The singers of his court found in him a brother singer, gathering the old songs of his people to teach them to his children, breaking his renderings from the Latin with simple verse, solacing himself in hours of depression with the music of the Psalms.

He passed from court and study to plan buildings and instruct craftsmen in gold-work, to teach even falconers and dog-keepers their business.

But all this versatility and ingenuity was controlled by a cool good sense.
AElfred was a thorough man of business.

He was careful of detail, laborious, methodical.

He carried in his bosom a little handbook in which he noted things as they struck him--now a bit of family genealogy, now a prayer, now such a story as that of Ealdhelm playing minstrel on the bridge.