the subject of this essay is preserved in the ashmolean museum, which has been its home for a period of time now approaching two hundred years. it is there installed under glass in such a manner that every side of it is plainly exhibited to the eye of the visitor. it bears an inscription in conspicuous lettering which sets forth that by alfred’s order it was made, and this is the ground upon which it is known as the alfred jewel.
2 the alfred jewel has been compared to a battledore, not untruly for the matter of shape; but the wide diversity of size makes the comparison seem incongruous. the extreme length of the jewel is a very small fraction under two inches and a half; its greatest width is just one inch and a fifth; its thickness barely half an inch.
it contains a sitting figure enamelled on a plate of gold which is protected in front by a slab of rock crystal, and at the back by a gold plate engraved; the whole enshrined in a golden frame of delicately executed filigree work. the picture is visible through the rock crystal, making the obverse of the jewel; while the reverse is formed by the gold plate which is at the back of the enamelled plate. upon this gold plate is engraved an allegorical design. both these surfaces (obverse and reverse) are flat, but in every other part of the jewel the surface is rounded.
the rounded contours may be likened to those of a pigeon’s egg. if we imagine a longitudinal3 section of a pigeon’s egg, the engraved plate at the back of the picture will correspond to the plane of the egg’s diameter. from this plane, if we measure three-quarters of an inch in the girth of the egg, and then take another section parallel to the gold plate at the back, we obtain the front surface of the crystal, through which the enamel is visible.
the effect of this arrangement is, that the sides all round the jewel are curved and sloping, and that the obverse is of more contracted area than the reverse, and also that the measurement of the sloping side exceeds that of the thickness. the head of the sitting figure occupies the broad end of the oval section; the smaller end is prolonged, and is fashioned like the head of a wild boar on the obverse, but the reverse of this head is flat and covered with fish-like scales.
the snout is projected in the form of a socket adapted to receive a peg or stem; athwart this socket is a cross-pin, having a head at one of its ends, while the other end is riveted. this indicates that the jewel was furnished with a stem which has perished, and which, therefore, was not metallic, but of some organic material,4 perhaps walrus ivory. around the sloping sides runs a legend:
? aelfred mec heht gewyrcan
and this legend starts from the narrowest point of the oval, beginning on the right-hand side and running round to the corresponding point on the left, so that it encircles the oval completely, running in the contrary direction to that with which we are familiar in our coins, which are read from left to right, as indeed were also the coins of the ninth century.
some have doubted whether the owner of the jewel was the famous alfred of wessex. it has been urged that the name of ?lfred in the epigraph is not of itself adequate proof of the fact, and it must be admitted that this is literally true. and it is not superfluous to point out the inconsequence of such reasoning, for it has actually been advanced in serious argument. samuel pegge, an antiquary of repute, wrote in arch?ologia ii as if there had been but one eminent person of the name of alfred:—‘there is no doubt but this κ?ιμ?λιον was5 once the property of the great king ?lfred, notwithstanding the goodness of the work which has been an objection to its authenticity; for the king’s name is expressly mentioned in the inscription.’ there were many persons of that name in the course of the saxon period, and the name was not confined to men born after his time, for there were persons of this name who were men of mark among his contemporaries, one of whom (to say the least) was certainly his senior.
when swithun died, in 862 (in alfred’s fourteenth year), his successor in the see of winchester was named ?lfred.
a contemporary of position and intelligence and of great wealth was that ?lfred who redeemed from heathen hands a noble volume of the gospels, and conveyed it by a solemn deed of gift in his own name and that of his wife to the brotherhood of christ church, canterbury[1]. that volume is the codex aureus, which6 is now in the royal library at stockholm. the will of this alfred, who in the course of that document styles himself ‘elfred dux,’ is one of the most precious relics of saxon antiquity[2].
a few years after the king’s death, the chronicle records, in 906, the death of an alfred, who was reeve of bath.
it has been argued that with such facts before us the ownership of the alfred jewel must be a matter of uncertainty, for we only know that it was ordered by a person of the name of alfred. such arguments may sometimes be heard from persons whose opinions are entitled to respect, but i am not aware that any one has undertaken to reason out and maintain this view in a published writing. and perhaps if we attend well to the whole of the evidence, we shall see7 no cause to marvel at the unanimity of authors in accepting this jewel as a personal possession of king alfred’s, and (in some measure, diversely estimated) as a product of his own artistic design.
it is not the name by itself, but this name taken in connexion with the richness and costliness of the work, with the thoughtful ingenuity of its device and composition, and with the symbolic meanings which must be assigned to certain parts of the structure;—such evidences as these, again combined with certain external evidences, namely, the locality in which the jewel was found, and any affinities apparent in the above data with the career or exploits of the king, or with his character and tastes,—when the ownership is questioned, we find ourselves face to face with an accumulation of evidence varying in quality and requiring to be judged by the delicate and sensitive standard of probability. in presence of such a problem we should not neglect the impressions and expressed opinions of persons whose instincts have been cultivated in the sphere of such probabilities.
8
george hickes, in 1705, mentions some doubting critics, whose difficulty lay in the beauty and perfection of the work. they could not understand how such artistic work could proceed from anglo-saxon artists in the ninth century. but for himself, he added, the mere sight of the jewel had been enough, and that from his first view of it he had never doubted that it was a personal possession of the great king alfred[3].
when an elaborate piece of workmanship like the alfred jewel is presented to the experienced mind and practised eye of a man like hickes, the evidence is rapidly, almost unconsciously, sifted, and the probabilities converge to a focus, so as to produce a conviction which seems like a simple apprehension of the senses. i welcome hickes’s expression of confidence as a confirmation of that which i have experienced myself. but while i am entirely free from uncertainty i quite recognize the reasonableness of the doubt, and i know that (logically speaking) the9 uncertainty is there. and i know also that many of my readers will entertain it and will look more or less dubiously upon the assumption of certainty in this matter. and, indeed, there is a certain advantage in having to reckon with this sceptical attitude of mind, insomuch as the presence of doubt has a stimulating effect in furnishing the discourse with a determinate aim and direction. it will set me on the alert, that i may not miss any incidental chance of a reflection tending to assure those who would be gratified to think that we do indeed possess a relic intimately associated with the person, and with the mind, of alfred, king of wessex.
[1] this remarkable document begins thus:—? in nomine domini nostri ihesu christi. ic ?lfred aldormon and werburg min gefera begetan eas béc ?t h?enum herge mid uncre cl?ne feó e?t eoune w?s mid cl?ne golde, and e?t wit deodan for godes lufan and for uncre saule eearf ond foreon ee wit noldan e?t eas halgan beoc lencg in e?re h?eenesse wunaden. ‘? in the name of our lord jesu christ. i alfred alderman and werburg my consort purchased these books at a heathen host with our clean money, that is to say with clean gold; and that we two did for god’s love and for the benefit of our souls, and for that we would not that these holy books should longer lie in hethenesse.’ birch, cartularium saxonicum, no. 634.
[2] kemble, codex diplomaticus, no. 317; birch, cartularium saxonicum, no. 558; earle, land charters, p. 152.
[3] ‘quoad opificium autem, tam elegans quidem id est et perfectum, ut eius antiquitatem in dubium vocandi doctis nonnullis occasionem dederit, etsi ?lfredi regis hoc olim fuisse peculium, ex quo primum vidi, nunquam dubitavi.’ linguarum veterum septentrionalium thesaurus, vol. i, p. 144.
