Wessex Centre for History and Archaeology

2013-2014 Seminars
University of Winchester
21th November 2013

KING ALFRED’S COURT AND CULTURE:

CHRISTIAN EXEGESIS AND POLITICAL IMAGINATION
IN ANGLO-SAXON ENGLAND.

Dr. Elton O. S. Medeiros

University of Winchester / CAPES-Brazil

e-mail: eosmedeiros@hotmail.com

Abstract: At the end of ninth century the actions taken by King Alfred the Great were
decisive to the survival of what had remained of the Anglo-Saxon society against the Viking
raids. Among others elements, a socio-cultural reform that changed the Anglo-Saxon society,
strengthen the defences of the realm, the politics and assisting with the unification of England
in the mid-tenth century under the reign of king Athelstan. However, we could say that
behind these actions there was not just an intellectual impulse but political and spiritual. We
can say that the idea was to bring the Anglo-Saxons back to “the path of God”. For this task,
inspired by works as the Historia Ecclesiastica of Bede, a myth of origins was forged to
legitimize the power of the royal house of the West Saxons, making the history of the Anglo-
Saxons as part of a universal “History of Salvation”, connecting them in a very singular way
to the history of the Hebrews of the Old Testament and hence to the power of God himself.

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Introduction

Myths of origins are one of the most common elements found in many cultures around the
world. Such myths arise in many different ways and with very different purposes within a
culture or society; sometimes as a historical identification of groups or of individuals,
sometimes as a form of legitimation of an ideology and political power or as part of the
religious world (or, most commonly, all of this at the same time).

The elaboration of these types of myths is extremely important for these societies exactly
because of the fabulous, mythical and historical elements that can be found on them and how
they can influence the religious practices and the politics. We can notice that this type of
constructions has great influence on historical moments even beyond the medieval period.
The concern or the need for the construction of an “official history” which shows the origins
and highlights the values and virtues of a certain group or society.

In the 9th century English history we can notice the emergence of a myth of origin that would
go back to the biblical past, as well as to the Germanic world and the Christian tradition. A
myth of origins that could have been used to legitimize a specific historical moment and to
strengthen the political power of the royal house of Wessex. What could turn out to be a
support to the unity of the remaining Anglo - Saxon society against a common enemy (the
vikings) and which could help with the ideological basis for the unification of the English
territory as a single unified kingdom.

Based on the previous researches of (e.g.) Daniel Anlezark (which was extremely important
to the writing of this presentation), David Pratt and Andrew Schiel on the political thought
and the ethnogenesis in Late Anglo-Saxon England, in this paper I will at first deal with the
identification of the Anglo-Saxons with the Jews of the Old Testament and how it was very
important to elaborate the idea of the Anglo-Saxons as the spiritual heirs of the Hebrews, as
the new Chosen People. And secondly, through this concept of the Anglo-Saxon England as
the New Israel, how in the late ninth century, on the court of King Alfred, a fabulous
genealogy is created. A genealogy linking the royal house of Wessex with the patriarchs of
the Old Testament through a mysterious fourth son of Noah. That would make the Anglo-

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Saxons not only the New Chosen People but also ruled by kings with a special connection
with God.

The Alfredian Period.

When King Alfred rises to the throne of the West Saxons (c. 871) more than half of England
was under the occupation of the Viking invaders. Such kingdoms as Northumbria, East
Anglia and part of Mercia had been invaded, their kings killed or exiled, their royal houses
extinct and their aristocracy fragmented. Only the kingdom of Wessex still remained
relatively unscathed. Hence, most of those who had not perished or allied with the
Scandinavians sought refuge in the lands of Wessex and Mercia. As a result, one of the main
points would be to gather what had been left from other kingdoms and restructure the Anglo-
Saxon society. To perform such a task, within of what we may call the “Alfredian thought”, it
was essential that it should be a new spiritual posture. The current idea was that just as the
Britons had been punished by God (because of their departure from the true faith) with the
arrival of the Anglo-Saxons, now would be their turn to be punished with the arrival of the
vikings. Therefore, the Scandinavian marauders were nothing more than a divine punishment
for the moral and spiritual flaws of the Anglo-Saxons.

Alfred (or it should better to say, the “Alfredian court”) was determined to restore the
kingdom to what he believed that once existed in the past. A kingdom of devotion, wisdom
and ruled by faithful kings (as we can see on his prologue of the Old English Pastoral Care,
SWEET: 1):

Ond ðe cyðan hate ðæt me com swiðe oft gemynd, hwelce wiotan iu wæron giond
Angelcynn, ægðer ge godcundra hada ge woruldcundra; ond hu gesæliglica tida ða
wæron giond Angelcynn; ond hu ða kyningas ðe ðone onwald hæfdon ðæs folces
on ðam dagum Gode ond his ærendwrecum hersumedon; ond hu hie ægðer ge
hiora sibbe ge hiora siodo ge hiora onweald innanbordes gehioldon, ond eac ut
hiora eðel gerymdon; ond hu him ða speow ægðer ge mid wige ge mid wisdome;
ond eac ða godcundan hadas hu giorne hie wæron ægðer ge ymb lare ge ymb
liornunga, ge ymb ealle ða ðiowotdomas ðe hie Gode don scoldon… (Old English
Pastoral Care, “Preface”)1
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“And I would have it known that very often it has come to my mind what men of learning there were
formerly throughout England, both in religious and secular orders; and how there were happy times

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Thus, he starts a cultural, religious and political reform. And also as a way to establish the
ideal of a united kingdom before God. Ideal that was already propagated by Bede in the
eighth century through his Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum and which certainly have
influenced Alfred and his circle.

The Alfredian reform would enable, for example, the existence of a "court school ", also
concerned about the secular education of aristocracy, the translation of Latin text to Old
English (e. g. The Consolation of Philosophy of Boethius, and the Pastoral Care of Gregory
the Great), the compilation as we know it of a chronicle detailing the rise of Alfred and the
House of Wessex, and a legal code that would represent a continuation between the laws of
the former Anglo - Saxons kings and the biblical rulers (ABELS : 220). For Alfred was not
enough to strengthen the army and the walls of towns. For him, the reorganization of religion
and education would give the elements for support the military organization and for the
defense of the realm (ABELS : 219), because through it the Anglo - Saxons would receive
the true Lord's assistance. However, beyond of just a (let’s say) “cultural renaissance” – and
also as a way to legitimize all these initiatives in the fields of religion and politics – was
necessary something more concrete that would create the foundation for this new Anglo-
Saxon scenario. Due these initiatives of King Alfred, we can see the construction of a myth of
origins in England in the ninth century. A myth that would be forged with the intent of not
only legitimize the present, but also makes the Anglo - Saxons the new Chosen People with a
ruler inspired by God and a descendant of the deity himself.

The New Israel and the Children of Noah.

then throughout England; and how the kings, who had authority over this people, obeyed God and his
messengers; and how they not only maintained their peace, morality and authority at home but also
extended their territory outside; and how succeeded both in warfare and in wisdom; and also how
eager were the religious orders both in teaching and in learning as well as in all the holy services
which it was their duty to perform to God…”

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Among the works that took part of the period of the Alfredian reform, we have the translation
of the work of Bede, Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum, into Old English. Possibly the
main interest of the Alfredian thought and circle on the work of Bede would be the idea of the
Anglo-Saxons as one single nation before God; and this vision has probably influenced on the
conception of the ideal of a united Christian England on the ninth and tenth century (Godden
& LAPIDGE: 7-8).

The main difference from Bede to the Alfredian thought was that while Bede was thinking in
a unity based on religious terms, the Alfredian thought was not just about religion but also
politics. But the idea of this unit in which Alfred was inspired by Bede's work would have its
origin in earlier sources of Latin Christendom and would refer to a key concept that helps us
understand the thought of this “Alfredian Period”: the idea or the myth of the populus
Israhel.

It is well known of the predilection of the Anglo-Saxons to cast themselves as a mirror of the
Hebrews of the Old Testament and the whole idea of the tribes of Israel. We can say that for
the Anglo-Saxons the Old Testament was a veiled way of talking about their own situation.
As Malcolm Godden reminds on the Cambridge Companion to Old English Literature:

Despite Ælfric’s insistence that the old law had been replaced by the new, at least
in its literal sense, in many ways the old retained its power for the Anglo-Saxons,
and gave them a way of thinking about themselves as nations (GODDEN, p. 225).

One of the reasons for this correspondence between Anglo-Saxons and the Old Testament
was not simply an exegetical conceit constructed from patristic sources, but from ideas which
began circulating in England during the period of the conversion to Christianity, as part of the
strategy employed by Gregory the Great’s missionaries. This way, drawing on the Old
Testament both as an anthropological guide and as a practical missionary manual, Gregory
expected that the same methods used by God on the Old Testament to convert the Israelites
from polytheism to monotheism would work successfully in England. (SPIEGEL, The
Tabernacula, p. 3).

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However, only later, at the times of Bede, we may find a more formalized idea of the Anglo-
Saxons as the spiritual heirs of the Jews of Old Testament. In one of his homilies, Bede
comments about a passage during the episode of the Wedding at Cana, when Jesus meets
Nathaniel. The biblical passage is:

Et dixit ei Nathanael: “A Nazareth potest aliquid boni esse?”. Dicit ei Philippus:

“Veni et vide”. Vidit Iesus Nathanael venientem ad se et dicit de eo: “Ecce vere
Israelita, in quo dolus non est”. 2

In his exegetical commentary, Bede says about Jesus' speech when he recognizes Nathanael:

Electione spiritalis Israhel, id est, populi Christiani 3

This complements his earlier comment on the same text:

O quam magna nobis quoque qui de gentibus ad fidem uenimus in hac sententia
nostri redemptoris spes aperitur salutis! Si enim uere Israhelita est qui doli nescius
incedit, iam perdidere Iudaei nomen Israhelitarum quamuis carnaliter de Israhel
quotquot doloso corde a simplicitate patriarchae sui degenauerunt, et adsciti sumus
ipsi in semen Israhelitarum qui quamlibet aliis de nationibus genus carnis habentes
fide tamen ueritatis et munditia corporis ac mentis vestigia sequimur Israhel. 4

With these words, Bede appropriates an element of the Christian tradition that will
be essential for constructing a social history myth (Scheil: 96-97 and 106), a
myth of origins that will persists throughout the period of Anglo-Saxon England. This
history of the Jewish people, an idea of apostasy and restoration of Israel (FRYE: 169),
provided an important role model for the Anglo-Saxons. The expulsion from Eden, the
liberation from Egypt, the arrival at the Promised Land, the conquest of the Roman Empire
and the destruction of the Second Temple, the expulsion from Jerusalem, among other
2
“Nathanael asked to him: 'From Nazareth something good can come out? ‘Philip said to him, ‘Come and see’.
Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said about him, ‘Here an Israelite indeed in whom there is no
guile.’” (Gospel of John 1: 46-48)
3
“the choosing of the spiritual Israel, that is, the Christian people” (BEDE, Homaelia 1.17, ll 203-204).
4
“Oh what a great hope of salvation is opened by this statement of our Redeemer to those of us who have come
to the faith from the Gentiles! For if he is truly an Israelite who walks as one ignorant of deceit, the Jews,
although physically descended from Israel, already lost the name of Israelites, as many have by their deceitful
hearts degenerated from the simplicity of their patriarch. And we have been admitted among the descendants of
the Israelites, since, although according to the flesh we have our origin from other nations, nevertheless by faith
of truth and by purity of the body and mind, we follow in the footsteps of Israel ”. (BEDA, Homaelia 1.17, ll
172-180).

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episodes: this cycle of rise and fall, of anguish and redemption, ultimately integrate a
Heilsgeschichte ("History Of Salvation") as an important model of the Christian
hermeneutics (FRYE: 171). Thus, the image of the "people of Israel” (almost like a
humanized character) appears as an example for the western medieval societies. This myth of
populus Israhel (or simply the myth of the “Chosen People”) is presented as a myth in the
sense of telling society what is important for it to know about its past, fate, its history, its
laws and customs (Scheil, p. 104-105).

In general, the myth of the populus Israhel has two main components: the "epic" speech
about the "New Israel" and the “Christian” speech in the form of elegy on the "Old Israel".
These two elements serving as an exemplary positive (the divine protection and the rise of a
people) or negative (God's wrath and punishment) (Scheil: 106-107).

In Bede's Historia Ecclesiastica the myth of the populus Israhel arises not only
as a rhetoric of Christian tradition, but as a concept to be used in the building of
a gens Anglorum (English people) as a " New Israel " (Brown : 351 ) . The text of Bede is
clear on telling the fall of the Britons and the arrival of the Angles and Saxons. The idea that
God punished the Britons for their apostasy, just as God punished the Hebrews in the Old
Testament.

So, Bede, this way, tells about the fall of the "Old Israel" (the Britons), the invasion of the
Saxons allowed by God as a just punishment and the ascension of the "New Israel"
personified by the Anglo-Saxons. For this task, Bede used elements on the writings of Gildas
and his greatest source of inspiration, the work of Eusebius of Caesarea.

Composed in Greek, the Historia Ecclesiastica of Eusebius of Caesarea ( c. 263 -

340 ), served as the main model for Bede to develop his own ecclesiastical history of
England. The text of Eusebius plays an important role within Christianity in the fourth
century, giving an air of antiquity to the Christian religion echoing throughout the history of
the Jewish people. To legitimize the history of Christianity, he appropriates the Jewish past,
creating a new kind of history that is no longer restricted to the Jewish people, but the whole
of Christendom. Within this interpretive process, the Hebrews of the Old Testament lose their

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original Jewish character, appearing as the people who first established the covenant with
God and whose history is actually foreshadowing the coming of Christ. While the Jews of the
New Testament remain as the enemies of Christ, representing the "Old Israel” who turned
from God, while the “New Israel" appears in the figure of the Church and the Christian
people.

Here we see one of the most important elements of the populus Israhel. The idea that Israel is
no longer limited to only one people, but whoever God choose as his protégé. But at the same
time He establishes the alliance with the "New Israel", He also punishes the "Old Israel" that
goes against His laws and moves away from His word. The myth of the populus Israhel then
means that peoples and nations are living in a cyclical time of rise and fall (Scheil: 111-119):
for a New Israel exists, it is necessary an Old Israel to perish.

In England the existence of the populus Israhel is introduced through the work of Gildas, in
De Excidio Conquestu et Britanniae (The Fall and Conquest of Britain) which tells in an
elegiac manner about the end of Roman Britain and the Germanic invasions in the mid- fifth
century. In his work, the author narrates the adversity and strength of the people attempting to
confront the wave of invading Angles and Saxons, as a divine test imposed upon the Britons (
Scheil : 143-144 ) . Gildas uses the tribulations of the Hebrew of the Old Testament as a
mirror to Britain of his time (GILDAS, De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae, I. 7.). He puts
himself in the same position as the prophets of the Old Testament (GILDAS, De Excidio et
Conquestu Britanniae, 37. 3). And we can say that for Gildas the Britons represented Israel in
the last days, that was being put to the test by God (GILDAS, De Excidio et Conquestu
Britanniae, 26. 1) .

Bede shares Gildas's vision: seeing the Britons as a people that for their sins and stupidity of
their leaders brought upon them the divine wrath, allowing your end. On the other hand, the
Anglo-Saxons, who served as the instrument of God for the fall of the Britons (the Old
Israel), when they migrate to the island and occupy their territories, they become the new
Chosen People, the New Israel submitted to the divine will, and part of the same binomial
concept of apostasy-redemption along with other nations of the "Sacred Christian History"
(Scheil: 147).

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We also find the idea of the populus Israhel in the work of Alcuin of York. In his poem
Versus patribus regibus et sanctis Euboricensis ecclesiae, Alcuin tells the history of York
and the period of the invasion of the Anglo-Saxons against the Britons and the occupation of
the city. Unlike the work of Bede, the Anglo-Saxons arriving in Britain are not treated as the
wrath of God upon the Britons, but as the true chosen people of the Lord. In the poem it is
said that before the Anglo-Saxons arrived, Britain was inhabited by the gens pigra Britonum
("Lazy people of the Britons"). While the Anglo-Saxons were a people antiqua, Potens Bellis
et corpore praestans ("ancient, mighty in battle and superior in body”). The Anglo-Saxons
are no longer treated as mere instruments of God, but are already into the myth of the New
Israel, actually as the Chosen People:

Hoc pietate Dei visum, quod gens scelerata

Ob sua de terris patrum peccata periret
Intraretque suas populus felicior urbes,
Qui servaturus Domini praecepta fuisset.
Quod fuit affatim factum, donante Tonante
Iam nova dum crebis viguerunt sceptra triumphis
Et reges ex se iam coepit habere potentes
Gens ventura Dei.5

This idea of the populus Israhel, present in the work of Bede, is extremely
important to understand the emergence of an ideal of political unification, based on the
theological interpretation, during the times of King Alfred. Alfred and his circle would then
have been inspired by Bede and his idea of a gens Anglorum. The idea of a united England, of
one Anglo-Saxon people and a single Christian faith against a pagan enemy; as the same as
the Hebrews of the Old Testament against the enemies of the Chosen People of God.

However, there is another element that can reinforce the idea of this ideological construction.
It is related to the ancestry and the genealogy of the House of Wessex. An elaboration that
would not only legitimize the divine power of their kings as directly link them to the biblical
figure of Noah (and therefore with God).
5
“In his blessedness God saw to it that the accursed race should lose the lands of their ancestors by their own
sins; and that a more fortunate people should enter their cities, a people that would keep fast the commands of
the Lord. This came to pass quite well, with the consent of God Almighty. For a new power then grew to
prosperity in abounding victory; and God’s race of the future now began to bring forth powerful kings from its
own people” (Alcuin, Versus patribus regibus et sanctis Euboricensis ecclesiae, vv. 71-78).

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The Forth Son of Noah

The Anglo-Saxons were clearly aware of their affiliation and connection

with the Saxons in the Continent, what contributed to the design and construction of the early
royal genealogies in ASE. Which importance is well known whether in politics or religion
and as symbols of good and bad behaviors by their descendants like (e.g.) those of the
monster Grendel and his mother in Beowulf (described as from the lineage of Cain)
(ANLEZARK: 13-14).

In our case, during the times of King Alfred’s reign, we have the construction of a genealogy
that combines either biblical characters and the heroes (and gods) of the Germanic past, and
as a connection between these two traditions we have the figure of a supposed "fourth son of
Noah" that was born in the ark during the Flood (ANLEZARK: 17-18).

One of the first sources to mention this mysterious son of Noah is the genealogy of king
Æthelwulf, father of King Alfred, in the ASC. In the passage of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle,
in c. 855/856, is said that the pagans (the Vikings) have settled in Sheppey during the winter,
the king granted the tenth part of the lands of the kingdom in honor of the Lord, and that he
would also have gone to Rome and remained there for a year. However, it is what follows
this information we should pay due attention:

(... )And Æthelwulf was the son of Egbert, son of Ealhmund, son of Eafa, son of
Eoppa, son of Ingild. Ingild was the brother of Ine Ine, king of the West Saxons,
who ruled the kingdom for 37 years (…). And they were sons of Cenred. Cenred
was the son of Ceowold, son of Cutha, son of Cuthwine, son of Ceawlin, son of
Cynric, son of Creoda, son of Cerdic. Cerdic was the son of Elesa, son of Esla, son
of Gewis, son of Wig, son of Freawine, son of Freothogar, son of Brand, son of
Bældæg, son of Woden, son of Frealaf, son of Finn, son of Godwulf, son of Geat,
son of Tætwa, son of Beaw, son of Sceldwa, son of Heremod, son of Itermon, son
of Hathra, son of Hwala, son of Bedwig, son of Sceaf, i.e. son of Noah. He was
born on the ark of Noah. Lamech, Methuselah, Enoch, Jared, Mahalaleel, Cainan,
Enos, Seth, Adam the first man and our father, i.e. Christ. (Amén.)
(WHITELOCK, 1961: 44).

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Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: versions of the genealogy of king Æthelwulf

Text B and C Text D Text A

(…) (…) (…)

Itermon Haðraing, Itermon Haðrahing, Itermon Hraþaing,
Haþra Hwalaing, Haþra […], Se wæs geboren in þære earce;
Hwala Bedwiging, Hwala Beowing, Noe (…)
Bedwig Sceafing. Beowi Sceafing,
Id est filius Noe, se wæs geboren on Id est filius Noe, se wæs geboren on
þære earce Noes (…) þære arce Nones (…)

Despite a degree of confusion, there is general agreement among the surviving versions of
Anglo Saxon Chronicle genealogy of king Æthelwulf in naming this ark born son as Sceaf.
Among the versions of the ASC, the C-text of the ASC, from Abingdon includes the
genealogy of Æthelwulf in c. 856 as the mentioned before. The B-text agrees with C. The D-
text agrees with B and C in naming the ark-born son as Sceaf, though with minor differences
in the spelling of his name and other names found in this part of the genealogy. However, the
A-text, which represents the earliest manuscript of the ASC, and also the earliest extant to the
ark-born son, suggest another name for him: Hathra. There are other versions of the ASC
that agree with the A-text but, as suggested by Kenneth Sisam (Royal Genealogies, p. 315-
316), this could be the result of one scribe carelessly copying the mistakes of another which
nobody had bothered to correct. So, it would seem that the scribe has missed at least a whole
line of text in his copying, and that the manuscript with the longer genealogy naming Sceaf as
the ark-born son represent an older tradition.

Another version of the genealogy of Æthelwulf, and therefore of the West Saxon royal house,
can be found on the Chronicle of Æthelweard. Much of the Chronicle of Æthelweard text is
actually a Latin version of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. However, concerning the genealogy
of king Æthelwulf, we can find very interesting differences by the end of the description of
his lineage:
Ipse Sceaf cum uno dromone aduectus est in insula oceani que dicitur Scani, armis
circundatus, eratque ualde recens puer, et ab incolis illius terræ ignotus. Attamen
ab eis suscipitur, et ut familiarem diligenti animo eum custodierunt, et post in
regem eligunt; de cuius prosapia ordinem trahit Aðulf rex. 6
6
And this Sceaf arrived with one light ship in the island of the ocean which is called Skaney, with
arms all around. He was a very young boy, and unknown to the people of that land, but he was

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We don’t have here an association of Sceaf as the ark-born son of Noah. An explanation for
this could be that on the time when Æthelweard writes his chronicle (c. 980) the elaboration
of a myth of a forth son of Noah was not only absolutely unorthodox but also a nonsense.
Mainly if we remember that Æthelweard was a patron of the revival of religion and learning
that marked the second half of the tenth century and very close to persons like Ælfric, who
would not encourage the belief in a fabulous (and heretical) birth in the Ark of an ancestor of
the royal house of Wessex called Sceaf (Anlezark, p. 20).

A very similar description of the genealogy of king Æthelwulf can be found on the Life of
King Alfred, by Asser. The Welsh monk of St. David, who served King Alfred, becoming
later bishop of Sherbone, in his work the Life of King Alfred, when referring to the lineage of
the King he tells us a line almost identical to the end of the ASC:

“(...)the son of Beaw, the son of Sceldwa, the son of Heremod, the son of
Itermon, the son of Hathra, the son of Hwala, the son of Bedwig, the son of
Seth, the son of Noah, the son of Lamech, the son of Methuselah, the son of
Enoch (son of Jared), the son of Mahalaleel, the son of Cainan, the son of
Enos, the son of Seth, the son of Adam.” (KEYNES & LAPIDGE: 67).

As we can notice here, different from the ASC or the Chronicle of Æthelweard, the ark born
son is called “Seth” instead of “Sceaf”. But this could be explained as a scribal error or
confusion based on the genealogy of king Æthelwuf on ASC.

Despite this confusion, the evidence of the majority of the surviving genealogies suggests that
the ark-born son was originally identified as Sceaf. And also that Sceaf was recast as the ark-
born son of Noah in Wessex towards the end of the ninth century, at the time when the royal
house of Wessex was emerging as the unifying authority for those areas of England not under
the viking control.

It's clear that we have here the reconstruction of a genealogy legitimized by mythical or
mythical-historical characters. We can notice this elaboration as King Alfred descends from
received by them, and they guarded him with diligent attention as one who belong to them, and
elected him king. From his family king Æthelwulf derived his descent”. (CAMPBELL, 1962: 32-33).

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King Ingild and his famous brother Ine, who brought great honor to his family; also from
Ceawlin, who Bede refers to as lord of all the lands south of England; from Cerdic, founder
of the House of the Wessex, and also from Woden, chief god of the pagan Germanic past,
turned into a source for the Christian royalty and at the same time descendant of biblical
figures as Noah, Methuselah and Adam.

All these documents cover a period of about one hundred years, going from 890 to 980
approx. And the question we can ask is: since these passages would be unique among other
sources, why the elaboration of such a genealogy? What would be its purpose?

Concerning the name of Woden, we can understand its presence as a form of legitimation of
royal power through a character reminiscent of pagan times. We have the image of the
ancient god adapted to a Christianized form, humanized as an ancient noble ruler. What
would perhaps then be the interest of the House of Wessex (especially Alfred and his
descendants) to link their lineage with the Scandinavians, giving them prestige and authority
over their leaders. Or it was just the reminiscence of some older tradition or genealogical
construction. But furthermore, and most importantly, to trace his lineage back to the Biblical
ancestors, Alfred was put in a different position from the other Anglo-Saxon kings who had
preceded him (ABELS: 28). Through this he legitimated his authority and that of those who
would came after him over a united Christian people in England.

Through the genealogy of King Alfred and king Æthelwulf, the House of Wessex ceases to
be just another of the royal houses of the Western Christendom and becomes singular into its
importance through the name of "Sceaf ". In the beginning of the poem Beowulf we have the
character of King Scyld Scefing ("Scyld son of Scef ") as the founder of the lineage of the
kings of Denmark and a very similar story with the CÆ about a prestigious ancestor coming
from overseas and becoming a ruler (what, actually, is a quite common element on the myth
of early Germanic ethnogenesis), and in the poem Widsith there is a reference to the king of
the Lombards called Sceafa (Widsith, verse 32b: "Sceafa Longbeardum"). It is possible that
this name, “Sceaf”, comes from a character from folklore and/or mythology of northern
Europe, but any evidence in other sources is dubious (ANLEZARK: 27).

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It was well known in Anglo-Saxon England the Christian tradition that all nations of the
world descended from Noah and the history of the Flood (as described in Genesis 9: 18-19).
The genealogical elaboration we find in Anglo-Saxon England comes from the biblical
narrative from the end of the episode of the Flood, when it is reported on the sons of Noah
and the origin of patriarchs (as in book of Genesis 10 – 11).

In the Christian tradition, this passage of the Bible explains the origins of the people of the
world, as descendants of the sons of Noah in each one of the three continents. From the sons
of Sem would come the peoples of Asia, from Cam/Ham the peoples of Africa and from
Japheth the Europeans (ANLEZARK: 14-15), fact that is mentioned by Bede in one of his
commentaries about the book of Genesis (cf. BEDA, On Genesis, pp. 140-214).

Like other Germanic peoples, the Anglo-Saxons had great interest in their ancestors and their
lineages, as we can see on other references of the ASC and on the OE literature (in poems
like Widsith and Beowulf). Therefore, their kings used to trace their ancestries to the ancient
gods and heroes of the pagan past. However, the Bible (specifically the book of Genesis)
provided no real account of the origins of the Germanic peoples, and much less of the Anglo-
Saxons, besides the interpretation about Japheth as the great patriarch of the peoples of
Europe. So, technically, here there was a gap that could be fulfilled. In England, during the
times of Alfred, it was fulfilled then with the creation of a fourth son of Noah, who would be
born in the ark during the flood (ANLEZARK: 17-18).

One possible explanation as the source for this fourth son of Noah would
be connected to the apocryphal literature. At first we could refer the character to the
Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius. This book was known in Anglo-Saxon England, being
mentioned (e.g.) in sources such as the Old English Hexateuch. In it is told about how Noah
had a fourth son named Jonitus that "was created to fill some special role for which the
biblical sons of Noah were not eligible"(ANLEZARK: 27-28). According to the apocryphal
narrative, Jonitus was sent by his father to the east and eventually getting wisdom and
esoteric teachings directly from God.

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Thus, one can think that an Anglo -Saxon genealogist did not need to invent the idea of a
fourth son of Noah, for this would already exist in England at the time of the composition of
the texts (ANLEZARK : 28). And perhaps, influenced by the story of this legendary Sceaf as
the one who came as a child in a boat from unknown seas (as it appears in Beowulf and the
CÆ), and chosen as a king, enable the creation of the idea of Sceaf born not in a boat but an
ark and hence joining the biblical narrative of the Flood and of Jonitus. However, the source
of this Jonitus as the origin for the idea of the fourth son of Noah is not at all consistent. It is
difficult to know if the Apocalypse of Pseudo - Methodius was in fact so well known at the
ninth century England to justify the inclusion of this elements in the genealogy of the House
of
Wessex, because it would not be sufficient that its author knew the apocryphal story, but it
was necessary that others also knew the story and make sense its presence on the genealogy
of King Alfred to the point of going against Patristic tradition (ANLEZARK : 28-29).
Additionally, on the apocryphal text is described when it is born the fourth son of Noah. It is
clearly explained that just eight persons left the ark and that only “In the hundredth year of
the third millennium a son was born to Noah, exactly like him, and his name was Jonitus”
(ANLEZARK: 29).

For the construction of the genealogy of King Alfred linked to the fourth son of Noah, this
would be necessary not only contradict the biblical tradition of the only three sons of Noah,
but also to connect this fourth child with the character of Sceaf, as well as contradict even the
apocryphal text which clearly says that the forth son of Noah was not born in the ark.
However, the idea that Noah had more than three children might have its origin in another
source from the apocryphal literature in England.

Another apocryphal book which recounts the birth of a fourth son of Noah was the
Book of the Cave of Treasures, written in Syriac in the sixth century, and where is
presented the character named Jonton (Jonitus). The interesting fact is that there is a
connection between this book and the Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius. The Apocalypse of
Pseudo-Methodius is actually a Latin copy from the Greek, based on the Cave of Treasures
(ANLEZARK, p. 29-30).

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The account of the fourth son of Noah in the Cave of Treasures says:

And in the days of the giant Nimrod, a fire appeared which ascended from the
earth, and Nimrod went down, and looked at it, and established priests to minister
there, and to cast incense into it. From that day the Persians began to worship fire,
[and so they do] to this day (…) And Nimrod went to Jokdora of Nod, and when
he arrived at the sea of Atras, he found there Jonton, the son of Noah. And Nimrod
went down and bathed in the lake, and came to Jonton and did homage to him.
And Jonton said, “Thou art a king; doest thou homage to me?”. And Nimrod said
unto him, “It is because of thee that I have come down here’”; and he remained
with him for three years. And Jonton taught Nimrod wisdom, and the art of
revelation, and he said unto him, “Come not back again to me!” (Budge, The Book
of the Cave of Treasures, 1927, p. 142-3).

This original Syriac (also titled The Book of the Order of the Succession of Generations) was
conceived as a book of genealogical history to explain the descent from the patriarchs of the
Old Testament and on it there is no mention of when or where occurred the birth of this other
son of Noah (ANLEZARK: 30). Thus, the idea of the fourth son of Noah may have come to
Anglo-Saxon England through this Syriac Cave of Treasures. Because we have evidence of
details and specific information from the narrative of this book that appear in comments and
biblical studies associated with the school of Canterbury and the figure of Archbishop
Theodore during the seventh century (BISCHOFF & LAPIDGE: 236-237). Theodore was
born in c. 602 on Byzantium. He lived and studied in Antioch, Edessa and Constantinople
and was familiar with both the Greek and Syriac (TREHARNE & PULSIANO: 18-19). In
the year c. 667 he was living in Rome when archbishop Wigheard of Canterbury arrived from
England, and died. This made the Pope make Theodore the new archbishop of Canterbury
and in the next year he was traveling to England to assume his new position (LAPIDGE,
2004: 444-446). So, Theodore knew Syriac, and is very likely that he also knew the Syriac
biblical tradition, and – based on the commentaries of the manuscripts of the school of
Canterbury – has brought something with him to England in the seventh century. Maybe even
a copy of the Cave of Treasures.

Thus, it is possible that the idea of the fourth son of Noah, in a text on biblical genealogies,
has been introduced in England through one of the most important cultural centers of Anglo-
Saxon history, and later this idea has mixed up with some myth of origin of the Germanic
past, giving rise to the figure of Sceaf as the fourth son of Noah.

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So, the royal house of Wessex would claim their ancestry through a singular
lineage apart from the conventional biblical interpretation. The kings of Wessex, as well as
other of the Christendom, were descendants from Noah as the rest of humanity. However,
unlike the others, through this genealogical elaboration, they were not descended from
Japheth, Cam and Sem, but another lineage in particular. A fusion between the old ancestry
of Germanic past with the biblical world through a supposed fourth son of Noah, which
appears precisely in the late ninth century. What suggests then that there was an ideological
intention by the government of King Alfred. Establishing a special relationship with Noah
(the "second father" of humanity) and God ( ANLEZARK : 33-36 ).

Conclusion
With the exception of the Chronicle of Æthelweard, no other later source has
any reference to someone named Sceaf / Seth as the ancestor of the House of Wessex or as
the son of Noah. Rather, Ælfric of Eynsham, near the end of the tenth century, and with the
Benedictine reform, reaffirmed the orthodox lineage of Noah through his only three children
and vehemently denies the idea of a supposed fourth child, considering it apocryphal
(ANLEZARK: 36 - 42). However, we must remember that Ælfric was concerned about the
theological aspects on the interpretation of the Bible, while what really mattered for the
genealogies of kings would be the aspects of political legitimation.

In the late tenth century the idea of the lineage of the fourth son of Noah in
royal genealogies disappears completely. The explanation for this is coupled with the myth of
the populus Israhel. First, the socio-political scenario of England between the end of the ninth
century and the middle of tenth is completely different from what we have in the late tenth
and early eleventh century. During the reigns of Alfred, Edward and even Athelstan we have
the conquest and submission of the territories of the Scandinavians and the unification of the
English realm. Then, at this time is built a myth of origin in England, where the Anglo-
Saxons were the new chosen people, the New Israel, and where their kings have a singular
ascendancy with the patriarchs of the Old Testament and God. With the vikings, we can
argue that King Alfred and those around him saw England going through the same
tribulations that occurred on the times of the Britons, and the same as the Jews suffered in the

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Old Testament when turned away from God. England was being tested by God, and
on the political imagination of the period, being the “New Israel”. We can say that one of the
foundations of the reforms of King Alfred would be this view of the Anglo-Saxon people as
an ecclesiastical and secular unity, willing to restore the divine law and order to not have the
same destiny of the “Old Israel”, like the Britons.

Thus he (Alfred) and the royal house of Wessex, through the construction of a myth of origin,
became members of a sacred lineage and leaders of the new Chosen People of God.

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