"When the BBC ran a poll in 2001 to name the greatest Briton, Alfred, a ninth-century monarch, was the only king to make the top 20. Also the only English sovereign to be called "the Great"--Despite the fact that he was never king of all England - Alfred used to be remembered as much through stories as through a familiarity with his accomplishments." "This book offers a vivid picture of Alfred's England, a place snatched from extinction at the hands of invaders, but also of the way that history is written, and how much myth had to do with that."--Jacket.