“There lay many a man/Marred by the javelin/...shot over shield.” (94)

These notes were taken from Hiett's Battle of Brunanburh translation while I was working on a paper. They give us some insight into how tenth century warfare was viewed by contemporaries.

On fleeing enemies:

“We the West-Saxons/Long as the daylight/Lasted, in companies/Troubled the track of the host that we hated,/Grimly with swords that were sharp from the grindstone,/Fiercely we hacked at the flyers before us” (94). Obviously there was no love lost between the antagonists. The idea apparently was to kill as many of the enemy as possible to prevent their return...a good strategy and one that appears readily throughout warfare up until the later Medieval period when capturing the richer enemy notables become popular as a way of raising ransom. Poorer enemy troops continued to be killed with abandon.

View of death:

“Five young kings put asleep by the sword-strokes” (95). The view that death was akin to being put to sleep. This has come down to us even today as we refer to putting sick pets “to sleep”.

Some not so brave as to die on the field of battle:

“Then the Norse leader,/Dire was his need of it,/Few were his following,/Fled to his warship.” This shows us that even though the ideal was to have troops fight to the last to protect their lord, it was just that, an ideal as many would simply opt for self preservation.

Others even less brave:

“(Constantius) He that was reft of his/Folk and his friends that had/Fallen in conflict,/Leaving his son too/Lost in the carnage/Mangled to morsels,/A youngster in war./Then with their nailed prows/Parted the Norsemen,/A blood-reddened relic of/Javelins over/The jarring breaker...shamed in their souls.” The horror of battle caused even kings and their bravest allies to leave the field of battle and run to save themselves.

The battlefield after the battle:

“Many a carcase (sic) they left to be carrion,/Many a livid one, many a sallow-skin/Left for the white tailed eagle to tear it, and/Left for the horny-ribbed raven to rend it, and/Gave to the garbaging war-hawk to gorge it, and/That gray beast, the wold in the weald.” (97) Not much more needs to be said about that!