Zusammenfassung
Zusammenfassung von The Ballad of the White Horse
Go deeper: the whole of The Ballad of the White Horse
About 1 h 20 min to read.Für wen es gedacht ist
You will love this book if you enjoy stories of lost causes and last stands, ballads read aloud, or a Christian outlook that laughs, fights and sings rather than sulks.
Worum es in diesem Buch geht
What would you do if you were a king with no army, no crown worth the name, and no help coming from anywhere? That is where G. K. Chesterton begins The Ballad of the White Horse. Alfred of Wessex sits on a marsh island called Athelney while Danish raiders overrun his land.
Chesterton, an English writer who died in 1936, wrote this poem in the rhythm of the old ballads. He is writing the legend of Alfred as the English people kept it alive, not history. He adds a Roman, a Celt and a Saxon, so that one small army carries the story of Christian Europe.
In dieser Zusammenfassung
- 1Rome has fallen and Alfred hides in a marshFree
- 2Our Lady promises Alfred no comfort at all
- 3Three men answer the call in three ways
- 4Alfred sings in the Danish camp and answers the gods
- 5A burnt cake teaches the king to laugh
- 6At Ethandune the battle starts with a thrown sword
- 7Hope without a cause is the poem's real subject
- 8A ballad that mixes myth, history and a child's play
Punkt 1 von 8
Rome has fallen and Alfred hides in a marsh
The poem opens with a hill figure. The White Horse is cut into the chalk of Berkshire, and Chesterton says it is older than the gods who made the gods. The horse is the poem's witness, and it comes back at the very end of the story.
Then the poet turns to the fall of Rome. The roads that once led to the city fill with strange faces from the east and the north. Nothing stays where it was. The people who live afterward are like survivors left on earth after a judgment day.
Out of that darkness come the Northmen. Chesterton paints them as huge and sad and cheerful in turns, men with red beards and horned helmets who know nothing of arch or pen. They take the kindly cross of God and chop it up for wood.
In the middle of this stands Alfred, King of Wessex. Once he made laws under a tree in a single hour of peace. Now the tide has come back, and his fathers are swept away like sticks in a flood.
So Alfred comes to Athelney, an island in a river, to be a king in a place where nothing English is left. He reads, as if written with an iron pen, that God has grown tired of the men of Wessex. Everything that follows grows out of this loss.
The story begins with a king who has lost everything but his place on the map.
That’s 1 of 8 key points.
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Go deeper: the whole of The Ballad of the White Horse
About 1 h 20 min to read.Who’s who
- Alfred
- The beaten King of Wessex who hides at Athelney, hears Our Lady's hard promise, and gathers a small Christian army to face the Danes.
- Guthrum
- The wise and weary Danish king, a scholar who believes the world ends in sorrow, and who leads the Great Army against Wessex.
- Eldred
- A huge, kind Saxon farmer, tired of lost wars, who loves his pigs and his plums but answers the king's call.
- Mark
- A Roman from Italy who keeps vines and the memory of Rome, and brings his armed slaves to stand beside the king.
- Colan
- A Celtic chief from Caerleon, merry in war and sad in song, who scorns Alfred at first and then fights for him.
- Ogier
- An old red-haired Danish earl who believes in gods behind the gods and wants only a last great fury.
- Harold
- Guthrum's young nephew, proud and loud, who sings of conquering the world and laughs at the ragged Christian army.
- Elf
- A blue-eyed Danish minstrel with a golden lute who sings of the god Balder and fights with a heavy hand.
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 18,000 words
- Reading timeAbout 1 h 10 min
- FormatseBook, large-print eBook, audiobook, 15-minute summary; paperback, hardcover and large print at cost
- LanguagesEnglish and 13 other languages
Questions about The Ballad of the White Horse
What is The Ballad of the White Horse about?
It is a long poem about King Alfred of Wessex, who hides in a marsh while the Danes conquer his land. He gathers a small army and fights the battle of Ethandune, guided by a vision of Our Lady.
What is the White Horse in the poem?
It is a huge horse carved into the chalk of a hill in Berkshire, older than anyone can say. In the poem it watches over England and stands for old things that Christian men must keep and clean.
Who are Eldred, Mark and Colan?
They are Alfred's three main allies. Eldred is a Saxon farmer, Mark a Roman from Italy, and Colan a Celt from Caerleon. Together they stand for the peoples that made Christian Britain.
Is The Ballad of the White Horse easy to follow?
The story moves in eight books, each with a clear scene, such as the vision at Athelney, the harp in the Danish camp, the burnt cakes and the battle. The ballad rhythm makes it ideal for reading aloud.
Cite this edition
Chesterton, G. K. The Ballad of the White Horse. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-ballad-of-the-white-horse.
Chesterton, G. K. (2026). The ballad of the White Horse. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-ballad-of-the-white-horse (Original work published 1911)
Chesterton, G. K. The Ballad of the White Horse. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-ballad-of-the-white-horse.
@book{chesterton2026ballad,
author = {Chesterton, G. K.},
title = {The Ballad of the White Horse},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-ballad-of-the-white-horse},
note = {First published 1911}
}
