The good guy irony
Although the Anglo-Saxons have a history very similar to the Vikings in their invasion and domination of England, they are immediately defensive when the Vikings come to assert the time of their rule. The Viking lords demand payment as a tribute that will serve as the English admission of subjection to the Vikings, but the Anglo-Saxons choose warfare, even warfare against the brutal Viking invaders who outnumber them. They are willing to stake their lives on victory because of the honor of their character—the poet says that this is the reason.
The underdog
The poetry is more powerful because the Anglo-Saxons die in glorious manners. This is accentuated of course by the inevitable loss in this Battle to the Vikings, but in some ways, the poetry actually redeems what would have been a loss by transforming it into an intellectual victory. The poetry gives the Anglo-Saxons a point of view that will make them more fierce in battle. Instead of fleeing like Godric, the poetry asserts that it is glorious and honorable to run headlong toward death—especially when it is a lost battle.
The drama of the seas
The vikings are superior on water which is situationally ironic. It also lends the poem a tone of doom, as if the invaders are not human at all, but some sort of magical spawn of the sea. They defend their homes against Vikings in a poetic display of traditionalism and conservative efforts to retain their culture and the past. Yet, the dramatic irony of the seas makes it impossible to believe for very long that they will be successful. The sea allows the Vikings easy access to more of the coast than the Anglo-Saxons can cover on foot. Before long, they are surrounded, and they never know where attacks will come from.
The evil normal guy
Godric is a wonderful example of how tone and irony affect one another. In any story, Godric's escape would be something neutral, an accent mark that shows the horror of the battle. However, in this case, the tone of the poem is a celebration of battle to the death. In light of this, the normal instinctual response of running away from death is considered an arch-sin, worthy of absolute dishonor. To prefer his personal well-being over his duty to the clan is forbidden moral behavior that leads to his permanent reputation as a traitor.
Loss and victory
Because of the poetry and its beautiful meta-narrative, we see a loss on the battleground that amounts to a moral victory. That is because the Vikings are largely understood through historical depictions of events such as this, and in this text, the Vikings are framed as horrifying assailants from hell, and the Anglo-Saxons are framed much differently, as honorable victims who fought to the death against tyranny and evil. This serves historically as a kind of "Remember the Alamo" moment. Even though the battle was lost, the morale gained from the depictions of death are priceless.
