Appendices Summary and Analysis

The final chapter contains two appendices. The first concerns Alfred and the Cakes. The best-known story about King Alfred is about how, while hiding at a herdsman's house during one of his worst misfortunes, was so preoccupied that he didn't notice bread burning in the herdsman's oven. The herdman's wife scolded him. We do not know the authenticity of the story, but it contributed to Alfred's fame. The earliest surviving version of the story was written in the late tenth century and was found in Cornwall. It had not be translated until the present book.

The second appendix concerns the Alfred Jewel, which was found in 1693 at North Petherton in Somerset. Oxford received it in 1718 and is kept today in the Ashmolean Museum. It is shaped like a pear within a gold frame. The frame surrounds a transparent piece of crystal...