The Characterization of the Vikings in “The Battle of Maldon”1

Communal Interdependence inThe Battle of Maldon

“…But regardless of which individuals are to blame, I hope I have shown that the poem exerts a concerted effort to demonstrate that their betrayals are individual acts, that even though these acts have the power to bring down England, other individuals have an equal power to glorify the English. Britton (1965), Clark (1968: 58), and Robinson (1976: 27, 38). 2 On the one side of this debate, critics argue for a composition date close to the actual battle in 991 and, by extension, for confidence in the poem's historicity; Laborde went so far as to argue that even the "exhortations of the heroes are recorded word for word" by the Maldon-poet (Laborde 1924: 415).…”