[Ne] com Unlaf mid scipum": A Summary of the Current State of Research with Regard to Olaf Tryggvason's Assumed Presence at the Battle of Maldon (original) (raw)

Abstract

In the fourteenth year of King AEthelred's reign (978-1013 and 1014-1016), most likely on 10 th or 11 th August 991, 1 a sizeable fleet of viking ships sailed into the tidal estuary of the river Pant (today known as the Blackwater) near the town of Maldon. There the host of seaborne attackers appears to have moored their vessels near or at Northey Island whence they proceeded to meet the hurriedly assembled forces of the English defenders. Their subsequent encounter turned out to be one of the most celebrated, best documented, and most frequently discussed battles fought in the British Isles during the Viking Age. Apart from the anonymous alliterative poem usually referred to as The Battle of Maldon, 2 the dramatic events of 991 are recounted in a significant number of more or less dependable sources including, first and foremost, the roughly contemporaneous Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and the 11 th-century Vita sancti Oswaldi. Valuable, if not at all times dependable, reports of the said encounter might also be found in several later texts, such as John of Worcester's Chronicon 1 The dating uncertainty springs from the discrepancies in three contemporary obits of the ealdorman Byrhtnoth produced in the monastic houses in Winchester, Ramsey (both of which have 11 th August), and Ely (10 th August). 2 As a rule, the poetic works in Old English bear no titles. The Battle of Maldon is thus an editorial designation which has been seen in use since 1834, following Benjamin Thorpe's first English edition of the poem in Analecta Anglo-Saxonica. Other, now rarely used, titles include

Loading Preview

Sorry, preview is currently unavailable. You can download the paper by clicking the button above.