GOLD RINGS CONTEMPORANEOUS
The earliest recorded doubt as to the identity of the ÆLFRED of the
Jewel with Alfred of Wessex was grounded upon the high artistic
quality of the work[53]. It may therefore be illustrative if we advert
to some other specimens of English jewellery belonging to those early
times. One such has already been quoted above (p. 68), namely, the
‘enamelled ouche’ of Mr. Roach Smith, which is now in the British
Museum. This is a piece of great beauty and high technical skill; and
it has every appearance of belonging to these times, but there is
nothing to fix its date more definitely. Happily, there are specimens
of English jewellery of the ninth century which exclude this doubt. We
have no less than three inscribed gold rings which certainly belonged
to eminent contemporaries of Alfred, and two of them to members of his
family circle; insomuch that we may say, with some confidence, that
these two must have been familiar objects to his eye.
THE RING OF ALHSTAN, WHO WAS BISHOP
OF SHERBORNE FROM 824 TO 867.
In chronological order the first of these three rings is one that
bears the name of ALHSTAN. It was found in the year 1753 at Llysfaen,
in the county of Carnarvon. It was figured and described in the
_Archæologia_, iv. 47, by Mr. Pegge, whose letter is dated July
6, 1771. He identified the name with Ealhstan or Ealchstan, the
warlike bishop of Sherborne. It may seem strange that the bishop of
Sherborne’s ring should be found in Carnarvonshire; but the _Saxon
Chronicle_ suggests a simple and natural explanation. In the year
853 Æthelwulf, king of Wessex, was petitioned by the king and Witan
of Mercia to aid them in the subjugation of the Welsh, who were in
rebellion. Consequently, Æthelwulf marched with an army into Wales,
and restored the imperial authority of Mercia.
This operation (which was part of the defence of the country against
the Danes, whom the Welsh of Cambria were prone to support) would
naturally have been conducted with the advice and under the management
of Alhstan[54]. The name Llysfaen (‘Stone Court’) fitly describes
the rocky enclosure in which the ring was found, and in which we may
suppose that the final negotiations were conducted. Preoccupation
of mind in momentous business makes it easy to imagine how the old
war-chief of Æthelwulf might have lost his ring. Among the selfsame
rocks of Llysfaen, and near the spot where the Alhstan ring was
discovered, another ring was shortly afterwards found, containing a
greater weight of gold, but of comparatively rude workmanship, and not
inscribed.
The Alhstan ring now belongs to the Waterton Collection, which is
preserved in the South Kensington Museum. It is of that type (not
uncommon in Roman rings) which suggests derival from a string of
beads. The lettering occupies four circular compartments, which
alternating with four lozenge-shaped compartments, constitute the
hoop of the ring. Pegge saw the dragon of Wessex in the grotesque
animals which occupy the lozenge-shaped compartments. The characters
are beautiful Roman capitals of Anglo-Saxon type, except the N, which
is represented by the Rune ᚾ. Besides the _Archæologia_, the ring is
figured in _Art Treasures of the United Kingdom_, a monumental book
which was published in connexion with the Manchester Exhibition of
1857.
INSCRIBED GOLD RING OF ÆTHELWULF,
KING OF WESSEX (836–855).
[Illustration: ✠ EꞱHELVVLF ℞]
The second of the three rings is inscribed in the above form with the
name of Alfred’s father, king Ethelwulf, for whom it was evidently
made. It is in the form of a bishop’s mitre, with only one peak.
[Illustration]
In 1781, March 22, Lord Radnor brought this find before the Society
of Antiquaries. It had been found in the summer of 1780 in a field in
the parish of Laverstoke, near Salisbury. According to the finder’s
story, it was brought to the surface by the pressure of a cart-wheel,
and it lay exposed on the edge of the rut. Mr. Howell, a silversmith
in Salisbury, gave the man thirty-four shillings for the value of the
gold, and Lord Radnor bought it of Mr. Howell. It still shows the
effect of hard pressure, being almost flattened. It was figured in the
_Archæologia_, vii. 421, and repeatedly since. It is preserved in the
British Museum.
A GOLD RING UPON WHICH THE NAME OF ÆTHELSWITH, QUEEN OF MERCIA, HAS
BEEN INCISED.
[Illustration]
In the two rings already described, the names of Alhstan and Æthelwulf
belong to the fabric of the rings, as the name of Ælfred belongs to
the fabric of the Jewel. But it is different in the ring of queen
Æthelswith.
This ring swells out into a dilated bezil, on the cop of which is
an _Agnus Dei_, beautifully engraved in relief, with a background
of niello. The interior of this bezil (which would be in contact
with the wearer’s finger) was a fair gold surface when the ring was
finished and put out of hand by the goldsmith. Subsequently, the name
of Æthelswith has been incised upon that surface with the fine point
of a graving tool, somewhat in this form: ✠ EAÐEL[Symbol: reversed
Z]VIÐ REG[Symbol: elongated N]A, where the [Symbol: elongated N] is a
monogram for IN, so that the inscription reads ✠ ÆTHELSWITH REGINA.
The incision is so slight and so fresh that it is manifest the ring
had no considerable wear after it was done[55].
[Illustration]
Æthelswith was the daughter of Æthelwulf and sister of Alfred, and
consort of Burgred, king of Mercia, who was driven out by the Danes
in 874, and retired to Rome, where he died. Æthelswith died in 888 at
Pavia, apparently on pilgrimage. The annal recording it runs thus:
‘888. This year the alms of the West Saxons and of king Alfred were
conducted to Rome by “Beocca ealdorman.” And queen Æthelswith, who was
king Alfred’s sister, died, and was buried at Pavia[56].’
This fine nielloed ring was found near Aberford in Yorkshire, in or
about the year 1870. It was first observed by a ploughman at the point
of his ploughshare. He brought it to his master, who, thinking it
brass, attached it to his dog’s collar, where it hung until some one
assured him it was gold, whereupon he carried it to a silversmith at
York, and exchanged it for spoons. From this dealer it was purchased
by Canon Greenwell of Durham, from whom it passed into the possession
of Sir Wollaston Franks, and ultimately by his bequest came to the
British Museum.
[Illustration]
When we consider how very small is the whole number of extant gold
rings (whether inscribed or not) that date from the Saxon period, it
must strike us as a very remarkable circumstance that we are able
to produce three such examples, all within the period of Alfred’s
life, and two of them belonging to such near relations that we may
naturally suppose they were familiar objects to his eye.
* * * * *
And there is a fourth ring, of which we cannot assert that it belongs
to this very select group, but which certainly must be assigned to the
same general period, and claims association with the three. It is a
simple hoop of gold, a good quarter of an inch wide, having its outer
surface covered with the following engraved inscription nielloed[57]:
[Illustration: ÆÐRED MEC AH EANRED MEC AGROF: that is, _Æðred me owns,
Eanred me engraved_.]
Hickes described this ring in his _Thesaurus_ (Preface, pp. viij and
xiij) with a good figure: but in the interpretation he read the last
word as AGROFT, taking an idle mark like an inverted T as part of the
word; whereas it is there only to fill out the space. In the lettering
there are five Runes: namely, the Æ in ÆÐRED, the N in EANRED, and the
A, G, and F in AGROF. This is the ring which was alluded to above (p.
17), in connexion with the archaic pronoun MEC, which occurs twice on
it.
In 1705, when this ring was described by Hickes, it was in the
possession of Dr. Hans Sloane: it is now in the British Museum.
The forms ‘Æthred’ and ‘Æthered’ are colloquial abbreviations of
‘Æthelred,’ which was the name of that one among the brothers of
Alfred, with whom his relations were closest. But the frequency of the
name forbids us to assert that this ring was made for king Æthelred.
The names ‘Æthelwulf’ and ‘Æthelswith’ are in themselves exceptional,
and when combined with the royal title are absolutely identifying:
the name ‘Alhstan,’ combined with the peculiar aspect of the ring and
the circumstances of its discovery, not much less so; but the name
‘ÆTHRED,’ though forcibly aided by the noble aspect of the ring, only
enables us to assert a degree of probability which every one must
determine for himself.
Everything in the appearance of these rings declares them to be the
work of Saxon artists, and on the ÆÐRED ring the artist bears a good
Saxon name. Such specimens must finally dissipate any lingering relics
of the old prejudice, that the work of the Alfred Jewel is too good to
have been produced in the England of the ninth century. We may rest
assured that the excellence of the workmanship carries with it no
presumption against its being English work of the time of king ALFRED.
[53] See above, p. 7.
[54] Alhstan had accompanied Ecgberht on his famous expedition into
Cornwall in 825, and we find him with the forces of Somerset and
Dorset in 845 to oppose the Danes at the mouth of Pedrida. See Mr.
Plummer’s note to _Sax. Chron._, Ā. 823.
[55] But the edges of the ring show (as Franks pointed out) traces
of long wear. He goes on to say: ‘The engraving, moreover, scarcely
looks like the work of a goldsmith. I would therefore suggest,
that the Queen had probably offered this ring at some shrine, and
the priests connected with the shrine had engraved her name within
the ring, to record the royal giver.’ _Proc. Soc. Antiq._, 2nd
Series, vol. vi, p. 307.
[56] 888. Her lædde Beocca ealdorman West Sea na ælmessan and
Ælfredes cyninges to Rome. ⁊ Æþelswiþ cuen, sio wæs Ælfredes
sweostor cyninges, forþferde, ⁊ hire lic liþ æt Pafian.
[57] Professor Stephens of Copenhagen, _Runic Monuments_, Part II,
p. 463, dated it ‘about A.D. 700–800’: but in this estimate he has
been guided (I think) not by anything in the artistic design or
execution, but simply by the large proportion of Runes in the mixed
lettering, a criterion of very doubtful value.