Thankfulness Day 16: Burnt Cakes?

Once upon a time(meaning it did happen) in the year 849 there was a boy born named Alfred. He was the fifth son of Aethelwulf of Wessex and Osburga. His brother was King Aethelred.

OK Pause here for a minute. Are those not the coolest names you have ever heard? I think I will name my next son Aethelwulf! Or my daughter Osburga! Don't those sound like romantic names..... yeah not quite but they definitely are interesting. I guess in those days those names were quite common. I am just glad common names of these days are Emily, Sarah, John and Michael and nice names like that! OK Back to my story.

There was danger in the land. Vikings were attacking King Aethelred's land. They were viscous and deadly. In the year 870 the Vikings attacked King Aethelreds kingdom and at a battle called Ashdown King Athelred was killed. Alfred became the king at the age of 21.  The land was full of problems and the King was in danger. Therefore, during those hard times, the king felt he needed to go into hiding. He traveled to Somerset in disguise and hide among some of his loyal subjects. They were a family of Swines herders. For those of you who don't know what that means, it means a pig farmer. The swine herders wife was a wonderful cook and was well known for her cakes. And one day she was baking some of her famous cakes over the fire in the hut, when the King came in and sat by the fire. He was deep in thought and was trying to come up with a plan to defeat the Vikings and drive them out of his land. The Swines herder wife, had to run out for a bit and asked the king to mind the cakes. For those of you who don't understand European English, Mind the cakes means to watch them. With his mind drifting off to issues of national security, he must not have heard the lady or forgot the cakes and sad to say the cakes got burned.... TOASTED! When the Swines herders wife returned to see the burnt cakes, she was Furious! All that work and all those ingredients wasted! She grabbed a stick and began to wallop the king with it. She walloped him good. So I wonder who was the king in danger more from? The vikings or the angry Swine herders wife? Oh the images I have running through my head right now of a king running away from a woman with a rolling pin!

To conclude the story if you were interested....
After developing a strategy and learning the Vikings tactics and training his own men to use the same tactics King Alfred's army defeating the odds, he beat the vikings in the battle of Edington in 878. And eventually a peace treaty was signed. Because of his heroic and tactics Alfred has gone down in History as Alfred 'The Great'.


 I find this story about the cakes extremely funny! Even more funny because this was a ancestor of mine. This is one of the stories that my Uncle Mark found of a Great great great........ multiplied a lot Grandfather. I am glad I am not the only one in my family that burns cakes! I am very glad someone found it important to write down funny stories about family history even if it was about burnt cakes! Have a great Friday! I am thankful for fun stories and times to laugh!