Originally published at crisis magazine
Editor’s Note: This is the thirty-fifth in a multi-part series on the unsung heroes of Christendom.
See you the windy levels spread
About the gates of Rye?
O that was where the Northmen fled,
When Alfred’s ships came by.
-Rudyard Kipling, from “Puck’s Song”
Orthodox. Faithful. Free.
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“The high tide!” King Alfred cried.
“The high tide and the turn!“
-G.K. Chesterton, from The Ballad of the White Horse
The praises of Alfred the Great have been sung by hosts of poets and historians even apart from Rudyard Kipling and G.K. Chesterton, the latter of whom wrote an entire book-length epic poem in veneration of the great warrior king of the Anglo-Saxons. As to Anglo-Saxon kings, others might come to mind in addition to Alfred, especially the two who became saints, Edmund the Martyr and Edward the Confessor, both of whom were hallowed as patron saints of England until its patronage passed to St. George at the time of the crusades.
Few, however, will remember Athelstan, Alfred’s grandson, who is neither lionized by the poets nor canonized by the Church. As we shall see, he is a warrior king who is perhaps equal in greatness to Alfred and
