Early translations into Old English - 887
Alfred the Great in his study.
Introduction
In 887, learning was at a low ebb in England. Danish invaders had destroyed its centers of learning (the monasteries), killed monks, and burned their irreplaceable manuscripts. King Alfred, hoping to restore some of what had been lost, summoned Asser, a well-educated Welsh clergyman, to his kingdom. Seeing that restoration of Latin literature was impossible, Alfred determined to provide his people with essential works in their own tongue. It was on this day, November 11, 887, that Alfred took his first step toward creating a vernacular literature two centuries before other western European nations did the same with their native languages. As Asser tells it,
Quote
“On a certain day we were both of us sitting in the king's chamber, talking on all kinds of subjects, as usual, and it happened that I read to him a quotation out of a certain book. He heard it attentively with both his ears, and addressed me with a thoughtful mind, showing me at the same moment a book which he carried in his bosom, wherein the daily courses and psalms, and prayers which he had read in his youth, were written, and he commanded me to write the same quotation in that book. . . . Now when that first quotation was copied, he was eager at once to read, and to interpret in Saxon, and then to teach others...”
Asser. Life of Alfred.