CAPACIDADES PROPIAS DE LA GESTIÓN

All heroic poems have some relationship with history, either genuine history or what is believed to be genuine history; but only in “Maldon” is the history so recent as to make the account of the battle almost a news story. Research shows that English chroniclers and Scandinavian skalds often produced occasional verse in celebration of particular events, but such verse is likely to be a collection of the facile phrases of official court eulogy or of patriotic propaganda.

The structure of the poem falls into two parts: the first part deals with the beginning of the battle and the death of Byrhtnoth; the second part describes the individual speeches and actions of the surviving retainers. These two parts are noticeably different in style and tone.

The focus in the first part is mainly on Byrhtnoth and his activities as a leader. He orders his retainers into formation, gives elementary instruction to the crowd of untrained peasants who make up the army, and serves spokesman for his people.

He, at first, orders the ford to be held and then allows the Vikings access to the mainland.

In a general way, the poem is dominated by what we might call simply the realistic style – plain, concrete, sometimes almost like prose, and with very few of the noun-compounds so common in most Old English verse. The following passage points to this:

When they (the Vikings) understood and saw clearly that they were meeting fierce defenders of the bridge, the hateful strangers began to use trickery and asked to have access (to the shore), to go over the ford and bring their troops.

In itself this style is rather remarkable, for it could not have been easy to use the Old English poetic style, with its unfortunate tendency to dissolve frequently into echoing and eddying variations, to tell a plain tale with such economy. The poet may have intentionally used the broken style to signify the fall of the Anglo-Saxon. Nevertheless the starting of the poem seems the poem may have been abridged as it begins with ellipsis before we are being introduced to the main action of the warriors on the field.

…. Was broken.

He bade a warrior abandon his horse And hurry forward to join the fighters, (Lines 1-3)

That the poem makes use of prosaic diction in some places does not lessen its weight of being categorized as a heroic poem. This is because as the poem progresses the prosaic style becomes elevated most especially in the way Byrhtnoth Viking messenger:

Byrhtnoth addressed him, brandished his shield Shook pliant ash-spear, speaking with words

Enraged and resolute, gave him answer:

„Hear you, sea-rover, what my people say?

The tribute they‟ll send you is tribute of spears, Ancient sword-edge and poisoned point, Weapons availing you little in war!

Pirate messenger, publish this answer, Proclaim to your people tidings more grim;

Here stands no ignoble eorl with his army Guarding my lord aEthelred‟s country and coast His land and his folk. The heathen shall fall In the clash of battle. Too shameful it seems That you with your tribute should take your ships Unfought when thus far you have invaded our land.

You shall not so easily take our treasure,

But sword edge and spear-point first shall decide, The grim play of battle, ere tribute is granted.‟

(Lines 42-59)

There is a marked tendency in Maldon” for these two styles to alternate, an alternation which usually coincides with shifts from action to summarizing reflection, or from personal encounters in battle to mass “tactical” movements, or from concrete details to generalizations. Epic diction become noticeably more frequent as the poem goes on, not only in set-pieces like the passage quoted but also in the language of the speeches and particularly in the highly stylized way of describing the fighting. This increasing use of epic diction is very much related to the meaning of the poem. A real historical event is being raised to a higher level of significance; the actions thus become increasingly symbolic; the ordinary identifiable men of Essex approach and enter the world of heroes, the world of legend.

The pattern of the poem from line 40 may be described as an elevation of style, if we may extend style to mean a way of acting as well as a way of speaking. It is the heroic style itself which is embodied in the figure of Byrhtnoth, both in the way he speaks and in the way he acts. He is the pattern and formula for the rest. He acts and talks like a hero. Ho encourages his soldiers and sthrenghten them. When he is dying, his courage never ceases. He speaks boldly for the repose of his soul if he dies.

Like Beowulf when he encounters Unferth at King Hrothgar‟s court, Byrhtnoth is faced with a verbal challenge. The Viking messenger‟s speech (29-41) is a master-piece of insult, deliberately infuriating in its arrogance and its tone of contemptuous wheedling. The heroic verbal response is unquestionably demanded.

Like Beowulf, Byrhtnoth meets his challenge perfectly. He can match irony with even greater irony. Like the spear which Wulfmaer later draws from Byrhtnoth‟s

body and sends back to kill a Viking, the barbed words of the Viking‟s challenge are deftly caught, ironically accepted, and sent back in a notable display of heroic wit.

4.0 CONCLUSION

Just like Beowulf, The Battle of Maldon is another Anglo-Saxon war poem which ends tragically. The poem‟s simplicity and directness point to the fact that the Anglo-Saxon poet has created a heroic poem out of brute fact. He has been able to forego the great resources of the epic poets- the romantic glamour of antiquity and strange beings, or the plot and characters already long cherished by the audience.

5.0 SUMMARY

In this unit, we have been able to see what heroic poetry is all about. We also discussed The Battle of Maldon as a heroic poem. We were able to also trace the history of England to the period of several battles between the Vikings and the Anglo-Saxon.

6.0 TUTOR-MARKED ASSIGNMENT