Asser

“ Another coincidence with Alfred’s preface to the Cura Pastoralis is to be found in the phrase ‘aliquando sensum ex sensu ponens,’ which Asser uses in reference to the translation of Gregory’s Dialogues [227] . Anyhow, as I have shown [228] , the work which bears Asser’s name cannot be later than 974, and the attempt to treat it as a forgery of the eleventh or twelfth century must be regarded as having broken down. I may add that I started with a strong prejudice against the authenticity of Asser, so that my conclusions have at any rate been impartially arrived at. ”

“ On the whole, then, Asser is an authority to be used with criticism and caution; partly because we have always to be alive to the possibility of interpolation, partly because the writer’s Celtic imagination is apt to run away with him. But that there is a nucleus which is the genuine work of a single writer, a South Walian contemporary of Alfred, I feel tolerably sure, and I know no reason why that South Walian contemporary should not be Asser of Menevia. ”

“ Arnold’s theory is correct, as I believe it to be, we have once more evidence of the existence of a text of Asser before the end of the tenth century. This however, though probable, is only a theory. But, even if it be rejected, the argument of the preceding section remains unaffected.
The palaeographical evidence unimportant.
§ 26. Seeing then that we can trace our Asser text back at least as far as the year 974, the palaeographical question as to the date of Wise’s MS. becomes comparatively unimportant. And it is well that it is so; for the doctors differ to an extraordinary degree. ”

“ Florence of Worcester [642] also cites a work which he calls ‘Dicta regis Ælfredi’ as an authority on the West Saxon genealogy. Even if we reject the evidence of Malmesbury and Florence as being so much later than Alfred’s time, it seems to me quite impossible to identify a theological commonplace book, such as Asser describes, with the translation of Augustine’s Soliloquies, as Wülker was once inclined to do [643] , partly on the ground that Asser applies the term ‘flosculi’ to the Handbook, while the translation of the Soliloquies bears the title ‘Blostman’ or Blooms. ”

“ I would bring into connexion with this the interesting statement of William of Malmesbury, that Asser, for Alfred’s benefit, unravelled the meaning of the De Consolatione in plainer words; ‘a labour,’ says Malmesbury, with the sniff of the superior person, ‘in those days necessary, in ours ridiculous [898] .’ Zimmermann understood this as meaning a preliminary [189] translation made by Asser. ‘Entschieden falsch,’ cries Professor Wülker [899] , with the usual brusqueness of a German critic. ”

“ Confirmation of the grant of Exeter to Asser is sometimes sought in the fact that Alfred, in the Preface to the Cura Pastoralis, speaks of Asser as ‘my bishop,’ at a time when Asser cannot have held his later diocese of Sherborne, as one of the copies of Alfred’s Cura Pastoralis was actually addressed to Wulfsige, Asser’s predecessor in that see. ”

“ Ælfred, delighted with the beauty of the illuminated initial letters, went to a master, who read the poems over to him until he knew them by heart. It is impossible to believe that this story refers to Judith, who was a mere girl in 861 [see under Ælfred, u.s.] Osburga is said by Asser to have been a noble-minded and deeply religious woman. ”

“ We come now to what is the greatest crux in our whole subject, viz. the so-called life of Alfred which bears the name of Asser. It is obvious that if this work is genuine, it is an historical authority of the highest interest and importance. On the other hand, it must be confessed that there are features in it which do excite suspicion. Apart from difficulties of detail, some of which will come up for subsequent consideration, the general form of the work is most extraordinary, and high authorities have pronounced that, in its present shape, it cannot possibly be original [40] . ”

“ Joseph Stevenson’s translation of The Book of Hyde, in Church Historians of England (London, 1854) , Vol. 2, Part 2, pp. 499–503. The translator states that the text of the letter printed by Wise in his edition of Asser (see Stevenson’s edition of Asser, p. 308) ‘has been employed in correcting the many obscurities and errors of the copy inserted in the Liber de Hida.’ Of the letter our editor says: ‘It ... seems to be genuine. There is no conceivable motive for forging such a letter. ”

“ William of Malmesbury uses both Asser and the Chronicle, though he declines ‘to unravel separately the inextricable labyrinths of Alfred’s labours.’ He adds not only the legend of St. Cuthbert, but also the stories of the golden bracelets, and of Alfred visiting the Danish camp disguised as a minstrel [291] ; wandering folk-tales which get attached to more than one historical character. There is no reason to believe that Malmesbury had for Alfred’s reign any historical authority not open to ourselves, as he unquestionably had for that of Athelstan ”

“ Reign of Æthelbald. New phase of the Danish struggle under Æthelberht.
§ 62. Of Æthelbald’s short reign of two and a half years nothing is recorded in the Chronicle; Asser’s statement [423] that his government was ‘unbridled,’ I regard as [87] a mere flourish, based on his alleged incestuous marriage; while Henry of Huntingdon’s pathetic sigh that ‘at his death England realised how much she had lost [424] ,’ I take to be an equally valuable piece of rhetoric on the other side. With Æthelberht’s reign of rather over five years the Danish struggle [425] enters on a new and more serious phase. ”

“ For Isḥâk was journeying to Baghdâd, and upon the road he fell ill, and Mâr Behnâm appeared to him and healed him. Verily the Assyrians were idolaters, but they came to know the true God. So the world changes.” The bishop broke off abruptly at this confusing point in the narrative, for even he felt that it would be an anachronism to assert that the Assyrian empire was Christian. But the historical sequence of events was nothing to ’Abdullah. ”

“ Illiteratus = ignorant of Latin. The original source of all this is of course the well-known passage of Asser [399] , where it is said that Alfred ‘remained illiterate’ up to his twelfth year or more, though he learned many Saxon poems by heart. Then, after an intervening sentence on his skill as a hunter, comes the pretty story of the book of Saxon poems which he won by learning to read it to his mother. Here there are several points to be noticed. In the first place I believe that ‘illiteratus permansit’ means nothing more than that he was ignorant of Latin. ”

“ Anyhow they must have been too young to be contemplated as possible successors, in the not unlikely event of Æthelred’s falling in battle; and the danger of the country required [92] that there should be no uncertainty on the question of the succession. It is by this definite recognition of Alfred as successor that I would explain the title of ‘secundarius’ given to him by Asser. I may add that, except as to the Celtic analogies which I have suggested, this is practically the view of Dr. Stubbs [439] , though I was not conscious of the fact when I worked out my own theory. ”

“ When I remembered how the knowledge of Latin had formerly decayed throughout England, and yet many could read English writing, I began, among other various and manifold troubles of this71 kingdom, to translate into English the book which is called in Latin Pastoralis, and in English Shepherd’s Book, sometimes word by word, and sometimes according to the sense, as I had learned it from Plegmund my archbishop, and Asser my bishop, and Grimbald my mass-priest, and John my mass-priest. ”

“ Charles the Fat, before he gained the western kingdom, is king of the Alamanni [173] . I believe that Germania here means Norway, a meaning which, strange as it may seem, it unquestionably has in the Welsh Annals. Thus at 1036 the Brut y Tywysogion calls Canute king of England, Denmark, and Germania, while at 1056 the title king of Germania is given to Harold Hardrada. In other words, the invaders of Saxony, according to Asser, came from Norway, and not from Denmark, which he calls Danubium [174] . ”

“ They also learned to write, so that before they were of an age to practise manly arts, namely hunting and such pursuits as befit gentlemen (nobilibus) , they became studious and clever in the liberal arts.” This passage so entirely coincides with the description of York school given by Alcuin in its evidence that the grammar school was frequented by laymen as well as clerics, and it is so improbable that “Asser” borrowed from Alcuin, that we may take it to be the normal thing that young Englishmen of good birth were brought up in the public grammar schools then as now. ”

“ But a child would need help in mastering a new work, even if he could read to some extent before.
Again, the suggestion of Pauli [404] and others that even in this case Alfred was merely taught to say the poems by heart, and then repeated them to his mother, is based simply on a piece of bad scholarship. Because in the modern languages recitation means repeating by heart, it does not follow that that is the meaning of the Latin word. ‘Recitare’ means ‘to read aloud’; it occurs no less than seven times in Asser, and that is the meaning of the word in every case [405] . ”

“ Here [14] Werferth, bishop of Worcester, complained that he had been robbed of woods at Woodchester, which had belonged to his see ever since the days of Æthelbald of Mercia [38] . If this was the experience of a powerful bishop, a special friend of the king himself, we may imagine the dangers to which lesser men were exposed. Fortunately among the documents which have been preserved is Alfred’s own will, a most interesting relic, on which something will be said later [39] .
Asser’s work. Suspicious points. The work consists of two parts, (a) annalistic, (b) biographical. Crude arrangement. ”

“ Amory, Thomas Anderson, James 1825 Anderson, James Anderson, Robert 1750 Anderson, Robert Andrews, James Pettit 1737 Andrews, James Pettit Aneurin 600 c. Aneurin Anstey, Christopher 1724 Anstey, Christopher Arber, Edward 1836 Arber, Edward Arbuthnot, Alexander 1822 Arbuthnot, Alexander Arbuthnot, John 1667 Arbuthnot, John Archer, William 1856 Archer, William Armstrong, John 1709 Armstrong, John Arnold, Sir Edwin 1832 Arnold, Sir Edwin Arnold, Matthew 1822 Arnold, Matthew Asgill, John 1659 Asgill, John Asser 850 c. ”

“ In this primitive mythology we find also
ASSUR. The “god of judges” was the especial patron of Assyria, and afterward made to express the power of the later Assyrian empire by becoming “father of the gods” and the head of the pantheon.
The Assyrian kings claimed that their power was derived from this deity, and in one of the inscriptions it is said that
“The universal king, [72] king of Assyria, the king whom Assur,
King of the spirits of heaven, appointed with a kingdom,
Without rival has filled his hand. ”

“ The Prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel dined with me, and I asked them how they dared so roundly to assert that God spoke to them, and whether they did not think at the time that they would be misunderstood, and so be the cause of imposition.
Isaiah answered: “I saw no God, nor heard any, in a finite organical perception: but my senses discovered the infinite in everything; and as I was then persuaded, and remained confirmed, that the voice of honest indignation is the voice of God, I cared not for consequences, but wrote.” ”

“ In one instance only in later times, in Assyria, which had become exclusively Semitic, do we find the idea of one supreme god, who was national and not local, and who overshadowed all other gods, as Jahve in the later days of the Jewish monarchy, and in the conception of the Hebrew prophets, did the gods of the surrounding nations. Assur, the local god of the city of Assur, the first capital of Assyria, became, with the growth of the Assyrian Empire, the one supreme god, in whose name wars were undertaken, cities destroyed, and captives massacred or mutilated. ”

“ Those Assyrians, in particular, who held Assur to be the one supreme and creative deity, to whom all the other supernal powers were subordinate, might fairly ask that the essential difference between their system and that which obtains among the great majority of their modern theological critics should be demonstrated. ”

“ Such an end will come to the Assyrian kingdom on the overthrow of Nineveh. Nah 3:18. “The shepherds have fallen asleep, king Asshur: thy glorious ones are lying there: thy people have scattered themselves upon the mountains, and no one gathers them. Nah 3:19. No alleviation to thy fracture, thy stroke is grievous: all who hear tidings of thee clap the hand over thee: for over whom hath not thy wickedness passed continually?” The king of Asshur addressed in Nah 3:18 is not the last historical king of that kingdom, but a rhetorical personification of the holder of the imperial power of Assyria. ”

“ IV Ashur (and) the great gods, the guardians of my kingdom, who gave government and laws to my dominions, and ordered an enlarged frontier to their territory, having committed to (my) hand their valiant and warlike servants, I have subdued the lands and the peoples and the strong places, and the Kings who were hostile to Ashur; and I have reduced all that was contained in them. With a host [1] of kings I have fought ... [2] and have imposed on them the bond of servitude. There is not to me a second in war, nor an equal in battle. I have added territory to Assyria and peoples to her people. ”