Asser

  • d. c.908/909
  • bishops, authors
  • Sherborne, Tyddewi ... St Davids
monk of St David’s and later, bishop of Sherborne; author of a contemporary Life of King Alfred.
See also: Alfred [king of Wessex]Alfred ... king of Wessex
(d. 899)
Alfred the Great
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See also references for related subjects.
Thomas, Rebecca, and David Callander, “Reading Asser in early medieval Wales: the evidence of Armes Prydein Vawr”, Anglo-Saxon England 46 (2017): 115–145.  

This article examines the connections between Asser's Life of King Alfred and the tenthcentury Welsh poem Armes Prydein Vawr. It studies the use of the place-name Santwic ‘Sandwich’ in Armes Prydein, and presents evidence that this form derives from a written source. An investigation of the sources containing this place-name before the late tenth century raises the distinct possibility that Asser's Life was the source drawn upon by the Welsh poet. Examination of the context in which Sandwich occurs in Asser and Armes Prydein highlights striking similarities in usage, strengthening the argument for a connection between the two texts. Further correspondences between these works are noted before discussing the potential implications of this new finding for our understanding of Asser (and his reception) and Armes Prydein more generally.

Godden, Malcolm, “Alfred, Asser, and Boethius”, in: Katherine OʼBrien OʼKeeffe, and Andy Orchard (eds), Latin learning and English lore: studies in Anglo-Saxon literature for Michael Lapidge, 2 vols, vol. 1, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2005. 326–348.
Lapidge, Michael, “Asser’s reading”, in: Timothy Reuter (ed.), Alfred the Great: papers from the Eleventh-Centenary Conferences, Aldershot: Ashgate, 2003. 27–48.
Howlett, David R., “Alfredian arithmetic: Asserian architectonics”, in: Timothy Reuter (ed.), Alfred the Great: papers from the Eleventh-Centenary Conferences, Aldershot: Ashgate, 2003. 49–62.
Davies, Wendy, “Alfred’s contemporaries: Irish, Welsh, Scots and Breton”, in: Timothy Reuter (ed.), Alfred the Great: papers from the Eleventh-Centenary Conferences, Aldershot: Ashgate, 2003. 323–338.
Smyth, Alfred P., King Alfred the Great, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995.
Dumville, David N., “The ‘six’ sons of Rhodri Mawr: a problem in Asser’s Life of King Alfred”, Cambridge Medieval Celtic Studies 4 (Winter, 1982): 5–18.  
Reprinted in 1993, essay XV.
Kenney, James F., “Chapter VI: The expansion of Irish Christianity”, in: James F. Kenney, The sources for the early history of Ireland: an introduction and guide. Volume 1: ecclesiastical, Revised ed., 11, New York: Octagon, 1966. 486–621.
[424] “The Irish at Glastonbury”