King Alfred’s Lyre, by Charles Dickens

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BUT, being as merciful as he was good and brave, he then proposed peace: on condition that they should altogether depart from that Western part of England, and settle in the East; and that Guthrum should become a Christian, in remembrance of the Divine religion which now taught his conqueror, the noble Alfred, to forgive the enemy who had so often injured him.

This, Guthrum did. At his baptism, King Alfred was his godfather.* And Guthrum well deserved that clemency; for, ever afterwards he was loyal and faithful to the king.* The Danes under him plundered and burned no more, but ploughed, and sowed, and reaped, and led good honest English lives.

And I hope the children of those Danes played, many a time, with Saxon children in the sunny fields; and that Danish young men fell in love with Saxon girls, and married them; and that English travellers, benighted at the doors of Danish cottages, often went in for shelter until morning; and that Danes and Saxons sat by the red fire, friends, talking of King Alfred the Great.*

by Charles Dickens 1812-1870

abridged

From ‘A Child’s History of England’ by Charles Dickens.

At Wedmore in Somerset. Guthrum took the name Athelstan, ‘noble stone’. He should not be confused with Alfred’s grandson Athelstan (r. 924-939), King of the English.

Guthrum (Athelstan) also struck up a friendship with fellow-Viking and Christian convert Rollo of Normandy (?860-?930), the great-great-great-grandfather of William the Conqueror.

Although the Vikings had a disastrous impact on English life all along the east coast, they brought vigour and courage to the nation, and afterwards the English kings recruited Viking warriors for their armies just as the rulers of Kievan Rus’ and the Byzantine Empire did. In turn, English bishops taught the Vikings to abandon superstition and raiding in favour of Christian learning and trade, to everyone’s advantage. One example stands out: King Olaf I Tryggvason of Norway, a former Viking raider who had embraced Christianity in England, organised a mission to evangelise Greenland in about 1000; and while carrying out the errand, Leif Ericson accidentally discovered America. See The Baptism of Olaf Tryggvason and Vinland.

Précis

Eventually the Danes surrendered, and Alfred showed his qualities as a Christian king by agreeing peace. In return, Guthrum was baptised, and he and his men settled down to peaceful lives thereafter. Dickens liked to think of English and Danish children playing together, and of old adversaries fondly remembering Alfred as a king who deserved the title ‘Great’.

Questions for Critics

1. What is the author aiming to achieve in writing this?

2. Note any words, devices or turns of phrase that strike you. How do they help the author communicate his ideas more effectively?

3. What impression does this passage make on you? How might you put that impression into words?

Based on The English Critic (1939) by NL Clay, drawing on The New Criticism: A Lecture Delivered at Columbia University, March 9, 1910, by J. E. Spingarn, Professor of Comparative Literature in Columbia University, USA.

Sevens

Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.

Once he had the Danes at his mercy, what did Alfred do?

Jigsaws

Express the ideas below in a single sentence, using different words as much as possible. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.

Alfred and Guthrum agreed peace. Guthrum had to be baptised. He had to promise to be loyal.

Précis

Questions for Critics

Sevens

Jigsaws

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