Battle of Maldon 991
Who Fought
History & Significance
The Battle of Maldon took place on 10 or 11 August 991 AD near Maldon beside the River Blackwater in Essex, England, during the reign of Æthelred the Unready. Earl Byrhtnoth and his thegns led the English against a Viking invasion. The battle ended in an Anglo-Saxon defeat. After the battle Archbishop Sigeric of Canterbury and the aldermen of the south-western provinces advised King Æthelred to buy off the Vikings rather than continue the armed struggle. The result was a payment of Danegeld of 10,000 Roman pounds (3,300 kg) of silver (approx £1.8M at 2022 prices).
An account of the battle, embellished with many speeches attributed to the warriors and with other details, is related in an Old English poem which is usually named The Battle of Maldon. A modern embroidery created for the millennium celebration in 1991 and, in part, depicting the battle, can be seen at the Maeldune Centre in Maldon.
One manuscript of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle states that a certain Olaf, possibly the Norwegian Olaf Tryggvason, led the Viking forces, these estimated to have been between 2,000 and 4,000 fighting men. A source from the 12th-century Liber Eliensis, written by the monks at Ely, suggests that Byrhtnoth had only a few men to command: "he was neither shaken by the small number of his men, nor fearful of the multitude of the enemy". Not all sources indicate such a disparity in numbers.
"The Battle of Maldon" is the name conventionally given to a surviving 325-line fragment of Old English poetry. Linguistic study has led to the conjecture that initially the complete poem was transmitted orally, then in a lost manuscript in the East Saxon dialect and now survives as a fragment in the West Saxon form, possibly that of a scribe active at the Monastery of Worcester late in the 11th century. It is fortuitous that this was attached at an early date to a very notable manuscript, Asser's Life of King Alfred, which undoubtedly assisted in its survival. The manuscript, by now detached, was burned in the Cotton library fire at Ashburnham House in 1731. The keeper of the collection, John Elphinstone (or his assistant, David Casley), had transcribed the 325 lines of the poem in 1724, but the front and back pages were already missing from the manuscript (possibly around 50 lines each): an earlier catalogue described it as fragmentum capite et calce mutilatum ('mutilated at head and heel'). As a result, vital clues about the purpose of the poem and perhaps its date have been lost.
At the time of battle, English royal policy of responding to Viking incursions was split. Some favoured paying off the Viking invaders with land and wealth, while others favoured fighting to the last man. The poem suggests that Byrhtnoth held this latter attitude, hence his moving speeches of patriotism.
The ground they fought on
The site of Battle of Maldon 991 lies on Thames Group, bedrock that formed in the Eocene. The rock here is clay, silt, sand and gravel.
This battlefield is listed on the Register of Historic Battlefields — a national designation identifying Britain's most significant battle sites for protection and further research. Reference: NHLE 1000019.
Frequently Asked Questions
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- Battle of Maldon 991 · Historic England
- Battle of Maldon · Wikidata
- Battle_of_Maldon · Wikipedia
- Battle of Maldon · Battlefields Trust