This Penguin edition contains a long, but interesting introduction about Alfred, about his youth, the family he grew up in, and obviously his period as king, as difficult as it was. Asser's style is also a bit dry, yet reads quite fluently.
Still, his biography of Alfred offers a very interesting view of England's king, at least from his perspective.
He read several Latin works, had them also read to him, and even translated (whenever he could) some of them into English, so that copies of his translations could be provided to various minsters, bishops and alike, if not the people.Īsser, a Welsh bishop, was hired to become Alfred's personal assistant, teacher, chronicler, and more, though Asser couldn't commit full-time to the job. were key activities for him personally and to teach to his people. And yet, despite the problems, Alfred was a devote and religious ruler, put a lot of faith in God, the church, the bishops. So much even that his health deteriorated. The invading and occupying Vikings caused him many headaches and sleepless nights. Īlfred had a tough time as king, not just of Wessex but also of the other territories he ruled over. Not to mention what preceded: The Celts, the Romans. ), to see the bigger picture, to see how England became England, though still divided between the various kingdoms, and how the situation was on the continent, with France, the Franks, Flanders, the Normans, the Burgundians, and so on. Reading about Alfred the Great also means one must expand that to reading about the Anglo-Saxons AND the Vikings (mythology, general history, the sagas, culture. Also, one mustn't stop at one book about Alfred or the Anglo-Saxons in general. Not that there haven't been other books written about Alfred on the contrary, even. The last related work I read and which pushed me to pick up 'Alfred the Great: Asser's Life of King Alfred and Other Contemporary Sources' sooner rather than later, was 'Aelfred's Britain: War And Peace In The Viking Age' by the archaeologist Max Adams.
Penguin's edition contains not only 'Life of King Alfred', but also other, historical and primary sources connected to Alfred the Great, king of Wessex and later England. I've read a good handful of such books, still have a good handful on my TBR-pile, as you can see on one of my shelves.Īsser's 'Life of King Alfred' is not only recommended by Bernard Cornwell himself, but also a very valuable and important historical work. mythology, politics, and more) of the Vikings. Having read little over half of Bernard Cornwell's recommended series 'The Saxon Stories' aka 'The Last Kingdom' because of the TV-series, the books encouraged me to dive into the history (incl.
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