Undeception

King Alfred the Great of England (r. 871-899) was truly one of the most remarkable men in history. The fifth son of the previous king of England, he was a man of deep Christian faith, a man of learning, and a great warrior king, the first king of an England he united and rescued from the onslaught of the “Danes” (those worrisome Vikings). He became the prototype of the ideal king, and was thus probably a major historical referent for the character of King Arthur in the later medieval legends. A man of letters, he personally translated both a verse and prose version of Boethius’ Consolation of Philosophy (the original was in verse). He exhibited his concern for spiritual leadership by translating Gregory I’s Cura Pastoralis (Pastoral Care). The following is a preface he attached to the latter, an extremely important historical document that sets forth his desire to educate the people of England; he describes his intention to make England literate, to translate the Bible and other religious works, all concerns well before their time in Europe. The period after England’s Christianization was a time of learning that declined, among other things, because of the incursion of the Vikings. Alfred blames this calamity on the people of England being poor stewards of the virtues and doctrines of Christianity and of the education that passes it on. The following is my translation from the Anglo-Saxon “sometimes word for word, sometimes meaning for meaning,” just as I learned from my professor William Provost, and my professor Jonathan Evans.

King Alfred wishes to greet Waerferth his bishop with affectionate and friendly words. I would have you know that it has come quite frequently into my mind the sort of wise men that were once among the English people, both of religious and secular orders; and how blessed was the time then among the English people; and how the kings that held the authority over the people obeyed God and his commandments; and how they maintained their peace, their morality, and their control within borders, and also extended the homeland further beyond; and how they were successful in war and in wisdom then; and also how eager the religious orders were for education and learning, and for all the duties that they were supposed to perform for God; and how people from abroad sought wisdom and education here in this land, and how we now have to obtain those things abroad when we need them. So utterly was the decline among the English people that severely few on this side of the Humber could understand their duties in English, much less to be able to render even one letter of Latin into English; and I expect that there were hardly any more beyond the Humber. So few of them were there that I cannot think of one single such person south of the Thames when I took the kingdom. To God Almighty be thanks that we have any teachers left at all. Therefore I bid that you do as I believe that you wish to do, to free yourself from the affairs of this world as often as you can, so that you may preserve the wisdom that God gave you wherever you may preserve it. Consider what punishments may befall us by means of this world if we do not love wisdom ourselves, nor cause it to be loved by other men; we had only the name of “Christian”, and severely few of its virtues.When I remembered all this, I remembered also how I saw, before it all was ravaged and burnt, how the churches throughout all England stood filled with treasures and books, and also a great many of God’s servants; but only a few of them knew much benefit from those books because they were not able to understand any of them, since they were not written in their own language. Therefore they said, “Our forefathers, who formerly held these places, loved wisdom, and through it they obtained wealth and left it to us. From here one can still see their trail, but we are not able to follow after them. For now we have abandoned both the wealth and the wisdom, because we did not wish to bend down with our minds to see their footprints.”When I thought of this, I was surprised that all those good learned men we once had throughout England, who had learned all those books completely, had not wanted to translate one bit into their own language. But then I immediately answered myself, and said, “They did not expect that people would ever become so reckless and that learning would fall into such decline: for this reason they left this undone, and desired that the more languages we knew, the more wisdom would be here in this land.”

Then I recalled how the Law was first established in the Hebrew language, and again, when the Greeks learned it, they translated it all into their own language, and all other books as well. And again the Romans likewise, after they learned them, they translated all of them into their own language through learned translators. All other Christian peoples have also translated some part of them into their own languages. Therefore it seems better to me, if it seems so to you, that we also should take some books, those which are most necessary for all people to know, that we may then translate them into the language we all can understand, and practice, as we may easily do with God’s help if we have peace, so that all the youth now among the free men of England with enough means to devote themselves be set to learning, as long as they are not qualified for another use, first until they know how to read English writing. After that, further instruct into the Latin language anyone who wants to learn more and to advance to higher rank.

When I remembered how formerly the knowledge of Latin was in decline, and yet many could read English writing, I undertook, among a number of various other matters related to kingship, to translate into English the book that is named Pastoralis in Latin, and “Shepherd’s Book” in English, sometimes word for word, sometimes meaning for meaning, just as I learned from Plegmund my archbishop, and from Asser my bishop, and from Grimbold my mass-priest, and from John my mass-priest. After I had learned it, in the way I could best understand it, and as I could reckon most meaningfully, I translated it into English; and I will send it to each bishopric in my kingdom; and on each will be one clasp worth 150 silver pence. And I bid in God’s name that no man should remove the clasp from the book, nor the book from the church - it is unknown how long there will be bishops there as learned as there are now, thanks be to God, nearly everywhere. Because I wish that they always be in their places, unless the bishop wants to have one with him, or it is lent anywhere, or someone makes a copy of it.

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