Battle Of Maldon

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During the final portion of the tenth century, a exceptionally distinguished battle took place in Maldon, a coastal city in England. A twelfth century English chronicle and history book, Liber Ellensis, or, translated from Latin, The Book of Ely, in fact, documents two battles of Maldon. The first fight was a victory for the Anglo-Saxons, however, the second was a brutal loss, with the sanguinary death of Byrhtnoth, their leader, becoming the calamitous turning point of the battle, and a figurative crossroads for his men. Written about the latter of the two skirmishes, the Old English poem "The Battle of Maldon" is about the fall of the Anglo-Saxon military to the Viking warriors, based on an actual event that occurred near Essex, England, though not a complete historical account by any means. While the Anglo-Saxon force undoubtedly lost, the outcome still decisive as to say the Viking challengers triumphed without question, the anonymous poet molded the poem just so as to bring forth a sense of victory between the lines. It is because of the anonymity of the writer with the combination of fact and fiction of the poem itself that leads the reader to such a dichotomy of the ending: the seemingly foolish determination to stay and fight somehow becomes an exhalation for the bravery of the soldiers who march onward. This heroism and valor behind their…show more content…
The idea of responsibility for humans in Maldon's text is constantly symbolic of choice, a conduct of personal volition where one decides between alternatives. The poet's tendency to do so is more for the benefit of the reader, to gain a greater sense of how each individual action affects the group collectively. The two dualities seen in the text are found around lines 205 and

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