"Sit Thy Saddle Bow, And Ride Thee Singing"

In her biography of Alfred, Beatrice Lees includes a chapter, "The Myth of Alfred".  The following aphorism is attributed to him a few centuries later:

If thou hast sorrow, tell it not thy foe

Sit thy saddle bow, and ride thee singing"

Whether or not Alfred said this particular thing, there is no doubt that such a statement captures his spirit.  The key is in the ways that Alfred, as a man of Christian faith, differed from the faith of his ancestors.

Alfred was a realist, but he did not succumb to the hopelessness of a notion of fate that had been a standard part of the philosophy of his pre-Christian ancestors.  The Saxon, the Norse and related Germanic peoples, bereft of the hope and promise of Jesus Christ, had a very gloomy notion of life. 

This was embodied in the concept of "Wyrd", fate or destiny.  Fate was set by the pagan goddesses the Norn, and what was to be was inexorable.  A person, a country or a world could not be changed.  There could only be acceptance, but never hope, in the world of the pre-Christian Germanic pagan, Alfred's people.

The coming of Christianity brought one thing to the Saxon people.  It brought hope .

What Jesus brought to Alfred and to all was an idea that things could change through grace.   Faith could make a difference: we could make a difference.  Apart from myth or poetry, Alfred was quoted as saying:

 I say then, as say all Christian men, that the divine purpose rules, and not fate.

Is the world today dark?  Most certainly . 

Do we not live in a time of terror, as Alfred did?  Yes, we do.

Do we not live in a time of collapse, a new version of "The Dark Ages"? Most assuredly.

But St. Alfred is here to stand beside us in these times--because he knew of the hope of grace, of the gifts to us by our Lord.    

We are not the victims of "Fate". 

We are children of Jesus, and in these times, the hope from Jesus and the intercession of St Alfred can help us to

"Sit thy saddle bow, and ride thee singing"