The Ballad of the White Horse Lecture

Dale Ahlquist, the leading Chesterton student of our time,
has posted his lecture on The Ballad of the White Horse online.
The lecture begins with a summary of the great epic:

"Chesterton may have considered The Ballad of the White Horse his greatest literary accomplishment. I have two reasons for saying that. First of all, it is a masterpiece. But it was the only one of his works that he felt worthy enough to dedicate to his wife. The Ballad of the White Horse is one of the last great epic poems in the English language. It deserves a high place in literature. It is should be studied in depth and discussed at length and appreciated far and wide. But as is the case with most of Chesterton’s writings, too few of us have figured this out.The Ballad is the story of the English King Alfred, who fought the Danes in the year 878. But it is also the story of Christianity battling against the destructive forces of nihilism and heathenism, which is the battle we are still fighting."

For more of the lecture, click here.
To read the Epic Poem, click here.