In the Shadow of Alfred the Great ~ The Imaginative Conservative

In the Shadow of Alfred the Great ~ The Imaginative Conservative

Few remember Athelstan, Alfred’s grandson, who is neither lionized by the poets nor canonized by the Church. Yet he was a warrior king who is perhaps equal in greatness to Alfred and possibly rivals Edmund and Edward in piety. 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” “The high tide!” King Alfred cried. “The high tide and the turn!…