Battle Of Maldon PDF - Past Paper 900-999

## Judith - arrayed in gold so red with goods that the ring-warriors' prince in pride and power had owned - all his glittering wealth and his rings to the one so ingenious they gave - to the glorious God of high hosts renown in the worldly realm triumph in splendor on high her faith in the Almighty...

## Judith - arrayed in gold so red with goods that the ring-warriors' prince in pride and power had owned - all his glittering wealth and his rings to the one so ingenious they gave - to the glorious God of high hosts renown in the worldly realm triumph in splendor on high her faith in the Almighty forever - his heirlooms and riches and gems this to the radiant lady - And Judith devoted it all who'd given her honor on earth - with reward in heaven to come thanks to her true belief - In the end there could be no doubt about the reward she'd cherished so long - be there glory forever arrayed - For this to our Lord so dear Air and the lofty wind He made rushing streams all tumbling down - and through His bounty of merciful love bliss in His heaven above ## Fame - Heroes and History ### The Battle of Maldon - During the reign of King Æthelred "the Unready" (978-1016) England experienced a renewed campaign of Viking attacks which increased in strength and effect until the Danish king Cnut became king of England in 1016. - Æthelred apparently lacked the resources, financial and otherwise, to repel the Vikings, and sources such as the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle depict his nobles and advisors as a treacherous, fragmented, and demoralized gang (the king's nickname, which may be a later invention, is in Old English Un-rad, "no counsel," a pun on the name Æthel-rad “noble counsel"). - The last decade of the tenth century was a period of remarkable literary creation by writers such as Ælfric, Wulfstan, and Byrht-ferth of Ramsey; it also saw the production of many de luxe manuscripts and works of art. - But it is also remembered for the abysmal failure of Æthelred's policy of Viking appeasement. - This began with the payment of £10,000 in 991, followed by £16,000 in 994, £24,000 in 1002, £36,000 in 1007, £48,000 in 1012, and finally the king's forced exile to Normandy in 1013. - The idea of buying off the Vikings with "Danegeld" was apparently inspired by the arrival in August 991 of a fleet of 93 Viking ships; according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle the Viking army sacked Ipswich, sailed up the river Blackwater (called Panta in Old English) to Maldon in Essex, and defeated the English army led by Byrhtnoth, ealdor-man of Essex. - This battle may have been regarded as the turning-point in Anglo-Danish relations; this poem was presumably composed to commemorate the brave destruction of the English army and their leader. - The manuscript of The Battle of Maldon was already missing its beginning and end before the remaining pages were destroyed in the fire which devastated a portion of the Cotton library in 1731. - Fortunately a transcript had been made before the fire, and this transcript is now the only source for the poem. 325 lines survive, and while we do not know how much has been lost, the main action of the battle is clear and fairly complete - The Vikings have beached their boats on a spit of land that is cut off from the shore at high tide, but accessible via a causeway at low tide. - The English army, ranged on the shore opposite the Vikings, is depicted as being composed of Byrhtnoth's own troops---his "retainers"-and a local militia, drawn from all ranks of society and only partly trained; a Viking messenger cannily tries to exploit potential differences in class or status among the troops, but the narrator portrays the English army as united by loyalty to their leader and a desire for honor. - The poem's attitude towards its hero, however, is not entirely celebratory; Byrhtnoth is praised for his bravery and strength, but his decision to allow the Vikings passage across the causeway (so that they might have more room to fight) is said to arise from his ofermod, a word which can mean either "great courage" or "pride." - This proves to be a disastrous tactical error. Byrhtnoth and his men fight well but the battle quickly turns against them; Byrhtnoth dies with a desperate prayer on his lips. - Upon his death the treacherous retainer Godric leaps on Byrhtnoth's horse and gallops away; the men further away from Byrhtnoth assume that it is their leader who is fleeing, so they do the same, and the shield-wall-the linked line of armed men that was the key to the English defense-falls apart. - The rest of the poem depicts the brave speeches and noble deaths of the men who remain. - Byrhtnoth's loyalty to his king Æthelred and his ringing refusal to pay tribute to the Vikings must have had provocative resonance in the last years of the king's reign, assuming the poem was written shortly after the battle. - But The Battle of Maldon is not a news report, but rather a reflection on the complex relation between military victory and moral triumph; it draws on the conventions of heroic poetry to give motive and meaning to the historical facts, and turns the humiliation of Byrhtnoth's death and defeat into a celebration of other virtues such as courage and steadfastness. - The poem may idealize the voices and actions of ordinary soldiers facing certain death, but it does not glorify their leaders or their cause; though the Vikings are by no means depicted as heroic, or even as individuals, the poem's moral absolutes are not arranged as an English "us" against a Viking "them," but as a personal choice between courage and cowardice, loyalty and treachery, which is only made clearer by the impossibility of victory. - **Source** The manuscript, London, BL Cotton Otho A.xii, was destroyed by fire in 1731. A transcription by David Casley survives as Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Rawlinson B 203, fols. 7r-12v. - **Edition** Bruce Mitchell and Fred C. Robinson, eds., A Guide to Old English, 8th edition. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011. ### Notes 1. The beginning of the poem is lost, this "he" refers to Byrhtnoth. 2. *heriot* Old English *here-geatu* was a kind of estate tax which required that a nobleman, on his death, give his king some quantity of weapons, armor, and other military equipment. 3. *locking the water-streams* The Blackwater (Old English *Panta*) is a tidal river; when the tide came in the island on which the Vikings have landed was cut off from the shore. Later, at low tide, a stone causeway connects it to the shore. 4. *protector of heroes* Byrhtnoth.