251. Alfred the Great: Return of the King

Battling with the expanding power of the Vikings, listen to Tom and Dominic discover how King Alfred the Great earned his name in the second instalment of our two part series on England's Founding Father.

Dominic's book, 'Adventures in Time: Fury of the Vikings', is available to buy now in all good bookshops.

[ELL]

I am so enjoying this channel. I’m an American whose ancestors almost all came from Britain. I love your country and am so glad to be learning more about it from two such interesting British historians. Thank you!

[Sprayber]

My daughter once asked me why I was always interested in English history. I told her that it wasn't just English history, it was American history as well. I've always been fascinated by Alfred. The more you learn about him the more complex he becomes.

[heidinayak]

My family moved to NZ from England when i was 3. Then when i was 13 i went to evening classes at our local university on Anglo-Saxon history - part of my Tolkien obsession. The professor told us about the walls at Wareham. Then my father took us back to England on holiday for Christmas when i was 14 - the only time ive ever been back to England since we moved in 1995 - and i insisted that we visit 1) Wareham and 2) Tolkiens grave in Oxford. When we duly visited Wareham and walked all the way around the walls, the locals were pretty surprised to hear that this 14yo girl had come all the way from NZ to see the walls at Wareham 😁😆

[toneydavis]

Salivating...waiting to listen to this later without threat of interruption. I really appreciate each of you that make these podcasts possible. 8 hours later. I listened, learned and thoroughly enjoyed!

[robinsanders]

Makes me proud to be from Winchester! Seeing the great statue of the great man that stands there was always one of my earliest memories.

[kambrose]

I had no idea there was more to Alfred than burnt cakes. This was a wonderful episode!

[andrewkent]

I grew up in Wantage so Alfred has always resonated with me in the same way I think Tom described it. These episodes are particularly riveting for me. Well done.

[chrispurzer]

Kudos from kansas city! Been binge listening to your series at every opportunity. Great content, marvelous dialogue, superlative chemistry!😊

[colino]

40:20 living in New Jersey, USA I’d say Anglo-Saxon is brought up when referring to WASP or the Anglo-Saxon period in Europe. However, nobody knows much about Anglo-Saxons here in America.

[michaelstaeheli]

The raven banner of the Vikings also is recalled in the saga of Earl Sigurd of Orkney. The banner would bring victory to those whose side carried it but death to him who bore it. It was woven by Sigurd’s mother, and in his last battle he was the last to bear it and was killed.

[kevinmcinerney]

I love the legend of Alfred the Great, which I confess I haven't heard since primary school. (So long ago that Alfred was recent history). I do struggle a bit with the idea that the Anglo-Saxons were the natives being oppressed by the Vikings, and later disinherited of their native lands by the Normans, and so on. When they themselves came from parts of Germany, the Netherlands and Denmark. I always understood that the native Britons were driven out to the periphery of the Isles, so to Cornwall Wales and Ireland (and I guess even to Brittany). But I don't have any sense of how violent this expulsion was. It seems one of the less addressed areas of British history. Would the Welsh be entitled to tell the Angles to stop whining about Vikings and Normans?

[Mrsb]

Watching this as an English man living in New Zealand, in 2025, there 's a glimps in to the future regarding American re- writing of history, As we look on in horror with the advent of trump and his lies .

[LeoneNut]

I find Æthelstan more fascinating when it comes to the Anglo-Saxon kings, but the real genius behind proto England is St. Cuthbert

[GuildOfTheBlackCrow]

One Viking didn't like this episode.