3). The battle of brunanburh

Pre-reading task: Sum up the role of the battle in English history.

And there was presently a fierce clash between the Northumbrian at the Icelandic Vikings on the one hand and a part of the English army on the other. In this, although the Northumbrian commander fled, the English were worsted. But on the following day the real trial of strength was staged. The rival hosts paraded in all the pomp of war and then in hearty goodwill fell on with spear, axe and sword. All day long the battle raged.

The chronicles say that Olafr arrived from Dublin with a great fleet from which he disembarked his army which was then joined by the armies of the kings of Scotland and Strathclyde. Athelstan marched to meet them and the two armies met at Brunanburh. The site of Brunaburh has been the cause of some debate, many suggesting that it was in Northurrbria and that Olafr's fleet landed on the Northumbrian coast. Professor H. P. R. Finberg has more recently suggested that the site is at Bromborough, on the Меrcу shore of the Wirral in Cheshire. Indeed, no other place has a name which fits the name provided. Bromborough, in its earliest form, is given as Brumburh - the burgh where the broom grew - for which Brunanburh could easily be a comptive spelling. The site also makes sense of Olafr's army landing directly from Dublin.

The battle was one of the bloodiest fought in Britain. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: 'Never yet in this island before this, by what books tell us and our ancent sages, was a greater slaughter of a host made by edge of the sword, since the Angles and Saxons came hither from the east, invading Britain over the broad seas, and the proud assailants, warriors eager for glory, overcame the Britois and won a country.' The battle was fought over a two-day period. Among the alliance, it left dead upon the field five kings, seven earls, and the son of Constantine of Scotland, as well as countless others.

It was a clear victory for Athelstan and his men; the one single event which secured him in power and united the petty kingdoms under his suzerain rule as England. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records:

The field grew dark with the blood of men, from the time when the sun, that glorious light, the bright candle of God, of the Lord Eternal, moved over the earth in the hours of the morning, until that nimble creation sank at its setting. That day many a man was destroyed by the spears, many a man was shot over his shield, aid likewise lay weary, sated in battle.

Professor A. J. Church has described it as 'one of the most famous battles of English history’; Yet Brunanburh is now hardly mentiomd in any English history even though it inspired one of the great Anglo-Saxon saga poems, written shortly after the battle. Additionally refer­ences in the Icelandic sagas, Annals of Tigernach, Brut у Tywysogion (Chronicle of the Welsh Princes) aid William of Malmesbury supply us with details of the battle.

We find Athelstan and his brother Edmund at the head of an arny of men from Wessex and Mercia There were also a few hundred Anglo-Danish serving in the Saxon army. An account of the battle occurs in the Icelandic Saga of Eigil Skallagrimsson, who fought for Athelstan. It repeats the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle's estimation: 'Greater carnage had not been in this island ever yet, of men slain by the edge of the sword, as the books of old writers tell us, since the Angles and Saxons came to land here from the East, and sought Britain over the broad seas.'

On the evening before the battle, according to William of Malmes­bury, quoting a source now lost, Olafr himself, disguised as a min­strel, went through the Saxon encampment, pretending he was one of the Anglo-Danish warriors. He made his way to Athelstan's tent and sang for him and his nobles as they feasted. He was seen and recognized by one of the Anglo-Danish warriors who then informed Athelst.m - but not until Olafr was safely out of the encampment. The man explained to the enraged Saxon king: 'The same oath that I have sworn to you, I once swore to Olafr; had I betrayed him, you might well expect that I should betray you. But now, if you will condescend to listen to my advice, change the place of your tent.'

Athebtan saw the wisdom of this. When night came, Olafr's men launched an attack, making their way to the king's tent. A Saxon bishop had unwittingly pitched his tent in the spot vacated by the king, and so he and his attendants were slain. One wonders why no one warned this pious gentleman? Whether Olafr had, indeed, gone in person to the Saxon encampment, or whether he had simply sent a spy, with the chroniclers claiming the glory for Olafr, it seems like a good military tactic. But the attack did cause alarm among the Saxons and held up the battle for a few days more until Athelstan gave the order. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle there then followed 'the fiercest and blood­iest fight that had been fought since the Saxon people first came to the island of Britain'.

... the field streamed with warriors' blood

When rose at morning tide the glorious star

The sun, God's shining candle, until sank

The noble creature to its setting.

As fled the Scots, weary and sick of war,

Forth followed the West Saxons, in war bands

Tracking the hostile folk the livelong day.

... There lay five kings

Whom on the battlefield, swords put to sleep

And they were young, and seven of Olafr's earls

With Scots and mariners, an untold host.

But the casualties were not as one-sided as the saga poem would claim. Two members of Athelstan's own family were killed: his cousins, sons of Aethelweard, the youngest son of Alfred, were removed from the field and taken to Malmesbury for burial. These were Alfric and Athelwin. Also there is the reference to the Saxon bishop, who had pitched his tent in the place where Athelstan's had stood and so had been killed by mistake.

But Olafr's alliance army fell apart. The Scots began retreating while the Norse, led by Olafr, realizing the battle was lost, took to their longships.

Through the deep water,

Dublin once again,

Ireland to seek, abased.

While Athelstan and his brother returned home to savour their victory.

... Fame bearing went,

Meanwhile, to their own land, West Saxon land,

The brothers, King and Atheling. They left

The carcasses behind them to be shared

By livid kite, swarthy raven, horny beaked,

And the white eagle, of the goodly plumes,

The greedy war-hawk, and grey forest wolf,

Who ate the carrion.

Aelfric, the abbot at Cerne Abbas (1005-c.1010), acclaimed as 'the greatest prose stylist of the Old English period', significantly acclaimed Athelstan as one of the three greatest English kings for his victory at Brunanburh. Certainly, after Brananburh, Danish power, as a serious rival to the Anglo-Saxons, collapsed and did not re-emerge for another hundred years. When Eadred became ruler of the English kingdoms (ad 946-955), the antagonism between the Danes and Anglo-Saxons had lessened. The Danelaw submitted and England - Angle-land - had become a politically united kingdom.

More significantly, the aspiration of the British Celts to turn back the Anglo-Saxon invasion was now no more than a dream. They began to fortify themselves in the areas into which they had been confined and the map of Britain began to take on its modern lines.

The Britons or welisc of the western peninsula would start calling themselves Cymry, compatriots, and their land Cymru, with Hywel Dda exercising supreme kingship. To the English this would become 'the land of the foreigners' or Weahlas (Wales) just as 'the land of the Kern foreigners', confined west of the Tamar, would be Kern-weahlas or Cornwall.

The country of Alba, a confederacy of the older kingdoms, now including Strathclyde and, for over a century, Cumbria, would keep its borders and become better known as Scotland. The Cymry of Cumbria (as the English pronounced the name of their country - Cymru) would face an almost immediate invasion from Athelstan's brother Edmund (ad 940-946). The Cumbrians sought aid from their northern neighbour, the all-powerful Maol Callum I (ad 943-954) who had succeeded his brother Constantine when he abdicated and retired to a monastery. Maol Callum marched to the aid of his fellow Celts and in ad 945 Edmund was forced to accept that Cumbria was now a province of Scotland continuing with its own petty kings. It was not until 1092 that William Rufus led an English army into Cumbria, defeated Dumnail (Domhnuil), the last Celtic king of Cumbria, and annexed it to England. Anglo-Saxon settlers were encouraged to swamp Cumbria and the natives were driven to the hills or northwards into Strathclyde. Some of the intelligentsia also seem to have taken refuge in Wales. Celtic place-names remain a strong feature of Cumbria, particularly in the hilly regions, while Anglo-Saxon names are to be found in the fertile valleys. While the British Celtic language is noted as surviving, especially in the Eden valley, until the fourteenth century, it is a curious fact that Cumber­land shepherds counted their sheep in a distorted but recognizable form of British Celtic numerals until the turn of this century.

The jarldom of Orkney, the Shetlands, the kingdom of Man and the Isles, and Ireland would not feel their independence threatened for some time to come.

But the threat was there. Brunanburh had seen to that. For England had emerged, united, and the most aggressive and dominant kingdom on the island of Britain.

(from “Celt and Saxon” by P.B. Ellis, L. 1993)

It was in praise of Athelstan’s victory at Brunanburh in 937 that the first patriotic verse in the origins of our language was written. It is known as Brunanburh written in Old English, and found in The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

C+The victory of the English was overwhelming. Constantine, 'the perjured’ as the victors claimed, fled back to the North and Olaf retired with his remnants to Dublin. Thus did King Alfred's grandson, become one of the first sovereigns of Western Europe. He styled himself on coin and charter, Rex totius Britanniae. These claims were accepted upon the Сontinent. His three sisters were wedded respectively to the Carolingian King, Charles the Simple, to the Capetian, Hugh the Great, and to Otto the Saxon, a future Holy Roman Emperor.

By marriage and political interest the house of Alfred, his son Edward the Elder, and Athelstan was bound up with events in mainland Europe The King of the Germans, Henry the Fowler, had attempted an alliance with Athelstan and it was as a result of this approach that Athelstan's sister, Edith, married Henry’s eldest son Otto. As a result England and Germany became tied in all sorts of events, many of which had a direct influence on English ecclesiastical history and the reform of the monastery system. Small points, perhaps, but reminders that history takes its time and doesn't only rest on the outcome of battles. But Athelstan's great battle was not the end of Saxon troubles.