The white horse at Wantage other historians declare to have been cut in commemoration of Alfred's great victory over the Danes at the battle of Æscendun or Ashtreehill, during the reign of his brother, Ethelred I. Its length is 374 feet, and even at a distance of nearly fifteen miles it is distinctly visible in clear weather. This recalls to mind the device of the House of Hanover—a white horse galloping; and of the House of Savoy—a white horse rampant.
Mention must here be made of the immortal Roland and his equally famous horse, Veillantiff, though owing to the pair have figured so largely in romance the actual truth about them can be traced only with difficulty.
We may take it for granted, however, that Roland was the son of Milo, Duke of Aiglant; that he was Count of Mans and Knight of Blaives; and that his mother was Bertha, the sister of Charlemagne. Orlando is the name by which he is known in Italian romance; Vegliantino the name of his horse; and he figures prominently in Theroulde's “Chanson de Roland,” in the romance, “Chroniq de Turpin,” and of course in Ariosto's epic of Mad Roland and Boiardo's “Orlando in Love.” He was said to be eight feet tall and to have “an open countenance which invited confidence and inspired respect,” also to have been “brave, loyal and simple-minded.”
The story of his slaying at Fronsac, in single combat, the Saracen tyrant and giant, Angoulaffre, as described in “Croquemitaine,” naturally is fiction. He desired, it was said, by way of reward to marry Aude, the fair daughter of Sir Gerard and Lady Guibourg, but Roland was slain at Roncesvalles in the Pyrenees during the return march from Saragossa, while in command of the rear-guard, being caught “together with the flower of the French chivalry” in an ambuscade and massacred to a man. Aude is said to have died of grief upon hearing the news.
Roland's horse, Veillantiff, must have been an incomparable charger and more intelligent than even his master, for it is related that whenever Roland was hard pressed Veillantiff obtained knowledge of the fact in some mysterious way and at once carried Roland out of danger so far as he was able.
Equally intelligent in this respect was the charger named Orelia, owned by Roderick, the last of the Goths. According to Southey this horse too was renowned for its shape and speed. Indeed Southey based the story of his famous epic upon the historical record of the defeat of Roderick in 711 A.D., at the battle of Guadalete, near Xeres de la Frontera. Roderick, the thirty-fourth and last of the old Visigothic kings, himself attributed his victories in a great measure to the courage of his horses, and apparently he was proud of all his horses for we read that he “bitterly bemoaned the death of any one of them.” Another remarkable and famous steed was Trebizond, the grey charger of Admiral Guarinos, one of the French knights taken prisoner at Roncesvalles.
Alfana, the clever mare mentioned in Ariosto's “Orlando Furioso” as belonging to Gradasso, King of Sericana, whom Ariosto describes as “the bravest of the Pagan knights,” has many legends attached to it.
Thus upon occasions Gradasso who, though famous as a knight, was an unconscionable bully, would treat Alfana with grotesque kindness, at other times beating it unmercifully; and when, with 100,000 vassals in his train, “all discrowned kings”(!) who never addressed him except upon their knees, he went to war against Charlemagne, the mare, Alfana, played a prominent part.
Though in these pages but few allusions have been made to the horses of mythology, modern interest in mythological history being at a very low ebb, the mysterious eight-legged grey steed of Odin, chief god of Scandinavia, must not be passed unnoticed. His name was Sleipnir, and inasmuch as he could travel over earth and ocean he was deemed to be typical of the wind that blows over land and water from eight principal and far-distant points.