Alfred the Great

The Legend of the Loaves

While hiding from the Danes, King Alfred, in disguise, asked a village cowherd to shelter him. Without knowing who he was, the wife of the cowherd said that he could stay in her hut overnight. She was busy cooking bread and asked the King to look after the loaves and to make sure that they did not burn.

Alfred sat at the fire, but started cleaning his weapons and not thinking about what he had been asked to do. Soon the smell of burning bread alerted the woman to the fact that her dinner was going up in smoke. She ran back to King Alfred and scolded him for not looking after the bread. Later, when she found out who it was that she had told off, the woman was in fear for her life. Alfred did not punish her.