What Are the Strengths and Failures of the Battle of Maldon and the Related Texts' as Evidence for the Structure of English Society
What are the strengths and failures of the Battle of Maldon and the related texts ' as evidence for the structure of English Society
The Battle of Maldon is a medieval text depicting a battle between English warriors and Danish invaders. Earl Byrtnoth was commanding the warriors in the name of King Æthelred. The poem portrays the heroism of the bravest warriors and the sheer cowardice of those that fled. Controversy over the aim of the poem is apparent as Sragg says that the poets "style of writing is so hyperbolic that it robs what little of trustworthiness there is." On the one hand there is little doubt that the battle happened and in this sense the poem is accurate, however very little archaeological evidence has been found around that historical sight to consolidate the poems content. Another problem may well lie in the later translations of the text especially before 1725 and the Cotton Library fire. When copyists began to copy the text they may well have lost some of the meaning of the poem by the way they understand it, they are likely to translate the text to fit contemporary understanding. It is possible to see that the church appears to play a major role in the society of the English in the tenth and eleventh centuries. Lines one hundred and one to one hundred and five display a deeply engrained belief in fate and God 's hand in it,
"There against the fierce ones stood ready
Byrtnoth with his men
Then the fight was nigh, glory in combat: the time had come when fated men must fall there."
It is possible to see that there was a deeply engrained belief, in the higher circles of society especially, that if you died on the battle field then God had fated you to do so. Also the use of glory indicates a connection with religion as glory and glorification are synonymous with Christ, God, and religion in general. This idea is backed up by lines one hundred and seventy three to one hundred and eighty whereby a fallen warrior believes that they
The Battle of Maldon is a medieval text depicting a battle between English warriors and Danish invaders. Earl Byrtnoth was commanding the warriors in the name of King Æthelred. The poem portrays the heroism of the bravest warriors and the sheer cowardice of those that fled. Controversy over the aim of the poem is apparent as Sragg says that the poets "style of writing is so hyperbolic that it robs what little of trustworthiness there is." On the one hand there is little doubt that the battle happened and in this sense the poem is accurate, however very little archaeological evidence has been found around that historical sight to consolidate the poems content. Another problem may well lie in the later translations of the text especially before 1725 and the Cotton Library fire. When copyists began to copy the text they may well have lost some of the meaning of the poem by the way they understand it, they are likely to translate the text to fit contemporary understanding. It is possible to see that the church appears to play a major role in the society of the English in the tenth and eleventh centuries. Lines one hundred and one to one hundred and five display a deeply engrained belief in fate and God 's hand in it,
"There against the fierce ones stood ready
Byrtnoth with his men
Then the fight was nigh, glory in combat: the time had come when fated men must fall there."
It is possible to see that there was a deeply engrained belief, in the higher circles of society especially, that if you died on the battle field then God had fated you to do so. Also the use of glory indicates a connection with religion as glory and glorification are synonymous with Christ, God, and religion in general. This idea is backed up by lines one hundred and seventy three to one hundred and eighty whereby a fallen warrior believes that they
Bibliography: www.historyinfonet.bham.ac.uk H R Loyn, Anglo-Saxon England and the Norman Conquest, 1961/1986, chs 5-7 R Abels, Lordship and Military Organisation in Anglo-Saxon England, 1988, chs 4, 7-8 E James, Britain in the First Millennium, 2001, chs 9-10 DG Scragg, Battle of Maldon, AD 991, 1991, 15-36