Orosius.[25] In his boyhood he had twice made journeys to Rome, which,
as regards danger and hardships, may be compared to an expedition to
Lhasa at the present day. In after life he had become very intimately
acquainted with the topography of his native island, from the Humber
to the shores of the Channel, and from the Severn to the East Anglian
coast. As a military tactician he knew each river, valley, hill range,
and plain; as an administrator he had examined the capabilities of every
district; and as a naval commander, the harbours and estuaries, the tides
and currents were familiar to him. So far as his personal knowledge
extended, Alfred was a trained geographer. He was also in a position to
increase the information derived from his own personal experiences by
diligently collecting materials from those foreigners who frequented his
court, and by reading. He had the gift of assimilating the knowledge thus
acquired, and he studied most diligently. Above all, he was eager to
investigate unknown things for the great end he always had in view—the
good of his people.
Alfred’s design was to collect the best and most extensive geographical
information, without confining himself to the text of Orosius. Thus he
commences his geographical work with a very lucid account of the peoples
of central Europe and of their relative positions, which is not in the
work of Orosius, but was composed by the king himself from his own
sources of information. It is the only account from which such details in
that age can be derived.
The East Franks, he tells us, were established east of the Rhine and
north of the source of the Danube. The Swabians were to the south and
beyond the Danube, while the Bavarians were farther east round the
town of Ratisbon, both peoples occupying the country up to the foot
of the Alps. East of the Bavarians was Bohemia, and to the north-east
was Thuringia. Turning to the north of Germany the king places the old
Saxons round the mouth of the Elbe, and the Frisians farther west. North
of the Elbe were the Angles, who nearly all came to people England, and
the Danes on the mainland and in the island of Zeeland. King Alfred then
gives some details respecting the Slavonic tribes in the eastern part of
Germany. The Afdrede were established in what is now Mecklenburg, and
the Wylte in that part of the mark of Brandenburg then called Hæfeldan.
The Sysyle were in a part of Eastern Prussia then known as Wineda-land.
Eastward from the countries of the Bohemians and Bavarians were the
Moravians; and to the south, beyond the Danube again, and extending to
the Alps, was Carinthia. A desert, by which the Karst may be intended,
extended between Carinthia and the land of the Bulgarians, beyond which
was the Byzantine empire. To the east of Moravia was Wisl-land, the
region watered by the Vistula, Dalamensan, Horithi, and Surpe. These
Slavonic peoples occupied Poland, and to the north-east was Sermende, the
modern Livonia.
Having given the relative positions of the peoples inhabiting central
Europe, King Alfred turns to the north, and takes us to the countries
bordering on the British sea and the Baltic, or Ost-sæ as he calls
it. The north Danes were then in the provinces of Halland and Scania,
now part of Sweden, as well as in the islands. To the eastward were
the Afdrede already mentioned as occupying Mecklenburg, the Burgendas
apparently on the island of Bornholm, and Osti or Easterlings, a Finnish
race, inhabited Esthonia. On the Scandinavian peninsula were the Sweon
or Swedes, the Northmen, and the Scride-Finnas or “striding Finns.” Far
to the north, between the Gulf of Bothnia and the Arctic Sea, including
Finmarken, was the waste country called Cwenland.
Having given this most valuable summary of the inhabitants of Central and
Northern Europe during the ninth century, King Alfred proceeds to relate
the particulars of two important voyages made by distinguished seamen who
had come to his court and recited their adventures to him. The first was
an influential Northman or Norwegian named Oht-here, or in old Norwegian,
Ottar. The name is derived from the two words _oht_ (dread or fear) and
_hær_ or _here_ (an army), _hærmand_, a warrior. The right meaning of
Oht-here is, therefore, “terror-causing warrior.” This able navigator
“told his Lord King Alfred that he dwelt northmost of all Northmen, on
the land by the west sea.” The district in which he dwelt was called
Halgoland, the land of fire, or more probably “the land of the northern
lights.” Oht-here’s home has been placed on the shores of Lerivik Sound,
between the Island of Senjen and the mainland. “He said no man abode
north of him. He was a wealthy man in those possessions in which their
wealth consists,” possessing 600 tame reindeer of his own breeding, 20
horned cattle, as many sheep and swine, and horses with which he ploughed
a small extent of tilled land. But his revenues were chiefly derived from
tribute paid to him by the Laplanders, called Finns by the Norwegians, in
furs and skins, birds’ feathers, whalebone, and ropes made from walrus
hide. Oht-here called his country Northweg (Norway), and described it as
being very long and narrow, with all the pasture and culturable land near
the sea, which, however, is very rocky in some places. Inland, he said
that there were high mountains, and farther to the eastward were Sweden
in the south and Cwenland in the north. He added that to the north of
Halgoland the country was waste and desert, except in a few places, where
the Laplanders were encamped for hunting, or on the sea-coast for fishing
in the summer.
Oht-here was evidently a man of high position and great influence, one
who was worthy of the friendship and confidence of King Alfred. He was
inspired by the noble desire for Arctic exploration and discovery, or,
as he expressed himself to the king, he desired to find out how the land
lay far to the north. So he undertook a most adventurous voyage to the
northward, coasting along the land, keeping the wild, rocky coast on his
starboard side and the wide Arctic Sea on what he called his _bæc-bord_.
Continuing this course for three days, he passed beyond the most northern
point to which the whale-hunters ever went in those days. Still pressing
onwards, he attained the most northern point ever reached by man, in
about 71° 15′ N. The land then trended eastward, and, after waiting a
short time for a westerly wind, he shaped a course along the coast to the
eastward until he reached the entrance of the White Sea on the fourth
day. Here he waited for a northerly breeze, which enabled him to coast
round the Kola peninsula to the mouth of the Varzuga river, and thus to
discover the White Sea. Here he stopped owing to fear of hostilities from
the natives beyond. These were the North Carelians, on the western coast
of the White Sea. Oht-here calls them Beormas, and says that they had a
well-peopled land.
Oht-here’s discoveries included the whole of the Arctic coast of
Finmarken and the shores of the White Sea as far as the mouth of the
Varzuga. He was the first to double the North Cape, and Oht-here’s
farthest north held its ground for nearly seven hundred years, until the
voyage of Willoughby and Chancellor in 1553.
Oht-here calls the country between the Gulf of Bothnia and the Arctic
Sea, Terfinna land, _Ter_ being the ancient name of the Kola peninsula.
Terfinna therefore means the Finns in Ter. He describes it as entirely
waste and uninhabited, except where the Laplanders were encamped for
hunting or fishing. He was told many tales respecting their country by
the Beormas, but King Alfred did not record them, because they were only
from hearsay, and not things the explorer could testify to from personal
knowledge. Besides discovery, another object of Oht-here’s voyage was
the capture of walrus, for the sake of their hides and tusks. He calls
the walrus a horse whale, but says that it is much smaller than other
whales; thus correctly including whales, usually supposed to be fish in
ancient times, under the head of mammalia, by classing them with the
walrus. The length of a walrus is given, with approximate accuracy, at
14 feet. Oht-here told King Alfred that the great whales were from 96 to
100 feet long, and that the best whale-hunting was off his own country
of Halgoland. The skill and energy of those old Norsemen must have been
most remarkable, for Oht-here says that his was one of six vessels which
killed sixty whales in two days. The ships must have had very large
crews, and a considerable number of boats for each ship, to have achieved
such an unequalled feat, probably without a rival in the whole history of
whaling. But it is more likely that Oht-here alluded to walrus or “horse
whales.”
Oht-here also described to the king a voyage to the south from Halgoland,
along the coast of Norway, to Denmark and Slesvig. He said that with a
fair wind, and anchoring each night, the voyage from Halgoland to a port
he calls Sciringesheal, might be made in a month. Sciringesheal is in
old Norwegian _Scirings-salr_, which, in the ninth century, was a town
on the shores of a small bay in Larviks-fjord, called Viks-fjord. In
the English of Alfred the termination _salr_ (a large room) is changed
into _heal_ (a hall). On the _bæc-bord_ is Norway, and on the starboard
side is Iraland and other islands. He then describes a great sea running
inland, the Kattegat and the Baltic, with Jutland and Zeeland on the
other side. The Baltic, he adds, runs several hundred miles up into the
land. Oht-here sailed from Sciringesheal southwards, through the Danish
islands to the coast of Slesvig, and reached the port of Haddeby. Alfred
adds the interesting fact that the Angles dwelt in these lands round
Haddeby before they came into England.
Oht-here made a present of walrus ivory to King Alfred; but he was not
the only adventurous seaman who brought welcome information to the king.
A Dane named Wulfstan gave him an account of a voyage in the Baltic from
Haddeby to Truso, in what is now Eastern Prussia, and described to him
the manners and customs of the people he visited.
Haddeby, mentioned both by Oht-here and Wulfstan, was no doubt an
important trading port in the ninth century. The word, as given by
Alfred, is _æt Hæthum_, meaning “at the Heaths.” “The town at the heaths”
is the same as Hedeby or Haddeby, the ancient name of Slesvig. It is
now a pretty little village, with a very ancient granite church, on
the banks of the river Schley, just opposite the more recent town of
Slesvig. Wulfstan made the voyage from Haddeby to Truso in seven days.
He had the Danish islands on the _bæc-bord_, and the land of the Wends,
now Mecklenburg, and Pomerania on his starboard side; then the Swedish
provinces of Bleking and Smaland, and the isles of Bornholm, Öland,
and Gothland, to the north; and the mouth of the Vistula to the south.
Wulfstan finished his voyage by entering the inland sea, called Frische
Haff, by a narrow strait, and going up the Elbing river to the town of
Truso on the Drausen lake in East Prussia.
Wulfstan gave a very full account of this country of Estum or Esthonia
to King Alfred. There are kings in every town, he says, and the richer
folk drink mare’s milk (probably the fermented _kumiss_ made from milk),
while the poor people drink mead. The custom of treating their dead is to
keep the bodies preserved in ice for a long time before they are burnt,
during which there is drinking and festivities. The dead man’s property
is then divided into several lots, and placed along a course to be raced
for, so that swift horses become uncommonly dear. King Alfred was also
much struck by Wulfstan’s account of the way in which the Esthonians
could produce cold, both for preserving the dead during the period of
festivities, and for icing their liquors.
In recording the information received from his two sailor visitors,
Oht-here and Wulfstan, the clearness and perspicacity of the narrative,
and the rejection of all hearsay evidence, show that King Alfred was
most careful and conscientious, anxious to secure accuracy, and only
to present to his people what was reliable. The voyages themselves are
interesting, because they prove that, although the seas were alive with
the piratical fleets of Rolf the Ganger, Hasting, and many other warriors
bent only on pillage and rapine, there were at the same time peaceful
ventures and even expeditions of discovery.
The first voyage of Oht-here is memorable as the first Arctic expedition
undertaken for the sake of discovery and exploration. There is nothing
to show that it was undertaken under the auspices, or even with the
knowledge, of Alfred. But it is certain that it received the cordial
approval of our great king, and that its motives had the sympathy and
appreciation of one who, in regenerating the navy of England, knew well
that such training was of vital importance to a naval power. The welcome
he extended to his Arctic visitor, and the care with which he elicited
his information and recorded it, leave no doubt of what Alfred’s feelings
were upon this subject. When it is remembered that Alfred the Great
rebuilt the English navy from his own designs, improving upon the lines
of Danish and Norse ships, it ought not to be forgotten, in the same
connection, how highly he valued the work of Arctic exploration. He at
least knew that a training in deeds of seaman-like daring and adventure
is as important as the building of ships for securing and maintaining
power on the sea. We have no further knowledge of the personal
intercourse between the first Arctic explorer and “his Lord King Alfred.”
He was cordially received at the English court, he presented the king
with an offering of walrus ivory, and there must have been conversations
in the course of which the king received and sifted the evidence of his
guest, until he was able to record the lucid and accurate narrative which
has been preserved and handed down to us.
After recording the events of the voyages of Oht-here and Wulfstan, King
Alfred returns to the text of Orosius, where the geography of Greece and
the islands is discussed, as well as that of the countries on the shores
of the Adriatic. Thence Orosius passes to Italy, France, and Spain; and
in the latter country Cadiz and Betanzos in Galicia are mentioned. France
was personally known to Alfred, who had visited the court of Charles the
Bald, but he gives no reminiscence of his journeys. Nearly all Spain
was then under the enlightened rule of the powerful western Khalifas
Almondhir and Abdallah, while the Christian kings of Oviedo fought
to maintain a struggling existence in the mountains of Asturias. Even
Leon was not occupied by them until after the death of Alfred. In his
reference to Britain and the surrounding islands, including the Orkneys,
there is an allusion to “the uttermost land that men call Thule,”
north-west of Ireland. Alfred held it to be Iceland, apparently.
Africa is then treated of, with rather more fulness. The positions of
Egypt and Libya Cyrenaica, of the Nasamones, near the Syrtis Major, of
Numidia, Mauritania, and the Atlas Mountains, are laid down; and after a
passage where Orosius remarks on the ingratitude of the Egyptians to the
memory of Joseph, King Alfred inserts an interesting reflection of his
own: “So also it is still in all the world. If God for a very long time
grants any one his will, and he then takes it away for a less time, he
soon forgets the good which he had before, and thinks only upon the evil
which he then hath.”
The concluding part of the work refers to the Mediterranean islands.
Sicily is described with its three points, Pelorus, Pachynum, and
Lilybæum; but there is a serious mistake as regards its size, perhaps
due to an error in transcription. Finally, there are notices of Scythia
and Bactria, of Arabia and India, of Palestine and the Jordan, and of
Cilicia, Isauria, and other places in Asia Minor, this part being from
the text of Orosius. Africa seems to have been conceived to be a long,
narrow continent, smaller than Europe, with no very great extension
towards the south.
When we consider the ignorance which prevailed in England before Alfred’s
time, we can form an idea of the immense importance of his geographical
labours and of the brightness of the light with which he dispelled outer
darkness in the minds of his countrymen. His work was more especially
useful in his own time, owing to the intercourse he encouraged with
foreign lands, and to the frequent missions he despatched and received.
Every year there was intercourse with Rome, when the alms for St. Peter
were despatched, generally in charge of an alderman or a dignitary
of the Church. Embassies were received from Germany and the northern
countries, from France, and probably from the Emperor Leo the Philosopher
at Constantinople, and from the great western Khalifa at Cordova. King
Alfred even despatched a mission to India, at the head of which was
Sighelm or Suithelm, the Bishop of Sherburn. In those days there were
native dynasties at the principal seats of Hindu civilisation. The Chohan
kings were reigning at Delhi and Ajmir. At Ujjayana the Malwa Rajas held
a brilliant court, where literature flourished, and where Kalidasa and
his school reached the highest flights of poetic imagination. At Madura,
in Southern India, was the cultured Pandyon dynasty. It is probable that
the visit of King Alfred’s envoy was to the Pandyon King of Madura, for
his instructions were to seek out the shrine of St. Thomas, which has
traditionally been placed on the Coromandel coast. It is recorded that
the Bishop of Sherburn returned safely to England, bringing back with him
gems and other products of a country which was destined, in after ages,
to become the brightest gem in the diadem of the descendants of Alfred
the Great.
Both through his promotion of intercourse with distant lands and through
his literary work, our great king enlightened his people by disseminating
geographical knowledge. The first to encourage Arctic exploration, the
first to point the way to eastern trade by the Baltic, the first to open
communication with India, his literary labours in the cause of geography
are even more astonishing. There have been literary sovereigns since
the days of Timæus of Sicily, writing for their own glory or for their
own edification or amusement. Alfred alone wrote with the sole object
of his people’s good; while in his methods, in his scientific accuracy,
and in his aims, he was several centuries in advance of his time. After
his death there was a dreary waste of ignorance, with scarcely even a
sign of dawn on the distant horizon. A few Englishmen of ability, such
as Roger Bacon and Sacrobosco, speculated and wrote on questions “_de
sphærâ_,” but there was no practical geography until Eden and Hakluyt
rose up, nearly seven centuries after the death of our great king.
Richard Hakluyt was indebted to Alfred for portions of his work, and he
resembled his illustrious precursor somewhat in his zeal, his patriotism,
and his diligence. Hakluyt was, however, far behind Alfred in scientific
precision and insight, although he lived so long afterwards, with seven
more centuries of experience to guide him. Even now men of learning and
research have their admiration aroused at the accuracy of King Alfred’s
descriptions, and at the pains he must have taken to reject what was
doubtful and to retain only what was true. This called for the exercise
of ability of a high order, as well as patience.
Alfred the Great was, in the truest sense of the term, a man of science;
and we hail him as one who stands alone and unrivalled—the founder of the
science of geography in this country.
ALFRED AS A WRITER
BY REV. PROFESSOR EARLE
ALFRED AS A WRITER
Our estimate of the literary achievements of King Alfred will depend very
much upon what we are in the habit of thinking about his early education.
If we are content to accept the story in Asser, that he had reached his
twelfth year before he had learned to read, then we must reckon his
literary career as a prodigy, a phenomenon which defies explanation.
Or, if that will not satisfy us, we may liken him to his grandfather’s
contemporary the great Charles, who, being illiterate, knew the value
of learning, and surrounded himself with learned men. On this theory it
would follow that the writings of King Alfred are his only in that sense
in which all works and monuments are said to belong to the king who has
ordered them and paid for them. He who refuses to be satisfied with
either of these alternatives can hardly fail to question the story about
Alfred and the picture-book.
The Saxon Chronicle says that Alfred was sent to Rome in the year 853,
at which time he was a little boy. This statement naturally suggests that
he was sent to reside at the English College in Rome for the benefit of
his education. But this is blurred in Asser by the further statement that
he went to Rome a second time in the very next year; which has the effect
of reducing his travels to mere excursions. The second journey to Rome is
not in the Chronicle, and it looks rather like an artifice, designed to
parry the natural inference that the journey to Rome was for a prolonged
and educational residence. Perhaps the author of “Asser’s Life” was
minded to make his hero a prodigy, and to this end the picture-book story
must by all means be protected and maintained. These variations had the
effect of shaking the credibility of the narrative, and raising doubts
as to whether Alfred ever went to Rome at all. The statement in the
Chronicle got involved in that cloud of unreality which overshadows so
much of Alfred’s history.
Happily this particular point is now quite cleared up. A letter has been
discovered, written by Leo IV., the reigning Pope in the year 853, and
addressed to King Æthelwulf, the father of Alfred, announcing the safe
arrival of the boy. This discovery has added a new confirmation to the
Chronicle, and has established it once for all as a firm historical fact,
that Alfred was sent to Rome in the year 853. If now we interpret this
step in the most natural manner, as designed by his father to send the
child out of the way in dangerous times, and to occupy his tender years
with liberal studies, we find the course of Alfred’s literary development
well and reasonably accounted for. Indeed, it seems in every way most
probable that Alfred enjoyed the best opportunities for study that the
times afforded, and that he used them so far as was compatible with the
vocation of a warrior. How many years he spent in Rome is not known; in
the reign of Æthered he was at home and he made a conspicuous military
figure while yet in his teens, and this seems to indicate that he had
never in his book-learning forgotten that he would have to fight for his
country against the northern invaders.