The Battle of Maldon

Manuscript

The original manuscript was destroyed in the burning of the library of the collector Robert Bruce Cotton in Ashburnham House in 1731. John Elphinstone had 325 lines of the poem transcribed in 1724, but already at that time lacked the first and last page of the manuscript (each with possibly 50 verses ). An older catalog described the manuscript as capite et calce Mutilata ( " mutilated head and heel "). Because of this loss, missing important information on date and the purpose of the poem.

Content

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Typical motifs of the poem are Byrhtnoths role as ring -Schenker, ie Arbiter of gold and jewelry, with the high nobility to the loyalty of his vassals insured. Conversely, it is also the unconditional loyalty of the close followers, which is repeatedly emphasized in the inspiring and admonitory speeches especially in the second half of the poem. For this part comes the most famous passage of the poem that speaks an old follower Byrhtnoths:

The last fight of the followers is excessive in heroic poem, for example, in verse 297-300: