The Battle of Maldon

Lines 1-10

The first line of “The Battle of Maldon” is a broken fragment, the beginning of the text lost to history. At the beginning of the available text, Byrhtnoth appears. Byrhtnoth, an earl, tells his soldiers to let their horses go, chase them away, and then proceed courageously and mindfully. Where the soldiers are moving to is left unstated as yet—but the implication is that they are heading into danger, and thus must protect their mounts. In a moving scene, the kinsman of one of Byrhtnoth’s vassals lets his beloved hawk fly away to the woods. The text makes it clear that freeing his hawk is a preparatory sacrifice: "a gesture one could recognize: / the young warrior did not wish to waver at war" (Lines 8-9)—the man is literally putting aside the pleasures of peace, like hawking, to show that he was ready to pick up his weapons and fight.

Lines 11-24

Readers then meet another Anglo-Saxon warrior: Eadric, who carries his spear and marches forth. The author asserts Eadric’s loyalty and good intentions to fulfill his vow of fighting for his lord, Byrhtnoth. As Eadric, Offa, and the other soldiers are preparing for battle and marching, we get a sense of why they feel such deep-seated loyalty to their lord.