Did Alfred Burn the Cakes? & Other Medieval Myths

Matt Lewis (0:02)

From long-lost Viking ships and kings buried in unexpected places, to tales of murder, power, faith and the lives of ordinary people across medieval Europe and beyond. Join me, Matt Lewis, Dr Eleanor Janega, and some of the world's leading historians, as we bring history's most fascinating stories to life only on History Hit. With your subscription, you'll unlock hundreds of hours of exclusive documentaries, with a brand new release every week exploring everything from the ancient world to World War II.

Just visit historyhit.com/subscribe.

Welcome to Gone Medieval. Today we're going medieval myth busting. Some myths of the Middle Ages are universally known, like did Alfred really burn the cakes? But others are so strange you want them to be true. For example, did William Wallace fire bolts of lightning from his backside? And perhaps most importantly, does the Pope owe an apology to all cats everywhere? I'm Matt Lewis and I've invited Dr. Eleanor Janega down from her ivory tower to separate the medieval facts from the medieval fibs. And thanks to all of you who suggested myths that you've always known but weren't always sure whether they were true or not. We're here to put your minds at rest. Let the myth busting begin.

Eleanor Janega (1:38)

Okay, Matt, I want to start us off with a strong one, right? Because this is a classic actual myth from the medieval period. And this is about your friend and mine, King Alfred the Great. Now, cast your mind back to the Viking invasions, okay? And the myth is that King Alfred the Great is hiding from the Vikings. They're invading the kingdom. It's overrun.

And as a part of this, he takes shelter in a poor woman's cottage. And she doesn't know who this guy is. And she's like, yeah, sure, buddy, you can hide out here. Vikings everywhere. But while I am out doing some chores, can you just keep an eye on these cakes that I have by the fire? Okay, so Alfred, yeah, yeah, absolutely.

But he's, you know, pondering, pondering on the fate of the kingdom and doesn't pay attention to the cakes. The cakes subsequently burn and the old lady comes back and is like, what is this? And gives him a good hiding, right? So this is one of these like really traditional stories that gets told about Alfred the Great. I think it's actually one of the things you hear most about him, even above and beyond his career. But unfortunately, it just isn't true, right?

Matt Lewis (2:47)

No. So it's a myth that appears later. It does appear in medieval sources, but it crops up much, much later. It kind of tells us around 878, Alfred is having all of these setbacks with the Vikings. He's been pushed back to Athelmy, this island in the midst of his lands, which might be Glastonbury, who knows? Go and stand on Glastonbury tour and see what you think. And that he is hiding out. And as you say, he's in this woman's cottage. All she asks him to do is keep an eye on the cakes, and he can't do that. It's a story for the ages, isn't it? Men aren't very good at the one thing that you've given them to do. Am I right? Because you think about 50 other things, obviously.

But I think it's one of those things that is meant to present Alfred as this kind of humble human king who is facing real crises. And it's suggested that he's not betraying these huge crises on his face. This woman doesn't know who he is. He's not going everywhere proclaiming himself to be the mighty Alfred and demanding abasants from everybody around him. But I think there's also a little bit of a moral lesson in there that you can concentrate on all of these really big huge issues that are concerning you.

And the danger is you let the little things get away from you too. You let the cakes burn because you're doing something you think is much more important. And there's a lesson in there for kings, I think, in you have to have this this macro view, but you also retain the micro view as well. You have to be aware of so many different things that are going on. So I think it's meant to drive home to us that Alfred allowed himself to get distracted by the huge things when it's the little things that will really help him make a difference.

Eleanor Janega (4:24)

And I mean, I think here also there's this idea of yes, you're thinking about politics. You're thinking about the great needs of the kingdom. What's going on for the small folk? What is happening for your actual subjects who are faced with these things? And fundamentally, they just want to put the cakes on the table, right? They just want to eat tonight. And so I do think that it presents you with this nice story about what kings ought to be doing, which is, I think, most often the way that we learn, especially about the earlier medieval kings. You know, they're presented as allegories. They're presented as a way of thinking about the concept of kingship more generally, right?