HISTORY, POEM AND INTERPRETATION

What really happened at Maldon, and how much of the poem can we trust?

In August 991, an English army led by Ealdorman Byrhtnoth confronted a Viking force near Maldon in Essex.

Byrhtnoth was killed and the English were defeated.

But Maldon did not disappear with the defeat.

An anonymous Old English poet transformed the battle into a story of loyalty, courage, leadership and failure that has survived for more than a thousand years.

This 32-page illustrated guide puts the historical evidence and The Battle of Maldon side by side.

Follow the battle, investigate Byrhtnoth's controversial ofermōd, read key passages in Old English and learn to distinguish what comes from historical evidence, what comes from the poem and what remains scholarly interpretation.

For readers of Old English literature, Anglo-Saxon history, Beowulf and the early medieval world.

Inside the guide:

• Understand the crisis behind the battle
• Follow the battle stage by stage
• Investigate the ofermōd controversy
• Read Byrhtwold's famous speech
• Start reading the Old English
• Separate evidence from interpretation

Also included: character guide, discussion questions, pronunciation help, full citations and further reading.

History where the evidence allows it

The guide is illustrated throughout with historically grounded reconstructions of weapons, armour and the Essex landscape.

Where the evidence is uncertain, the guide says so.

That distinction matters. The Battle of Maldon is both a literary masterpiece and one of our most compelling narratives of warfare in late Anglo-Saxon England, but the poem and the historical event are not the same thing.

This guide gives you the tools to understand both.

Part of the WULFCRÆFT Illustrated Classics series, exploring the literature, language and historical world of early medieval England.

Read the poem beside the evidence and decide for yourself what happened at Maldon

Format: 32-page illustrated PDF

Delivery: Instant digital download

Use: Personal and educational use