Alfred the Great was one of England's most important kings; governing at a time of extreme instability, he stopped Viking invaders and started a process of cultural renewal. He was known as "the Great" by the thirteenth century, and his reputation has never waned. The veneration that began to surround him in the sixteenth century grew to extreme proportions in the Victorian era; but even when that hyperbole is discounted, Alfred remains uniquely important as the king who began unifying England as a nation and simultaneously created the framework for national literature in the vernacular. Alfred is ranked as the preeminent English author of the ninth century; few writers of the Anglo-Saxon period influenced literary history more profoundly, and none equaled Alfred's political achievements.

Alfred ruled the kingdom of the West Saxons from 871 until his death in 899. He was born at Wantage, in Berkshire, in 849, the youngest son...