Did King Alfred write anything?

Did King Alfred write anything?

M.R. Godden

Medium Ævum: Vol. 76 Issue 1 (2007)

Abstract

The author investigates the question of whether King Alfred translated Latin texts into English. According to the author, modern scholarship seems to conclude that Alfred did compose the extant translations of a number of texts, although there are questions about Alfred’s linguistic and intellectual skills. The author examines selected texts and prefaces for the style of writing, voice, and method of translation in order to determine Alfred’s authorship.

There is a consensus going back to the tenth century that King Alfred personally translated a number of substantial texts from Latin into English. Though views have changed from time to time about the exact list, especially in the last fifty years, the current consensus is that he composed the extant translations of Gregory the Great’s Cura pastoralis, Boethius’ De consolatione Philosophiae, Augustine’s Soliloquiae, and the first fifty psalms, as well as instigating the extant translations by others of Orosius’ Historia, Gregory’s Dialogi, and probably Bede’s Historia ecclesiastica. To that most commentators would add Alfred’s law-code, or at least the lengthy introduction to it, and perhaps his will as compositions by the king himself. (1) Alfred’s acknowledgement in his prose preface to the Pastoral Care that he had the help of four named clerics in interpreting the Latin, and the later claim by William of Malmesbury that one of them, Asser, had explained the sense of the De consolatione Philosophiae to him in simpler words, (2) has prompted many discussions about the degree of responsibility others may have had, and there has been often fierce argument about whether the king could write or had to dictate his translations. (3) Most scholars have however taken the view that, whatever help he may have had in interpreting the Latin texts, the contemporary prefaces are right in claiming that the king himself composed the words on the page, either by dictation or with pen in hand, and that the works reflect his language and his mind.

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