Poetry Codex

Anglo-Saxon

King Alfred

849–899

Alfred (849–899) was king of the West Saxons from 871 until his death, and the only English king to be called “the Great.” He is remembered for his defence of Wessex against the Danes and for his programme of learning, in which he sponsored, and by his own account took part in, English translations of Latin works, among them Gregory the Great’s Pastoral Care and Boethius’s Consolation of Philosophy.

The verse attributed to him is the metrical preface and epilogue to the Pastoral Care and the Old English Meters of Boethius, which turn the verse sections of the Consolation into alliterative English. The Proem to the Meters names Alfred as the author, but whether he wrote them, or someone in his circle did, is debated.

Major Works (2)

  1. The Meters of Boethius — translated by Walter John Sedgefield, King Alfred's Version of the Consolations of Boethius (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1900)
  2. The Meters of Boethius (Old English) — Philosophical poem, late 9th or early 10th century

Poems (4)

  1. Metrical Preface to the Pastoral Care (Old English)
  2. Metrical Epilogue to the Pastoral Care (Old English)
  3. Metrical Preface to the Pastoral Care
  4. Metrical Epilogue to the Pastoral Care

See King Alfred in the full archive →