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Old English Boethius
The Old English Boethius is an Old English translation/adaptation of the sixth-century Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius, dating from between c. 880 and 950. Boethius's work is prosimetrical, alternating between prose and verse, and one of the two surviving manuscripts of the Old English translation renders the poems as Old English alliterative verse: these verse translations are known as the Metres of Boethius.
The translation is attributed in one manuscript to King Alfred (r. 870–899), and this was long accepted, but the attribution is now considered doubtful.
The Old English Consolation texts are known from three medieval manuscripts/fragments and an early modern copy:
The work was clearly more widely known, however. Early booklists from Exeter Cathedral and Christ Church Canterbury mention it, along with Æthelweard's Chronicle and William of Malmesbury. It influenced Ælfric, the Old English Distichs of Cato, and even Nicholas Trevet's commentary on the Consolatio of c. 1300.
Despite the dates of the surviving manuscripts, the verse translations of the metres are clearly based on the prose translations and so are later.
The version in Otho A.vi attributes the work to Alfred the Great in both its prose and verse prologues, and this was long accepted by scholars. To quote the prose,
King Alfred was the interpreter of this book, and turned it from book Latin into English, as it is now done. Now he set forth word by word, now sense from sense, as clearly and intelligently as he was able, in the various and manifold worldly cares that oft troubled him both in mind and in body. These cares are very hard for us to reckon, that in his days came upon the kingdoms to which he had succeeded, and yet when he had studied this book and turned it from Latin into English prose, he wrought it up once more into verse, as it is now done.
But the attribution is no longer considered reliable, and it is now usual simply to speak of the Old English Boethius, or at most to describe it as 'Alfredian', signalling that it was probably connected with Alfred's educational programme rather than being by Alfred. The translation is thought to have originated between about 890 and the mid-tenth century, possibly but not necessarily in a court context, and to be by an anonymous translator.
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Old English Boethius
The Old English Boethius is an Old English translation/adaptation of the sixth-century Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius, dating from between c. 880 and 950. Boethius's work is prosimetrical, alternating between prose and verse, and one of the two surviving manuscripts of the Old English translation renders the poems as Old English alliterative verse: these verse translations are known as the Metres of Boethius.
The translation is attributed in one manuscript to King Alfred (r. 870–899), and this was long accepted, but the attribution is now considered doubtful.
The Old English Consolation texts are known from three medieval manuscripts/fragments and an early modern copy:
The work was clearly more widely known, however. Early booklists from Exeter Cathedral and Christ Church Canterbury mention it, along with Æthelweard's Chronicle and William of Malmesbury. It influenced Ælfric, the Old English Distichs of Cato, and even Nicholas Trevet's commentary on the Consolatio of c. 1300.
Despite the dates of the surviving manuscripts, the verse translations of the metres are clearly based on the prose translations and so are later.
The version in Otho A.vi attributes the work to Alfred the Great in both its prose and verse prologues, and this was long accepted by scholars. To quote the prose,
King Alfred was the interpreter of this book, and turned it from book Latin into English, as it is now done. Now he set forth word by word, now sense from sense, as clearly and intelligently as he was able, in the various and manifold worldly cares that oft troubled him both in mind and in body. These cares are very hard for us to reckon, that in his days came upon the kingdoms to which he had succeeded, and yet when he had studied this book and turned it from Latin into English prose, he wrought it up once more into verse, as it is now done.
But the attribution is no longer considered reliable, and it is now usual simply to speak of the Old English Boethius, or at most to describe it as 'Alfredian', signalling that it was probably connected with Alfred's educational programme rather than being by Alfred. The translation is thought to have originated between about 890 and the mid-tenth century, possibly but not necessarily in a court context, and to be by an anonymous translator.