it carefully into four equal parts, on this condition: that the first part of that division be disbursed with the greatest discretion to the poor of each nation who came to him. He also remembered in this matter, so far as human discretion could keep it, that the sententia of the holy Pope Gregory was to be observed, whereby, speaking thus, he set forth the discriminating rule for dividing alms: “Neither a small amount to him to whom much, nor much to him to whom little, neither nothing to him to whom something, nor something to him to whom nothing.” The second, however, to the two monasteries which he had ordered to be made, and to those serving God in them, about which we have a little before discussed more broadly; the third to the school which he had most zealously gathered from many nobles of his own nation and even from ignoble boys; the fourth to the neighboring monasteries in all Saxony and Mercia, and also in certain years by turns in Britain and Cornwall, Gaul, Armorica, among the Northumbrians, and sometimes even in Hibernia, to the churches and servants of God dwelling there—according to his ability he either distributed beforehand, or proposed to disburse at a subsequent time, life and prosperity remaining to him.

103. His ita ordinabiliter ab eodem rege dispositis, memor illius divinae scripturae sententiae, qua dicitur: 'Qui vult eleemosynam dare, a semet ipso debet incipere,' etiam quid a proprio corporis sui et mentis servitio Deo offerret, prudenter excogitavit; nam non minus de hac re quam de externis divinis Deo offerre proposuit, quin etiam dimidiam partem servitii mentis et corporis, in quantum infirmitas et possibilitas atque suppetentia permitteret, diurno scilicet ac nocturno tempore, suapte totisque viribus se redditurum Deo spopondit. Sed quia distantiam nocturnarum horarum omnino propter tenebras, et diurnarum propter densitatem saepissime pluviarum et nubium aequaliter dignoscere non poterat, excogitare coepit, qua ratione fixa et sine ulla haesitatione hunc promissum voti sui tenorem leto tenus incommutabiliter, Dei fretus misericordia, conservare posset.

103. With these things thus disposed in an orderly way by the same king, mindful of that sentence of divine Scripture, wherein it is said: ‘He who wishes to give alms ought to begin from himself,’ he also prudently devised what he should offer to God from the service of his own body and mind; for he proposed to offer to God no less concerning this matter than concerning external divine things; nay rather, he solemnly promised that he would render to God half the portion of the service of mind and body, in so far as infirmity and possibility and sufficiency would permit, namely by day and by night, with his own and with all his strength. But because he could not at all discern equally the duration of the night hours on account of the darkness, and of the day hours on account of the very frequent density of rains and clouds, he began to devise by what fixed method and without any hesitation he might be able to preserve unchangeably, even unto death, the tenor of this promise of his vow, relying on the mercy of God.

104. His aliquandiu excogitatis, tandem, invento utili et discreto consilio, suos capellanos ceram offerre sufficienter imperavit, quam adductam ad denarios pensari in bilibri praecepit; cumque tanta cera mensurata fuisset, quae septuaginta duos denarios pensaret, sex candelas, unamquamque aequa lance, inde capellanos facere iussit, ut unaquaeque candela duodecim uncias pollicis in se signatas in longitudine haberet. Itaque hac reperta ratione, sex illae candelae per viginti quatuor horas die nocteque sine defectu coram sanctis multorum electorum Dei reliquiis, quae semper eum ubique comitabantur, ardentes lucescebant.

104. After these things had been thought out for some time, at last, having found a useful and discrete plan, he commanded his chaplains to provide wax in sufficient quantity, which, when brought, he ordered to be weighed by denarii on a two‑pound balance; and when as much wax had been measured as would weigh 72 denarii, he ordered the chaplains to make six candles from it, each one by an equal scale-pan, so that each candle should have on its length 12 inches of the thumb marked upon it. And so, with this method discovered, those six candles, without failing, were burning and shining for 24 hours, day and night, before the holy relics of many of God’s elect, which always and everywhere accompanied him.

Sed cum aliquando per diem integrum et noctem ad eandem illam horam, qua anteriori vespera accensae fuerant, candelae ardendo lucescere non poterant, nimirum ventorum violentia inflante, quae aliquando per ecclesiarum ostia et fenestrarum, maceriarum quoque atque tabularum, vel frequentes parietum rimulas, nec non et tentoriorum tenuitates, die noctuque sine intermissione flabat, exardescere citius plus debito ante eandem horam finiendo cursum suum cogebantur, excogitavit, unde talem ventorum sufflationem prohibere potuisset, consilioque artificiose atque sapienter invento, laternam ex lignis et bovinis cornibus pulcherrime construere imperavit. Bovina namque cornua alba ac in una tenuiter dolabris erasa non minus vitreo vasculo elucent. Quae itaque laterna mirabiliter ex lignis et cornibus, ut ante diximus, facta, noctuque candela in eam missa, exterius ut interius tam lucida ardebat, nullis ventorum flaminibus impedita, quia valvam ad ostium illius laternae ex cornibus idem fieri imperaverat.

But when sometimes through a whole day and a night up to that same hour at which on the previous evening they had been kindled the candles were not able to shine by burning—clearly, with the violence of winds blowing, which at times blew without intermission by day and by night through the doors and windows of churches, and also through the mud-walls and planks, or the frequent cracks of walls, and likewise through the thinnesses of tents—they were forced to flare up more quickly than was due, finishing their course before that same hour. He devised, therefore, how he might prevent such a sufflation of winds, and, a plan having been cleverly and wisely found, he ordered a lantern to be constructed most beautifully out of wood and bovine horns. For white bovine horns, shaved thin on one side with adzes, gleam no less than a little glass vessel. Thus the lantern, marvelously made from wood and horns, as we said above, and at night, when a candle was put into it, burned as bright outwardly as inwardly, hindered by no blasts of wind, because he had likewise ordered the door-leaf at the opening of that lantern to be made from horn.

Hoc itaque machinamento ita facto, sex candelae, unaquaeque post alteram, per viginti quatuor horas sine intermissione nihil citius, nihil tardius lucescebant. Quibus extinctis, aliae incendebantur.

Accordingly, with this mechanism thus fashioned, the six candles, each one after the other, for twenty-four hours without interruption gave light—nothing faster, nothing slower. When these were extinguished, others were kindled.

105. His ita ordinabiliter per omnia digestis, dimidiam, sicut Deo devoverat, servitii sui partem custodire cupiens, et eo amplius augere, in quantum possibilitas aut suppetentia, immo etiam infirmitas, permitteret, taediosus examinandae in iudiciis veritatis arbiter existebat, et in hoc maxime propter pauperum curam, quibus die noctuque inter cetera praesentis vitae debita mirabiliter incumbebat. Nam in toto illo regno praeter illum solum pauperes aut nullos aut etiam paucissimos habebant adiutores; nimirum quia etiam pene omnes illius regionis potentes et nobiles ad secularia magis quam ad divina mentem declinaverant negotia: magis enim unusquisque speciali etiam in secularibus negotiis, quam communi.

105. With these things thus orderly set forth in all respects, desiring to keep the half part of his service, as he had devoted by vow to God, and to augment it further, in so far as possibility or sufficiency—nay, even infirmity—would permit, he proved a painstaking arbiter in examining the truth in judgments, and this most of all on account of his care for the poor, to whom, day and night, among the other dues of this present life, he marvelously devoted himself. For in that whole kingdom, apart from him alone, the poor had either no helpers or very few; clearly because almost all the powerful and nobles of that region had inclined their mind to secular rather than to divine affairs: for each looked more to the special (i.e., private), even in secular business, than to the common.

106. Studebat quoque in iudiciis etiam propter nobilium et ignobilium suorum utilitatem, qui saepissime in contionibus comitum et praepositorum pertinacissime inter se dissentiebant, ita ut pene nullus eorum, quicquid a comitibus et praepositis iudicatum fuisset, verum esse concederet. Qua pertinaci dissensione obstinatissime compulsi, regis subire iudicium singuli subarabant, quod et confestim ab utraque parte implere festinabant.

106. He also applied himself in judgments, even for the benefit of his nobles and his commoners, who very often in the assemblies of the counts and the provosts most stubbornly disagreed among themselves, so that hardly any of them would concede that whatever had been judged by the counts and the provosts was true. By which stubborn dissension most obstinately driven, each in turn was submitting to undergo the king’s judgment, which both parties hastened at once to carry out.

Sed tamen ille, qui in sua parte aliquam de illa causa iniustitiam fieri cognosceret, ad talis iudicis iudicium, contra voluntatem tamen, quamvis per vim lege et stipulatione venire coactus esset, voluntarie nolebat accedere. Sciebat enim ibidem nihil ex sua malitia confestim posse delitescere; nimirum erat namque rex ille in exequendis iudiciis, sicut in ceteris aliis omnibus rebus, discretissimus indagator. Nam omnia pene totius suae regionis iudicia, quae in absentia sua fiebant, sagaciter investigabat, qualia fierent, iusta aut etiam iniusta, aut vero si aliquam in illis iudiciis iniquitatem intelligere posset, leniter utens suatim illos ipsos iudices, aut per se ipsum aut per alios suos fideles quoslibet interrogabat, quare tam nequiter iudicassent, utrum per ignorantiam aut propter aliam quamlibet malevolentiam, id est utrum pro aliquorum amore vel timore aut aliorum odio aut etiam pro alicuius pecuniae cupiditate.

Yet nevertheless, he who recognized that on his own side some injustice was being done in that case would not of his own accord approach the judgment of such a judge—albeit against his will, though he had been forced to come by force of law and stipulation. For he knew that there nothing of his own malice could straightway lie hidden; indeed, that king was, in executing judgments—as in all other matters—a most discriminating investigator. For he sagaciously investigated nearly all the judgments of his whole region that were rendered in his absence, of what sort they were, whether just or even unjust; and if he could understand any iniquity in those judgments, gently, employing suasion, he questioned those very judges—either by himself or through any of his faithful men—why they had judged so wickedly: whether through ignorance, or because of any other kind of malevolence; that is, whether out of love or fear of some persons, or out of hatred of others, or even out of cupidity for money.

Denique si illi iudices profiterentur propterea se talia ita iudicasse, eo quod nihil rectius de his rebus scire poterant, tunc ille, discrete et moderanter illorum imperitiam et insipientiam redarguens, aiebat, ita inquiens: 'Nimium admiror vestram hanc insolentiam, eo quod, Dei dono et meo, sapientium ministerium et gradus usurpastis, sapientiae autem studium et operam neglexistis. Quapropter aut terrenarum potestatum ministeria, quae habetis, illico dimittatis, aut sapientiae studiis multo devotius docere ut studeatis, imperio.' Quibus auditis verbis, perterriti veluti pro maxima vindicta correcti, comites et praepositi ad aequitatis discendae studium totis viribus se vertere nitebantur, ita ut mirum in modum illiterati ab infantia comites pene omnes, praepositi ac ministri literatoriae arti studerent, malentes insuetam disciplinam quam laboriose discere, quam potestatum ministeria dimittere. Sed si aliquis litteralibus studiis aut pro senio vel etiam pro nimia inusitati ingenii tarditate proficere non valeret, suum, si haberet, filium, aut etiam aliquem propinquum suum, vel etiam, si aliter non habeat, suum proprium hominem, liberum vel servum, quem ad lectionem longe ante promoverat, libros ante se die nocteque, quandocunque unquam ullam haberet licentiam, Saxonicos imperabat recitare.

Finally, if those judges professed that for that reason they had judged such things thus, because they could know nothing more correct about these matters, then he, discreetly and moderately reproving their inexperience and insipience, would say, speaking thus: 'I marvel exceedingly at this insolence of yours, because, by the gift of God and of me, you have usurped the ministry and the grades of the wise, but you have neglected the pursuit and effort of wisdom. Wherefore either dismiss forthwith the ministries of earthly powers which you hold, or, by command, see that you strive to be taught much more devotedly in the studies of wisdom.' When these words were heard, terrified and as if corrected by the greatest punishment, the counts and praepositi strove with all their strength to turn themselves to the pursuit of learning equity, so that, in a wondrous manner, the counts—almost all illiterate from infancy—the praepositi and the ministers applied themselves to the literary art, preferring to learn with toil an unaccustomed discipline rather than to relinquish the ministries of powers. But if anyone, in literary studies, either on account of old age or also because of the excessive slowness of an unaccustomed intellect, was not able to make progress, he ordered his son, if he had one, or also some kinsman of his, or even, if otherwise he should not have one, his own man, free or slave, whom he had long before advanced to reading, to recite Saxon books before him day and night, whenever at any time he might have any leisure.

Et suspirantes nimium intima mente dolebant, eo quod in iuventute sua talibus studiis non studuerant, felices arbitrantes huius temporis iuvenes, qui liberalibus artibus feliciter erudiri poterant, se vero infelices existimantes, qui nec hoc in iuventute didicerant, nec etiam in senectute, quamvis inhianter desiderarent, poterant discere. Sed hanc senum iuvenumque in discendis literis solertiam ad praefati regis notitiam explicavimus.

And, sighing exceedingly, they were grieving in their inmost mind, because in their youth they had not applied themselves to such studies, deeming the youths of this time happy, who could be felicitously instructed in the liberal arts, but considering themselves unhappy, who had not learned this in youth, nor even in old age—although they desired it avidly—could they learn. But this diligence of old men and youths in learning letters we have set forth to the notice of the aforesaid king.