Alfred the Great & the English Language

In the time of Alfred (Old English form: Ælfræd), essentially the second half of the 800s, there was no united nation of England, rather there were a number of English kingdoms. Alfred was the king of Wessex, named after the West Saxons. Without Alfred's persistence in rallying his people against the advancing Danes (Vikings), there is a good chance the English language would not have survived, and the related Germanic language of Old Norse,* the language of the Vikings, would have taken over as the language of the English lands. But Alfred DID rally the Anglo-Saxons and he and his army defeated the Danes. 

In those times, Christianity had spread throughout much of Europe, including to England, and along with the religion came Latin for church personnel and many educated people. The Viking raids and conquests in England greatly disrupted and diminished the religious instituions, and thus, Latin, in England. Once the wars had subsided, Alfred, who was a religious man, was concerned with his people's spiritual education, and he went forward with a program to have a number of religious works translated from Latin into the language of the people... ENGLISH. It "seems" Alfred not only had books translated into English from Latin, but indeed, he helped with some of the translations himself. Alfred also pushed for what became "The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles," although this historical work of the history of the English people didn't actually begin until after Alfred's death. He also had laws set down in writing, thus providing written codes, in English. It is not without reason that Alfred is designated, "the Great."

* Old Norse didn't just go away in England; rather, Viking settlements helped Old Norse to influence English, as gradually it contributed words to English, often either replacing or melding with English forms of those same words, or by providing synonyms for existing words. For example, English then had "sceo," which meant "cloud," while Old Norse had "sky," which also meant "cloud," with both words coming from the same Old Germanic source. It was a bit later before "sky" took on the meaning that is still has today. English had "sick," and it took the word "ill" from Old Norse. In other cases, rather than becoming true synonyms, the words became slightly different in meaning: the English noun "hide," but Old Norse "skin." Originally, "hide" was the general word for skin in English, but with the borrowing of the Old Norse word, hide came to be more the term for animal skin, but interestingly, we "skin" the "hide" from an animal, in verb usage.

WORD HISTORY:
Good-This common word is distantly related to "gather," It goes back to Indo European "ghedh," which had the notion of "unify, unite, join, keep together;" thus also, "to fit together, be suitable." This gave its Old Germanic offspring, "godaz," meaning, "fitting;" thus, "positive feeling toward things that fit together, are suitable." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "god" (long "o"), meaning, "good." This then came to be spelled with the double "o," as the sound lessened from the long "o." The noun has the same basic history, with the meaning, "a good thing, a positive action, a counter force to evil, wealth, property, item for sale." Forms in the other Germanic languages: German has "gut" and the noun "Gut" (meaning, "estate, property, possession"), Low German Saxon has "goot" and the noun "Goot" (same meaning as German), West Frisian "goed" and noun "guod" (stuff, goods"), Dutch "goed" and noun "goed" and "goedje" (goed=property, estate; goedje=stuff), Danish "god" and noun "gods" (estate), Norwegian "god" (Norwegian uses other words for the noun meanings), Icelandic "góður" (ð=th, and Icelandic uses other words for the noun meanings), Swedish "god" (Swedish uses other words for the noun meanings).