The Battle of Maldon

Old English Reading 1

Chapter 10 · The Battle of Maldon

🛡️ The Battle of Maldon

The last chapter reads the most quoted speech in Old English heroic verse: an old retainer, with his leader dead, tells the men around him to stand and fight. It is eleven lines, and every tool from the course is useful in it.

The text in one box The Battle of Maldon survived in one manuscript, Cotton Otho A. xii, which was destroyed in a fire in 1731. Thomas Hearne had copied and published it in 1726, and every modern text goes back to his copy. Both statements are from the note in Bright's edition below. The poem as we have it is incomplete: it begins and ends part-way. The speech is by Byrhtwold, an old retainer, after the leader Byrhtnōð has fallen (my reading of the lines below; I read only an extract).

The text

Byrhtwold maþelode, · bord hafenode,

Byrhtwold spoke · shield raised

"Byrhtwold spoke, he raised his shield,"

(sē wæs eald genēat) · æsc ācwehte;

(he was old retainer) · ash-spear shook

"(he was an old retainer), and shook his spear;"

hē ful baldlīce · beornas lǣrde:

he very boldly · warriors taught

"he, very boldly, instructed the warriors:"

'Hige sceal þē heardra, · heorte þē cēnre,

mind shall the harder · heart the keener

"'Mind must be the harder, heart the keener,"

mōd sceal þē māre, · þē ūre mægen lȳtlað.

spirit shall the greater · as our strength lessens

"spirit the greater, as our strength grows less."

hēr līð ūre ealdor · eall forhēawen,

here lies our leader · all cut-down

"Here lies our leader, all hewn down,"

gōd on grēote; · ā mæg gnornian

good on gravel · ever may lament

"the good man on the gravel; he may mourn for ever"

sē ðe nū fram þīs wīgplegan · wendan þenceð.

he who now from this war-play · to-turn thinks

"who now thinks of turning from this war-play."

Ic eom frōd fēores; · fram ic ne wille,

I am old of-life · away I not will

"I am old in life; I will not go away,"

ac ic mē be healfe · mīnum hlāforde,

but I me by side · to-my lord

"but I intend to lie by the side of my lord,"

be swā lēofan men · licgan þence.'

by so dear man · to-lie intend

"beside a man so dear."

Source: Wikisource, Bright's Anglo-Saxon Reader (J. W. Bright, 1913), "The Battle of Maldon", the speech that runs from Byrhtwold maþelode to licgan þence (lines 309 to 319 by the numbering in Bright's text); public domain in the US. The glosses and translations are mine and unverified; Wikisource gave me no translation. I left out Bright's variant footnotes.

Reading it: the routine in action

Lines 309 to 311: the setting

  • maþelode, hafenode, ācwehte and lǣrde are all past singulars with the weak ending (Old English Grammar 1, Chapter 8): "spoke", "raised", "shook", "taught". Four verbs in three lines, the subject Byrhtwold given once and then carried forward by hē.
  • sē wæs eald genēat is a short remark in brackets: "he was an old retainer". wæs is from bēon, and sē here is "he", the demonstrative used as a pronoun (Old English Grammar 1, Chapter 5; my reading).

Lines 312 and 313: the "harder, keener, greater" rule

  • heardra, cēnre and māre are comparatives (Old English Grammar 1, Chapter 6): "harder", "keener", "greater". The word þē before them I read as "the ... the" ("the harder the better"), a use of a word I did not read a rule for, so treat it as my guess.
  • sceal "shall, must" is a preterite-present verb (Old English Grammar 1, Chapter 9). The verb stays in second place and the thing that must grow comes first: Hige sceal, "mind must".
  • ūre mægen "our strength": ūre is the possessive "our" before its noun, and lȳtlað is a third person singular present in -að, "lessens" (my reading of the verb).

Lines 314 to 316: the fallen leader

  • hēr līð ūre ealdor eall forhēawen: līð is "lies" (third person singular of a verb I read as licgan, which appears again in line 319). forhēawen ends in -en, a past participle (Old English Grammar 1, Chapter 9), "cut down". gōd on grēote is "good on gravel", the man and the place.
  • ā mæg gnornian sē ðe nū ... wendan þenceð: sē ðe is "he who" (Old English Grammar 1, Chapter 10), the subject of þenceð "thinks". mæg is another preterite-present verb, with gnornian "to mourn" its infinitive. fram þīs wīgplegan: fram with the dative, and wīgplegan is a dative singular in -an, "from this battle-play" (my reading).

Lines 317 to 319: I will not go

  • Ic eom frōd fēores: eom is from bēon (Old English Grammar 1, Chapter 9); fēores is a genitive singular, "of life", telling in what respect he is old.
  • fram ic ne wille: ne negates wille "will"; fram is "away", used on its own, and no verb of motion is stated (my reading). The word order puts fram first for emphasis.
  • mīnum hlāforde: the adjective and noun share the dative ending -um / -e, "to my lord". licgan þence is "I intend to lie": þence ends in -e as a first person singular present, with the infinitive licgan.

Where the alliteration falls

LineAlliterating syllables
312Hige sceal þē heardra · heorte þē cēnre
313mōd sceal þē māre · þē ūre mægen
316fram þīs wīgplegan · wendan
317frōd fēores · fram
319be swā lēofan men · licgan

The marking is my reading of the verse form, as in Chapters 3, 8 and 9.

New words

Old EnglishMeaningModern English relative
higemind, purpose—
heorteheartheart
mægenstrengthmain
ealdorleader, lord—
hlāfordlordlord
bordshieldboard
ealdoldold
licganto lielie
lēofdearlief
hērherehere

The meanings are my readings from the lines, not from the source. The "Modern English relative" column is my own knowledge and unverified.

Watch out This is a text with many editorial marks: the quotation marks, the brackets round (sē wæs eald genēat), the semicolons and the half-line dots all belong to the editor, not the manuscript, and the manuscript itself has been lost since 1731. The line numbers also depend on the edition. Other editions print the verses differently, so a line number in a book may not match the one here.

📋 Quick Reference

FeatureWhere
Weak past -odemaþelode, hafenode, lǣrde
Comparatives -ra / -reheardra, cēnre, māre
Preterite-present verbssceal, mæg
Past participle -enforhēawen
Relative sē ðesē ðe nū ... þenceð
Negation nefram ic ne wille

✏️ Try It Yourself

Say the answer first, then click to check.

1. Translate hēr līð ūre ealdor.

Show answer

"Here lies our leader."

2. Which words in line 312 are comparatives?

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heardra "harder" and cēnre "keener".

3. What does sceal tell you about the verb type?

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It is a preterite-present verb (Old English Grammar 1, Chapter 9): "shall, must".

4. What ending is on maþelode, and what does it show?

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-ode, the weak past singular: "spoke".

5. Which sound alliterates in line 317?

Show answer

f: frōd, fēores, fram.

6. What is forhēawen?

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A past participle in -en: "cut down".

7. Who is sē ðe nū ... wendan þenceð?

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"He who now thinks of turning away": sē ðe is "he who" (Old English Grammar 1, Chapter 10).

8. Translate fram ic ne wille and say where the negative is.

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"I will not go away." The negative ne stands just before the verb wille.

9. What does fēores do in frōd fēores?

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It is a genitive: "old of life", showing in what respect he is old.

10. Why can the manuscript of the poem not be checked today?

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It was destroyed in a fire in 1731; only Thomas Hearne's 1726 copy survives (the note in Bright's edition).

Note on sources The Old English is lines 309 to 319 of "The Battle of Maldon" in Bright's Anglo-Saxon Reader (Wikisource), J. W. Bright, 1913, public domain in the US, read from the raw Wikisource page text. I read the closing part of the page and the lines around the speech, not the whole poem. The note about the manuscript and Hearne is Bright's. Everything else, including the account of what happens before the speech, the glosses, translations, grammar labels and Modern English relatives, is mine and unverified. I did not read a scholarly article about the poem. The Old English of this text alone, with its source and licence, is in the Appendix: Texts; you can also download it as a .txt file.

🎓 Course Complete

Over ten chapters you have used one routine on a prayer, a hymn, three kinds of prose, a riddle and three poems. The routine: read the line aloud, find the verb, mark the endings, check the case, look at the order, and in verse look for the alliteration. The chapters were:

  1. Reading Strategy
  2. The Lord's Prayer
  3. Cædmon's Hymn
  4. The Chronicle
  5. The English Arrive
  6. The Colloquy
  7. A Riddle
  8. Beowulf: The Opening
  9. The Wanderer
  10. The Battle of Maldon

Many glosses in this course are my own and unverified. Check anything you plan to rely on against a proper edition and dictionary.

Next: the Appendix: Texts has the Old English of each text in this course on its own page, with its source and a .txt file. The planned course after this one is The Story of Old English.