At the Battle of Maldon Michael Kelly ( Rosalind Jehanne cover)

My cover of another of Mistress Rosalind s wonderful pieces about great historical events and the famous literary works that describe them. The song references the battle of Maldon (near the River Blackwater in Essex, England), in which an AngloSaxon force under the command of Byrhtnoth (an ealdorman in the service of King Æthelred the Unready) suffered a crushing defeat by a group of several thousand viking invaders on August 11th in the year 991. The viking army is thought to have been led by Olaf Tryggvason, who was to become the king of Norway only 4 years later. A famous Middle English poem titled The Battle of Maldon describes the event. Apparently the vikings landed and offered peace in exchange for tribute, but Byrhtnoth refused. . and in his ofermode (translated by some to mean pride, recklessness, or excess of courage), he allowed them access to the mainland to properly do battle rather than fighting them at the more easily defensible causeway which led t