I fell in love with this poem when I was 20. 10 years ago, I finally got myself sufficiently organised to get to Maldon, in Essex, on a cold bright December morning.
It was quite hard to find the site of the battlefield (next to the town rubbish tip), but I eventually met an oldish man, purple-faced from the cold, walking his dog, who pointed out the way.
Without prompting, he remarked, "That Byrhtnoth was a silly bugger, letting the Danes cross the causeway like that. Should have waited for reinforcements. Bloody fair play!"
Below are two photographs I took at the time, the first showing the road to the submerged causeway.
5 comments:
Anthony S. Layne - I've just been reading some of your very enjoyable and highly readable blog, and am putting it on my blogroll.
I couldn't find anywhere to comment (favourably, of course). Is it possible?
God bless!
Thank you Chris and also for the bringing up to date regarding the account.
It is unusual for one so young to take an interest in medieval history......
So young? Garrn Richard :) It was a set text for English Prelims.
We had 4 months to learn Old English and face an exam on a large number of texts, plus Virgil Books IIII and VI (in Latin, of course), plus 2 books of Paradise Lost.
Times were haard! Heh!
@ Left-footer: I'm surprised. I'm using Intense Debate for comments, and so far I haven't had a problem with the combox not showing up. I wonder if your browser was just having a headache? :^)=) And thanks for the high compliment; I hope I can drop this way more often.
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