{"product_id":"2940012798992","title":"The Ballad of the White Horse","description":"Prefatory Note:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis ballad needs no historical notes, for the simple reason that it\u003cbr\u003edoes not profess to be historical.  All of it that is not frankly\u003cbr\u003efictitious, as in any prose romance about the past, is meant to\u003cbr\u003eemphasize tradition rather than history. King Alfred is not a legend in\u003cbr\u003ethe sense that King Arthur may be a legend; that is, in the sense that\u003cbr\u003ehe may possibly be a lie. But King Alfred is a legend in this broader\u003cbr\u003eand more human sense, that the legends are the most important things\u003cbr\u003eabout him.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe cult of Alfred was a popular cult, from the darkness of the ninth\u003cbr\u003ecentury to the deepening twilight of the twentieth. It is wholly as a\u003cbr\u003epopular legend that I deal with him here. I write as one ignorant of\u003cbr\u003eeverything, except that I have found the legend of a King of Wessex\u003cbr\u003estill alive in the land.  I will give three curt cases of what I mean.\u003cbr\u003eA tradition connects the ultimate victory of Alfred with the valley in\u003cbr\u003eBerkshire called the Vale of the White Horse. I have seen doubts of the\u003cbr\u003etradition, which may be valid doubts. I do not know when or where the\u003cbr\u003estory started; it is enough that it started somewhere and ended with me;\u003cbr\u003efor I only seek to write upon a hearsay, as the old balladists did.  For\u003cbr\u003ethe second case, there is a popular tale that Alfred played the harp and\u003cbr\u003esang in the Danish camp; I select it because it is a popular tale, at\u003cbr\u003ewhatever time it arose. For the third case, there is a popular tale that\u003cbr\u003eAlfred came in contact with a woman and cakes; I select it because it is\u003cbr\u003ea popular tale, because it is a vulgar one.  It has been disputed by\u003cbr\u003egrave historians, who were, I think, a little too grave to be good\u003cbr\u003ejudges of it. The two chief charges against the story are that it was\u003cbr\u003efirst recorded long after Alfred's death, and that (as Mr. Oman urges)\u003cbr\u003eAlfred never really wandered all alone without any thanes or soldiers.\u003cbr\u003eBoth these objections might possibly be met. It has taken us nearly as\u003cbr\u003elong to learn the whole truth about Byron, and perhaps longer to learn\u003cbr\u003ethe whole truth about Pepys, than elapsed between Alfred and the first\u003cbr\u003ewriting of such tales. And as for the other objection, do the historians\u003cbr\u003ereally think that Alfred after Wilton, or Napoleon after Leipsic, never\u003cbr\u003ewalked about in a wood by himself for the matter of an hour or two? Ten\u003cbr\u003eminutes might be made sufficient for the essence of the story. But I am\u003cbr\u003enot concerned to prove the truth of these popular traditions. It is\u003cbr\u003eenough for me to maintain two things:  that they are popular traditions;\u003cbr\u003eand that without these popular traditions we should have bothered about\u003cbr\u003eAlfred about as much as we bother about Eadwig.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOne other consideration needs a note.  Alfred has come down to us in the\u003cbr\u003ebest way (that is, by national legends) solely for the same reason as\u003cbr\u003eArthur and Roland and the other giants of that darkness, because he\u003cbr\u003efought for the Christian civilization against the heathen nihilism. But\u003cbr\u003esince this work was really done by generation after generation, by the\u003cbr\u003eRomans before they withdrew, and by the Britons while they remained, I\u003cbr\u003ehave summarised this first crusade in a triple symbol, and given to a\u003cbr\u003efictitious Roman, Celt, and Saxon, a part in the glory of Ethandune. I\u003cbr\u003efancy that in fact Alfred's Wessex was of very mixed bloods; but in any\u003cbr\u003ecase, it is the chief value of legend to mix up the centuries while\u003cbr\u003epreserving the sentiment; to see all ages in a sort of splendid\u003cbr\u003eforeshortening.  That is the use of tradition: it telescopes history.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47145442509040,"sku":"2940012798992","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940012798992_p0.jpg?v=1763572393","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940012798992","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}