Meaning of Alfredian | Babel Free

Definitions

Of, relating to, or characteristic of Alfred the Great or the period of his reign.

Examples

“The division of the whole country into counties, the trial by jury, the establishment of county courts and the creation of justices of the peace, are all Alfredian institutions.”

“The term “Alfredian” then is not univocal; it can mean, depending on the argument, anything from Alfred setting down words by himself, to Alfred working with a little or a lot of help in writing or dictating, or to Alfred authorizing another or others to act in his name with degrees of his personal involvement varying from much to nil.[…]Part II contains essays on works that almost all scholars would now agree have no particular connection with Alfredian prose. Whereas Alfredian prose—a phrase used here in the traditionalist sense—has a certain identifiable core that appears programmatic, viz., translations of the Christian classics, the prose outside of Alfred’s circle is somewhat more heterogeneous.”

“Both Grimbald and John the Old Saxon recall the earlier role of Felix, yet it is important to acknowledge the ingredients which made Alfredian ‘capital’ novel and distinctive. First, in a significant broadening of horizons beyond the Carolingian world, Alfredian cultural exchanges were consciously cosmopolitan, drawing on sources as diverse as Elias, patriarch of Jerusalem, who sent the king medicines; and the Norwegian merchant Ottar, who gave tusks of walrus-ivory, probably in return for protection.”

“Old Saxon influence is variously lexical, formulaic, and metrical, and it affects, in different ways, most of the identifiably Alfredian poems (excepting only the Metrical Epilogue to the Pastoral Care, really).”

CEFR level