OT: Alfred the Great, Asser, English icons & Wisden...

Asser's Life of King Alfred

I know you worry about these things RH so you might want to know, Asser
was Welsh...

The icon is the book of the King not the biographer. RH

Not wanting to split hairs or anything but even Alfred can't really be
be called English. He was king of the West Saxons initially (from 871)
and then most historians seem to accept that in 886 after his capture
of London his status changed somewhat. Asser says "all the Angles and
Saxons ... turned willingly to King Alfred and accepted his lordship."
Moreover in certain charters of the 880s and 890s Alfred is styled as
"King of the Angles and Saxons" and "King of the Anglo-Saxons" (i.e.
not "King of the English"). These (and other evidence such as Alfred's
law code - where Alfred is referred to still as King of the West Saxons
- and the Anglo-Saxon Chrionicle) are tricky pieces of evidence since
they're all produced by, or in some way associated with, Alfred's court
itself so it's rather hard to build up an objective picture of things:
it's certainly very clear that the court of Alfred was excellent at
producing what might now be called political spin or, if more cynical,
propaganda... Some people do claim that the claims made following 886
represented an aknowledgement of an 'English' identity, but I think
that's a bit far-fetched & that it's probably safer to see it as an
'Anglo-Saxon' identity rather than an 'English' one (and probably more
a royal aspiration than reality).

I think you'd be on better grounds looking at the tenth century rather
than Alfred's ninth and settling on someone like Athelstan, or possibly
even Edgar, as a first king of the 'English'. Sadly there's nothing
terribly iconic that survives from Athelstan's reign (hence his lower
profile in the history books) and Edgar is probably most closey
associated with monastic reform which in these secular days is not
exactly the kind of thing that catches the imagination when looking for
icons (unless we're talking orthodox monasticism and a whole different
sort of icon, lol)...

I could point you to all sorts of books on this topic, or point to
scholars who are widely regarded as experts on this sort of thing, but
your earlier post made it quite clear that you don't have time for
"experts" when it comes to discussing "English identity" since you seem
to believe that you can make it all up yourself without reference to
any of the vast array of scholarship that's out there.

Anyway, quite apart from all of this, Asser's Life of Alfred just isn't
terribly iconic. Have you actually read it Robert? In literary terms
it's pretty shoddy with awful Latin (Asser clearly only had a weak
grasp on grammar) and it's kind of derivative (from continental models
I'm afraid, RH, you could see nice parallels with Einhard's Life of
Charlemagne or Suetonius's Lives of the Caesars - but then this might
help to show the little Englanders of this land quite how closely bound
the culture, society & politics of this island have always been with
the continent...). Asser was an arse-licker who was angling for a
better job, he's always trying to make himself sound more important
than he was and his book is not something I see as iconic (I *much*
prefer your suggestion of Bede's "Historia Ecclesia", that's a
beautiful work, and one that is much more interested in all of the
Angles & Saxons). And I still stand by my point that it seems odd to
try and nominate a book written by a Welshman as an English icon... It
sounds to me as if you're trying to shoehorn in a reference to Alfred
getting by the 'no real people' regulation, and real icons shouldn't
have to be shoehorned in... Perhaps William of Malmesbury's 12th
Century fabrication of Alfred burning cakes while hiding in the marshes
of Athelny is something that's more 'iconic' in the minds of English
people, but I really don't think that William's "Gesta Regum Anglorum"
is ever going to win in a showdown of icons against the cup of tea, the
bowler hat or Giles Gilbert-Scott's K6 telephone box...

I did (and perhaps this brings my post slightly back on topic) like
your nomination of Wisden as an English icon though. The mustard
coloured dust jacket really is iconic...

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: OT: Alfred the Great, Asser, English icons & Wisden...
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