Battle of Maldon

Gone Medieval

History Hit

History

4.6 • 2.2K Ratings

🗓️ 13 December 2022

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Dr. Cat Jarman finds out more about a fragment of Old English poetry that depicts one of the defining conflicts of 10th century England - the Battle of Maldon. Its 325 lines immortalise the bloody defence by Earl Byrhtnoth and the Anglo-Saxons against the Vikings which took place on the banks of the River Blackwater in Essex in the year 991.

Cat talks to Dr. Mark Atherton - author of The Battle of Maldon: War and Peace in Tenth-Century England - who describes the circumstances of the battle and examines how and why the poem encouraged readers to relive the experience for themselves.

This episode was edited and produced by Rob Weinberg.

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Transcript

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1:32.9	Hello and welcome to Gone Medieval from HistoryHit. I'm Dr Cat Jarmo. In 991, a battle to place in
1:40.3	England that's in shockways through the kingdom. The Battle of Malton was fought during the reign
1:45.9	of English King Ethel Reddy and Reddy by an East Saxon force against an army of Scandinavians.
1:51.6	Although the exact sight of the battle has never quite been discovered, uniquely for this period,
1:57.4	it's described in a number of written sources, not least an old English poem.
2:02.4	And that poem gives us not just an extraordinary insight into an early medieval battle,
	...

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