The Battle of Maldon

Current work: Medical and nonfic

Listening to: The Amazing

Reading: Shirley Wells, A Darker Side (another cracking story and I didn’t guess the murderer until the end – her characterisation really is stellar!)

On Sunday, according to the weather forecast, it was going to be dry all morning and very wet in the afternoon. Fine. I wanted to leave REALLY early so we’d reach Maldon as soon as possible after low tide.

Maldon’s a bit of a special place for me. I haven’t been there for years – but the last time (before Sunday) was the day DH and I got engaged. And the final decision was taken at Maldon. (He made the mistake of taking my bestest aunt, bestest uncle and cousins to the jeweller’s. Cousin picked out the most expensive ring… LOL. I actually wanted a cheaper and prettier ring, and he gave it to me over dinner out that night after pudding. The man has his priorities right.)

It’s also the place where we used to go a lot when I was a toddler. There’s cine film of my first unaided steps – and it’s at Maldon. There’s also cine film of me in the park on the roundabout. Apparently I drove my parents crazy, begging for just one more ride. Hmm. That one came home to roost as Madam is extremely fond of fairground rides…

Anyway. The reason we went was to take location pics for the Essex book, and the story I wanted to illustrate was the Battle of Maldon. As in the Anglo-Saxon poem (which I adored studying in my third year at uni); the earliest known battlefield site in Britain (10 August 991, if we’re being picky); and where the Saxons lost against the Danes and their leader had his head hacked off (and he was interred in Ely Cathedral with a ball of wax in place of his head). The battle outcome involved the east coast paying Danegeld for 25 years. Byrhtnoth had to fight; if he hadn’t, the Danes would’ve sailed off, raided the coast further down, and more lives would’ve been lost. Then again, the fact that he let them walk over the causeway to give them a sporting chance rather than just picking them off the landbridge, one by one… Not the best military strategy, perhaps. And why did he do it? ‘Ofermode’, according to the poet. This is the most hotly debated half-line in the poem: does it mean ‘confidence’ or ‘arrogance’? Was he too eager for battle, were the Vikings underhand, or…? Also worth noting that the word ‘ofermode’ appears in the OE poem ‘Genesis’ referring to Lucifer, the angel of pride. Pride was a sin – and yet pride in one’s ancestors and their behaviour wasn’t a sin. Interesting. (And I’m aware that I’ve just turned seriously nerdy, so will rein my enthusiasm in right now.)

It rained as soon as we reached Suffolk, but it got brighter as we neared Maldon. I was armed with a detailed map. We found Byrhtnoth’s statue and I did a bit of declaiming. (Well, you have to - right?)

Cue grumbles from research team about it being freezing and did we really have to walk all the way to the causeway? Yes, because it’s not that far. Except then it poured.

REALLY poured.

Research team staged a rebellion, so we ended up back at the car. (I’m planning another trip next weekend. And Maldon is sort of on the way to Rayleigh. Just hope the tide is in my favour.)

Maldon was the first stop of several – and I’ll tell you about some more tomorrow. (Be warned – church-crawling was involved. I am still dallying with the church book, even though it’s currently on ice. And there were specific things I wanted from this part of Essex. Pretty pics to follow…)

Plan for today: get cracking on my Medical. Lovely agent likes it, but has asked for tweaks on the first three chapters. However, she thinks it’s going to be a great story and (given that I spent last week doing second revisions instead of what I planned to do, i.e. loaf about with family) has rather more confidence in me than I do, right now!