The rich resources
derived from the national epos are here happily utilised, and the pure
versification and brilliant style of the whole stir our admiration." It
well serves to diversify and enliven the usually dry annals of the
"Anglo-Saxon Chronicle," and cannot be spared in the great dearth of
poetry of this period.
IV. The BYRHTNOTH, or Fight at Maldon, relates in vigorous verse the
contest between the Saxons, led by the Ealdorman Byrhtnoth, and the
Danes at the river Panta, near Maldon in Essex, in which the Danes were
victorious and Byrhtnoth was slain. The incident is mentioned in four
manuscripts of the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle" under the year 991, but one
gives it under 993. The MS. in which the poem was contained was
unfortunately burnt in the great fire above-mentioned (1731); but Thomas
Hearne, the antiquary, had fortunately printed it, as prose, in his
edition, of the Chronicle of John of Glastonbury (1726); hence this is
now our sole authority for the text, which is defective at both the
beginning and the end. The poem has been highly esteemed by scholars,
and is a very valuable relic of late tenth century literature. It has
been often reprinted, and translated several times in whole or in part.
Grein does not translate either the ATHELSTAN or the BYRHTNOTH.
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