The White Horse King by Benjamin R. Merkle

Author:Benjamin R. Merkle
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Published: 2015-10-01T04:00:00+00:00

With the battle of Edington won and the army of Guthrum decisively conquered, it would seem that the time for Alfred to begin his celebrations had come. Surely this hard-won peace deserved a great feast in the mead hall of one of Alfred’s great royal estates? But the Anglo-Saxon historian describing Alfred’s victory speaks of no celebrations until three weeks after Guthrum’s acceptance of Alfred’s terms, when the Christian king led the pagan Guthrum and thirty of the Viking king’s most trusted noblemen to a small church in the village of Aller to receive the sacrament of baptism.

The choice of the seemingly insignificant church at Aller for this ceremony may seem, at first, difficult to explain. One would expect Alfred to choose a church whose size and splendor would impress upon Guthrum the greatness of Alfred’s kingdom and the glory of his reign. It would seem to make more sense for Alfred to have conducted this ceremony in the royal city of Winchester, where Alfred could have overwhelmed Guthrum with his own majesty and kingliness. Instead Alfred chose the very humble village church of Aller, a modest church constructed of wood rather than stone, set deep in the remote wilds of Wessex.

Aller sits just a short walk to the east of Athelney, in the midst of the wastelands that had provided Alfred with shelter throughout his desperate winter exile. It was at this meager shack of a church that Alfred had worshiped as a hunted fugitive. For some reason, he felt a strong urge to share the scenery of his banishment with the Viking who had until recently hunted him. Perhaps he wanted to show Guthrum the landscape of his exile, pointing out where he had hidden as the Danish troops scoured the countryside for him. Or perhaps, having spent countless hours in prayer in the ramshackle church of Aller begging God for deliverance from the Viking invasion, now Alfred felt a strong pull to bring Guthrum back to this very church, an acknowledgment that those prayers were being answered in this baptism.

Silently the mixed procession of Wessex noblemen and Viking chieftains wound their way upon the path alongside the river Parrett, leading to the village of Aller. Looming large on the horizon sat Burrow Mump, from whose heights Alfred’s men had regularly stood wary watch, ready to send word to the forces hidden at Athelney of approaching Danes. It had been five weeks since the great Saxon victory at Edington, and the wounds of the noblemen had largely healed.

After the parade of warriors arrived at the church of Aller, they were greeted at the door by the priest who was to conduct the ceremony. For Guthrum and his men, the following ceremony must have felt bizarre and foreign. The ninth-century liturgy for baptism was filled with a number of symbolic ceremonies designed to portray the significance of taking on the Christian faith and the necessity of turning from all elements of paganism. But for the

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