Alfred the Great was king of Wessex and then king of all the Anglo-Saxons in England in the late 9th century AD. He was a Christian ruler, and a man fond of learning. Bishop Asser, whom Alfred asked to advise him in his court, wrote a biography of the king and noted his early love of poetry:
“Now on a certain day his mother was showing him and his brothers a book of Saxon poetry, which she held in her hand, and finally said: ‘Whichever of you can soonest learn this volume, to him will I give it.’ Stimulated by these words, or rather by divine inspiration, and allured by the beautifully illuminated letter at the beginning of the volume, Alfred spoke before all his brothers, who, though his seniors in age, were not so in grace, and answered his mother: ‘Will you really give that book to that one of us who can first understand and repeat it to you?’ At this his mother smiled with satisfaction, and confirmed what she had before said: ‘Yes,’ said she, ‘that I will.’ Upon this the boy took the book out of her hand, and went to his master and learned it by heart, whereupon he brought it back to his mother and recited it.”
When he had grown, and amidst his duties as a ruler, King Alfred wrote a good deal of Anglo-Saxon poetry. Here’s one of his poems concerning self-control, which is all the more meaningful coming from a king:
He that wishes power to win,
First must toil to rule his mind,
That himself the slave to sin
Selfish lust may never bind:
Let him haste to put away
All that fruitless heap of care:
Cease awhile thy sighs to day,
And thyself from sorrow spare.
Though to him this middle earth
For a garden all be given,
With the seastream round its girth,
East and west the width of heaven;
From that isle which lies outright
Furthest in the Western spray,
Where no summer sees a night,
And no winter knows a day;
Though from this, far Thule’s isle,
Even to the Indian East,
One should rule the world awhile
With all might and power increas’d,
How shall he seem great or strong,
If himself he cannot save,
Word and deed against all wrong,
But to sin is still a slave?
To rule well, one must first of all rule himself. Power in the hands of a man who lacks self-governance can prove disastrous. Even if he rules well (“word and deed against all wrong”), he will have a shameful reputation among his subjects if he “to sin is still a slave.” Man’s fallen nature aspires to rule all things, a consequence of believing the devil’s lie “ye shall be as gods.” Part of a classical education is learning to recognize our innate ambition, put a damper on our desire for power, and seek control of self rather than control of others.
In Christ,
Pastor Richard
“Asser’s Life of King Alfred” translated by Albert S. Cook, 1906
“King Alfred’s Poems” translated from Anglo-Saxon by Martin F. Tupper, 1850
