The Ballad of the White Horse
By G. K. Chesterton
Cover: King Alfred the Great (c. 1850), colour lithograph after a painting in the Bodleian Gallery by Unknown 19th-century artist · Wikimedia Commons · Public domain (published c. 1850, artist anonymous and long dead)
Chesterton's ballad tells how King Alfred, beaten and hiding in the marshes, gathers the Saxon chiefs for a last stand against the Danes at Ethandune. In galloping rhyme it makes the war a clash of Christian and pagan worlds, and it ends with the white horse on the hill being scoured.
Summary written with Claude Sonnet 5.5.
Table of contents
- 1: Dedication
- 2: Book I. the Vision of the King
- 3: Book II. the Gathering of the Chiefs
- 4: Book III. the Harp of Alfred
- 5: Book IV. the Woman in the Forest
- 6: Book V. Ethandune: the First Stroke
- 7: Book VI. Ethandune: the Slaying of the Chiefs
- 8: Book VII. Ethandune: the Last Charge
- 9: Book VIII. the Scouring of the Horse