Language and the Heroic Code: The Battle of Maldon Felix Morrison College

The Battle of Maldon uses linguistic tools to glorify the military capabilities of the Saxons, who are in reality the losing side, while minimizing the victory of the invading Vikings. Through use of language the poem eternalizes both individual heroes and traitors, while also reasserting the value of kinship and the promotion of the heroic code.

Through denying agency to the Vikings in favor of individual Saxon warriors, the poet glorifies the English troops highlighting the vested political interests of the piece. This is shown through the use of passive voice to describe the loses of the English forces, for example the breaking of English defenses is stated as “Ða wearð borda gebræc (Then shields were broken)” (295). The effect of this is that the agents of the destruction of the “borda” (the subject of the line) are linguistically hidden, downplaying a crucial military loss. This trend is further evidenced in the line “Gar oft þurhwod / fæges feorhhus (The spear often pierced the body of the fated man)” (296-7) whereby the inanimate object of the spears themselves act as the agent of the sentence, as opposed to the Vikings who threw them. Indeed, when the Vikings are referred to in this section, it is often through the use...