The Ballad of the White Horse

For many years in our home school I read G.K. Chesterton's poem "The Ballad of the White Horse" to my kids during the month of October. This is the story of Alfred the Great's struggle against the pagan invaders in the late 800s. I chose this month for our annual reading because Alfred's feast day is the 26th of October.

After all my kids graduated, I missed the annual read-aloud, so a couple of years ago I hosted a series of Zoom calls and read the poem aloud to whoever showed up. Before each reading I gave a little bit of historical or literary context to aid the understanding of my listeners.

Each book takes around fifteen minutes to read aloud, so it's perfect for Morning Time. I usually started reading early in the month and read two or three books a week so we'd finish ahead of the feast day, but some years we didn't manage to start till later in the month. It's all good -- just DO read (or listen to) this wonderful tale!

Here's the whole playlist.

Check out my "Alfred the Great" tag for more posts on the history of Alfred, excerpts from the poem, suggestions for keeping the Church's liturgical calendar, and ideas for related things to add to your Morning Time.