Al-Warraq Library

Home / Psychology & Society / The Ballad of the White Horse

Psychology & SocietyThe Ballad of the White HorseG. K. ChestertonThe Ballad of the White Horse

The Ballad of the White Horse

G. K. Chesterton

Psychology & SocietyEnglish
0 views
Read the bookGutenberg book pageInternet Archive

Al-Warraq Library does not host book files; it takes you to the copy at the original source. Public-domain status differs from country to country, so check the law where you live before downloading or republishing the book. Do you hold rights in this work? Request its removal

In the year 878, the Danes have conquered most of England, and King Alfred of Wessex is a fugitive in the marshes. After a vision of the Virgin Mary, who…

Catalogue details

Author
G. K. Chesterton
Category
Psychology & Society
Language
English
Source
Project Gutenberg

About this book

In the year 878, the Danes have conquered most of England, and King Alfred of Wessex is a fugitive in the marshes. After a vision of the Virgin Mary, who promises him nothing but that 'the sky grows darker yet and the sea rises higher', he goes out to gather his allies, a Saxon farmer, a Roman nobleman and a wild Celtic chief, and enters the camp of the Danish king Guthrum disguised as a minstrel. The poem builds to the great battle of Ethandune, near the ancient white horse cut into the chalk hills.

Context and significance

G. K. Chesterton published the ballad in 1911, and its message of courage without hope of reward was quoted often in Britain during the dark days of the Second World War. It mixes legend, such as the story of Alfred burning the cakes, with Chesterton's own ideas about faith and civilisation, set out in prose in Orthodoxy.

Similar books