10 or 11 August 991
The causeway
The 325 surviving lines of the Old English poem The Battle of Maldon open with Byrhtnoth’s men on the shore of the Blackwater. Byrhtnoth orders them to drive their horses away and go forward on foot. He rides along the line, shows the men how to stand and hold their shields, and dismounts among his household troops.
The Vikings stand on Northey Island across the water, cut off by the tide. A Viking messenger calls over to the shore and offers to sail away in return for tribute in gold. Byrhtnoth answers that his men will pay in spear points and sword blades.
The causeway to Northey Island at low tide, 2024Wikimedia Commons, Hugh Venables, CC BY-SA 2.0 (Causeway to Northey Island - geograph.org.uk - 7691980.jpg)
When the tide ebbs and uncovers the causeway, the Vikings try to cross. Byrhtnoth sends Wulfstan, Ælfhere and Maccus to hold it, and they cut down every Viking who comes forward. The Vikings then ask to be let over to fight on the mainland, and Byrhtnoth, in the poem’s words “for his ofermōde”, usually read as pride or overconfidence, gives them the ground.
Sources
- The Battle of Maldon, Old English poem, lines 72 to 83 and 89.
- E. V. Gordon, The Battle of Maldon (1937).
- George R. Petty and Susan Petty, Geology and The Battle of Maldon, Speculum 51 (1976), pp. 435 to 446.
Prev: From Folkestone to the BlackwaterNext: Byrhtnoth’s fall and the last stand