Note 183 — XIII. BRUCE’S REBELLION: THE WAR WHICH FOLLOWED.—THE DEATH OF EDWARD: HIS CHARACTER.

All the best biographers of Alfred are obliged to use, at every turn, the phrases, “It is said,” and “Tradition reports.” Thus, Mr. Pearson writes: “Probably nothing has been attributed to him without some real fact underlying the mythical narrative, but it is not always easy to disentangle the one from the other” (p. 173). Mr. Wright thus speaks: “It is probable that the king, during the period he remained at Athelney, was actively engaged in watching the movements of the Danes. Another legend represents him,” etc. (p. 388). And Mr. Hughes, the latest biographer of the great king, says of one fact, “This is related by Asser to have happened,” “which is clearly impossible.” In another place, “Any attempt to remove the miraculous element would take all life out of the story.” A third story is described as “a sad tangle, which no man can unravel.”