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21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great retelling of Alfred's story, December 4, 2009
This review is from: The White Horse King: The Life of Alfred the Great (Paperback)
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I'd been looking for a richly detailed, general-audience biography of Alfred the Great for many years now -- I read a lot of historical and fantasy fiction, and every year or so I'd read something that drew on Alfred's legend and then find myself on the 'net for an hour or so, reading about the burned cakes or his army in exile at the swamps of Athelney; and then I'd wish I had a good in-depth biography close to hand -- something that would give me a detailed image of Alfred's life and times, not just the dry facts I could glean from a google search. This is the book I'd been looking for. There's a rich wealth of detail about Alfred's life, associates, friends, enemies, and family, and the author has very clearly done extensive combing of the available historical record. More importantly, though, the author makes a deliberate effort to bring Alfred's surrounding culture to life as well, and we're given not just Alfred's history, but also a great deal of information on how the events and actions of Alfred's life might or would have been viewed by his contemporaries in the Anglo-Saxon world. The only flaw in this book is that the author doesn't spend as much time as I would've liked on the pros and cons of points of historical controversy. For example, while acknowledging that some controversy exists on the point, Merkle establishes the White Horse Hill in Uffington as the site of the Battle of Ashdown (Alfred's first great victory against the Danes) -- a position that's a fair bit more contentious than it seems as presented by Merkle. This same pattern is present throughout, and it's part of why this book is better suited for general audiences than for scholars. Still, though, Merkle does acknowledge the controversies even when he takes a firm position of his own, and he names sources so that readers who want more in-depth knowledge can seek out those alternate viewpoints on their own. This is a work of general-audience history, and general-audience history is always a bit of a gamble: I never know, when I pick up something by a new author, whether I'm going to learn any more than I would from a Wikipedia search, or whether (and this is always my hope) I'm going to get a genuinely detailed and evocative picture of the individuals' life and times. This particular gamble pays off; if you're not a scholar of the era, but still interested in this era of history, it's worth reading.
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Chalk Full of Detail, December 20, 2009
This review is from: The White Horse King: The Life of Alfred the Great (Paperback)
The White Horse King: The Life of Alfred the Great by Benjamin Merkle is an excellent biography of the lesser known historical figure of King Alfred. While I remember briefly studying about the Danish, Northmen, and Vikings, I don't remember learning much about Alfred, who as it turns out, played a very integral role in shaping the future of British history. While Alfred was not actually a king of the whole of England (the nation would unite under his grandson), he was the king of Wessex and is to this day the only English king to be known as "the Great." Though Merkle does discuss Alfred's childhood briefly, the bulk of the book focuses on Alfred's near constant fight to defend his kingdom from the plundering of the Vikings. The Northmen had been pillaging the poorly defended English towns for decades, but the activity rose to a height during Alfred's childhood and into his reign as king of Wessex. Eventually, the vast majority of his resources and attention was focused on determining a feasible way for the citizens of Wessex to effectively defend their homes. He developed a professional standing army, a rather new concept to the people of his kingdom; he took advantage of the Roman roads which still remained so that troops could more quickly travel to the site of a battle; he ordered villages to build defenses around the city limits. Perhaps most importantly was that when the time for battle came, Alfred fought with his people. In a day when we can most easily send our troops to fight battles far away without so much as a second thought, the idea of the king leading his faithful men into battle strikes a chord with me and speaks to the days of chivalry and true nobility. It was through Alfred's efforts and determined leadership that the island nation was eventually able to rid themselves of the invaders from the north in all finality. Once this feat was accomplished, Alfred turned his attentions to other important needs within his kingdom; his focus became education reform. Though the people spoke in the vernacular of the Anglo-Saxon language, most written work was Latin, and the people, including the nobility, of Alfred's time were unable to read and write in either language. He deemed literacy a requirement for the noblemen to hold their titles and property and mandated education for all free men. Eventually, he translated several works from Latin into the vernacular so that the whole of the nation would be able to read the works- and not just those who had studied enough to understand the Latin language. It is obvious the author knew his subject material extremely well; I was very impressed with how much information was packed into the short book. Even though I felt the writing was a bit slow at times, I learned several fascinating facts not only about Alfred the Great, but about the Vikings and Romans as well. Perhaps my favorite little tidbit of knowledge came when the author explained the origin of the word berserk. But I won't tell you- you'll just have to read the book to find out.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent Introductory Biography of Alfred the Great, April 23, 2010
This review is from: The White Horse King: The Life of Alfred the Great (Paperback)
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Alfred the Great is an extremely important historical figure that has somewhat been forgotten in modern times. I have to admit to starting this book with very little knowledge of Alfred or the history of that time period. This book made the history of that period come alive and stirred up an interest in me to learn more about Alfred the Great. It was very well written with the right mixture of narrative and historical facts and was concisely written to reach the average person. However, as you can see from other reviews, academics are also finding this book of value. If you have an interest in history, this book is worth your time and money and will likely open up more interest in this period. For those who were like me and wonder why we should care about Alfred--he is largely responsible for defeating the invading vikings, uniting the various kingdoms of Britain, initiating a literary renaissance, reviving Christian faith, and reforming the legal system.
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