For fifty years John Earle puzzled over the gold and enamel jewel whose inscription declares that Alfred ordered it made. His essay describes the object closely, reads its Old English legend, weighs earlier theories of its purpose, including Bishop Clifford’s, and studies the boar’s head, the enamelled figure and the engraved back plate, all set against the story of Alfred’s war with the Danes.
A learned and affectionate study for anyone drawn to Anglo-Saxon England and its most famous surviving treasure. Download the free EPUB.