"I began to turn into English the book which in Latin is named
'Pastoralis,' and in English 'Shepherd's Book'; sometimes word for word,
sometimes meaning for meaning, as I had learned it from Plegmund, my
Archbishop, and Asser my Bishop, and from Grimbold, my Mass-priest, and
from John, my Mass-priest."

At the end of the translation, Alfred put some little verses of his own.

Alfred as we have seen, translated St Bede's History, omitting many
chapters which contained things he may be supposed to have thought were
not of general interest. He also edited the English, usually called the
Anglo-Saxon, Chronicle, which begins with the invasion of Julius Caesar,
and ends with the accession of Henry II. There are a good many MSS. of
it, the earliest of which ends with the year 855. We owe this work, as
we owe so much beside, to the care of the monks who wrote it, adding to
it probably, year by year, sometimes giving poetry as well as prose. It
contains several poems, among them the vigorous lay of the Battle of
Brunanburh, fought in 937 by Athelstane against the Scots and Danes.
You will find a rendering of it among Tennyson's poems, made by him from
a prose translation of his son's. This editing of the A.S. Chronicle was
very important work, work that has helped generations of history-writers
and students. Where should we be without these Histories? How much of it
Alfred actually did himself we do not know: we may suppose he had a good
deal to do with the chronicling of the events of his own reign. I wonder
whether it was he that wrote how three bold Irishmen came over from
Ireland in a boat without any rudder, having stolen away from their
country, "because they desired for the love of God to be in a state of
pilgrimage, they recked not where." They had a boat made of "two hides
and a half," and provisions for a week. They got to Cornwall on the