POETRY AND HISTORY The epic of the White Horse*

  “Before the gods that made the godsHad seen their sunrise pass,The White Horse of the White Horse ValeWas cut out of the grass.” The Ballad of the White Horse, by G.K. Chesterton, was published in 1911, and is a vast (120 plus-page), sweeping, heroic account in ballad form of King Alfred the Great’s hopeless war, crushing defeat and final “eucatastrophic” victory over the Great Army of the marauding Vikings in the Thornland of Ethandune about a …

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