Project Gutenberg's The Ballad of the White Horse, by G.K. Chesterton

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Title: The Ballad of the White Horse

Author: G.K. Chesterton

Posting Date: September 21, 2008 [EBook #1719]
Release Date: April, 1999

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BALLAD OF THE WHITE HORSE ***

Produced by Paul Bonner, and Martin Ward

THE BALLAD OF THE WHITE HORSE

By G.K. Chesterton

Prefatory Note:

This ballad needs no historical notes, for the simple reason that it
does not profess to be historical. All of it that is not frankly
fictitious, as in any prose romance about the past, is meant to
emphasize tradition rather than history. King Alfred is not a legend in
the sense that King Arthur may be a legend; that is, in the sense that
he may possibly be a lie. But King Alfred is a legend in this broader
and more human sense, that the legends are the most important things
about him.

The cult of Alfred was a popular cult, from the darkness of the ninth
century to the deepening twilight of the twentieth. It is wholly as a
popular legend that I deal with him here. I write as one ignorant of
everything, except that I have found the legend of a King of Wessex
still alive in the land. I will give three curt cases of what I mean.
A tradition connects the ultimate victory of Alfred with the valley in
Berkshire called the Vale of the White Horse. I have seen doubts of the
tradition, which may be valid doubts. I do not know when or where the
story started; it is enough that it started somewhere and ended with me;
for I only seek to write upon a hearsay, as the old balladists did. For
the second case, there is a popular tale that Alfred played the harp and
sang in the Danish camp; I select it because it is a popular tale, at
whatever time it arose. For the third case, there is a popular tale that
Alfred came in contact with a woman and cakes; I select it because it is
a popular tale, because it is a vulgar one. It has been disputed by
grave historians, who were, I think, a little too grave to be good
judges of it. The two chief charges against the story are that it was
first recorded long after