Asser
Encyclopedia
Asser was a Welsh
monk
from St David's
, Dyfed
, who became Bishop of Sherborne in the 890s. About 885 he was asked by Alfred the Great
to leave St David's and join the circle of learned men whom Alfred was recruiting for his court. After spending a year at Caerwent
because of illness, Asser accepted.
In 893 Asser wrote a biography of Alfred, called the Life of King Alfred. The manuscript survived to modern times in only one copy, which was part of the Cotton library
. That copy was destroyed in a fire in 1731, but transcriptions that had been made earlier, together with material from Asser's work which was included by other early writers, have enabled the work to be reconstructed. The biography is the main source of information about Alfred's life and provides far more information about Alfred than is known about any other early English ruler. Asser assisted Alfred in his translation of Gregory the Great's Pastoral Care
, and possibly with other works.
Asser is sometimes cited as a source for the legend about Alfred's having founded the University of Oxford
, which is now known to be false. A short passage making this claim was interpolated by William Camden
into his 1603 edition of Asser's Life. Doubts have also been raised periodically about whether the entire Life is a forgery, written by a slightly later writer, but it is now almost universally accepted as genuine.
Asser (also known as John Asser or Asserius Menevensis) was a Welsh monk
who lived in the late 9th century. Almost nothing is known of Asser's early life. The name Asser is likely to have been taken from Aser, or Asher
, the eighth son of Jacob
in Genesis. Old Testament names were common in Wales at the time, but it has been suggested that this name may have been adopted at the time Asser entered the church. Asser may have been familiar with a work by St Jerome
on the meaning of Hebrew
names (Jerome's given meaning for "Asser" was "blessed"), so it is possible that Asser's birth name was "Gwyn" (or "Guinn"), which is Welsh for "blessed" (or "blessedness").
According to his Life of King Alfred, Asser was a monk at St David's
in what was then the kingdom of Dyfed
, in southwest Wales. He also makes it clear that he was brought up in the area, and was tonsure
d, trained and ordained there. He also mentions Nobis, a bishop of St David's who died about 873 or 874, as being a kinsman of his.
, in particular a short section in which Asser recounts how Alfred recruited him as a scholar for his court. Alfred held a high opinion of the value of learning and recruited men from around Britain and from continental Europe to establish a scholarly centre at his court. It is not known how Alfred heard of Asser, but one possibility relates to Alfred's overlordship of south Wales. Several kings, including Hywel ap Rhys of Glywysing and Hyfaidd of Dyfed
(where Asser's monastery was), had submitted to Alfred's overlordship in 885. Asser gives a fairly detailed account of the events. There is a charter of Hywel's which has been dated to c. 885; amongst the witnesses is one "Asser", which may be the same person. Hence it is possible that Alfred's relationship with the southern Welsh kings led him to hear of Asser.
Asser recounts meeting Alfred first at the royal estate at Dean, Sussex. Asser provides only one datable event in his history: on St Martin's Day, 11 November 887, Alfred decided to learn to read Latin. Working backwards from this, it appears most likely that Asser was recruited by Alfred in early 885.
Asser's response to Alfred's request was to ask for time to consider the offer, as he felt it would be unfair to abandon his current position in favour of worldly recognition. Alfred agreed but also suggested that he should spend half his time at St David's and half with Alfred. Asser again asked for time to consider, but ultimately agreed to return to Alfred with an answer in six months. On his return to Wales, however, Asser fell ill with a fever and was confined to the monastery of Caerwent
for twelve months and a week. Alfred wrote to find out the cause of the delay, and Asser responded that he would keep his promise when he recovered. When he did recover, in 886, he agreed to divide his time between Wales and Alfred's court, as Alfred had suggested. Others at St David's supported this, since they hoped Asser's influence with Alfred would avoid "damaging afflictions and injuries at the hands of King Hyfaidd (who often assaulted that monastery and the jurisdiction of St David)".
Asser joined several other noted scholars at Alfred's court, including Grimbald
, and John the Old Saxon; all three probably reached Alfred's court within a year of each other. His first extended stay with Alfred was at the royal estate at Leonaford, probably from about April through December of 886. It is not known where Leonaford was; a case has been made for Landford
, in Wiltshire
. Asser records that he read aloud to the king from the books at hand. On Christmas Eve, 886, after Asser had for some time failed to obtain permission to return to Wales, Alfred gave Asser the monasteries of Congresbury
and Banwell
, along with a silk cloak and a quantity of incense
"weighing as much as a stout man." He allowed Asser to visit his new possessions and thence to return to St David's.
Thereafter Asser seems to have divided his time between Wales and Alfred's court. Asser gives no information about his time in Wales, but mentions various places that he visited in England, including the battlefield at Ashdown
, Countisbury (which he calls Cynuit), and Athelney
. It is evident from Asser's account that he spent a good deal of time with Alfred: he recounts meeting Alfred's mother-in-law, Eadburh (who is not the same Eadburh
who died as a begger in Pavia), on many occasions; and says that he has often seen Alfred hunting.
, is known to have attested a charter in 892. Asser's first appearance in the position is in 900, when he appears as a witness to a charter; hence the succession can only be dated to the years 892 to 900. In any event, Asser had already been a bishop prior to his appointment to the see of Sherborne, since Wulfsige is known to have received a copy of Alfred's Pastoral Care in which Asser is described as a bishop.
It is possible that Asser was a suffragan bishop
within the see of Sherborne, but he may instead have been a bishop of St David's. He is listed as such in Giraldus Cambrensis
's Itinerarium Cambriae, though this was written three centuries later, in 1191 and thus may be unreliable. A contemporary clue is found in Asser's own writing: he mentions that bishops of St David's were sometimes expelled by King Hyfaidd and adds that "he even expelled me on occasion". This may indicate that Asher was himself a bishop of St David's.
Asser drew on a variety of texts to write his Life. The style is similar to that of two biographies of Louis the Pious
: Vita Hludovici
Imperatoris, written c. 840 by an unknown author usually called "the Astronomer", and Vita Hludowici Imperatoris by Thegan of Trier
. It is possible that Asser may have known these works. He also knew Bede
's Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum
; the Historia Brittonum, a Welsh source; the Life of Alcuin
; and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
. It is also clear from the text that Asser was familiar with Virgil
's Aeneid
, Caelius Sedulius's Carmen Paschale, Aldhelm's De Virginitate, and Einhard
's Vita Karoli Magni
("Life of Charlemagne"). He quotes from Gregory the Great's Regula Pastoralis, a work he and Alfred subsequently collaborated in translating, and from Augustine of Hippo
's Enchiridion
. About half of the Life is little more than a translation of part of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
for the years 851–887, though Asser adds personal opinions and interpolates information about Alfred's life. Asser also adds material relating to the years after 887 and general opinions about Alfred's character and reign.
Asser's prose style has been criticised for weak syntax, stylistic pretensions, and garbled exposition. His frequent use of archaic and unusual words gives his prose a baroque flavour that is common in Insular Latin authors of the period. He uses several words that are peculiar to Frankish Latin sources. This has led to speculation that he was educated at least partly in Francia, but it is also possible that he acquired this vocabulary from Frankish scholars he associated with at court, such as Grimbald.
The Life ends abruptly with no concluding remarks and it is considered likely that the manuscript is an incomplete draft. Asser lived a further fifteen or sixteen years and Alfred a further six, but no events after 893 are recorded.
It is possible that the work was written principally for the benefit of a Welsh audience. Asser takes pains to explain local geography, so he was clearly considering an audience not familiar with the areas he described. More specifically, at several points he gives an English name and follows it with the Welsh equivalent, even in the case of Nottingham
, which seems unlikely to have had a native Welsh name. As a result, and given that Alfred's overlordship of south Wales was recent, it may be that Asser intended the work to acquaint a Welsh readership with Alfred's personal qualities and reconcile them to his rule. However, it is also possible that Asser's inclusion of Welsh placenames simply reflects an interest in etymology or the existence of a Welsh audience in his own household rather than in Wales. There are also sections such as the support for Alfred's programme of fortification that give the impression of the book's being aimed at an English audience.
Asser's Life omits any mention of internal strife or dissent in Alfred's own reign, though when he mentions that Alfred had to harshly punish those who were slow to obey Alfred's commands to fortify the realm, he makes it clear that Alfred did have to enforce obedience. Asser's life is a one-sided treatment of Alfred, though since Alfred was alive when it was composed, it is unlikely to contain gross errors of fact.
In addition to being the primary source for Alfred's life, Asser's work is also a source for other historical periods, where he adds material to his translation of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. For example, he tells a story about Eadburh
, the daughter of Offa
. Eadburh married Beorhtric, king of the West Saxons. Asser describes her as behaving "like a tyrant" and ultimately accidentally poisoning Beorhtric in an attempt to murder someone else. He finishes by describing her death as a beggar in Pavia
. This Eadburh is not the same as Alfred's mother-in-law, also named Eadburh, whom Asser mentions elsewhere.
The early manuscript of the Life does not appear to have been widely known in medieval times. Only one copy is known to have survived into modern times. It is known as Cotton MS Otho A xii, and was part of the Cotton library
. It was written about 1000 and was destroyed in a fire in 1731. The lack of distribution may be because Asser had not finished the manuscript and so did not have it copied. However, the material in the Life is recognizable in other works. There is some evidence from early writers of access to versions of Asser's work, as follows:
The history of the Cotton manuscript itself is quite complex. The list of early writers above mentions that it may have been in the possession of at least two of them. It was owned by John Leland, the antiquary, in the 1540s. It probably became available after the dissolution of the monasteries
, in which the property of many religious houses was confiscated and sold. Leland died in 1552 and it is known to have been in the possession of Matthew Parker
from some time after that until his own death in 1575. Although Parker bequeathed most of his library to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge
, the Cotton manuscript was not included. By 1600, it was in the library of Lord Lumley and by 1621 the manuscript was in the possession of Robert Cotton
. The Cotton library was moved in 1712 from Cotton House in Westminster
to Essex House in the Strand
and then moved again in 1730 to Ashburnham House
in Westminster. On the morning of Saturday, 23 October 1731, a fire broke out and the Cotton manuscript was destroyed.
As a result, the text of Asser's Life is known from a multitude of different sources. Various transcripts had been made of the Cotton manuscript and a facsimile of the first page of the manuscript had been made and published, giving more direct evidence for the hand of the scribe. In addition to these transcripts, the extracts mentioned above made by other early writers have been used to help assemble and assess the text. Because of the lack of the manuscript itself and because Parker's annotations had been copied by some transcribers as if they were part of the text, scholarly editions have had a difficult burden. There have been multiple editions of The Life published, both in Latin and in translation. A 1904 edition by W.H. Stevenson, Asser's Life of King Alfred, together with the Annals of Saint Neots erroneously ascribed to Asser, is still the standard edition. An important recent translation, with thorough notes on the scholarly problems and issues, is Alfred the Great: Asser's Life of King Alfred and Other Contemporary Sources by Simon Keynes and Michael Lapidge.
published an edition of Asser's Life in which there appears a story of a community of scholars at Oxford, who were visited by Grimbald:
There is no support for this in any source known. Camden based his edition on Parker's manuscript, other transcripts of which do not include any such material. It is now acknowledged that this is an interpolation of Camden's, though the legend itself first surfaced in the 14th century. Older books about Alfred the Great include the legend, for example: Jacob Abbott's 1849 Alfred the Great says that "One of the greatest and most important of the measures which Alfred adopted for the intellectual improvement of his people was the founding of the great University of Oxford."
in his essay "Who Wrote Asser's Life of Alfred?" Galbraith argued that there were anachronisms in the text that meant it could not have been written during Asser's lifetime. For example, Asser uses "rex Angul Saxonum" ("king of the Anglo-Saxons") to refer to Alfred. Galbraith asserted that this usage does not appear until the late 10th century. Galbraith also identified the use of "parochia" to refer to Exeter as an anachronism, arguing that it should be translated as "diocese" and hence that it referred to the bishopric of Exeter, which was not created until 1050. Galbraith identified the true author as Leofric
, who became Bishop of Devon and Cornwall in 1046. Leofric's motive, according to Galbraith, was to justify the re-establishment of his see at Exeter by demonstrating a precedent for the arrangement.
The title "king of the Anglo-Saxons" does, however, in fact occur in royal charters that date to before 892 and "parochia" does not necessarily mean "diocese", but can sometimes refer just to the jurisdiction of a church or monastery. In addition, there are other arguments against Leofric's having been the forger. Aside from the fact that Leofric would have known little about Asser and so would have been unlikely to construct a plausible forgery, there is strong evidence dating the Cotton manuscript to about 1000. The apparent use of Asser's material in other early works that predate Leofric also argues against Galbraith's theory. Galbraith's arguments were refuted to the satisfaction of most historians by Dorothy Whitelock
in Genuine Asser, in 1967.
More recently, in 1995, Professor Alfred Smyth argued that the Life is a forgery by Byrhtferth (who simply 'adopted' the name of the obscure Asser from the references to him in other records), basing his case primarily on an analysis of Byrhtferth's and Asser's Latin vocabulary. Byrhtferth's motive, according to Smyth, is to lend Alfred's prestige to the Benedictine monastic reform movement of the late 10th century. The strongest arguments for forgery are that a) there is actually no new information in 'Asser' that cannot be found in the surviving Anglo Saxon Chronicles, so that it is not contemporary with Alfred as it claims; b) that the Latin translation is simply lifted from the Chronicles' narrative and interspersed with padding of no importance; c) that writing in Latin a contemporary narrative was anachronistic; d) that much of the alleged illness of Alfred in 'Asser' is lifted from standard hagiographic conventions and similarly so are 'Asser's' claims as to the educational development and attainments of Alfred; and e) that much of the dating in 'Asser' uses the age of Alfred can be shown as incorrect and can be traced to the mis-datings in later rescensions of the Chronicles, so that 'Asser' cannot have been a contemporary of Alfred.
Although a few other historians harbour doubts about the authenticity of the work, the majority of other Anglo-Saxon scholars do not find these arguments persuasive. The stiffest opposition to Smyth's work has come from former Cambridge Professor Michael Lapidge and Professor Simon Keynes, still an eminent Cambridge Saxonist, who themselves collaborated on a book about Alfred the Great. Both have argued that Smyth's analysis of the Latin text, which relied heavily on the opinions of other academics who helped with the book, is fatally flawed. Professor Keynes felt strongly enough about the subject to place a copy of Smyth's book in the fire grate of his residence in Trinity College and then photograph it for his personal website. A typed statement from department officials was also placed on the inside cover of a copy of the book that lives in the ASNAC (Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic) library at Cambridge to leave undergraduates in no doubt as to the department's views. The debate caught the imagination of the popular press when Professor Smyth's book was published, fuelled by the former University of Kent historian's claim that the Cambridge ASNAC department knew Asser's life was a fake, but that they were happy to keep the myth going in order to avoid discrediting previous eminent historians from their university such as Frank Stenton and Dorothy Whitelock.
, writing in the 12th century, believed that Asser also assisted Alfred with his translation of Boethius.
The Annales Cambriae
, a set of Welsh annals that were probably kept at St David's, records Asser's death in the year 908. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
records the following entry as part of the entry for 909 or 910 (in different versions of the chronicle): "Here Frithustan succeeded to the bishopric in Winchester
, and after that Asser, who was bishop at Sherborne, departed." The year given by the chronicle was uncertain, because different chroniclers started the new year at different calendar dates, and Asser's date of death is generally given as 908/909.
Welsh people
The Welsh people are an ethnic group and nation associated with Wales and the Welsh language.John Davies argues that the origin of the "Welsh nation" can be traced to the late 4th and early 5th centuries, following the Roman departure from Britain, although Brythonic Celtic languages seem to have...
monk
Monk
A monk is a person who practices religious asceticism, living either alone or with any number of monks, while always maintaining some degree of physical separation from those not sharing the same purpose...
from St David's
St David's
St Davids , is a city and community in Pembrokeshire, Wales. Lying on the River Alun on St David's Peninsula, it is Britain's smallest city in terms of both size and population, the final resting place of Saint David, the country's patron saint, and the de facto ecclesiastical capital of...
, Dyfed
Kingdom of Dyfed
The Kingdom of Dyfed is one of several Welsh petty kingdoms that emerged in 5th-century post-Roman Britain in south-west Wales, based on the former Irish tribal lands of the Déisi from c 350 until it was subsumed into Deheubarth in 920. In Latin, the country of the Déisi was Demetae, eventually to...
, who became Bishop of Sherborne in the 890s. About 885 he was asked by Alfred the Great
Alfred the Great
Alfred the Great was King of Wessex from 871 to 899.Alfred is noted for his defence of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of southern England against the Vikings, becoming the only English monarch still to be accorded the epithet "the Great". Alfred was the first King of the West Saxons to style himself...
to leave St David's and join the circle of learned men whom Alfred was recruiting for his court. After spending a year at Caerwent
Caerwent
Caerwent is a village and community in Monmouthshire, Wales. It is located about five miles west of Chepstow and eleven miles east of Newport, and was founded by the Romans as the market town of Venta Silurum, an important settlement of the Brythonic Silures tribe. The modern village is built...
because of illness, Asser accepted.
In 893 Asser wrote a biography of Alfred, called the Life of King Alfred. The manuscript survived to modern times in only one copy, which was part of the Cotton library
Cotton library
The Cotton or Cottonian library was collected privately by Sir Robert Bruce Cotton M.P. , an antiquarian and bibliophile, and was the basis of the British Library...
. That copy was destroyed in a fire in 1731, but transcriptions that had been made earlier, together with material from Asser's work which was included by other early writers, have enabled the work to be reconstructed. The biography is the main source of information about Alfred's life and provides far more information about Alfred than is known about any other early English ruler. Asser assisted Alfred in his translation of Gregory the Great's Pastoral Care
Pastoral Care
Liber Regulae Pastoralis or Regula Pastoralis is a treatise on the responsibilities of the clergy written by Pope Gregory I around the year 590, shortly after his papal inauguration...
, and possibly with other works.
Asser is sometimes cited as a source for the legend about Alfred's having founded the University of Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
, which is now known to be false. A short passage making this claim was interpolated by William Camden
William Camden
William Camden was an English antiquarian, historian, topographer, and officer of arms. He wrote the first chorographical survey of the islands of Great Britain and Ireland and the first detailed historical account of the reign of Elizabeth I of England.- Early years :Camden was born in London...
into his 1603 edition of Asser's Life. Doubts have also been raised periodically about whether the entire Life is a forgery, written by a slightly later writer, but it is now almost universally accepted as genuine.
Name and early life
Monk
A monk is a person who practices religious asceticism, living either alone or with any number of monks, while always maintaining some degree of physical separation from those not sharing the same purpose...
who lived in the late 9th century. Almost nothing is known of Asser's early life. The name Asser is likely to have been taken from Aser, or Asher
Asher
Asher , in the Book of Genesis, is the second son of Jacob and Zilpah, and the founder of the Tribe of Asher.-Name:The text of the Torah argues that the name of Asher means happy/blessing, implying a derivation from the Hebrew term osher ; the Torah actually presents this in two variations—beoshri...
, the eighth son of Jacob
Jacob
Jacob "heel" or "leg-puller"), also later known as Israel , as described in the Hebrew Bible, the Talmud, the New Testament and the Qur'an was the third patriarch of the Hebrew people with whom God made a covenant, and ancestor of the tribes of Israel, which were named after his descendants.In the...
in Genesis. Old Testament names were common in Wales at the time, but it has been suggested that this name may have been adopted at the time Asser entered the church. Asser may have been familiar with a work by St Jerome
Jerome
Saint Jerome was a Roman Christian priest, confessor, theologian and historian, and who became a Doctor of the Church. He was the son of Eusebius, of the city of Stridon, which was on the border of Dalmatia and Pannonia...
on the meaning of Hebrew
Hebrew language
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
names (Jerome's given meaning for "Asser" was "blessed"), so it is possible that Asser's birth name was "Gwyn" (or "Guinn"), which is Welsh for "blessed" (or "blessedness").
According to his Life of King Alfred, Asser was a monk at St David's
St David's Cathedral
St David's Cathedral is situated in St David's in the county of Pembrokeshire, on the most westerly point of Wales.-Early history:The monastic community was founded by Saint David, Abbot of Menevia, who died in AD589...
in what was then the kingdom of Dyfed
Dyfed
Dyfed is a preserved county of Wales. It was created on 1 April 1974 under the terms of the Local Government Act 1972, and covered approximately the same geographic extent as the ancient Principality of Deheubarth, although excluding the Gower Peninsula and the area west of the River Tawe...
, in southwest Wales. He also makes it clear that he was brought up in the area, and was tonsure
Tonsure
Tonsure is the traditional practice of Christian churches of cutting or shaving the hair from the scalp of clerics, monastics, and, in the Eastern Orthodox Church, all baptized members...
d, trained and ordained there. He also mentions Nobis, a bishop of St David's who died about 873 or 874, as being a kinsman of his.
Recruitment by Alfred and time at court
Much of what is known about Asser comes from his biography of AlfredAlfred the Great
Alfred the Great was King of Wessex from 871 to 899.Alfred is noted for his defence of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of southern England against the Vikings, becoming the only English monarch still to be accorded the epithet "the Great". Alfred was the first King of the West Saxons to style himself...
, in particular a short section in which Asser recounts how Alfred recruited him as a scholar for his court. Alfred held a high opinion of the value of learning and recruited men from around Britain and from continental Europe to establish a scholarly centre at his court. It is not known how Alfred heard of Asser, but one possibility relates to Alfred's overlordship of south Wales. Several kings, including Hywel ap Rhys of Glywysing and Hyfaidd of Dyfed
Kingdom of Dyfed
The Kingdom of Dyfed is one of several Welsh petty kingdoms that emerged in 5th-century post-Roman Britain in south-west Wales, based on the former Irish tribal lands of the Déisi from c 350 until it was subsumed into Deheubarth in 920. In Latin, the country of the Déisi was Demetae, eventually to...
(where Asser's monastery was), had submitted to Alfred's overlordship in 885. Asser gives a fairly detailed account of the events. There is a charter of Hywel's which has been dated to c. 885; amongst the witnesses is one "Asser", which may be the same person. Hence it is possible that Alfred's relationship with the southern Welsh kings led him to hear of Asser.
Asser recounts meeting Alfred first at the royal estate at Dean, Sussex. Asser provides only one datable event in his history: on St Martin's Day, 11 November 887, Alfred decided to learn to read Latin. Working backwards from this, it appears most likely that Asser was recruited by Alfred in early 885.
Asser's response to Alfred's request was to ask for time to consider the offer, as he felt it would be unfair to abandon his current position in favour of worldly recognition. Alfred agreed but also suggested that he should spend half his time at St David's and half with Alfred. Asser again asked for time to consider, but ultimately agreed to return to Alfred with an answer in six months. On his return to Wales, however, Asser fell ill with a fever and was confined to the monastery of Caerwent
Caerwent
Caerwent is a village and community in Monmouthshire, Wales. It is located about five miles west of Chepstow and eleven miles east of Newport, and was founded by the Romans as the market town of Venta Silurum, an important settlement of the Brythonic Silures tribe. The modern village is built...
for twelve months and a week. Alfred wrote to find out the cause of the delay, and Asser responded that he would keep his promise when he recovered. When he did recover, in 886, he agreed to divide his time between Wales and Alfred's court, as Alfred had suggested. Others at St David's supported this, since they hoped Asser's influence with Alfred would avoid "damaging afflictions and injuries at the hands of King Hyfaidd (who often assaulted that monastery and the jurisdiction of St David)".
Asser joined several other noted scholars at Alfred's court, including Grimbald
Grimbald
Saint Grimbald was a Benedictine, invited to England by King Alfred the Great in 885. King Alfred met Grimbald while journeying to Rome at the French abbey of Saint-Bertin . Grimbald arrived in England and declined the see of Canterbury, preferring to remain a monk...
, and John the Old Saxon; all three probably reached Alfred's court within a year of each other. His first extended stay with Alfred was at the royal estate at Leonaford, probably from about April through December of 886. It is not known where Leonaford was; a case has been made for Landford
Landford
Landford is a village and civil parish southeast of Salisbury in Wiltshire, England. The 2001 census recorded a parish population of 1,142. It is the most eastern settlement in the county of Wiltshire....
, in Wiltshire
Wiltshire
Wiltshire is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers...
. Asser records that he read aloud to the king from the books at hand. On Christmas Eve, 886, after Asser had for some time failed to obtain permission to return to Wales, Alfred gave Asser the monasteries of Congresbury
Congresbury
Congresbury is a village and civil parish in Somerset, England. It is situated in the Unitary authority of North Somerset, and in 2001 had a population of 3,400. It lies on the A370, roughly equidistant between Junction 21 of the M5 and Bristol Airport, approximately south of Bristol city centre,...
and Banwell
Banwell
Banwell is a village and civil parish on the River Banwell in the North Somerset district of Somerset, England. Its population was 2,923 according to the 2001 census.-History:...
, along with a silk cloak and a quantity of incense
Incense
Incense is composed of aromatic biotic materials, which release fragrant smoke when burned. The term "incense" refers to the substance itself, rather than to the odor that it produces. It is used in religious ceremonies, ritual purification, aromatherapy, meditation, for creating a mood, and for...
"weighing as much as a stout man." He allowed Asser to visit his new possessions and thence to return to St David's.
Thereafter Asser seems to have divided his time between Wales and Alfred's court. Asser gives no information about his time in Wales, but mentions various places that he visited in England, including the battlefield at Ashdown
Battle of Ashdown
The Battle of Ashdown, in Berkshire , took place on 8 January 871. Alfred the Great, then a prince of only twenty-one, led the West Saxon army of his brother, King Ethelred, in a victorious battle against the invading Danes.Accounts of the battle are based to a large extent on Asser's "Life of...
, Countisbury (which he calls Cynuit), and Athelney
Athelney
Athelney is located between the villages of Burrowbridge and East Lyng in the Sedgemoor district of Somerset, England. The area is known as the Isle of Athelney, because it was once a very low isolated island in the 'very great swampy and impassable marshes' of the Somerset Levels. Much of the...
. It is evident from Asser's account that he spent a good deal of time with Alfred: he recounts meeting Alfred's mother-in-law, Eadburh (who is not the same Eadburh
Eadburh
Eadburh , also spelled Eadburg, was the daughter of King Offa of Mercia and Queen Cynethryth. Married to King Beorhtric of Wessex, Asser's Life of Alfred the Great tells how she accidentally killed her husband by poison. She fled to Francia, where she is said to have been offered the chance of...
who died as a begger in Pavia), on many occasions; and says that he has often seen Alfred hunting.
Bishop of Sherborne
Sometime between 887 and 892, Alfred gave Asser the monastery of Exeter. Asser subsequently became Bishop of Sherborne, though the year of succession is unknown. Asser's predecessor as Bishop of Sherborne, WulfsigeWulfsige of Sherborne
Wulfsige was a medieval Bishop of Sherborne.He was consecrated between 881 and 889. He died between 892 and 901.-References:*Powicke, F. Maurice and E. B. Fryde Handbook of British Chronology 2nd. ed. London:Royal Historical Society 1961...
, is known to have attested a charter in 892. Asser's first appearance in the position is in 900, when he appears as a witness to a charter; hence the succession can only be dated to the years 892 to 900. In any event, Asser had already been a bishop prior to his appointment to the see of Sherborne, since Wulfsige is known to have received a copy of Alfred's Pastoral Care in which Asser is described as a bishop.
It is possible that Asser was a suffragan bishop
Suffragan bishop
A suffragan bishop is a bishop subordinate to a metropolitan bishop or diocesan bishop. He or she may be assigned to an area which does not have a cathedral of its own.-Anglican Communion:...
within the see of Sherborne, but he may instead have been a bishop of St David's. He is listed as such in Giraldus Cambrensis
Giraldus Cambrensis
Gerald of Wales , also known as Gerallt Gymro in Welsh or Giraldus Cambrensis in Latin, archdeacon of Brecon, was a medieval clergyman and chronicler of his times...
's Itinerarium Cambriae, though this was written three centuries later, in 1191 and thus may be unreliable. A contemporary clue is found in Asser's own writing: he mentions that bishops of St David's were sometimes expelled by King Hyfaidd and adds that "he even expelled me on occasion". This may indicate that Asher was himself a bishop of St David's.
The Life of King Alfred
In 893, Asser wrote a biography of Alfred entitled The Life of King Alfred; in the original Latin, the title is Vita Ælfredi regis Angul Saxonum. The date is known from Asser's mention of the king's age in the text. The work, which is less than twenty thousand words long, is one of the most important sources of information on Alfred the Great.Asser drew on a variety of texts to write his Life. The style is similar to that of two biographies of Louis the Pious
Louis the Pious
Louis the Pious , also called the Fair, and the Debonaire, was the King of Aquitaine from 781. He was also King of the Franks and co-Emperor with his father, Charlemagne, from 813...
: Vita Hludovici
Vita Hludovici
Vita Hludovici or Vita Hludovici Imperatoris is an anonymous biography of Louis the Pious, Holy Roman Emperor and King of the Franks from AD 814 to 840.-Author:...
Imperatoris, written c. 840 by an unknown author usually called "the Astronomer", and Vita Hludowici Imperatoris by Thegan of Trier
Thegan of Trier
Thegan of Trier was a Frankish Roman Catholic prelate and the author of Gesta Hludowici imperatoris which is a principal source for the life of the Holy Roman Emperor Louis the Pious, the son and successor of Charlemagne.-Biography:Very little is known of Thegan's life; he appears to have come...
. It is possible that Asser may have known these works. He also knew Bede
Bede
Bede , also referred to as Saint Bede or the Venerable Bede , was a monk at the Northumbrian monastery of Saint Peter at Monkwearmouth, today part of Sunderland, England, and of its companion monastery, Saint Paul's, in modern Jarrow , both in the Kingdom of Northumbria...
's Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum
Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum
The Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum is a work in Latin by Bede on the history of the Christian Churches in England, and of England generally; its main focus is on the conflict between Roman and Celtic Christianity.It is considered to be one of the most important original references on...
; the Historia Brittonum, a Welsh source; the Life of Alcuin
Alcuin
Alcuin of York or Ealhwine, nicknamed Albinus or Flaccus was an English scholar, ecclesiastic, poet and teacher from York, Northumbria. He was born around 735 and became the student of Archbishop Ecgbert at York...
; and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is a collection of annals in Old English chronicling the history of the Anglo-Saxons. The original manuscript of the Chronicle was created late in the 9th century, probably in Wessex, during the reign of Alfred the Great...
. It is also clear from the text that Asser was familiar with Virgil
Virgil
Publius Vergilius Maro, usually called Virgil or Vergil in English , was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He is known for three major works of Latin literature, the Eclogues , the Georgics, and the epic Aeneid...
's Aeneid
Aeneid
The Aeneid is a Latin epic poem, written by Virgil between 29 and 19 BC, that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Romans. It is composed of roughly 10,000 lines in dactylic hexameter...
, Caelius Sedulius's Carmen Paschale, Aldhelm's De Virginitate, and Einhard
Einhard
Einhard was a Frankish scholar and courtier. Einhard was a dedicated servant of Charlemagne and his son Louis the Pious; his main work is a biography of Charlemagne, the Vita Karoli Magni, "one of the most precious literary bequests of the early Middle Ages."-Public life:Einhard was from the eastern...
's Vita Karoli Magni
Vita Karoli Magni
Vita Karoli Magni is a biography of Charlemagne, King of the Franks and Holy Roman Emperor, written by Einhard.-Literary context:...
("Life of Charlemagne"). He quotes from Gregory the Great's Regula Pastoralis, a work he and Alfred subsequently collaborated in translating, and from Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo , also known as Augustine, St. Augustine, St. Austin, St. Augoustinos, Blessed Augustine, or St. Augustine the Blessed, was Bishop of Hippo Regius . He was a Latin-speaking philosopher and theologian who lived in the Roman Africa Province...
's Enchiridion
Enchiridion of Augustine
The Enchiridion, Manual, or Handbook of Augustine of Hippo is alternatively titled, "Faith, Hope, and Love". The Enchiridion is a compact treatise on Christian piety, written in response to a request by an otherwise unknown person, named Laurentius, shortly after the death of Saint Jerome in 420...
. About half of the Life is little more than a translation of part of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is a collection of annals in Old English chronicling the history of the Anglo-Saxons. The original manuscript of the Chronicle was created late in the 9th century, probably in Wessex, during the reign of Alfred the Great...
for the years 851–887, though Asser adds personal opinions and interpolates information about Alfred's life. Asser also adds material relating to the years after 887 and general opinions about Alfred's character and reign.
Asser's prose style has been criticised for weak syntax, stylistic pretensions, and garbled exposition. His frequent use of archaic and unusual words gives his prose a baroque flavour that is common in Insular Latin authors of the period. He uses several words that are peculiar to Frankish Latin sources. This has led to speculation that he was educated at least partly in Francia, but it is also possible that he acquired this vocabulary from Frankish scholars he associated with at court, such as Grimbald.
The Life ends abruptly with no concluding remarks and it is considered likely that the manuscript is an incomplete draft. Asser lived a further fifteen or sixteen years and Alfred a further six, but no events after 893 are recorded.
It is possible that the work was written principally for the benefit of a Welsh audience. Asser takes pains to explain local geography, so he was clearly considering an audience not familiar with the areas he described. More specifically, at several points he gives an English name and follows it with the Welsh equivalent, even in the case of Nottingham
Nottingham
Nottingham is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England. It is located in the ceremonial county of Nottinghamshire and represents one of eight members of the English Core Cities Group...
, which seems unlikely to have had a native Welsh name. As a result, and given that Alfred's overlordship of south Wales was recent, it may be that Asser intended the work to acquaint a Welsh readership with Alfred's personal qualities and reconcile them to his rule. However, it is also possible that Asser's inclusion of Welsh placenames simply reflects an interest in etymology or the existence of a Welsh audience in his own household rather than in Wales. There are also sections such as the support for Alfred's programme of fortification that give the impression of the book's being aimed at an English audience.
Asser's Life omits any mention of internal strife or dissent in Alfred's own reign, though when he mentions that Alfred had to harshly punish those who were slow to obey Alfred's commands to fortify the realm, he makes it clear that Alfred did have to enforce obedience. Asser's life is a one-sided treatment of Alfred, though since Alfred was alive when it was composed, it is unlikely to contain gross errors of fact.
In addition to being the primary source for Alfred's life, Asser's work is also a source for other historical periods, where he adds material to his translation of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. For example, he tells a story about Eadburh
Eadburh
Eadburh , also spelled Eadburg, was the daughter of King Offa of Mercia and Queen Cynethryth. Married to King Beorhtric of Wessex, Asser's Life of Alfred the Great tells how she accidentally killed her husband by poison. She fled to Francia, where she is said to have been offered the chance of...
, the daughter of Offa
Offa
Offa may refer to:Two kings of the Angles, who are often confused:*Offa of Angel , on the continent*Offa of Mercia , in Great BritainA king of Essex:*Offa of Essex A town in Nigeria:* Offa, Nigeria...
. Eadburh married Beorhtric, king of the West Saxons. Asser describes her as behaving "like a tyrant" and ultimately accidentally poisoning Beorhtric in an attempt to murder someone else. He finishes by describing her death as a beggar in Pavia
Pavia
Pavia , the ancient Ticinum, is a town and comune of south-western Lombardy, northern Italy, 35 km south of Milan on the lower Ticino river near its confluence with the Po. It is the capital of the province of Pavia. It has a population of c. 71,000...
. This Eadburh is not the same as Alfred's mother-in-law, also named Eadburh, whom Asser mentions elsewhere.
Manuscripts of The Life of King Alfred
Cotton library
The Cotton or Cottonian library was collected privately by Sir Robert Bruce Cotton M.P. , an antiquarian and bibliophile, and was the basis of the British Library...
. It was written about 1000 and was destroyed in a fire in 1731. The lack of distribution may be because Asser had not finished the manuscript and so did not have it copied. However, the material in the Life is recognizable in other works. There is some evidence from early writers of access to versions of Asser's work, as follows:
- ByrhtferthByrhtferthByrhtferth was a priest and monk who lived at Ramsey Abbey. He had a deep impact on the intellectual life of later Anglo-Saxon England and wrote many computistic, hagiographic, and historical works. He was a leading man of science and best known as the author of many different works...
of RamseyRamsey AbbeyRamsey Abbey is a former Benedictine abbey located in Ramsey, Cambridgeshire, England, southeast of Peterborough and north of Huntingdon, UK.-History:...
included large sections of it into Historia RegumHistoria RegumThe Historia Regum is a historical compilation attributed to Symeon of Durham, which presents material going from the death of Bede until 1129. It survives only in one manuscript compiled in Yorkshire in the mid-to-late 12th century, though the material is earlier...
, a historical work he wrote in the late tenth or early 11th century. He may have used the Cotton manuscript. (The Historia Regum was until recently attributed to Symeon of DurhamSymeon of DurhamSymeon of Durham was an English chronicler and a monk of Durham Priory. When William of Saint-Calais returned from his Norman exile in 1091, Symeon was probably in his company...
.) - The anonymous author of the Encomium EmmaeEncomium EmmaeEncomium Emmae Reginae or Gesta Cnutonis Regis is an 11th-century Latin encomium in honour of Queen Emma of Normandy. It was written in 1041 or 1042 probably by a monk of St Omer.-Manuscripts:...
(written in the early 1040s) was apparently acquainted with the Life, though it is not known how he knew of it. The author was a monk of St Bertin's in FlandersFlandersFlanders is the community of the Flemings but also one of the institutions in Belgium, and a geographical region located in parts of present-day Belgium, France and the Netherlands. "Flanders" can also refer to the northern part of Belgium that contains Brussels, Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp...
, but may have learned of the work in England. - The chronicler known as Florence of WorcesterFlorence of WorcesterFlorence of Worcester , known in Latin as Florentius, was a monk of Worcester, who played some part in the production of the Chronicon ex chronicis, a Latin world chronicle which begins with the creation and ends in 1140....
incorporated parts of Asser's Life into his chronicle, in the early 12th century; again, he may have also used the Cotton manuscript. - An anonymous chronicler at Bury St Edmunds, working in the second quarter of the 12th century, produced a compilation now known as The Annals of St NeotsAnnals of St NeotsThe Annals of St Neots are a Latin chronicle compiled and written at Bury St Edmunds between c. 1120 and c. 1140. It covers the history of Britain, extending from its invasion by Julius Caesar to the making of Normandy in 914...
. He used material from a version of Asser's work which differs in some places from the Cotton manuscript and in some places appears to be more accurate, so it is possible that the copy used was not the Cotton manuscript. - Giraldus CambrensisGiraldus CambrensisGerald of Wales , also known as Gerallt Gymro in Welsh or Giraldus Cambrensis in Latin, archdeacon of Brecon, was a medieval clergyman and chronicler of his times...
wrote a Life of St Æthelberht, probably at Hereford during the 1190s. He quotes an incident from Asser that occurred during the reign of OffaOffaOffa may refer to:Two kings of the Angles, who are often confused:*Offa of Angel , on the continent*Offa of Mercia , in Great BritainA king of Essex:*Offa of Essex A town in Nigeria:* Offa, Nigeria...
of MerciaMerciaMercia was one of the kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy. It was centred on the valley of the River Trent and its tributaries in the region now known as the English Midlands...
, who died in 796. This incident is not in the surviving copies of the manuscript. It is possible that Giraldus had access to a different copy of Asser's work. It is also possible that he is quoting a different work by Asser, which is otherwise unknown, or even that Giraldus is making up the reference to Asser to support his story. The latter is at least plausible, since Giraldus is not always regarded as a trustworthy writer.
The history of the Cotton manuscript itself is quite complex. The list of early writers above mentions that it may have been in the possession of at least two of them. It was owned by John Leland, the antiquary, in the 1540s. It probably became available after the dissolution of the monasteries
Dissolution of the Monasteries
The Dissolution of the Monasteries, sometimes referred to as the Suppression of the Monasteries, was the set of administrative and legal processes between 1536 and 1541 by which Henry VIII disbanded monasteries, priories, convents and friaries in England, Wales and Ireland; appropriated their...
, in which the property of many religious houses was confiscated and sold. Leland died in 1552 and it is known to have been in the possession of Matthew Parker
Matthew Parker
Matthew Parker was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1559 until his death in 1575. He was also an influential theologian and arguably the co-founder of Anglican theological thought....
from some time after that until his own death in 1575. Although Parker bequeathed most of his library to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge
Corpus Christi College, Cambridge
Corpus Christi College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. It is notable as the only college founded by Cambridge townspeople: it was established in 1352 by the Guilds of Corpus Christi and the Blessed Virgin Mary...
, the Cotton manuscript was not included. By 1600, it was in the library of Lord Lumley and by 1621 the manuscript was in the possession of Robert Cotton
Robert Bruce Cotton
Sir Robert Bruce Cotton, 1st Baronet was an English antiquarian and Member of Parliament, founder of the important Cotton library....
. The Cotton library was moved in 1712 from Cotton House in Westminster
Westminster
Westminster is an area of central London, within the City of Westminster, England. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, southwest of the City of London and southwest of Charing Cross...
to Essex House in the Strand
Strand, London
Strand is a street in the City of Westminster, London, England. The street is just over three-quarters of a mile long. It currently starts at Trafalgar Square and runs east to join Fleet Street at Temple Bar, which marks the boundary of the City of London at this point, though its historical length...
and then moved again in 1730 to Ashburnham House
Ashburnham House
Ashburnham House is an extended seventeenth-century house on Little Dean's Yard in Westminster, London, United Kingdom, and since 1882 has been part of Westminster School...
in Westminster. On the morning of Saturday, 23 October 1731, a fire broke out and the Cotton manuscript was destroyed.
As a result, the text of Asser's Life is known from a multitude of different sources. Various transcripts had been made of the Cotton manuscript and a facsimile of the first page of the manuscript had been made and published, giving more direct evidence for the hand of the scribe. In addition to these transcripts, the extracts mentioned above made by other early writers have been used to help assemble and assess the text. Because of the lack of the manuscript itself and because Parker's annotations had been copied by some transcribers as if they were part of the text, scholarly editions have had a difficult burden. There have been multiple editions of The Life published, both in Latin and in translation. A 1904 edition by W.H. Stevenson, Asser's Life of King Alfred, together with the Annals of Saint Neots erroneously ascribed to Asser, is still the standard edition. An important recent translation, with thorough notes on the scholarly problems and issues, is Alfred the Great: Asser's Life of King Alfred and Other Contemporary Sources by Simon Keynes and Michael Lapidge.
Legend of the founding of Oxford
In 1603 the antiquarian William CamdenWilliam Camden
William Camden was an English antiquarian, historian, topographer, and officer of arms. He wrote the first chorographical survey of the islands of Great Britain and Ireland and the first detailed historical account of the reign of Elizabeth I of England.- Early years :Camden was born in London...
published an edition of Asser's Life in which there appears a story of a community of scholars at Oxford, who were visited by Grimbald:
In the year of our Lord 886, the second year of the arrival of St Grimbald in England, the University of Oxford was begun ... John, monk of the church of St David, giving lectures in logic, music and arithmetic; and John, the monk, colleague of St Grimbald, a man of great parts and a universal scholar, teaching geometry and astronomy before the most glorious and invincible King Alfred.
There is no support for this in any source known. Camden based his edition on Parker's manuscript, other transcripts of which do not include any such material. It is now acknowledged that this is an interpolation of Camden's, though the legend itself first surfaced in the 14th century. Older books about Alfred the Great include the legend, for example: Jacob Abbott's 1849 Alfred the Great says that "One of the greatest and most important of the measures which Alfred adopted for the intellectual improvement of his people was the founding of the great University of Oxford."
Claims of forgery
During the 19th and 20th centuries, several scholars asserted that Asser's biography of King Alfred was not authentic, but a forgery. A prominent claim was made in 1964 by the respected historian V.H. GalbraithVivian Hunter Galbraith
Vivian Hunter H. Galbraith, FBA was an English historian, Fellow of the British Academy and Oxford Regius Professor of Modern History.- Early career:...
in his essay "Who Wrote Asser's Life of Alfred?" Galbraith argued that there were anachronisms in the text that meant it could not have been written during Asser's lifetime. For example, Asser uses "rex Angul Saxonum" ("king of the Anglo-Saxons") to refer to Alfred. Galbraith asserted that this usage does not appear until the late 10th century. Galbraith also identified the use of "parochia" to refer to Exeter as an anachronism, arguing that it should be translated as "diocese" and hence that it referred to the bishopric of Exeter, which was not created until 1050. Galbraith identified the true author as Leofric
Leofric, Bishop of Exeter
-Early life:Little is known about Leofric, as his cathedral town was not a centre of historical writing, and he took little part in events outside his diocese. This led to little notice being taken of his life and activities, with only a few charters originating in his household and one listing of...
, who became Bishop of Devon and Cornwall in 1046. Leofric's motive, according to Galbraith, was to justify the re-establishment of his see at Exeter by demonstrating a precedent for the arrangement.
The title "king of the Anglo-Saxons" does, however, in fact occur in royal charters that date to before 892 and "parochia" does not necessarily mean "diocese", but can sometimes refer just to the jurisdiction of a church or monastery. In addition, there are other arguments against Leofric's having been the forger. Aside from the fact that Leofric would have known little about Asser and so would have been unlikely to construct a plausible forgery, there is strong evidence dating the Cotton manuscript to about 1000. The apparent use of Asser's material in other early works that predate Leofric also argues against Galbraith's theory. Galbraith's arguments were refuted to the satisfaction of most historians by Dorothy Whitelock
Dorothy Whitelock
Dorothy Whitelock was an English historian. Her best-known work is English Historical Documents, vol. I: c. 500-1042, which she edited...
in Genuine Asser, in 1967.
More recently, in 1995, Professor Alfred Smyth argued that the Life is a forgery by Byrhtferth (who simply 'adopted' the name of the obscure Asser from the references to him in other records), basing his case primarily on an analysis of Byrhtferth's and Asser's Latin vocabulary. Byrhtferth's motive, according to Smyth, is to lend Alfred's prestige to the Benedictine monastic reform movement of the late 10th century. The strongest arguments for forgery are that a) there is actually no new information in 'Asser' that cannot be found in the surviving Anglo Saxon Chronicles, so that it is not contemporary with Alfred as it claims; b) that the Latin translation is simply lifted from the Chronicles' narrative and interspersed with padding of no importance; c) that writing in Latin a contemporary narrative was anachronistic; d) that much of the alleged illness of Alfred in 'Asser' is lifted from standard hagiographic conventions and similarly so are 'Asser's' claims as to the educational development and attainments of Alfred; and e) that much of the dating in 'Asser' uses the age of Alfred can be shown as incorrect and can be traced to the mis-datings in later rescensions of the Chronicles, so that 'Asser' cannot have been a contemporary of Alfred.
Although a few other historians harbour doubts about the authenticity of the work, the majority of other Anglo-Saxon scholars do not find these arguments persuasive. The stiffest opposition to Smyth's work has come from former Cambridge Professor Michael Lapidge and Professor Simon Keynes, still an eminent Cambridge Saxonist, who themselves collaborated on a book about Alfred the Great. Both have argued that Smyth's analysis of the Latin text, which relied heavily on the opinions of other academics who helped with the book, is fatally flawed. Professor Keynes felt strongly enough about the subject to place a copy of Smyth's book in the fire grate of his residence in Trinity College and then photograph it for his personal website. A typed statement from department officials was also placed on the inside cover of a copy of the book that lives in the ASNAC (Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic) library at Cambridge to leave undergraduates in no doubt as to the department's views. The debate caught the imagination of the popular press when Professor Smyth's book was published, fuelled by the former University of Kent historian's claim that the Cambridge ASNAC department knew Asser's life was a fake, but that they were happy to keep the myth going in order to avoid discrediting previous eminent historians from their university such as Frank Stenton and Dorothy Whitelock.
Other works and date of death
In addition to the Life of King Alfred, Asser is credited by Alfred as one of several scholars who assisted with Alfred's translation of Gregory's Regula Pastoralis (Pastoral Care). The historian William of MalmesburyWilliam of Malmesbury
William of Malmesbury was the foremost English historian of the 12th century. C. Warren Hollister so ranks him among the most talented generation of writers of history since Bede, "a gifted historical scholar and an omnivorous reader, impressively well versed in the literature of classical,...
, writing in the 12th century, believed that Asser also assisted Alfred with his translation of Boethius.
The Annales Cambriae
Annales Cambriae
Annales Cambriae, or The Annals of Wales, is the name given to a complex of Cambro-Latin chronicles deriving ultimately from a text compiled from diverse sources at St David's in Dyfed, Wales, not later than the 10th century...
, a set of Welsh annals that were probably kept at St David's, records Asser's death in the year 908. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is a collection of annals in Old English chronicling the history of the Anglo-Saxons. The original manuscript of the Chronicle was created late in the 9th century, probably in Wessex, during the reign of Alfred the Great...
records the following entry as part of the entry for 909 or 910 (in different versions of the chronicle): "Here Frithustan succeeded to the bishopric in Winchester
Winchester
Winchester is a historic cathedral city and former capital city of England. It is the county town of Hampshire, in South East England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government district, and is located at the western end of the South Downs, along the course of...
, and after that Asser, who was bishop at Sherborne, departed." The year given by the chronicle was uncertain, because different chroniclers started the new year at different calendar dates, and Asser's date of death is generally given as 908/909.
External links
- HTML full text of Asser's Life of King Alfred
- Asser's Life of Alfred, commentary from The Cambridge History of English and American LiteratureThe Cambridge History of English and American LiteratureThe Cambridge History of English and American Literature was originally published by Cambridge University Press in 1907–1921. The 18 volumes include 303 chapters and more than 11,000 pages edited and written by a worldwide panel of 171 leading scholars and thinkers of the early twentieth century...
, Volume I, 1907–21. - Asser's Life of Alfred
- Prosopography of Anglo Saxon England entry for Asser