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The Alfred Jewel
J. EARLE
Henry Frowde, M.A.
Publisher to the University of Oxford
London, Edinburgh, and New York
[Illustration:
FRONT BACK
ENAMEL
RIGHT LEFT
THE JEWEL IN FOUR ASPECTS
WITH SEPARATE FIGURE OF ENAMEL]
The Alfred Jewel:
An Historical Essay
By
John Earle, M.A., LL.D.
Rector of Swanswick, Prebendary of Wells
Rawlinsonian Professor of Anglo-Saxon in the University of Oxford
With Illustrations and Map
Oxford
At the Clarendon Press
mdcccci
Oxford
Printed at the Clarendon Press
By Horace Hart, M.A.
Printer to the University
PREFACE
It is full fifty years since I began to contemplate the Alfred
Jewel with a wonder and curiosity which became a habit. At length,
in the latter half of that period, the vague attitude of enquiry
began to point in a definite direction, and to exhibit susceptibility
of development suggesting promise of possible discovery. Prompted
by such anticipations, I one day ventured to express a wish to the
Principal of Hertford College that he would exercise his well-known
graphic talent upon the Alfred Jewel, and make some enlarged drawings
of it suitable for a Public Lecture. The result was that he gave
me a beautiful set of coloured drawings of the Jewel in various
aspects admirably calculated for exhibition in the Lecture Room.
Thus equipped, I was able to make the subject more intelligible and
more attractive, and I lectured upon it the oftener. As it has not
been my wont to write my lectures out in full, it was all the more
necessary for me on every new occasion to make a fresh study of the
Jewel. In this recurring process new lights rose at wide intervals of
time, and drew me on to devote more thought to the object and to the
times associated with it; and I found more than I had looked for in
the design, and more (I think) than I should have found, but for the
generous aid so readily extended to me by Dr. Boyd.
It was after such a lecture delivered in May, 1899, that I had the
great and unexpected pleasure of a proposal from the Delegates of the
Press to make a book of it. I was able to accept this proposal without
misgiving, because I was satisfied that I had a solid interpretation
to offer—one which had been slowly matured and scrupulously tested by
every means in my power. All the old theories had come to nothing:
there was not one of them that could be seriously advocated as resting
upon evidence either in history or in common sense and the natural
reason of things. In saying so much as this, I am only accounting for
my readiness to accept the task, and not by any means prejudging the
general verdict upon the validity of my argument. In this argument I
seek to establish the intimate relation of the Jewel with the history
and the mind and the person of Alfred of Wessex, not indeed as a
scientifically demonstrated fact, but as a well-founded and abundantly
supported probability. I have no desire that this conclusion should be
admitted without a complete and rigid scrutiny.
In the carrying out of this undertaking I have received welcome and
much-needed help from many quarters. The subject is one that calls
for illustration by maps and drawings and I desire to express my
sincere acknowledgements to Mr. Alfred A. Clarke of Wells for his four
drawings, among which I will particularly mention his characteristic
landscape of the Isle of Athelney.
The map of Athelney and the lands adjacent is very ingeniously devised
for exhibiting the contrast between the low level of the moorland
and the contours of the rising country around; it is expressive and
intelligible at a glance: and for this excellent illustration my
acknowledgements are due to Mr. Bernhard V. Darbishire.
My hearty thanks are due to Mr. Charles H. Read of the British Museum
for the ample information he kindly afforded me concerning the gold
rings of the Saxon period which are in his department. Also for the
permission which he gave (as Secretary of the Society of Antiquaries)
to transfer to these pages their engraving from the Book of Kells, and
also their three figures of the gold ring of queen Æthelswith.
To those gentlemen of Somerset who have aided me with local
information and hospitality and personal guidance, I have good cause
to be always grateful. Major Barrett, junior, of Moredon, the owner
of the Isle of Athelney, took me over the ground in a manner that is
very agreeable to remember, and caused me to see the historical sites
of his country with every advantage. It was under his auspices that I
first realized the full import of Alfred’s fort at Borough Bridge, and
what a speaking object-lesson it certainly is. I had seen it in 1856,
but I had not adequately appreciated it.
From Mr. Cely Trevelian of Midelney Place I learnt much that was
useful to me concerning the history and present conditions of the
moorlands of Somerset. He was my hospitable friend and companion over
the country on either side of the Parrett in the circle of Langport,
and from that to Borough Bridge. Under his guidance I revisited
Aller (pronounced Oller), and renewed acquaintance with its sacred
associations, after an interval of forty-four years. In 1856 I was
conducted by an old Oriel friend who was my host, the Rev. James
Coleman, then Curate of the parish in which Athelney is situated; he
subsequently became Vicar of Cheddar and Prebendary of Wells. When I
entered upon the present work, after so long an interval, it was with
Mr. Coleman that I began to make enquiries for local information.
To Sir Alexander Acland Hood I am indebted for genealogical and
topographical information, and particularly for some new light on
the history of the Jewel, now for the first time made public. The
statement in the manuscript of Mr. Thomas Palmer, which is preserved
at Fairfield, that the Jewel was ‘dug up,’ is a new item in the
circumstances of the discovery, to which I attach important evidential
weight.
I have also to thank Sir Cuthbert Slade of Maunsel, for his courtesy
in answering my enquiries, genealogical and territorial, concerning
the Slade family.
On Mr. C. F. Bell, the Assistant Keeper of the Ashmolean Museum, I
chiefly depended for help in that part of my subject where I was most
wanting, namely in the technicalities of ancient art, and especially
concerning enamels.
To my friend Dr. Shadwell my obligations are not the less but the
greater for that they are somewhat indefinable. He has read through
the proofs, and has given me valuable suggestions, and he has always
been ready to help when I needed advice.
For me this trinket has assumed the proportions of a serious
historical problem, and its investigation has been rewarded with
new light in many directions, and I do not think I shall regret the
time spent upon it, even though my conclusions should hereafter be
modified or even refuted. I hold that, apart from the conclusions, the
investigation itself was worth the while, but when I say this I am
not to be understood as admitting that I have little confidence in my
conclusions.
In putting forth this Essay, I desire to convince the reader only
as fully as I am convinced myself, that is to say, with a conviction
which makes no claim to finality, but lies open to correction in case
of new light or better use of old data; yet which nevertheless, in the
mean time and for the main issues of the enquiry, reaches a degree of
probability whereby all doubt and uncertainty is practically excluded.
J. E.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
PAGE
DESCRIPTION OF THE ALFRED JEWEL 1–9
The place of its deposit 1
Structural details of the Jewel 2
The name of Alfred upon it 4
Question what this name imports _id._
Other persons bearing this name 5
The perfection of the Jewel suggested doubt 7
The firm judgement of Dr. George Hickes 8
Nevertheless, the question must be kept in view
throughout this Essay 9
CHAPTER II
THE EPIGRAPH OR LEGEND 10–21
The forms of the lettering 10
The Syntax of the Sentence: 12
(1) as to collocation 13
(2) usage of words _id._
(3) flexional construction 15
(4) active and passive structure 16
Other time-indications in the Epigraph 17
Quotation from Alfred’s Prologue to his _Pastoralis_ 19
Similarity between the Prologue and the Epigraph 21
CHAPTER III
EARLY SPECULATIONS ABOUT ITS DESIGN AND MANNER OF USE 22–30
The Epoch of the Discovery—The Royal Society 22
The persons who first were conversant with the new-found
object—Colonel Nathaniel Palmer 23
Dr. Hans Sloane—The British Museum 24
Robert Harley, first Earl of Oxford _id._
First published notice of the Jewel—Dr. William
Musgrave 25
Hickes’s _Thesaurus_ _id._
Variety of opinions about the Jewel _id._
Francis Wise—Samuel Pegge 27
Mr. Philip Duncan 28
St. Neot and St. Cuthbert 29
Abortiveness of these attempts 30
CHAPTER IV
BISHOP CLIFFORD’S THEORY 31–43
Bishop Clifford 31
The handle of a choirmaster’s wand 32
Identical with the ‘æstel’? 34
Given by Alfred to Athelney Abbey and there kept
to Henry VIII’s time 35
This theory inapplicable to the Jewel 37
But perhaps applicable to the ‘æstel’ 41
Theory of sceptre-tip 42
CHAPTER V
A JEWEL IN THE CROWN 44–50
Form convenient for erection in the helmet 44
Transforms the helmet into a Coronet 45
The minor jewel from Minster Lovel 46
Dr. Wilson and Dr. Griffiths 48
Quotations from Beowulf and Laȝamon 49
The Crown of Queen Victoria 50
CHAPTER VI
THE BOAR’S HEAD 51–60
Diversity of opinion about the animal’s head 51
Testimony undesigned 52
The wild boar in the helmet _id._
Quotations from the _Beowulf_ 53 ff.
The Boar’s Head at Queen’s College, Oxford 57
Religious origin of the Boar’s Head as a Crest 59
CHAPTER VII
THE FIGURE IN ENAMEL AND THE ENGRAVED PLATE AT THE BACK OF IT 61–91
Our Chief Problem is ‘A figure hard to characterize’ 61
Division of this Chapter 62
Enamelling as an artistic industry _id._
Enamel _cloisonnée_ 63
Chief extant specimens according to M. Labarte 64 ff.
The Enamelled Ouche of Mr. Roach Smith 68
Enamel _champlevée_ _id._
Obscurity of the history of enamelling 69
Philostratus 70
Enamelled horse-gear 71
The Symbolism of the _icuncula_ and its Source 74
The _Book of Kells_ 76 f.
Relations of Alfred with Irish travellers 78
The Tufa 79
Evidence for the Enamel’s being an insular product 80
Allegorical engraving on the back-plate 81
Dualistic theory of Sir Francis Palgrave 83
The brothers John and Philip Duncan 84
Unity of thought in the Jewel 86
Alfred’s Epilogue to his _Pastoralis_ 87 ff.
Summary of this Chapter 90
CHAPTER VIII
ALFRED IN SOMERSET BEYOND PEDRIDA 92–132
The central episode of Alfred’s career 92
Suddenness of the surprize at Chippenham 94
Apprehension of attack on north coast of Wealcyn 95
Alhstan, bishop of Sherborne 96
Meditations of king Alfred _id._
Danish invasion of Wessex 97
Placable temper of the West Welsh 98
Hostility of the ‘North Welsh’ _id._
Alfred’s disguise 99 f.
The Jewel must be buried 100
Selwood 101
Story of Denewulf _id._
Hingston Down 102
The Danes in Exeter _id._
The Danes at Cynwit 103
The political import of Pedrida 104 f.
Selwoodshire 105
The Transpedridan dialect 106
The Devonian ‘u’ 107
The Pixies 108
Somerset in Alfred’s day 109
Subsidence of the land 110 f.
Elm-trees 112
Red Deer 113
Leland’s _Itinerary_ 115
Etymology of ‘Pedrida’ 117
British policy of Wessex _id._ f.
Aldhelm’s letter to Gerontius 119
His little church at Bradford-on-Avon 120
Associations of Glastonbury _id._ ff.
Asser’s _Life of Alfred_ 124
The Fort at Athelney 128
Brixton Deveril 129
The buried Jewel not recovered 130
The Peiwar Kotal (1878) 131
‘What follows is like a dream’ 132
CHAPTER IX
NEWTON PARK AND FAIRFIELD HOUSE 133–145
‘Newton Park’ 133
Ælfric, archbishop of Canterbury 134
The Forest of North Petherton _id._
Three co-heiresses 135
The Perambulation of the Forests _id._
Gefferey Chaucer 136
The improvements of Sir Thomas Wrothe 137
A surmise about the Manor of Newton 138
Petherton Park 139
The parish of Stogursey _id._
Fairfield House 140
‘Always a Vernai at Fairfield’ 142
The Palmer family _id._
Nathaniel Palmer 144
Thomas Palmer _id._
Two co-heiresses 145
CHAPTER X
GOLD RINGS CONTEMPORANEOUS 146–156
The Enamelled Ouche of Mr. Roach Smith 146
The Ring of Alhstan 147
The place of its discovery 148
The Ring of Alfred’s father 149
The place and manner of its discovery 150
The Ring of Alfred’s sister 151
The manner of its discovery 153
The Ring of Æthred 154
Runes intermixed with Roman lettering 155
The artist bears a Saxon name 156
CHAPTER XI
SOME CLOSING REFLECTIONS 157–174
Fine workmanship no longer an objection 157
Early cumulation of evidence 158
Evidence added since _id._
Rejected theories 159
The Cynehelm theory _id._
The unity of the work makes for Alfred of Wessex 160
Outline of the Symbolism _id._
My surprize at the latent meanings 161
The fondness of king Alfred for imagery _id._ ff.
The Simile of the Waggon 163
The Jewel illustrated by the Writings of king Alfred 165
The Jewel probably records a Crisis 166
At what Epoch designed? _id._
Double process of investigation 167
Date of Alfred’s return from Rome 170 f.
The nature of Probable Evidence 172 ff.
Conclusions from the above data 174
APPENDICES
APPENDIX A. The First published Notice of the Alfred Jewel
(to pp. 25 and 144) 175
APPENDIX B. St. Neot and St. Cuthbert (to pp. 29 and 74) 177
APPENDIX C. The Two-sceptered Figure in the _Book of Kells_
(to p. 78) 181
APPENDIX D. The British Origin of the Enamelled Figure
(to p. 91) 184
APPENDIX E. Athelney Abbey (to p. 115) 189
APPENDIX F. North Newton Church (to p. 139) 192
APPENDIX G. The Presentation of the Alfred Jewel to the
University of Oxford (to pp. 140 and 145) 194
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
The Alfred Jewel in four aspects, with separate Figure of
Enamel _Frontispiece_
The Inscription on the Jewel 1
The Minster Lovel Jewel _to face_ 47
Illumination from the _Book of Kells_ ” 77
The Isle of Athelney ” 92
Fairfield House 141
Inscription on the Ring of Æthelwulf 149
The Ring of Æthelwulf 150
The Ring of Queen Æthelswith, the bezil 151
Inscription within the Ring of Queen Æthelswith 152
The Ring of Queen Æthelswith showing niello 153
Inscription on Æðred’s Ring 154
The Jewel, Front and Back _to face_ 174
Sculptured Bosses found at Athelney Abbey 189, 191
Tower of North Newton Church _to face_ 192
Map of the Isle of Athelney _At end_
THE ALFRED JEWEL
CHAPTER I
DESCRIPTION OF THE ALFRED JEWEL
The subject of this Essay is preserved in the Ashmolean Museum, which
has been its home for a period of time now approaching two hundred
years. It is there installed under glass in such a manner that every
side of it is plainly exhibited to the eye of the visitor. It bears an
inscription in conspicuous lettering which sets forth that by Alfred’s
order it was made, and this is the ground upon which it is known as
THE ALFRED JEWEL.
[Illustration]
The Alfred Jewel has been compared to a battledore, not untruly
for the matter of shape; but the wide diversity of size makes the
comparison seem incongruous. The extreme length of the Jewel is a very
small fraction under two inches and a half; its greatest width is just
one inch and a fifth; its thickness barely half an inch.
It contains a sitting Figure enamelled on a plate of gold which is
protected in front by a slab of rock crystal, and at the back by
a gold plate engraved; the whole enshrined in a golden frame of
delicately executed filigree work. The picture is visible through the
rock crystal, making the obverse of the Jewel; while the reverse is
formed by the gold plate which is at the back of the enamelled plate.
Upon this gold plate is engraved an allegorical design. Both these
surfaces (obverse and reverse) are flat, but in every other part of
the Jewel the surface is rounded.
The rounded contours may be likened to those of a pigeon’s egg. If we
imagine a longitudinal section of a pigeon’s egg, the engraved plate
at the back of the picture will correspond to the plane of the egg’s
diameter. From this plane, if we measure three-quarters of an inch in
the girth of the egg, and then take another section parallel to the
gold plate at the back, we obtain the front surface of the crystal,
through which the Enamel is visible.
The effect of this arrangement is, that the sides all round the Jewel
are curved and sloping, and that the obverse is of more contracted
area than the reverse, and also that the measurement of the sloping
side exceeds that of the thickness. The head of the sitting Figure
occupies the broad end of the oval section; the smaller end is
prolonged, and is fashioned like the head of a wild boar on the
obverse, but the reverse of this head is flat and covered with
fish-like scales.
The snout is projected in the form of a socket adapted to receive a
peg or stem; athwart this socket is a cross-pin, having a head at
one of its ends, while the other end is riveted. This indicates that
the Jewel was furnished with a stem which has perished, and which,
therefore, was not metallic, but of some organic material, perhaps
walrus ivory. Around the sloping sides runs a legend:
✠ AELFRED MEC HEHT GEWYRCAN
_Alfred me ordered make_
and this legend starts from the narrowest point of the oval, beginning
on the right-hand side and running round to the corresponding point
on the left, so that it encircles the oval completely, running in the
contrary direction to that with which we are familiar in our coins,
which are read from left to right, as indeed were also the coins of
the ninth century.
Some have doubted whether the owner of the Jewel was the famous
Alfred of Wessex. It has been urged that the name of ÆLFRED in the
Epigraph is not of itself adequate proof of the fact, and it must be
admitted that this is literally true. And it is not superfluous to
point out the inconsequence of such reasoning, for it has actually
been advanced in serious argument. Samuel Pegge, an antiquary
of repute, wrote in _Archæologia_ ii as if there had been but
one eminent person of the name of Alfred:—‘There is no doubt but
this κϵιµήλιον was once the property of the great King Ælfred,
notwithstanding the goodness of the work which has been an objection
to its authenticity; for the king’s name is expressly mentioned in
the inscription.’ There were many persons of that name in the course
of the Saxon period, and the name was not confined to men born
after his time, for there were persons of this name who were men of
mark among his contemporaries, one of whom (to say the least) was
certainly his senior.
When Swithun died, in 862 (in Alfred’s fourteenth year), his successor
in the See of Winchester was named ÆLFRED.
A contemporary of position and intelligence and of great wealth was
that ÆLFRED who redeemed from heathen hands a noble volume of the
Gospels, and conveyed it by a solemn deed of gift in his own name and
that of his wife to the brotherhood of Christ Church, Canterbury[1].
That volume is the _Codex Aureus_, which is now in the Royal Library
at Stockholm. The Will of this Alfred, who in the course of that
document styles himself ‘Elfred dux,’ is one of the most precious
relics of Saxon antiquity[2].
A few years after the king’s death, the Chronicle records, in 906, the
death of an Alfred, who was Reeve of Bath.
It has been argued that with such facts before us the ownership of
the Alfred Jewel must be a matter of uncertainty, for we only know
that it was ordered by a person of the name of Alfred. Such arguments
may sometimes be heard from persons whose opinions are entitled to
respect, but I am not aware that any one has undertaken to reason
out and maintain this view in a published writing. And perhaps if
we attend well to the whole of the evidence, we shall see no cause
to marvel at the unanimity of authors in accepting this Jewel as a
personal possession of king Alfred’s, and (in some measure, diversely
estimated) as a product of his own artistic design.
It is not the name by itself, but this name taken in connexion with
the richness and costliness of the work, with the thoughtful ingenuity
of its device and composition, and with the symbolic meanings which
must be assigned to certain parts of the structure;—such evidences as
these, again combined with certain external evidences, namely, the
locality in which the Jewel was found, and any affinities apparent
in the above data with the career or exploits of the king, or with
his character and tastes,—when the ownership is questioned, we find
ourselves face to face with an accumulation of evidence varying in
quality and requiring to be judged by the delicate and sensitive
standard of probability. In presence of such a problem we should
not neglect the impressions and expressed opinions of persons whose
instincts have been cultivated in the sphere of such probabilities.
George Hickes, in 1705, mentions some doubting critics, whose
difficulty lay in the beauty and perfection of the work. They could
not understand how such artistic work could proceed from Anglo-Saxon
artists in the ninth century. But for himself, he added, the mere
sight of the Jewel had been enough, and that from his first view of it
he had never doubted that it was a personal possession of the great
king Alfred[3].
When an elaborate piece of workmanship like the Alfred Jewel is
presented to the experienced mind and practised eye of a man like
Hickes, the evidence is rapidly, almost unconsciously, sifted, and
the probabilities converge to a focus, so as to produce a conviction
which seems like a simple apprehension of the senses. I welcome
Hickes’s expression of confidence as a confirmation of that which I
have experienced myself. But while I am entirely free from uncertainty
I quite recognize the reasonableness of the doubt, and I know that
(logically speaking) the uncertainty is there. And I know also that
many of my readers will entertain it and will look more or less
dubiously upon the assumption of certainty in this matter. And,
indeed, there is a certain advantage in having to reckon with this
sceptical attitude of mind, insomuch as the presence of doubt has a
stimulating effect in furnishing the discourse with a determinate aim
and direction. It will set me on the alert, that I may not miss any
incidental chance of a reflection tending to assure those who would
be gratified to think that we do indeed possess a relic intimately
associated with the person, and with the mind, of ALFRED, KING OF
WESSEX.
[1] This remarkable document begins thus:—✠ In nomine domini nostri
Ihesu Christi. Ic ÆLFRED aldormon and Werburg min gefera begetan
ðas béc æt hæðnum herge mid uncre clæne feó ðæt ðoune wæs mid clæne
golde, and ðæt wit deodan for Godes lufan and for uncre saule
ðearf ond forðon ðe wit noldan ðæt ðas halgan beoc lencg in ðære
hæðenesse wunaden. ‘✠ In the name of our Lord Jesu Christ. I Alfred
alderman and Werburg my consort purchased these books at a heathen
host with our clean money, that is to say with clean gold; and that
we two did for God’s love and for the benefit of our souls, and
for that we would not that these holy books should longer lie in
hethenesse.’ Birch, _Cartularium Saxonicum_, No. 634.
[2] Kemble, _Codex Diplomaticus_, No. 317; Birch, _Cartularium
Saxonicum_, No. 558; Earle, _Land Charters_, p. 152.
[3] ‘Quoad opificium autem, tam elegans quidem id est et perfectum,
ut eius antiquitatem in dubium vocandi doctis nonnullis occasionem
dederit, etsi _Ælfredi_ regis hoc olim fuisse peculium, ex quo
primum vidi, nunquam dubitavi.’ _Linguarum Veterum Septentrionalium
Thesaurus_, vol. i, p. 144.