among the various criticisms which have been elicited by the alfred jewel during the two hundred and seven years which have elapsed since its discovery in the year 1693, the opinion that the name it bears is that of the king has not met with more than one definite and formulated objection. this objection, if it had prevailed, would have excluded the production of such a work in king alfred’s time, as a thing impossible. but the question thus raised has evoked evidence of so overpowering a nature as not only to neutralize the objection, but also to increase the balance of probability in favour of the opinion that the person named on the jewel is alfred of wessex.
the name, combined with the costliness and158 the strongly marked individuality of the work, draws the mind naturally to think of the most remarkable person who bore that name; but, in addition, we have to consider that it was found in the neighbourhood of the very spot which is most closely associated with the career of the selfsame person. in these obvious prima facie elements of the case, there is an accumulation of probability, which fully justified hickes in saying that from his first sight of the jewel he had never doubted its having been a personal possession of king alfred’s[58].
to this central and primary body of evidence other instances of probability have been added in the course of the present essay. the investigation of the epigraph led us to the conclusion that the diction answered well to the time of king alfred’s life, and also that it bore some resemblance to an analogous piece of his admitted writing.
our examination of theories concerning the design and use of the jewel resulted in the conclusion that the suggestions hitherto advanced were inadmissible, and of no other value than 159as narrowing the field of conjecture. we at least know a number of things that have appeared plausible in their time, and are now no more to be thought of; namely, an amulet, a pendant to a collar of state, a decorated umbilicus, the head of a stilus, a military standard, the handle of a book-pointer, the tip of a sceptre.
our review of the abortiveness of early speculations concerning the design and use of the jewel drove us by a process of elimination to seek a place for it in the helmet. in favour of this new theory historical evidence has been adduced, such as has not been offered in support of any other explanation. unless this theory is approved, both the alfred jewel and the minor jewel from minster lovel remain without explanation. there is not so much as a theory in the field. on the other hand, if this new theory is judged to be right, or to have high probability, then this circumstance makes strongly in favour of the identification of the jewel with king alfred. for it points to a warrior, a helmet-wearer, and to a person of commanding position.
one of the effects of the present investigation upon myself has been to convince me (in the160 face of what i counted a settled opinion) that the enamelled figure is a product of these islands; and that it is not necessary for us to look abroad towards byzantium, or further east, for a satisfactory account of it. this unity again is in favour of identification with alfred of wessex, whose conspicuous interest in jewellers’ work is asserted by a well-sustained tradition.
the symbolism of the jewel appears to contain an allegorical representation of the designer’s position, both inherited and chosen, both national and personal. his religious standing is pictured in the figure and its back-plate; and the ancient religion of his nation in the boar’s head, once dominant, now under foot, forming a pedestal for the head of the church. and to this i will add the surmise, that perhaps the scales or waves on the small triangular space in the reverse signify that his country is an island in the ocean.
i am not without apprehension that these explanations may strike some readers as too minute and too far-fetched, and that i may be charged with bringing out of the jewel more161 than is in it. i will therefore endeavour to anticipate this charge with a few apologetic words. and first of all, i think it well to state that i did not set out with any idea of discovering latent meanings in the jewel. when first i discoursed upon it, i contented myself with exhibiting drawings of the object, narrating the story of the discovery, explaining the inscription, and rehearsing the opinions which had been put forward concerning such a remarkable find. this furnished material to fill an hour, and to satisfy an audience. whatever i have added to the traditional exegesis has broken in upon me from time to time at wide intervals, causing me on such occasions more surprize and pleasure than i can hope to impart to my readers.
for those who would test the symbolism of the jewel, there is an obvious preliminary question. is there any reason to think that alfred had an aptitude and a fondness for allegory? this question has been to me a valuable guide in observations on the extant writings of the king. it would be easy to show, by examples drawn from his writings, that he had a marked fondness162 for imagery and parable, that his habit of mind inclined to all figures of analogy and similitude. it was not a previous knowledge of these in the writings that led me to look for them in the jewel, but reversely. i am not aware that any one had called attention to this characteristic in the writings: i do not think i apprehended it from any other source than the jewel itself. in regard to this particular feature, the jewel has (for me) thrown light on the writings, and these again have reflected illustration back upon the jewel. i hope this explanation may make it easier for some to think that the imagery of the jewel is a strong indication that alfred of wessex was the designer.
it was with this aim that, in chapter vii, i quoted the poetical epilogue to alfred’s pastoralis, and with the same aim i now proceed to quote a long-drawn simile in prose, which the king inserted into his translation of boethius’ de consolatione philosophi?. it is in the fourth book, where the discussion is about providence and fate[59].
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in the abstract and implicit manner natural to the sage of a mature and over-blown culture, boethius had illustrated the relation between providence and fate by the relation between the centre of the circle and its circumference. this analogy is stated in mathematical fashion. a series of concentric circles offer points of external contact more numerous in some and less numerous in others, according as their circumference is nearer or further from the common centre, but the centre itself is unaffected by such chances; it remains always the same, one and indivisible. the stable centre is divine providence; by the various contact of the circumferences with external things is represented the vicissitude of fate or fortune.
this refined similitude was translated by king alfred, out of the diamond-cut succinct latin of boethius, into the homely speech of his own people, by means of a concrete figure that was familiar to every son of the soil.
accordingly some things in this world are subject to fate, some are no whit subject thereto: but fate, and all the things subject to it, are in subjection to divine providence. concerning this i can rehearse unto thee a similitude, whereby thou mayest the better understand, which men be subject to fate, 164 and which be not. all this moving and revolving creation revolves upon god, who is immovable, unchangeable, and one: and he wieldeth all creatures just as he at the first had ordained, and still doth ordain.
as on a waggon’s axle the wheels revolve and the axle standeth still and beareth the whole waggon and governs all the motion; while the wheel turns about, and the nave next to the axle moves more steadily and more securely than the fellies do: in such a manner that the axle is the highest good, which we call god, and the happiest men move nighest to god, even as the nave moveth nighest to the axle, and the middling sort are just like the spokes; forasmuch as every spoke hath one end fast in the nave and the other end in the felly. so it is with men of the middling sort; at one time he thinks in his mind about this earthly life, at another time about the heavenly; like a man looking with one eye to heaven and with the other to earth. just as the spokes have one end sticking in the felly and the other in the nave, while the middle of the spoke is equally near to both, even so are the middling men in the middle of the spoke, and the better men nearer to the nave, and the meaner men nearer to the fellies: they are, however, in connexion with the nave, and the nave with the axle. so now, the fellies though they are attached to the spokes, yet are they altogether rolling upon the earth; so are the meanest connected with the middling and the middling with the best and the best with god. though the meanest men all direct their love to this world, yet can they not rest thereon, nor be of any account, unless they be in some measure associated with god, any more than the wheel’s fellies can be in progress, unless they be attached to the spokes and the spokes to the axle. the 165 fellies are the farthest from the axle; therefore they move the most unevenly. the nave moves next to the axle; and that is why it has the surest motion. so do the happiest men: as they set their love nearer to god, and more resolutely contemn these earthly things, so are they more free from care, and less they reck how fate may chance to turn, or what it may bring. in like manner the nave is continually so sure, jolt the fellies on whatso they may jolt; and this even though the nave is somewhat apart from the axle. by this figure thou mayest understand that as the waggon is much more durably sound, the less it is parted from the axle; so are those men the freest of all from care (whether about anxieties of this life or of the next) who are fast in god: but in whatever degree they are asunder from god, in the same degree are they worried and harassed, both in mind and in body.
this prose simile is unquestioned as an original piece of king alfred’s authorship, and so is also the poetical epilogue to his pastoralis, which was quoted above in the seventh chapter. can any one doubt that his mind was exuberantly fertile in allegorical thought, and shall it be judged a thing improbable that in his imaginative youth, having recently passed through a very grand and rude transition of experience, he should have strained the plasticity of a favourite craft to body forth the symbolic expression of thoughts too deep for common speech?
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as the course of investigation into the variety and unity of this composite jewel brings it more and more home to the creative mind of alfred, the conviction rises that this work represents no passing freak of artistic fancy, nor the fond elaboration of some fascinating idea (as in a sonnet); but rather that we have before us the thoughtful record of a period of life and a phase of some duration, containing serious reflections by one who had reached a higher stage of observation, a stage commanding a wider outlook. of some such a crisis as this the alfred jewel appears to be the pictorial and symbolic monument.
and if this impression is sound, it ought to help us to some further conclusions. we ought with this help to be able to form some estimate of the period in which this jewel was designed. however we may lament the poverty of detailed incident in the life of alfred, we are not ignorant of its main divisions. and we are now in a position to ask—to which of these divisions does this carefully elaborated design most naturally belong?
in seeking materials for the answer to this167 question, i will first consider the probabilities of the case, which are suggested by the course of public events: and then, secondly, i will come to the indications which are personal to alfred himself. this plan may tend to clearness, though it be not feasible to keep the two aspects quite apart.
for a basis to this enquiry, we must take the year 878, as being that in which the jewel disappeared. this is now an established point in our argument. to this we were led both by history and by tradition: and it is only by keeping as close as possible to these that we can shun the proclivities of arbitrary hypothesis.
1. taking then the year 878 as that in which alfred saw the jewel for the last time, how far back must we recede to come to the most probable time for his inventing it? our first step must be to skip the seven years since his accession in 871. a glimpse at the events of that period may suffice to assure us that the constant pressure of sterner duties would have left him in no mood to amuse himself with enamel and filigree. and even if for the sake of winter relaxation he had done so, i think168 he would not have designated himself as plain ?lfred, when he was king. during his reign his constant style was ?lfred cyning, and it would have been quite easy to have added the letter r to his name, as his father did when he ordered the fashion of his ring. for these reasons (among others), i think the jewel was made before 871.
we may still recede another long step, and say that the date we seek was probably before 866. that is the year in which alfred began to share the burden of reigning without the title, the year in which the common danger entered upon a new and more menacing phase, as the heathen invasion began to be more systematically conducted. wessex was not indeed attacked until the last of these five years, but the whole period must have been passed in apprehension and intense preparation. accordingly, this process of reasoning back from the year 878 by the light of public events brings us to the result that the design and execution of the jewel is probably to be dated before a.d. 866, that is to say, it must belong to the reign of king ?thelberht.
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2. coming now to the second process, we have to consider at what time it appears likely that alfred might have been in the mood for such a work as this, and also in circumstances (as to his immediate surroundings) favourable for artistic and allegorical meditation. when does it appear likely that he had leisure for thinking out these details, while at the same time his mind was exercised with the themes represented in the jewel? it was certainly subsequent to his return from rome; not immediately, but after an interval, when the first agitation of his mind had subsided, and he had become reconciled to his lot.
for we cannot doubt that when he returned from rome to england, and witnessed the state of his country—the danger and the depression—he must have experienced a great revulsion of feeling, a strong outburst of regret for the long and happy time that he had been enjoying abroad. his passionate yearning for rome and his friends there must have amounted to something like a violent fit of home-sickness. all this it was his duty to live down; and to do so he had to look the facts in the face, and170 take their measure and their bearing, and ascertain their relation to his path of duty, and interpret his position by the light of a religious conscience. some earnest and ardent minds would find solace and strength in writing poetry, and perhaps alfred did so. if this jewel is not the equivalent of such a poem it is nearly akin to it. in constructive art there certainly is a solace of a healing kind, and the jewel before us answers remarkably to the situation. it is in many particulars like the outcome of such a mood. and if such a mood is likely to have followed the return of the young prince to england, it concerns us to form some opinion about the probable date of that event.
it is asserted in the bilingual chronicle (f) that alfred returned to england on the occasion of his father’s death, which took place in january, 858; but the statement is discredited by considerations which mr. plummer has given in his notes to the saxon chronicle (vol. ii, p. 80). two years later, in 860, his eldest brother, ?thelbald, king of wessex, died; and this event occasioned a definite call for his return. the three brothers, ?thelbald, ?thered, and ?lfred,171 held lands in common which were given by their father to these three sons, in such a way that the whole was to come to the latest survivor. this property would now pass to the two brothers, ?thered and ?lfred; and for the sanction of this transfer it was necessary that the parties should appear before the witan. this transaction is related in alfred’s will. the two brothers agreed that their joint property should be held in trust by ?thelbriht, the new king, and that he should farm it for the benefit of his younger brothers, a trust which he fully discharged.
at the death of ?thelbriht and the accession of ?thered in 866, the heathen invasion began to assume a more alarming form; but the reign of ?thelbriht had been a quiet time, at least for wessex. this period (860 to 866), from alfred’s thirteenth to his eighteenth year, would be a time of leisure, and he would be at the age of youthful reverie, and his mind would be stimulated by reports that would reach his ear of the savagery of the heathen raids in neighbour and kindred nations contrasted with the humanities of christianity, while his memory172 would contrast the learned culture of rome with the ignorance of his own people. these appear to be apt conditions for exercising the mind of a serious prince with such thoughts as we find symbolized in the alfred jewel.
in collecting evidence for the argument of this essay, i have been solicitous to omit nothing that seemed to make for the credit of a jewel, concerning which i am persuaded in my own mind that it bears the authentic signature of alfred of wessex. i hope that this aim has not betrayed me into the use of any arguments which are of no validity. and if any reader’s opinion should be against me on this point, i would ask him to consider that in the region of probability all men do not judge exactly alike: one may think a particular fact or tradition of no argumentative value, while another may hesitate to exclude it. and even if any such instance were disallowed and ruled to be of no weight, still it cannot invalidate the rest.
morally, it may damage the effect of the whole, because it may prejudice the mind of173 the reader; but logically, it leaves the argumentative effect of the rest where it was before. such being the case, i have leaned toward comprehension as being the more useful course; and if i have erred i hope i may claim the reader’s indulgence, on the ground of being faithful to the view which i had of the task before me.
in this scientific age, there are more persons who can appreciate a train of exact serial reasoning than of those who can do justice to a combination of probabilities. it is not very rare to find disputants capable of testing a mathematical demonstration, who if they had to examine a probable argument might dismiss it with the proverbial maxim, which says that no chain is stronger than its weakest link.
there are arguments which are like a chain, and to them the maxim applies: one weak link vitiates the conclusion. such are the demonstrations in euclid. but the argument which runs through this book is not of that kind, rather it resembles a bundle, and to such the maxim does not apply. it cannot be said, for example, that no faggot is stronger than its weakest stick. and this is the simile which174 applies to the evidence in probable reasoning. it is not linked, but massed.
when gulliver awoke on the shore of liliput and found that he was fastened to the ground, the threads which bound him were severally slight, but the total effect was irresistible. analogous thereto was the combined effect of many partial and inconclusive arguments on the mind of sir francis palgrave, when he testified that ‘no one, taking all the points of evidence together, can reasonably doubt but that it did belong to king alfred[60].’
this conclusion may now be somewhat amplified. i trust we are now in a position to say with reasonable confidence, that not only did this jewel belong to alfred of wessex, having been made by his order; but further, that it was his work, having been made after his design; and further again, that the design referred to, and was based upon, his own position; and, moreover, that the jewel was a production of his youth, of the period after his return from rome, and before he assumed a share in public affairs by the side of his brother ?thelred.
