THE BATTLE OF BRUNANBURH, Old English poem of 74 lines included in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle under the year 937.
It relates the victory asfter a day-long battle of the Saxon king Athelstan over the allied Norse, Scots, and Strathclyde Briton invaders under the leadership of Olaf Guthfrithson, ling of Dublin and claimant to the throne of York.
The poem is basically the victors bitter taunt of the defeated. It counts the dead kings and earls on the battlefield and pictures the Norsemen slinking back to Dublin in their ships while their dead sons are being devored by ravens and wolces.
The poem claims that this was the greatest battle over fought in England.
THE BATTLE OF MALDON, Old English heroic poem describing a historical skirmish between East Saxons and Viking (mainly Norwegian) raiders in 991.
It is incomplete, its beginning and ending both lost. The poem is remarkable for its vivid, dramatic combat scenes and for its expression of the Germanic ethos of loyalty to a leader.
The poem, as it survives, opens with the war parties aligned on either side of a stream (the present River Blackwater near Maldon, Essex). The Vikings offer the cynical suggestion that the English may buy their peace with golden rings.
The English commander Earl Byrhtnoth replies that they will pay their tribute in spears and darts. When the Danes cannot advance because of their poor position, Byrhtnoth recklessly allows them safe conduct across the stream, and the battle follows. In spite of Byrhtnoth´s supreme feats of courage, he is finally slain. In panic some of the English desert. The names of the desertes are carefully recorded along with the names and genealogies of the loyal retainers who stand fast to avenge Burhtnoth´s death.
The 325-line fragment ends with the frequently quoted rallying speech of the old warrior Byrhtwold:
"Mind must be firmer, heart the more fierce
Courage the greater, as our strength
diminishes..."
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