This Friday evening will mark the fourteenth edition of “Old English Fun Time Online” – the superb monthly event of the Facebook group “Old English Enthusiasts” (yup, indeed, one of the two groups that served as a model for Japan Fans).

The following fanfic is simply called “The Last Kingdom Fanfic” and written by jasminecanada. In this story, King Alfred gets very sick and is cured by princess Gisla, who came with her husband Rollo to attend a royal wedding. When Alfred takes his crown off, he already feels better, but he is not completely healed. Gisla finds a prayer to heal him in his Enchiridion (his notebook) in which she draws a Chi Rho sign. Alfred and Gisla talk about friendship between their peoples and Alfred explains how friendship feels for the Anglo-Saxons.

Surakian wrote this untitled fanfiction for The Last Kingdom, in which King Alfred gets very sick (when hiding in the Athelney marshes) and Modwenna cures him. She finds out that he has a wyrm in his spinal cord, and her herbal medicine does not seem to work, but when he is as good as dead, she summons the wyrm (that is called Gifer) to go away. Republished with permission of the author.

Robyn aka DxTURA just made a dream come true: he wrote this awesome fanfic in which The Witcher meets King Alfred, for which he used my translation of the first story as well as my own fanfic about King Alfred. Yeah! What a great way to start the new year! ^_^ Thank you so much, Robyn.

Of course I had heard some tales about Canterbury – a pilgrimage site in the Middle Ages, surrounded by Ancient walls (originally built by the Romans), that encircle its medieval center of cobbled streets and timber-framed houses. But I had never been there – until last summer. My stay in Canterbury allowed me to connect to the Alfredian world in a new way. This blog post is a reflection of my findings and the second of a series of four.

Hwæt – for another most fascinating manuscript I got to see at the British Library was that of Beowulf. And this particular manuscript of Beowulf is also associated with king Alfred the Great (Waugh, 1997). In this short blog post, I explain why the association of Beowulf and Alfred contributes to the myth-making of Alfred as a heroic warrior king.

When I heard that this year’s Domcantorij tour would lead us to Rochester, I got very excited. Not only would I have the change to improve myself as a chorister and deepen the relationships with my fellow singers, but the trip would also allow me to connect to King Alfred in a new way. This blog post is a reflection of my findings and the first of a series of four.