Balti state university a. Russo chair of english philology

Alfred the Great (849 – 901). Alfred the Great had travelled on the continent and visited 
France. He was a Latin scholar and did much to enlighten his people. He translated the Church – 
history of Bede from Latin into English which was a very significant event for the Englishmen since 
they were for the first time exposed to some historical facts. Alfred the Great wrote Anglo-Saxon 
Chronicles, which is considered the first history of England. His works do not come out of any 
vainglory. Neither are they the offspring of a personal craving to write. His sole purpose was to 
instruct his subjects. And he starts by reminding his nation of the glorious traditions which they 
should not let down. He writes in “Anglo-Saxon Chronicles”: “there were learned men formerly
throughout England, both in religion and in secular positions”, “how the kings who held rule over 
the people in those days were obedient to God and to their representatives and how they 
maintained peace and good morals and order at home”, “how eager they were both in teaching 
and in learning” and “in all services they owed to God”, “how people from abroad come to seek 
wisdom and instruction in our land” and how “we now have to go abroad to get wisdom and 
instruction, if we are to have them at all.”/2  King Alfred was a teacher in the first place, a sensible 
receiver and a wise sender. He first informs his people of their own history, translating from Latin 
Bede‟s “Ecclesiastical History of the English”. The version is close to the original but many 
chapters, unlikely to be of general interest, are omitted. The next translation that Alfred the Great 
made was “The History of the World” by Orasius. He was eager to let the English know what lies 
beyond their country. It isn‟t a scientific treaty, but a helpful guide to the history of other peoples. 
King Alfred drops out the controversial and what he thinks to be dull in it, and introduces a lot of 
new facts, among others a full account of the geography of Germany.
An exception is De Consolatione Philosophiae by Boethius in the sense that King Alfred is not 
attracted now by any pedagogical purpose but by his own feelings, i.e. he identifies himself with this book so 
much suited to the mood of a man who has understood that power, wealth and fame are termporary.
1. 
The Norton Anthology of English Literature; fifth Edition. The Major Authors; New York,
London, 1989 p. 20 
2. 
and 3. The Norton Anthology of English Literature; fifth Edition. The Major Authors; New 
York, London, 1989 p 22, p 22 

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The book is a dialogue between the author and a philosopher who comforts him by proving that it is 
only the spiritual happiness that matters. The translator “sets down word for word, sometimes meaning for 
meaning” and sometimes, leaving the original aside, writes out of his life experience, with the same 
simplicity and clearness. Alfred the Great made a great contribution to the development of the Englishmen‟s 
thinking.