Source Problems in English History
was most remarkable for any but a churchman to undertake to write a chronicle. Undoubtedly his lack of a clerical training accounts largely for his very bad Latin.
4. Alfred and Guthrum’s Peace.
There is no reasonable doubt that this is the authentic text of an undated treaty drawn up between Alfred and the Danes. It was written in Anglo-Saxon. Sufficiently interesting and instructive in itself, the treaty has an added importance because of the great dearth of official documents of all sorts from Alfred’s time. After using chronicles and being constantly on the alert for errors growing out of bias, carelessness, or ignorance, it is pleasant to use even a small bit of evidence with which no care of that sort has to be taken.
III. QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY
2. Prove, if possible, by a careful comparison whether Asser copied from the Chronicle or whether the Chronicle was copied from Asser.
3. Is any hint to be found of Asser’s nationality?
4. What are the obvious faults of Ethelwerd’s method of writing history?
5. What bits of information are to be gathered from Ethelwerd not obtainable from the other sources?
6. How does the class of source material to which Alfred and Guthrum’s Peace belongs differ from chronicles? Why must chronicle material be used with greater caution?
7. On an outline map of England indicate the places mentioned here in Alfred’s campaigns which have been located with a fair degree of certainty; also draw the boundary between Alfred’s dominions and the Danelaw described in Alfred and Guthrum’s Peace.
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