Several kings, including Hywel ap Rhys of Glywysing and Hyfaidd of Dyfed (where Asser's monastery was), had submitted to Alfred's overlordship in 885. It is not known how Alfred heard of Asser, but one possibility relates to Alfred's overlordship of south Wales. Alfred held a high opinion of the value of learning and recruited men from around Britain and from continental Europe to establish a scholarly centre at his court. Much of what is known about Asser comes from his biography of Alfred, in particular a short section in which Asser recounts how Alfred recruited him as a scholar for his court. He also mentions Nobis, a bishop of St David's who died in 873 or 874, as being a kinsman of his. Asser makes it clear that he was brought up in the area, and was tonsured, trained and ordained there. Īccording to his Life of King Alfred, Asser was a monk at St David's in what was then the kingdom of Dyfed, in south-west Wales. Asser may have been familiar with a work by St Jerome on the meaning of Hebrew names (Jerome's given meaning for "Asser" was "blessed"). Old Testament names were common in Wales at the time, but it has been suggested that this name may have been adopted at the time Asser entered the church. The name Asser is likely to have been taken from Aser, or Asher, the eighth son of Jacob in Genesis. Almost nothing is known of Asser's early life. Īsser (also known as John Asser or Asserius Menevensis) was a Welsh monk who lived from at least AD 885 until about 909. The identification of Leonaford with Landford is also not certain. The exact location of Ashdown is uncertain, though it is known to be on the Berkshire Downs. The monasteries he was given by Alfred are also shown. Name and early life A map of southern England and Wales showing places Asser is known to have visited. Doubts have also been raised periodically about whether the entire Life is a forgery, written by a slightly later writer, but it is now almost universally accepted as genuine. A short passage making this claim was interpolated by William Camden into his 1603 edition of Asser's Life. Asser assisted Alfred in his translation of Gregory the Great's Pastoral Care, and possibly with other works.Īsser is sometimes cited as a source for the legend about Alfred's having founded the University of Oxford, which is now known to be false. The biography is the main source of information about Alfred's life and provides far more information about Alfred than is known about any other early English ruler. That copy was destroyed in a fire in 1731, but transcriptions that had been made earlier, together with material from Asser's work which was included by other early writers, have made it possible to reconstruct the work. The manuscript survived to modern times in only one copy, which was part of the Cotton library. In 893, Asser wrote a biography of Alfred, called the Life of King Alfred. After spending a year at Caerwent because of illness, Asser accepted. About 885 he was asked by Alfred the Great to leave St David's and join the circle of learned men whom Alfred was recruiting for his court. 909) was a Welsh monk from St David's, Dyfed, who became Bishop of Sherborne in the 890s.
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