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Lecture 4: Old English Christian contexts – national identity in the making:
the Venerable Bede, King Alfred the Great and Old English religious poetry.

1.

Bede (672/3-735) and his Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum. The era of the so-
called Northumbrian renaissance – his influence on the idea of national identity.

a. Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum (Ecclesiastical [i.e. of the Church] History

of the English People)

• The idea of “English nations” ‘translation/explanation’ of the Anglo-Saxon

conquest. Bede’s interpretation of the Anglo-Saxon conquest of Britain

• The Angles as a chosen nation – the story about Pope Gregory from

Historia Ecclesiastica…

• the myth-making power of his history – the making of a nation in the eyes

of God

• a form of national identity (across Anglo-Saxon kingdoms) built upon

common language, faith and common origins

• the story of Cædmon and Cædmon’s Hymn – possibly the first Old English

poem and poet known by name.

• Bede’s story of the arrival of Christianity to the court of the king of

Northumbria.

• Cædmon and Cædmon’s Hymn as a story of poetic inspiration. Cædmon as

the first English poet mentioned by name.

b. Bede’s scientific works on cosmology and Latin grammar
c. Bede’s theological works – biblical commentaries, books of hymns and his later

role in Anglo-Saxon England (translation of his Latin work into English in the
times of King Alfred).

Bede, from Historia Ecclesiatica… (Book II, chapter 1), Leo Sherley-Price trans.

It is reported, that some merchants, having just arrived at Rome on a certain day, exposed many
things for sale in the marketplace, and abundance of people resorted thither to buy: Gregory
himself went with the rest, and, among other things, some boys were set to sale, their bodies white,
their countenances beautiful, and their hair very fine. Having viewed them, he asked, as is said,
from what country or nation they were brought? and was told, from the island of Britain, whose
inhabitants were of such personal appearance. He again inquired whether those islanders were
Christians, or still involved in the errors of paganism? and was informed that they were pagans.
Then fetching a deep sigh from the bottom of his heart, "Alas! what pity," said he, "that the author
of darkness is possessed of men of such fair countenances; and that being remarkable for such
graceful aspects, their minds should be void of inward grace." He therefore again asked, what was
the name of that nation? and was answered, that they were called Angles. "Right," said he, for they
have an Angelic face, and it becomes such to be co-heirs with the Angels in heaven. What is the
name," proceeded he, "of the province from which they are brought?" It was replied, that the
natives of that province were called Deiri. "Truly are they De ira," said he, "withdrawn from wrath,
and called to the mercy of Christ. How is the king of that province called?" They told him his name
was Ælla: and he, alluding to the name said, "Hallelujah, the praise of God the Creator must be
sung in those parts."

Cædmon’s Hymn, an Old English translation from Bede’s Latin text, dated by him to 670 A.D.

Nu sculon herigean heofonrices weard,
Meotodes meahte and his modgeþanc,

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weorc wuldorfæder, swa he wundra gehwæs,

ece drihten, or onstealde.

He ærest sceop ielda bearnum
heofon to hrofe, halig scyppend;

þa middangeard moncynnes weard,

ece drihten, æfter teode

firum foldan, frea ælmihtig.

Now we must praise heaven-kingdom’s Guardian
The Measurer’s might and his mind-plans,
The work of the Glory-Father, when he of wonders of every one,
Eternal Lord, the beginning established [i.e. the beginning of every wonder]
He first shaped for men’s sons
Heaven as a roof, holy Creator;
Then middle-earth mankind’s Guardian,
Eternal Lord afterwards made,
For men earth, Master almighty.

2.

Multiple cultural contacts facilitated by Christianity:

a. e.g. the kingdom of Mercia with the kingdom of Franks (Alcuin of York –

preceptor of Charlemagne’s sons);

b. Alfred the Great (849-899), king of Wessex (871-899) in vibrant contact with

papacy and with the Frankish court on the continent (visits and sojourns);

c. intellectual exchange between the monasteries in Anglo-Saxon England and

Europe.

3.

King Alfred the Great (reigned 871-899) and his influence on the political and cultural
identity and independence of the kingdom of Wessex.

a. The upbringing in the spirit of the Northumbrian renaissance (8th c. Northumbria)

and Carolingian renaissance (9th c. Frankish empire)

b. His visits to Rome as a child – his perception as an heir to Imperium Romanum in

Wessex and in Britain.

c. Viking attacks and settlements in Britain. Alfred’s wars with Vikings.
d. Initial defeats and later military successes of Alfred – the rise of Wessex, later

transformed into the kingdom of England (king Athelstan’s battle of Brunanburh,
937).

4.

Alfred and English literature:

a. Legends of the king who loved literature since childhood – Asser’s (his

biographer’s) story of the king’s exceptional memory and his Handboc (handbook
of poetry).

b. The vision of a kingdom in Alfred inspired Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (containing

“The Battle of Brunanburh”).

c. Alfred’s translations:
d. Gregory the Great, Regula pastoralis (Pastoral Care). Alfred proposes in its

opening a programme of education and translation to recover the people’s lost
wealth and wisdom.

e. Boethius, De consolatione Philosophiae (Consolation of Philosophy) – Alfred’s

additions and modifications (such as a ruler’s responsibilities to his subjects, and
increased Christian element).

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f. St. Augustine of Hippo, Soliloquies (Sprostowania).
g. First fifty biblical psalms.
h. Additional texts important for Alfred’s programme (noticeable slant towards

history):

• Orosius, Historiae adversum paganos (Histories Against Pagans), a

history of the world with Anglo-Saxon additions (curiously mentioning the
present day Polish coast in the added report by Ohthere)

• the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. A vision of the kingdom as arising from

earlier kingdoms in the Chronicle (containing The Battle of Brunanburh)

i. Alfred’s exceptional understating of the role of education and his idea of books

that every free man in the kingdom should know (including the translation of
Bede).

j. The propagandist use of King Alfred in later times (after the 16th c. reformation).
k. Possible influences of Alfredian translation on Anglo-Saxon elegiac poetry – the

idea of wisdom drawn from suffering in „The Wanderer” and „The Seafarer”
(enclosed in 10th c. Exeter Book).

From King Alfred’s Preface to Gregory the Great’s Pastoral Care:

So completely had wisdom fallen off in England that there were very few on this side of the Humber
who could understand their rituals in English, or indeed could translate a letter from Latin into
English. … Therefore I command you to do as I believe you are willing to do, that you free yourself from
worldly affairs as often as you can, so that wherever you can establish that wisdom that God gave you, you
establish it. Consider what punishments befell us in this world when we neither loved wisdom at all
ourselves, nor transmitted it to other men; we had the name alone that we were Christians, and very few
had the practices. …
Then when I remembered all this, then I also remembered how I saw, before it had all been ravaged and
burnt, how the churches throughout all England stood filled with treasures and books, and there were also a
great many of God's servants. And they had very little benefit from those books, for they could not
understand anything in them, because they were not written in their own language. As if they had said:
'Our ancestors, who formerly held these places, loved wisdom, and through it they obtained wealth and left
it to us. Here we can still see their footprints, but we cannot track after them.' And therefore we have now
lost both the wealth and the wisdom, because we would not bend down to their tracks with our minds.
… Therefore it seems better to me, if it seems so to you, that we also translate certain books, which are
most needful for all men to know, into that language that we all can understand, and accomplish this,
as with God's help we may very easily do if we have peace, so that all the youth of free men now in
England who have the means to apply themselves to it, be set to learning, while they are not useful for
any other occupation, until they know how to read English writing well. One may then instruct in Latin
those whom one wishes to teach further and promote to a higher rank.
Then when I remembered how knowledge of Latin had formerly decayed throughout England, and yet
many knew how to read English writing, then I began … to translate into English the book that is called in
Latin Pastoralis, and in English "Shepherd-book," sometimes word for word, and sometimes sense for
sense … And I will send one to each bishopric in my kingdom, and in each will be an æstel worth fifty
mancuses. And I command in God's name that no man may take the æstel from the book nor the
book from the church. It is unknown how long there may be such learned bishops as, thanks to God, are
nearly everywhere. Therefore I would have them always remain in place, unless the bishop wishes to have
the book with him, or it is loaned out somewhere, or someone is copying it.