By G.K. Chesterton's own admission, this poem is not meant to be historically accurate; in fact, it is a highly romanticized account of the adventures of King Alfred the Great, King of Saxon Britain, and in the introductory prose to the poem, Chesterton announces as much. The poem is written in ballad form and is considered to be the last of the great epic poems of English literature; an epic poem is a long and lengthy narrative about a time before living memory, generally involving an aspect of legend, myth or the otherwise unexplainable. It also details extraordinary acts of bravery in which the clear underdog is suddenly blessed with incredible powers or abilities that enable them to emerge victorious in the most impossible of circumstances. This sums up King Alfred very well, and the poem tells of his victory over the Danes at the Battle of Ethandun in A.D. 878. The battle led to the Treaty of Wedmore; the Treaty evolved from the victory, and was precipitated by the conversion to Catholicism of the Danish leader, Guthrum, who accepted Alfred as his adoptive father, and agrees to leave Wessex in peace. Conversion to Catholicism was a major theme in Chesterton's work at the time primarily because he had converted to the Catholic faith at around the same time as he had written this poem.
The title of the poem refers to the White Horse figure that is dug into the ground in Uffington, another also being on the North Yorkshire Moors. These horse figures are actually made from trenches filled with a chalky white stone, and have remained on the land since the early centuries.
The narrative of the poem suggests that Alfred was able to emerge victorious in battle because God was working in him through the Virgin Mary, who appears twice to Alfred during the poem. Although the poem is ostensibly praising Alfred's military and leadership prowess, it is also a Catholic allegory.
This is a long, long poem - two thousand, six hundred and eighty for lines in all. These lines are corralled into stanzas of four or six lines each. Although is is technically a ballad there are plenty of verses that do not fall into the ballad structure, which makes it even more like an historical account rather than a fictional piece of work.
Chesterton was an extremely influential poet, and this poem in particular had a key influence on literary masterpieces that followed. J.R.R. Tolkien used The Ballad of White Horse as the inspiration for Lord of the Rings. Although it was his novel writing and his poetry that brought him the most acclaim, Chesterton was also a philosopher and theologian which is reflected in the mystical and allegorical nature of his work. His Father Brown series of novels features a Catholic priest who is also a detective and the exploits of this priest turned sleuth were turned into a successful television series called The Father Brown Mysteries. Father Brown was based upon the priest with whom Chesterton became very close during his own conversion to Catholicism. He was also largely responsible for C.S. Lewis' conversion to Christianity. He was invested as Knight Commander with the Star of the Papal Order of St. Gregory the Great by Pope Pius XI and the Chesterton Society petition regularly for his beatification.
