Alfred was great in war. He was no less great in peace. As he
fought the Danes with the sword, so he fought ignorance with his
pen. He loved books, and he longed to bring back to England
something of the learning which had been lost. Nor did he want
to keep learning for a few only. He wanted all his people to get
the good of it. And so, as most good books were written in
Latin, which only a few could read, he began to translate some of
them into English.

In the beginning of one of them Alfred says, "There are only a
few on this side of the Humber who can understand the Divine
Service, or even explain a Latin epistle in English, and I
believe not many on the other side of the Humber either. But
they are so few that indeed I cannot remember one south of the
Thames when I began to reign."

By "this side of the Humber" Alfred means the south side, for now
the center of learning was no longer Northumbria, but Wessex.

Alfred translated many books. He translated books of geography,
history and religion, and it is from Alfred that our English
prose dates, just as English poetry dates from Caedmon. For you
must remember that although we call Bede the Father of English
History, he wrote in Latin for the most part, and what he wrote
in English has been lost.

Besides writing himself, Alfred encouraged his people to write.
He also caused a national Chronicle to be written.