The battle of maldon poem analysis

History into Poetry ESSAY
Subject
Humanities

Question Description
The Battle of Maldon

"The Battle of Maldon" illustrates better than almost any other poem from the Anglo-Saxon period the Germanic comitatus in action. The primary virtues are loyalty, bravery, and obedience to a lord, along with the willingness to die for him even after the battle is lost. Although the English lose the battle, the poem shows them winning a moral victory. Except for a few who lose their courage and run away, most of the warriors remain loyal to their lord even after he has fallen. Many die trying to avenge him. There are few better illustrations of the Germanic ideal of warrior behavior. Indeed, the most famous lines of the poem focus on the courage of the warrior in the face of inevitable defeat and death: "Thought must be the harder, heart the keener/ Spirit shall be more--as our might lessens."

After the battle of Brunanburh (937) the English and the Vikings fought over the kingdom of York, which changed hands several times. But after 954, twenty-six years of peace between the English and the Vikings passed. When the Vikings returned to invade England again in the 980s, they were more numerous and better organized. Olaf Tryggvason, a famous Norwegian Viking, attacked Kent and then sailed north to East Anglia, where he encountered a resolute ealdorman, Byrhtnoth, at Maldon. The battle between them took place in 991, when King Ethelred was on the English throne. The Viking invaders could have easily by-passed Maldon and carried on their raid elsewhere with the same effect. We would have lost, though, one of the finest pieces of Old English poetry, which seems to have been written by an eyewitness.

Visit the web site The Battle of Maldon. This is an excellent web resource with a helpful map of the battle site, an outline of the poem, the translated text divided into sections, notes, and background commentary. Study the poem in translation carefully, noting the scop's use of poetic language, the historical background, and the site of the battle. At the web site Readings from Maldon you can hear some of the poem read in Old English.