King Alfred's Orosius

As a translation, this work has two main "authors" associated with it: Paulus Orosius (the original Latin author) and King Alfred the Great (the Anglo-Saxon translator/editor/continuator). Here's the lowdown on these gentlemen, via Wikipedia:

Paulus Orosius (b. circa 375, d. 418?) was a Christian historian, theologian and disciple of St. Augustine who came from Gallaecia (a sub-province of Hispania Tarraconensis, comprising modern Galicia, in Spain, and northern Portugal), probably from the capital city Bracara Augusta. He is best known for his Historiarum Adversum Paganos Libri VII ("Seven Books of History Against the Pagans"), which he wrote in response to the belief that the decline of the Roman Empire was the result of its adoption of Christianity.

Alfred the Great (also Ælfred from the Old English Ælfrēd, pronounced [ˈælfreːd]) (c. 849 – 26 October 899) was king of the southern Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex from 871 to 899. Alfred is noted for his defense of the kingdom against the Danish Vikings, becoming the only English King to be awarded the epithet "the Great". Alfred was the first King of the West Saxons to style himself "King of the English". Details of his life are discussed in a work by the Welsh scholar Asser. Alfred was a learned man, and encouraged education and improved his kingdom's law system as well as its military structure.

The purpose of Orosius's history was to more fully apply the historical perspective of Augustine's City of God:

The Historiae adversum paganos was undertaken at the suggestion of Augustine, to whom it is dedicated. Orosius argues that the world has improved since the introduction of Christianity rather than declined as others had argued. In response to those who pointed to contemporary disasters, he simply argues out that previous ones occurring before Christianity were much worse. The work, a universal history of the calamities that have happened to mankind from the fall down to about 417, was the first attempt to write the history of the world as a history of God guiding humanity. ("His work")

The work was well received and came to be seen as the official world history of post-classical and medieval Christendom. Unlike the older histories of pagan writers, such as Livy and Tacitus, Orosius's history interpreted world events through the assumptions of Christian -- specifically, Augustinian -- theology. Thus, two levels of narrative are present at all times: the mundane perspective of earthly actions and the heavenly perspective of divine intention.

Alfred seems to have agreed with this general high regard for Orosius's history, selecting it as one of a handful of books in his "essential library": Latin works that he translated (or had translated) into Old English, to foster a wider readership for them. Alfred was not a strict translator, however, freely elaborating, cutting, abridging, and amending the text according to his own interests and priorities. The result is less properly a translation than it is a conversion:

OROSIUS'S HISTORY

ALFRED'S TRANSLATION OF OROSIUS'S HISTORY

Now, on to the bullet points!

Orosius's History

* The history begins with a geographical and topographical description of the known world: Europe, Asia (mainly the Levant and Caucasus, but as far east as India), and Africa (north Africa specifically, with vague references to regions further south).

* The historical narrative follows a general pattern. Orosius first orients his reader chronologically, nationally, and politically: "X years before the founding of Rome, King Y reigned in country Z." He then recounts the major events associated with that time, place, and situation: usually wars, political conflicts, and portentous disasters. He usually concludes each episode by criticizing his contemporary Romans for complaining about their current plight (Gothic domination): "You think you have it hard? People back in the day had it hard! Their wars were bigger, their calamities worse, their kings cruel and despotic, and their gods no help whatsoever!"

* Orosius's major revisited themes are (1) that the world has been a better and more peaceful place since the coming of Christ, and (2) that the Christian God controls the destiny of all nations, decreeing their rise and fall for His own purposes.

Alfred's Additions

* Alfred adds in geographical information to the first chapter of book one. Apparently he felt that Orosius's geographic and national descriptions of northern Europe and Scandinavia were lacking. He includes the first-hand accounts of two ocean-going merchants, Ohthere and Wulfstan, whom he personally questioned regarding the coastal regions of the North Sea, the White Sea, and the Baltic Sea. These additions give important ethnographic information regarding the lesser-known people groups of northern Europe, such as the Lapps (Sami) and the various Slavic tribes of the Baltic coast.

* Alfred also frequently inserts historical and cultural information from other classical sources, to aid Anglo-Saxon readers in understanding this much older work. For instance, he explains the Roman tradition of giving a "triumph" for conquering consuls -- helpful, since a consul getting (or not getting) a "triumph" figures significantly in many of his accounts of Roman political/military history. Less helpfully, he informs his readers that Theseus's minotaur was "half man, half lion", perhaps indicating his unfamiliarity with the story from any other source.