The Ballad of the White Horse E-Book

G.K. Chesterton

• Herausgeber: Phoemixx Classics Ebooks
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021

Seitenzahl: 89

Beschreibung

The Ballad of the White Horse G. K. Chesterton - The Ballad of the White Horse is one of the last great epic poems in the English language. On the one hand it describes King Alfreds battle against the Danes in 878. On the other hand it is a timeless allegory about the ongoing battle between Christianity and the forces of nihilistic heathenism. Filled with colorful characters, thrilling battles and mystical visions, it is as lively as it is profound.Chesterton incorporates brilliant imagination, atmosphere, moral concern, chronological continuity, wisdom and fancy. He makes his stanzas reverberate with sound, and hurries his readers into the heart of the battle.

Leseprobe

G. K. Chesterton

The Ballad of the White Horse

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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 Alfred's death, and that (as Mr. Oman urges) Alfred never really wandered all alone without any thanes or soldiers. Both these objections might possibly be met. It has taken us nearly as long to learn the whole truth about Byron, and perhaps longer to learn the whole truth about Pepys, than elapsed between Alfred and the first writing of such tales. And as for the other objection, do the historians really think that Alfred after Wilton, or Napoleon after Leipsic, never walked about in a wood by himself for the matter of an hour or two? Ten minutes might be made sufficient for the essence of the story. But I am not concerned to prove the truth of these popular traditions. It is enough for me to maintain two things: that they are popular traditions; and that without these popular traditions we should have bothered about Alfred about as much as we bother about Eadwig.

One other consideration needs a note. Alfred has come down to us in the best way (that is, by national legends) solely for the same reason as Arthur and Roland and the other giants of that darkness, because he fought for the Christian civilization against the heathen nihilism. But since this work was really done by generation after generation, by the Romans before they withdrew, and by the Britons while they remained, I have summarised this first crusade in a triple symbol, and given to a fictitious Roman, Celt, and Saxon, a part in the glory of Ethandune. I fancy that in fact Alfred's Wessex was of very mixed bloods; but in any case, it is the chief value of legend to mix up the centuries while preserving the sentiment; to see all ages in a sort of splendid foreshortening. That is the use of tradition: it telescopes history.

G.K.C.

DEDICATION

          Of great limbs gone to chaos,           A great face turned to night—           Why bend above a shapeless shroud           Seeking in such archaic cloud           Sight of strong lords and light?           Where seven sunken Englands           Lie buried one by one,           Why should one idle spade, I wonder,           Shake up the dust of thanes like thunder           To smoke and choke the sun?           In cloud of clay so cast to heaven           What shape shall man discern?           These lords may light the mystery           Of mastery or victory,           And these ride high in history,           But these shall not return.           Gored on the Norman gonfalon           The Golden Dragon died:           We shall not wake with ballad strings           The good time of the smaller things,           We shall not see the holy kings           Ride down by Severn side.           Stiff, strange, and quaintly coloured           As the broidery of Bayeux           The England of that dawn remains,           And this of Alfred and the Danes           Seems like the tales a whole tribe feigns           Too English to be true.           Of a good king on an island           That ruled once on a time;           And as he walked by an apple tree           There came green devils out of the sea           With sea-plants trailing heavily           And tracks of opal slime.           Yet Alfred is no fairy tale;           His days as our days ran,           He also looked forth for an hour           On peopled plains and skies that lower,           From those few windows in the tower           That is the head of a man.           But who shall look from Alfred's hood           Or breathe his breath alive?           His century like a small dark cloud           Drifts far; it is an eyeless crowd,           Where the tortured trumpets scream aloud           And the dense arrows drive.           Lady, by one light only           We look from Alfred's eyes,           We know he saw athwart the wreck           The sign that hangs about your neck,           Where One more than Melchizedek           Is dead and never dies.           Therefore I bring these rhymes to you           Who brought the cross to me,           Since on you flaming without flaw           I saw the sign that Guthrum saw           When he let break his ships of awe,           And laid peace on the sea.           Do you remember when we went           Under a dragon moon,           And 'mid volcanic tints of night           Walked where they fought the unknown fight           And saw black trees on the battle-height,           Black thorn on Ethandune?           And I thought, "I will go with you,           As man with God has gone,           And wander with a wandering star,           The wandering heart of things that are,           The fiery cross of love and war           That like yourself, goes on."           O go you onward; where you are           Shall honour and laughter be,           Past purpled forest and pearled foam,           God's winged pavilion free to roam,           Your face, that is a wandering home,           A flying home for me.           Ride through the silent earthquake lands,           Wide as a waste is wide,           Across these days like deserts, when           Pride and a little scratching pen           Have dried and split the hearts of men,           Heart of the heroes, ride.

BOOK I. THE VISION OF THE KING

Before the gods that made the gods           Had seen their sunrise pass,           The White Horse of the White Horse Vale           Was cut out of the grass.           Before the gods that made the gods           Had drunk at dawn their fill,           The White Horse of the White Horse Vale           Was hoary on the hill.           Age beyond age on British land,           Aeons on aeons gone,           Was peace and war in western hills,           And the White Horse looked on.           For the White Horse knew England           When there was none to know;           He saw the first oar break or bend,           He saw heaven fall and the world end,           O God, how long ago.           For the end of the world was long ago,           And all we dwell to-day           As children of some second birth,           Like a strange people left on earth           After a judgment day.           For the end of the world was long ago,           When the ends of the world waxed free,           When Rome was sunk in a waste of slaves,           And the sun drowned in the sea.           When Caesar's sun fell out of the sky           And whoso hearkened right           Could only hear the plunging           Of the nations in the night.           When the ends of the earth came marching in           To torch and cresset gleam.           And the roads of the world that lead to Rome           Were filled with faces that moved like foam,           Like faces in a dream.           And men rode out of the eastern lands,           Broad river and burning plain;           Trees that are Titan flowers to see,           And tiger skies, striped horribly,           With tints of tropic rain.           Where Ind's enamelled peaks arise           Around that inmost one,           Where ancient eagles on its brink,           Vast as archangels, gather and drink           The sacrament of the sun.           And men brake out of the northern lands,           Enormous lands alone,           Where a spell is laid upon life and lust           And the rain is changed to a silver dust           And the sea to a great green stone.           And a Shape that moveth murkily           In mirrors of ice and night,           Hath blanched with fear all beasts and birds,           As death and a shock of evil words           Blast a man's hair with white.           And the cry of the palms and the purple moons,           Or the cry of the frost and foam,           Swept ever around an inmost place,           And the din of distant race on race           Cried and replied round Rome.           And there was death on the Emperor           And night upon the Pope:           And Alfred, hiding in deep grass,           Hardened his heart with hope.           A sea-folk blinder than the sea           Broke all about his land,           But Alfred up against them bare           And gripped the ground and grasped the air,           Staggered, and strove to stand.           He bent them back with spear and spade,