A Literary History of the English People, from the Origins to the Renaissance. J. J. Jusserand

English People," ed. T. Miller, E.E.T.S., 1890. The authenticity of this translation is doubtful; see Miller's introduction.—"King Alfred's Anglo-Saxon Version of Boethius," ed. S. Fox, London, 1864, 8vo.—"King Alfred's West-Saxon version of Gregory's Pastoral Care," ed. H. Sweet, E.E.T.S., 1871–2. This last is the most faithful of Alfred's translations; he attached great importance to the work, and sent a copy of it to all his bishops. The copy of Werferth, bishop of Worcester, is preserved in the Bodleian Library.

[108] The sea to the west of Norway, that is the German Ocean.

[109] To-day Helgeland, in the northern part of Norway. Alfred's "Orosius," Thorpe's translation, printed with the "Life of Alfred the Great," by Pauli, in Bohn's Antiquarian Library, pp. 249 ff.; Anglo-Saxon text in Sweet, "King Alfred's Orosius," 1883, p. 17. Alfred adds the account of yet another journey, undertaken by Wulfstan.

[110] The researches of Usener have placed beyond a doubt that Boethius was a Christian; but Christianity is scarcely visible in the "Consolatio," which is entirely "inspirée d'Aristote et de Platon." Gaston Paris, Journal des Savants, 1884, p. 576.

[111] S. Fox, "King Alfred's Boethius," 1864, 8vo, chap. xxxv.

[112] The Anglo-Saxon translation made by Werferth (with a preface by Alfred) is still unpublished. Earle has given a detailed account of it in his "Anglo-Saxon Literature," 1884, pp. 193 ff.

[113] These seven Chronicles, more or less complete, and differing more or less from one another, are the chronicles of Winchester, St. Augustine of Canterbury, Abingdon, Worcester, Peterborough, the bilingual chronicle of Canterbury, and the Canterbury edition of the Winchester chronicle. They begin at various dates, the birth of Christ, the crossing of Cæsar to Britain, &c., and usually come down to the eleventh century. The Peterborough text alone continues as late as the year 1154. The Peterborough and Winchester versions are the most important; both have been published by Plummer and Earle, "Two of the Saxon Chronicles," Oxford, 1892, 8vo. The seven texts have been printed by Thorpe, with a translation. "The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle," 1861, 2 vols. 8vo (Rolls). The Winchester chronicle contains the poems on the battle of Brunanburh (supra, p. 46), the accession of Edgar, &c.; the MS. is preserved in the library of Corpus Christi, Cambridge; the Peterborough MS. is in the Bodleian Library (Laud, 636).

[114] Except in some very rare cases. For example, year 897: "Thanks be to God, the Army had not utterly broken up the Angle race." Comments are more frequent in the latter portions of the Chronicles, especially at the time of and after the Norman invasion.

[115] S. Fox, "King Alfred's Boethius," London, 1864, 8vo, chap. xvii. p. 61. This chapter corresponds only to the first lines of chap. vii. book ii. of the original. Most of it is added by Alfred, who gives in it his opinion of the "craft" of a king, and of the "tools" necessary for the same.

[116] In the "Proverbs of Alfred," an apocryphal compilation made after the Norman Conquest; published by Kemble with the "Dialogue of Salomon and Saturnus," 1848, 8vo.

[117] King from 959 to 975; St. Dunstan, archbishop of Canterbury, died in 988. See Stubbs, "Memorials of St. Dunstan" (Rolls Series).

[118] The anonymous translation of the Gospels compiled in the time of Alfred was copied and vulgarised in this period; ed. Skeat, "The Gospels in Anglo-Saxon," Cambridge, 1871–87, 4 vols. 4to.

[119] See Sermon XI.; "The Blickling Homilies," ed. R. Morris, 1874 ff. E.E.T.S., 8vo.

[120] "The Sermones Catholici, or Homilies of Ælfric," ed. Thorpe, London, Ælfric Society, 1844–6, 2 vols. 8vo; "Ælfric's Lives of Saints, being a set of Sermons," &c., ed. W. W. Skeat, E.E.T.S., 1881 ff. Ælfric translated part of the Bible: "Heptateuchus, Liber Job," &c., ed. Thwaites, Oxford, 1698, 8vo. He wrote also important works on astronomy and grammar, a "Colloquium" in Latin and Anglo-Saxon: "Ælfric's Grammatik und Glossar," ed. J. Zupitza, 1880, 8vo, &c.

[121] The homilies of Wulfstan were published by Arthur Napier: "Wulfstan, Sammlung der ihm zugeschriebenen Homilien nebst Untersuchungen über ihre Echtheit," Berlin, 1883, 8vo (sixty-two pieces, some of which are very short).

[122] "Transtulimus hunc codicem ex libris latinorum … ob ædificationem simplicium … ideoque nec obscura posuimus verba, sed simplicem Anglicam, quo facilius possit ad cor pervenire legentium vel audientium, ad utilitatem animarum suarum quia alia lingua nesciunt erudiri quam in qua nati sunt. Nec ubique transtulimus verbum ex verbo, sed sensum ex sensu. … Hos namque auctores in hac explanatione sumus sequuti, videlicet Augustinum Hipponensem, Hieronimum, Bedam, Gregorium, Smaragdum et aliquando Haymonem." Ælfric's preface for his "Sermones Catholici." In the preface of his sermons on the lives of Saints, Ælfric states that he intends not to translate any more, "ne forte despectui habeantur margarite Christi."

[123] "The Blickling Homilies," Sermon XI.

[124] "Sermones Catholici", pp. 12–13.

[125] Ibid. pp. 304–5. See also, in the sermon on St. John the Baptist, a curious satire on wicked talkative women, pp. 476–7.

[126] Sermon for the 25th of August, on the martyrdom of St. Bartholomew, pp. 454 ff. The portrait of the saint is as minutely drawn: "he has fair and curling locks, is white of body, and has deep eyes and moderate nose," &c.

[127] Skeat, "Ælfric's Lives of Saints," 1881.

[128] "The Blickling Homilies," Sermons X. and XI.

[129] Ibid., Sermon XVII.

      BOOK II.

      THE FRENCH INVASION.

      CHAPTER I.

      BATTLE.

      I.

      Germanic England gave itself a king for the last time at the death of Edward the Confessor. Harold, son of Godwin, was elected to succeed him. A momentous crisis, the greatest in English history, was drawing near.

      An awful problem had to be solved. Divided, helpless, uncertain, England could no longer remain what she had been for six hundred years. She stood vacillating, drawn by contrary attractions to opposite centres, half-way between the North, that had last populated the land, and the South, that had taught and christianised the nation. On both sides fresh invaders threaten