991 AD - The Battle of MALDON

In 1995 AirFlow Design placed a short page on the World Wide Web describing the last stand of Byrhtnoth, Earl of Essex, against a Viking horde in the year of our Lord, 991. A thousand years ago, an anonymous Anglo Saxon writer immortalised the event with the now famous poem, and in the past 2 years our site has become a major World Wide Web resource for the Battle of Maldon, 991AD.

Viking Sword

C O N T E N T S

IMPORTANT NOTE: Click HERE to launch a new browser window with the Appendix containing high resolution maps and plates referred to in the text. As this loads switch back to here so you can be getting on with the story!

Setting the Scene.
England in the tenth century was not a safe place, especially if you lived near the coast. Much of the kingdom was under Viking rule, and the rest was subject to repeated raids...

The Battle of Maldon.
Was it honour or tactical naīvete that caused the English defenders to forsake the advantage? Either way, it was a disastrous decision which cost Byrhtnoth his life...

Conclusions.
It's easy to have 20/20 vision with the benefit of hindsight, but had the result been different could England have been more prepared for the invasion of another, more famous, Norseman?...

Interesting Links.
Well, they're only interesting links if you found this site of interest. Please be sure to check out Tom Bjornstad's Viking site, in which he illustrates that the Vikings were not the raping, pillaging, murderous barbarians posterity would have us believe, but rather a highly evolved society of merchants, warriors, explorers and entrepreneurs whose adventures took them to Russia, Iceland, Constantinople, North Africa and North America. OK, some of them were barbarians, but switch on your TV and watch the news... when has Man ever been a paragon of virtue?

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