Text
THE BATTLE OF MALDON
Millennium Re-enactment
- lOth/llth August 1991
by Paul Vernon Lydiate of The Vihings
ln thb gear
93
ships to
ground' able to accurately assess and
FoLkstone, and harried outside, and sailed
thence to Sandwich, and thence to lpswich,
ouerrunning all the countrgside, and so on
around the foundation of the burh at
report back on local conditions and react
quickly to Society directives. The first we
had already. The second was provided by
the Colchester Historical Enactment
Society (CHES), who initially sought our
support with their own bid for the millennium re-enactment, then decided to join
The Vikings enblock. According to Keith
Munnion, the Millenium Chairman, the
success of our bid was due to our sub-
Maldon in the early 1Oth century; a possible interpretation of the events leading
up to the battle; and an outline of the
weaponry and armour of the period
came Anlaf with
to Maldon, Ealdorman Bgrhtnoth came to
meet them with hb leuies and fought them,
but theg slew the ealdorman there and had
possesslon of the place of slaughter.l
Exactly One Thousand years late! to
the very day, the clash of swords rang over
this historic battlefield once more, in what
is probably the most ambitious Dark Age
re-enactment yet to be staged.
Although the Hastings re-enactment
which Corridors of Time organised for
English Heritage last year was bigger both
in terms of audience and in the number of
re-enactors taking part, at Maldon our
brief was to provide two full days of Dark
Age events - from 11am to 5pm - ptus a
further hour's entertainment each
eve-
ning! Even more remarkable, the whole
thing was organised in a mere 10 months
by an amateur organisation (albeit with a
professional approach) - The Vikings,
aka The Norse Film 6 Pageant Society.
From the first it was clear that two
things would be needed to successfully
present a Dark Age event of the nature we
envisaged: an established, large and welldisciplined re-enactment society with the
manpower, resources and expertise
necessary to undertake a project of this
magnitude; and an active group 'on the
Military Hobbies
-
mitting
a professional
proposal
at
a
somewhat less than professional price.
Filling the Programme
Obviously, the re-enactment of the battle
itself would provide the climax to each
day's events, but how to fill up the programme preceding the main battle without detracting from it or 'stealing it's
thunder'? Ideally, the audience should be
teased along through the day with enough
morsels to whet its appetite - but insufficient to satisfy it completely - so as to
ensure the biggest crowd at the battle
itself. The way we decided to do this was
to stage three half hour presentations
before the main event, consisting mainly
of historical drama and pageantry rather
than simulated combat, plus a couple of
other related features - a falconry display
gnd the arrival
a drill display. Between
them, these contained a stylised siege and
battle, a brawl, battle training and a single
combat, each giving a taste of what was to
come without letting the magnificent
spectacle of a full-blown Dark Age battle
re-enactment out of the bag prematurely.
To keep the programme on track,
despite the delays which invariably occur
at events of this nature, a half-hour gap
was purposely left between the key events
mentioned above. These gaps were filled
by the ongoing living history display
based on a representation of Maldon Burh
at the time of the battle, to which attention was purposely drawn at the end of
each event.
Where the evenings were concerned, it
was decided that an ideal way to round off
the day would be to stage a performance
of The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth
Beorhtelm's Son, a short play by J.R.R.
Tolkien dealing with the aftermath of the
battle, followed by a torchlit procession to
the firesculpture of a Viking longship
which we had commissioned for the event.
of some fully-manned On the Saturday the finale would be
Viking ship reconstructions.
The half-hour presentations were based
The Best Hobby Magazine Around
coupled with
provided by an aerial firework display to
the accompaniment of Wagner's Ride of
13
the VaLkyries and on the Sunday by the
torching of the firesculpture itself.
The biggest potential problem with an
outdoor event such as this is that the
proceedings are totaily at the mercy of the
weather. Consequently, as a final touch we
arranged for a marquee-housed craft fair
to be both present at the show and io
contribute something towards the cost of
staging it. The idea was later followed up
by the Millennium Committee itself, who
went on to let stall space in marquees of
their own. I was particularly glad to be
able to arrange a free space for lhe
Battlefields 7usf2, which was founded
earlier this year in an attempt to prevent
what few verified battlefields we have left
disappearing under concrete.
Arena Presentations
Chosen Approach
-
The
Most of what we know about the Battle of
Maldon comes from the Anglo-Saxon
Heroic Poem of the same name, which
tells how ealdorman Byrhtnoth goaded
the Vikings into crossing the causeway
from Northey Island to attack his forces
and later let them all across to form up on
the landward side. The battle seems to
have been fairly evenly matched until
1) Byrhtnoth died, 2) a cowardly retainer
named Codric escaped on Byrhtnoth's
horse and 3) much of the Saxon force fled
after him thinking it was the ealdorman
himself. Byrhtnoth's hearthband decided
to stay, however, and apparently died to a
man avenging their lord's death in the
heroic germanic tradition. It was obvious
from the first that the poem, together with
the two contemporary surviving sources,
would form the basis of the script. But
how best to get the story across to an
audience weened
on Hollywood
and
Television?
One of the things which most im-
pressed me about the Corridors of Time
presentation of Hastings last year was
their use of the Public Address System.
Rather than resort to the usual technique
of having a narrator giving a commentary
on the battle, they had two actors verbally
taking on the roles of a Norman Knight
and a Saxon peasant spearman, and
alternated between the two throughout.
This worked so well that, as I had access to
two members of a mediaeval theatre
group based
in
Durham,
I
decided to
lowers was a close personal friend.
Another purpose of the script was to
help control the action - each phase had
a particular verbal cue for the unit com-
manders to familiarise themselves with.
As a failsafe I took alt those members of
my own group of The Vikings, Rochdale
Herred, through the script well before the
event and arranged for at least one of
them to accompany each unit, in case a
cue was missed or the PA couldn't be
clearly heard at some point. l'm told that
they kept things from going badly off
course on more than one occasion especially Chris Hughes and Jeff Johnson
who played Utf the Red and Wulfnoth
respectively'on the fieldl As a final resort,
from my position in the PA caravan I could
speed up/slow down or even cut sections
of the script if necessary so as to keep the
narration in sync with the action.
I wanted to avoid radio communication
if at all possible due to the amount of
educational filming which was bound to
occur - I didn't want to be responsible for
a generation of schoolchildren growing up
to believe that the Vikings won at Maldon
because they had more walkie-talkies
than the Saxonsl
adopt it for Prelude To The Battle
Authentic Personnel
presentation and for the re-enactment of
the Battle of Maldon itself. Consequently,
Colin Clark took on the role of UIf the Red,
nature of the Maldon Millenium
recorded
as being Olaf
Tiygvasson's
standard bearer at the battle of Svold in
1000 AD whilst Gordon Bond became the
voice of the author of the poem, whom I
named Wulfnoth and made a bard in the
following of Byrhtnoth - later to become
a monk upon the death of his lord. As I
intended to use a number of scene
changes, however, especially in the
Prelude, I also needed a narrator to speak
to the audience in a 20th Century context
- a post ably fulfilled by Dr Glenys LloydMorgan, FSA. This meant, of course, that
the narrators' script had to be written out
fully, with little room for ad-tibbing. In the
event the script ran to over 20 closelytyped pages and, by the time I'd finished it
and arranged the musical soundtrack I felt
as though every one of Byrhtnoth's fol14
From the first, because of the unique
re-
enactment, it was decided to open it up to
other Dark Age groups who requested to
attend so long as they fulfilled certain
criteria - their gear must be in line with
the guide prepared for the show, they
must agree to follow the directives of The
Vikings at all times, and they must fight
to our standards of safety for the duration
of the event. Consequently, although we
were only contracted to provide 200
warriors for the battle (which we could
easily manage from our own members in
a 'worst case' scenario), we actualty fietded
to the support of
Wotfguard, SCUM, Wychwood Warriors,
MOLE, Volund's Sveiter, Northern Meraround 350 thanks
cenaries, Dark Age Crafts, Danelaw
Mercenaries, Valhalla Vikings and six
groups from Regia Anglorum.
The authenticity of gear was especially
important at this show dr,re to the amount
of media coverage of one sort or another
which could be expected - the credibility
of Dark Age re-enactment in general, and
that of The Vikings in particular, would be
under the spotlight. One of the things
which marred the video shot at Hastings
last year, for example, was that virtually
every shot of King Harold had some
character wearing a badly made vendel
helm (by then, 400 years out of date) in
the foreground - this was the kind of
anachronism I wanted to avoid. Conse-
quently, the gear check held on the
Saturday morning was very though indeed. No individual was actually barred
from taking part - only certain items of
inappropriate gear (though admittedly in
a couple of cases this would have entailed
people going on virtually naked . . .). Most
of the complaints received concerning the
gear check centred upon the apparent
inconsistencies, however, in that people
saw gear identical to their own banned
items on the field afterwards. There were
three reasons for this: Russell Scott, the
authenticity officer, was asked to go easier
on helmets for reasons of safety about half
way through the check; some individuals
snuck their banned gear on with them
rather than remove it as requested; and
others didn't arrive until after the gear
check, when we were all up to our eyes in
keeping the show on the road.
Most people seemed to take it in good
part, however. A new parody of AII Around
My Hat appeared over the weekend: '. . .
And if Russell should ask me
The reason why I'm wearing it,
It',s
MY bl* *dy willow
And it's MY bl* *dy hatl'
Falconry Display
The early section of the peom tells how
'Offa's kinsman' frees his hawk as
a
symbol that he is leaving the pleasures of
peace behind and turning his thoughts to
war. In order to recreate this we had to find
a falconry disptay team amenable to the
idea of letting one of our members, Sue
Tatman, release one of their hawks from
the arena before the battle commenced.
continued on page 27
Mititary Hobbies
-
The Best Hobby Magazine Around
continued from page 28
lucky to find one so close by
- at Silver End, Essex. Lorraine Thomas
and Paul of the Company of the Hawk
We were very
came highly recommended by English
Heritage, and their arena display proved to
be superb.
Horses
We were less fortunate with the horses we
needed for the show. The people we
originally contacted raised all sorts of
problems when we had less than a week to
go: although we were originally promised
between five and seven horses, now we
were only going to get three; they refused
to let Tony Sayer - an experienced rider
who was to play Byrhtnoth - ride one of
their horses; and maintained (in the teeth
of written communication to the contrary)
that they had only been engaged for the
Saturday! Fortunately, I was able to contact a local equestrian family, the Carrs,
who stepped in at impossibly short notice
to save the day. The Carrs were an absolute pleasure to work with and enjoyed
themselves so much that they asked for
details of future events needing horses.
The equestrian aspects of Sunday's shows
went much more smoothly.
Viking Ships
The Viking ships we used were two of the
Skuledev 3 replicas built by the York
Archaeological Tiust. The major cost in
using these would be in transporting them
from York to Maldon and back again, but
fortunately a Maldon haulier, Alan
Wiseman, offered to add them to the
growing list of things he was transporting
free for the Millennium.
Since I barely know one end of a ship
from another and detailed lock knowledge of the Blackwater Estury would be
essential, all aspects of their handling and
use were put into the capable hands of
John Pullen-Appleby of CHES. It was
decided that John would train the crews
locally - initially on borrowed whalers
then for a fortnight on the ships themselves - whilst the landing parties would
be made up of volunteers from the rest of
structed of the Craveney Boat, he
suggested ihat this could be used as
The Bright Side Of Life' prior to the
performance!
the fishing boat which first brought news
of the Vikings' arrival. This was duly The Viking Funeral
incorporated into the programme.
For the finale of the weekend, immediately after the last performance of The
Living History Display
Homecoming, a Viking funeral and shipIt was decided that the setting for the burning were planned along the same
living history display would be a rep- Iines as those we've staged at the annual
resentation of Maldon Burh at the time of Largs Viking Festival for over 10 years 'ship'
the battle: a Saxon Hall, a few smaller
wooden structures, and the tents of those
who had fled from the Vikings to take
shelter behind Maldon's stockade. Within
it, the public would see a plethora of Dark
Age crafts and domestic activities, in
addition to being able to examine the gear
of 'off'duty' warriors close up. As a final
touch, the Rochdale, Manchesteq Leeds
and Durham groups would stage some
tableaux outlining various aspects of the
more peaceful side of life in the Dark
Ages. The display as a whole would be
organised by Jane Bensted, Living History
Officer of The Vikings.
Responsibility for the building of the
Saxon Hall was given to Mick Bensted,
Cameron Stokes and Colin Owrid,
together with their Canterbury, Tirnbridge
and Maidstone groups. [n the event, the
Hall Crew were the first to arrive and the
last to leave - this 11m x 5m monster
was constructed so that it could be taken
down and used again at future shows.
The Homecoming of
Be orhtnoth
According to J.R,R. Tokien's Tiee and Leaf,
from which it was taken, this play had
never before been performed, presumably
because it needed a cast of 100+ bodies
in addition to a group of chanting monks,
three corpse robbers and the two main
protagonists. So it was doubly appropriate
that the premier performance should take
place in the open air of the battlefield of
Maldon, exactly 1,000 years after the
events the play portrays. Colin Clark,
playing Tidwatd, and Gordon Bond,
playing Torhthetm, were provided with
but on a bigger scale. The biggest
we could find at the most reirsonable cost
turned out to be a 15 metre firesculpture
of a dragon ship
torch.
CHES provided a hundred torches for
the procession, which consisted of around
250 men, women and children, all in
appropriate costume. As the torchlit
column slowly snaked its way across the
arena
to the monotonous beat of
a
bodran, the shoulder-borne whicker body
in its midst, it was easy to imagine yourself back to the times of Byrhtnoth and
Otaf, a thousand years ago. The column
split to form a semi-circle around the ship;
the body was placed on board; flames
could be seen at two places under the
ship; the torchbearers went forward and a
hundred small flames joined the larger . . .
For the first time in over a week I could
relax.
The Proof of the Pudding
In the event, the weather was with us all
the way: bright sunshine all day Saturday;
dull but dry on Sunday until a spot of
drizzle after the battle, followed by a
beautiful sunset and a dry evening for the
ship-burning. All the peripheral factors stands, toilets, Public Address System and
re-enactors'campsite adjacent to the show
- were of an extremely high standard too: the Millennium Committee, in
particular Brian Larwill the 'Site Manager',
had obviously done their homework.
area
Overall, things went remarkably
small radio microphones and a Dark Age
cart reconstructed by Mark Harrisson,
whilst three other members of the
the Society.
The original idea was for the ships to Durham group provided the corpse
arrive under oars and then for the landing robbers. Our Vanaheim (Manchester)
parties to disembark and set fire to some group kitted themselves out as monks
but, according to the rest of the cast,
mock-up fishermen's huts on the shore specially constructed for the purpose by playing a corpse was one of the most
enjoyable parts of the weekend. FortuIonyWalmsley. When Dr EW.H. Cifford who subsequently joined the Society - nately, the audience were too far away to
arrived with the replica he had con- 'hear the corpses singing Always Look On
constructed by Phil
Bewes of Runcorn. Built on the edge of
the arena, this also provided an impressive backdrop for all the weekend's presentations - before finally being put to the
smoothly
-
the few glitches manifesting
themselves on the Saturday being more or
less hammered out for the second day's
performances. Apart from a few grumbles
about the authenticity check, the only
criticism I heard from a re-enactor was
that she was getting tired of being pest-
ered by film and TV crews, radio and
newspaper journalists, photographers and
so
on - the ultimate accolade for a PR
For the best in
Re-enactments
[Jniforms
Toy Soldiers
& Modelling
Read Military llobbies
avallable from High Street Newsagents or send 51.90 to
Pireme Publishing Ltd, 34 Chatsworth Rd, Bournemouth, Dorset BH8
Military Hobbies
-
The Best Hobby Magazine Around
SS.W.
27
Officer! As for the rest, I've lost count of
the number of people - both warriors
and living history enthusiasts - who have
told me that it was the best show they have
ever been to and will set the standard for
Dark Age Re-enactment in the future.
The audiences were very appreciative
- Gill and Sarah on the Society stall
too
received more than 100 enquiries about
membership over the weekend - and the
TV and film people went away equally
happy. The show proved to be a veritable
treasurehouse of opportunity regarding
show organisers and media people from
which the Society will benefit for years to
come. Finally, although the dull weather
on Sunday seemed to put off some po-
tential visitors, overall the Millennium
Committee thought the weekend a great
success.
There are one or two things I'd do
differently if given the chance to stage the
Maldon Millennium again but, as Kim
Siddorn of Regia Anglorum said to me
over the free beer we provided on
Saturday night: 'The re-enactors are
happy, the audience is happy and the
- what more could you
want?'
One of the best things about the week.
end was to see so many different re-enactment societies putting their differences
clients are happy
behind them and working together
so
well. Most people seemed to be putting in
110%. l'd like to thank all of those who
took part, particularly all those mentioned
above, the unit commanders on the field
(especially Ritchie Angove, who played
Olaf Tiyggvasson), Sandie Cillbanks (who
marshalled the horses) and Dee Hanson
the chauffeuse for helping to make the
28
event such a success. Finally, l'd like to
thank my wife Penny, who had to put up
with the preparations for as long as I did,
and Chris Robinson, Chieftain of The
Vikings. Chris had the hardest job of all
- giving me a free hand to get on with
the organisation knowing all the while
show - this morning they were rowing for
me . . . So, t got to take a turn at the oars
and the steering oar after all. Thanks lads
- I really appreciated that. Let's do it all
again soon!
1 Extract fro the Everyman Classics translation of
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle by C.N. Carmonsway.
2 Further details of The Battlefield lrmt can be
obtained from Kelvin Van Hasselt, 2 Winton Close,
that he'd end up carrying the can if things
went wrong!
This was a piece of lioing historg - the re.
enactment of an episode in Maldon's past
which shaped the future of this ancient
Solent Avenue, Lymington, HANTS, SO41 gSU,
The Aftermath
time to spare at weekends, and want to
borough.3
United Kingdom. Tel: 0590-671533.
3 Extract from the Euening Gazette, Monday 12th
August
1991.
If you have an interest in the Dark Ages,
The worst thing about organising a show
on this scale is that it involves spending
most of the time sitting in a PA cabin
watching others do the things which
meet a host of new friends wiih a similar
outlook, then write to Nigel Tate, Flat 2,
16 Magdala Road, Mapperley Park,
Nottingham NG3 5DF without delay.
attracted you to the hobby in the first
place. I didn't get the chance to see the
Viking ships all weekend, for example.
Consequently, when I learned that they
were being towed back to Mersea Island
Minimum age for full membership of The
Vikings is 18, though the children of
members are always welcome and a junior
section for 16-17 year-olds has just been
on the Monday, prior to being raised from
Anyone wishing to engage The Vikings
for shows, filming or other events should
contact the Society Chieftain, Chris
the water for their trip back to Jorvik, I
asked if there was room for a couple of
instituted.
Robinson,
Passengers.
When Dee and I boarded the Astrid as
she stood off from Heybridge Basin I was
surprised to see that, in addition to John
Pullen-Appleby and Neil (who would steer
the ships during the tow), Mark Herb and
Jon - again from CHES - were also
aboard. Actually, the tow won't arrive for a
couple of hours,'said John, 'so we thought
at the
above address
(Tel:
0602-609046) or the Special Events Coordinator, PV. Lydiate, 119 Market Street,
Broadley, Whitworth, Rochdale OL12 8SE.
Tel:0706-344773.
A professionallg made uideo of the Battle of
Maldon is auailable from:
Dept\ AngliaPlus,
wed have a row. It'll need everybody at the
PO Box 1499,
ChelmsfordCM2 gUJ
oarsmind...'
The CHES people had had access to the
a fortnight and had just spent two The cost b 512.95 + S1.OO p6p, cheques
shipsfor
gruelling mornings rowing them for
the
madepayableto AngliaPlus.
Military Hobbies
-
The Best Hobby Magazine Around
Millennium Re-enactment
- lOth/llth August 1991
by Paul Vernon Lydiate of The Vihings
ln thb gear
93
ships to
ground' able to accurately assess and
FoLkstone, and harried outside, and sailed
thence to Sandwich, and thence to lpswich,
ouerrunning all the countrgside, and so on
around the foundation of the burh at
report back on local conditions and react
quickly to Society directives. The first we
had already. The second was provided by
the Colchester Historical Enactment
Society (CHES), who initially sought our
support with their own bid for the millennium re-enactment, then decided to join
The Vikings enblock. According to Keith
Munnion, the Millenium Chairman, the
success of our bid was due to our sub-
Maldon in the early 1Oth century; a possible interpretation of the events leading
up to the battle; and an outline of the
weaponry and armour of the period
came Anlaf with
to Maldon, Ealdorman Bgrhtnoth came to
meet them with hb leuies and fought them,
but theg slew the ealdorman there and had
possesslon of the place of slaughter.l
Exactly One Thousand years late! to
the very day, the clash of swords rang over
this historic battlefield once more, in what
is probably the most ambitious Dark Age
re-enactment yet to be staged.
Although the Hastings re-enactment
which Corridors of Time organised for
English Heritage last year was bigger both
in terms of audience and in the number of
re-enactors taking part, at Maldon our
brief was to provide two full days of Dark
Age events - from 11am to 5pm - ptus a
further hour's entertainment each
eve-
ning! Even more remarkable, the whole
thing was organised in a mere 10 months
by an amateur organisation (albeit with a
professional approach) - The Vikings,
aka The Norse Film 6 Pageant Society.
From the first it was clear that two
things would be needed to successfully
present a Dark Age event of the nature we
envisaged: an established, large and welldisciplined re-enactment society with the
manpower, resources and expertise
necessary to undertake a project of this
magnitude; and an active group 'on the
Military Hobbies
-
mitting
a professional
proposal
at
a
somewhat less than professional price.
Filling the Programme
Obviously, the re-enactment of the battle
itself would provide the climax to each
day's events, but how to fill up the programme preceding the main battle without detracting from it or 'stealing it's
thunder'? Ideally, the audience should be
teased along through the day with enough
morsels to whet its appetite - but insufficient to satisfy it completely - so as to
ensure the biggest crowd at the battle
itself. The way we decided to do this was
to stage three half hour presentations
before the main event, consisting mainly
of historical drama and pageantry rather
than simulated combat, plus a couple of
other related features - a falconry display
gnd the arrival
a drill display. Between
them, these contained a stylised siege and
battle, a brawl, battle training and a single
combat, each giving a taste of what was to
come without letting the magnificent
spectacle of a full-blown Dark Age battle
re-enactment out of the bag prematurely.
To keep the programme on track,
despite the delays which invariably occur
at events of this nature, a half-hour gap
was purposely left between the key events
mentioned above. These gaps were filled
by the ongoing living history display
based on a representation of Maldon Burh
at the time of the battle, to which attention was purposely drawn at the end of
each event.
Where the evenings were concerned, it
was decided that an ideal way to round off
the day would be to stage a performance
of The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth
Beorhtelm's Son, a short play by J.R.R.
Tolkien dealing with the aftermath of the
battle, followed by a torchlit procession to
the firesculpture of a Viking longship
which we had commissioned for the event.
of some fully-manned On the Saturday the finale would be
Viking ship reconstructions.
The half-hour presentations were based
The Best Hobby Magazine Around
coupled with
provided by an aerial firework display to
the accompaniment of Wagner's Ride of
13
the VaLkyries and on the Sunday by the
torching of the firesculpture itself.
The biggest potential problem with an
outdoor event such as this is that the
proceedings are totaily at the mercy of the
weather. Consequently, as a final touch we
arranged for a marquee-housed craft fair
to be both present at the show and io
contribute something towards the cost of
staging it. The idea was later followed up
by the Millennium Committee itself, who
went on to let stall space in marquees of
their own. I was particularly glad to be
able to arrange a free space for lhe
Battlefields 7usf2, which was founded
earlier this year in an attempt to prevent
what few verified battlefields we have left
disappearing under concrete.
Arena Presentations
Chosen Approach
-
The
Most of what we know about the Battle of
Maldon comes from the Anglo-Saxon
Heroic Poem of the same name, which
tells how ealdorman Byrhtnoth goaded
the Vikings into crossing the causeway
from Northey Island to attack his forces
and later let them all across to form up on
the landward side. The battle seems to
have been fairly evenly matched until
1) Byrhtnoth died, 2) a cowardly retainer
named Codric escaped on Byrhtnoth's
horse and 3) much of the Saxon force fled
after him thinking it was the ealdorman
himself. Byrhtnoth's hearthband decided
to stay, however, and apparently died to a
man avenging their lord's death in the
heroic germanic tradition. It was obvious
from the first that the poem, together with
the two contemporary surviving sources,
would form the basis of the script. But
how best to get the story across to an
audience weened
on Hollywood
and
Television?
One of the things which most im-
pressed me about the Corridors of Time
presentation of Hastings last year was
their use of the Public Address System.
Rather than resort to the usual technique
of having a narrator giving a commentary
on the battle, they had two actors verbally
taking on the roles of a Norman Knight
and a Saxon peasant spearman, and
alternated between the two throughout.
This worked so well that, as I had access to
two members of a mediaeval theatre
group based
in
Durham,
I
decided to
lowers was a close personal friend.
Another purpose of the script was to
help control the action - each phase had
a particular verbal cue for the unit com-
manders to familiarise themselves with.
As a failsafe I took alt those members of
my own group of The Vikings, Rochdale
Herred, through the script well before the
event and arranged for at least one of
them to accompany each unit, in case a
cue was missed or the PA couldn't be
clearly heard at some point. l'm told that
they kept things from going badly off
course on more than one occasion especially Chris Hughes and Jeff Johnson
who played Utf the Red and Wulfnoth
respectively'on the fieldl As a final resort,
from my position in the PA caravan I could
speed up/slow down or even cut sections
of the script if necessary so as to keep the
narration in sync with the action.
I wanted to avoid radio communication
if at all possible due to the amount of
educational filming which was bound to
occur - I didn't want to be responsible for
a generation of schoolchildren growing up
to believe that the Vikings won at Maldon
because they had more walkie-talkies
than the Saxonsl
adopt it for Prelude To The Battle
Authentic Personnel
presentation and for the re-enactment of
the Battle of Maldon itself. Consequently,
Colin Clark took on the role of UIf the Red,
nature of the Maldon Millenium
recorded
as being Olaf
Tiygvasson's
standard bearer at the battle of Svold in
1000 AD whilst Gordon Bond became the
voice of the author of the poem, whom I
named Wulfnoth and made a bard in the
following of Byrhtnoth - later to become
a monk upon the death of his lord. As I
intended to use a number of scene
changes, however, especially in the
Prelude, I also needed a narrator to speak
to the audience in a 20th Century context
- a post ably fulfilled by Dr Glenys LloydMorgan, FSA. This meant, of course, that
the narrators' script had to be written out
fully, with little room for ad-tibbing. In the
event the script ran to over 20 closelytyped pages and, by the time I'd finished it
and arranged the musical soundtrack I felt
as though every one of Byrhtnoth's fol14
From the first, because of the unique
re-
enactment, it was decided to open it up to
other Dark Age groups who requested to
attend so long as they fulfilled certain
criteria - their gear must be in line with
the guide prepared for the show, they
must agree to follow the directives of The
Vikings at all times, and they must fight
to our standards of safety for the duration
of the event. Consequently, although we
were only contracted to provide 200
warriors for the battle (which we could
easily manage from our own members in
a 'worst case' scenario), we actualty fietded
to the support of
Wotfguard, SCUM, Wychwood Warriors,
MOLE, Volund's Sveiter, Northern Meraround 350 thanks
cenaries, Dark Age Crafts, Danelaw
Mercenaries, Valhalla Vikings and six
groups from Regia Anglorum.
The authenticity of gear was especially
important at this show dr,re to the amount
of media coverage of one sort or another
which could be expected - the credibility
of Dark Age re-enactment in general, and
that of The Vikings in particular, would be
under the spotlight. One of the things
which marred the video shot at Hastings
last year, for example, was that virtually
every shot of King Harold had some
character wearing a badly made vendel
helm (by then, 400 years out of date) in
the foreground - this was the kind of
anachronism I wanted to avoid. Conse-
quently, the gear check held on the
Saturday morning was very though indeed. No individual was actually barred
from taking part - only certain items of
inappropriate gear (though admittedly in
a couple of cases this would have entailed
people going on virtually naked . . .). Most
of the complaints received concerning the
gear check centred upon the apparent
inconsistencies, however, in that people
saw gear identical to their own banned
items on the field afterwards. There were
three reasons for this: Russell Scott, the
authenticity officer, was asked to go easier
on helmets for reasons of safety about half
way through the check; some individuals
snuck their banned gear on with them
rather than remove it as requested; and
others didn't arrive until after the gear
check, when we were all up to our eyes in
keeping the show on the road.
Most people seemed to take it in good
part, however. A new parody of AII Around
My Hat appeared over the weekend: '. . .
And if Russell should ask me
The reason why I'm wearing it,
It',s
MY bl* *dy willow
And it's MY bl* *dy hatl'
Falconry Display
The early section of the peom tells how
'Offa's kinsman' frees his hawk as
a
symbol that he is leaving the pleasures of
peace behind and turning his thoughts to
war. In order to recreate this we had to find
a falconry disptay team amenable to the
idea of letting one of our members, Sue
Tatman, release one of their hawks from
the arena before the battle commenced.
continued on page 27
Mititary Hobbies
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The Best Hobby Magazine Around
continued from page 28
lucky to find one so close by
- at Silver End, Essex. Lorraine Thomas
and Paul of the Company of the Hawk
We were very
came highly recommended by English
Heritage, and their arena display proved to
be superb.
Horses
We were less fortunate with the horses we
needed for the show. The people we
originally contacted raised all sorts of
problems when we had less than a week to
go: although we were originally promised
between five and seven horses, now we
were only going to get three; they refused
to let Tony Sayer - an experienced rider
who was to play Byrhtnoth - ride one of
their horses; and maintained (in the teeth
of written communication to the contrary)
that they had only been engaged for the
Saturday! Fortunately, I was able to contact a local equestrian family, the Carrs,
who stepped in at impossibly short notice
to save the day. The Carrs were an absolute pleasure to work with and enjoyed
themselves so much that they asked for
details of future events needing horses.
The equestrian aspects of Sunday's shows
went much more smoothly.
Viking Ships
The Viking ships we used were two of the
Skuledev 3 replicas built by the York
Archaeological Tiust. The major cost in
using these would be in transporting them
from York to Maldon and back again, but
fortunately a Maldon haulier, Alan
Wiseman, offered to add them to the
growing list of things he was transporting
free for the Millennium.
Since I barely know one end of a ship
from another and detailed lock knowledge of the Blackwater Estury would be
essential, all aspects of their handling and
use were put into the capable hands of
John Pullen-Appleby of CHES. It was
decided that John would train the crews
locally - initially on borrowed whalers
then for a fortnight on the ships themselves - whilst the landing parties would
be made up of volunteers from the rest of
structed of the Craveney Boat, he
suggested ihat this could be used as
The Bright Side Of Life' prior to the
performance!
the fishing boat which first brought news
of the Vikings' arrival. This was duly The Viking Funeral
incorporated into the programme.
For the finale of the weekend, immediately after the last performance of The
Living History Display
Homecoming, a Viking funeral and shipIt was decided that the setting for the burning were planned along the same
living history display would be a rep- Iines as those we've staged at the annual
resentation of Maldon Burh at the time of Largs Viking Festival for over 10 years 'ship'
the battle: a Saxon Hall, a few smaller
wooden structures, and the tents of those
who had fled from the Vikings to take
shelter behind Maldon's stockade. Within
it, the public would see a plethora of Dark
Age crafts and domestic activities, in
addition to being able to examine the gear
of 'off'duty' warriors close up. As a final
touch, the Rochdale, Manchesteq Leeds
and Durham groups would stage some
tableaux outlining various aspects of the
more peaceful side of life in the Dark
Ages. The display as a whole would be
organised by Jane Bensted, Living History
Officer of The Vikings.
Responsibility for the building of the
Saxon Hall was given to Mick Bensted,
Cameron Stokes and Colin Owrid,
together with their Canterbury, Tirnbridge
and Maidstone groups. [n the event, the
Hall Crew were the first to arrive and the
last to leave - this 11m x 5m monster
was constructed so that it could be taken
down and used again at future shows.
The Homecoming of
Be orhtnoth
According to J.R,R. Tokien's Tiee and Leaf,
from which it was taken, this play had
never before been performed, presumably
because it needed a cast of 100+ bodies
in addition to a group of chanting monks,
three corpse robbers and the two main
protagonists. So it was doubly appropriate
that the premier performance should take
place in the open air of the battlefield of
Maldon, exactly 1,000 years after the
events the play portrays. Colin Clark,
playing Tidwatd, and Gordon Bond,
playing Torhthetm, were provided with
but on a bigger scale. The biggest
we could find at the most reirsonable cost
turned out to be a 15 metre firesculpture
of a dragon ship
torch.
CHES provided a hundred torches for
the procession, which consisted of around
250 men, women and children, all in
appropriate costume. As the torchlit
column slowly snaked its way across the
arena
to the monotonous beat of
a
bodran, the shoulder-borne whicker body
in its midst, it was easy to imagine yourself back to the times of Byrhtnoth and
Otaf, a thousand years ago. The column
split to form a semi-circle around the ship;
the body was placed on board; flames
could be seen at two places under the
ship; the torchbearers went forward and a
hundred small flames joined the larger . . .
For the first time in over a week I could
relax.
The Proof of the Pudding
In the event, the weather was with us all
the way: bright sunshine all day Saturday;
dull but dry on Sunday until a spot of
drizzle after the battle, followed by a
beautiful sunset and a dry evening for the
ship-burning. All the peripheral factors stands, toilets, Public Address System and
re-enactors'campsite adjacent to the show
- were of an extremely high standard too: the Millennium Committee, in
particular Brian Larwill the 'Site Manager',
had obviously done their homework.
area
Overall, things went remarkably
small radio microphones and a Dark Age
cart reconstructed by Mark Harrisson,
whilst three other members of the
the Society.
The original idea was for the ships to Durham group provided the corpse
arrive under oars and then for the landing robbers. Our Vanaheim (Manchester)
parties to disembark and set fire to some group kitted themselves out as monks
but, according to the rest of the cast,
mock-up fishermen's huts on the shore specially constructed for the purpose by playing a corpse was one of the most
enjoyable parts of the weekend. FortuIonyWalmsley. When Dr EW.H. Cifford who subsequently joined the Society - nately, the audience were too far away to
arrived with the replica he had con- 'hear the corpses singing Always Look On
constructed by Phil
Bewes of Runcorn. Built on the edge of
the arena, this also provided an impressive backdrop for all the weekend's presentations - before finally being put to the
smoothly
-
the few glitches manifesting
themselves on the Saturday being more or
less hammered out for the second day's
performances. Apart from a few grumbles
about the authenticity check, the only
criticism I heard from a re-enactor was
that she was getting tired of being pest-
ered by film and TV crews, radio and
newspaper journalists, photographers and
so
on - the ultimate accolade for a PR
For the best in
Re-enactments
[Jniforms
Toy Soldiers
& Modelling
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SS.W.
27
Officer! As for the rest, I've lost count of
the number of people - both warriors
and living history enthusiasts - who have
told me that it was the best show they have
ever been to and will set the standard for
Dark Age Re-enactment in the future.
The audiences were very appreciative
- Gill and Sarah on the Society stall
too
received more than 100 enquiries about
membership over the weekend - and the
TV and film people went away equally
happy. The show proved to be a veritable
treasurehouse of opportunity regarding
show organisers and media people from
which the Society will benefit for years to
come. Finally, although the dull weather
on Sunday seemed to put off some po-
tential visitors, overall the Millennium
Committee thought the weekend a great
success.
There are one or two things I'd do
differently if given the chance to stage the
Maldon Millennium again but, as Kim
Siddorn of Regia Anglorum said to me
over the free beer we provided on
Saturday night: 'The re-enactors are
happy, the audience is happy and the
- what more could you
want?'
One of the best things about the week.
end was to see so many different re-enactment societies putting their differences
clients are happy
behind them and working together
so
well. Most people seemed to be putting in
110%. l'd like to thank all of those who
took part, particularly all those mentioned
above, the unit commanders on the field
(especially Ritchie Angove, who played
Olaf Tiyggvasson), Sandie Cillbanks (who
marshalled the horses) and Dee Hanson
the chauffeuse for helping to make the
28
event such a success. Finally, l'd like to
thank my wife Penny, who had to put up
with the preparations for as long as I did,
and Chris Robinson, Chieftain of The
Vikings. Chris had the hardest job of all
- giving me a free hand to get on with
the organisation knowing all the while
show - this morning they were rowing for
me . . . So, t got to take a turn at the oars
and the steering oar after all. Thanks lads
- I really appreciated that. Let's do it all
again soon!
1 Extract fro the Everyman Classics translation of
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle by C.N. Carmonsway.
2 Further details of The Battlefield lrmt can be
obtained from Kelvin Van Hasselt, 2 Winton Close,
that he'd end up carrying the can if things
went wrong!
This was a piece of lioing historg - the re.
enactment of an episode in Maldon's past
which shaped the future of this ancient
Solent Avenue, Lymington, HANTS, SO41 gSU,
The Aftermath
time to spare at weekends, and want to
borough.3
United Kingdom. Tel: 0590-671533.
3 Extract from the Euening Gazette, Monday 12th
August
1991.
If you have an interest in the Dark Ages,
The worst thing about organising a show
on this scale is that it involves spending
most of the time sitting in a PA cabin
watching others do the things which
meet a host of new friends wiih a similar
outlook, then write to Nigel Tate, Flat 2,
16 Magdala Road, Mapperley Park,
Nottingham NG3 5DF without delay.
attracted you to the hobby in the first
place. I didn't get the chance to see the
Viking ships all weekend, for example.
Consequently, when I learned that they
were being towed back to Mersea Island
Minimum age for full membership of The
Vikings is 18, though the children of
members are always welcome and a junior
section for 16-17 year-olds has just been
on the Monday, prior to being raised from
Anyone wishing to engage The Vikings
for shows, filming or other events should
contact the Society Chieftain, Chris
the water for their trip back to Jorvik, I
asked if there was room for a couple of
instituted.
Robinson,
Passengers.
When Dee and I boarded the Astrid as
she stood off from Heybridge Basin I was
surprised to see that, in addition to John
Pullen-Appleby and Neil (who would steer
the ships during the tow), Mark Herb and
Jon - again from CHES - were also
aboard. Actually, the tow won't arrive for a
couple of hours,'said John, 'so we thought
at the
above address
(Tel:
0602-609046) or the Special Events Coordinator, PV. Lydiate, 119 Market Street,
Broadley, Whitworth, Rochdale OL12 8SE.
Tel:0706-344773.
A professionallg made uideo of the Battle of
Maldon is auailable from:
Dept\ AngliaPlus,
wed have a row. It'll need everybody at the
PO Box 1499,
ChelmsfordCM2 gUJ
oarsmind...'
The CHES people had had access to the
a fortnight and had just spent two The cost b 512.95 + S1.OO p6p, cheques
shipsfor
gruelling mornings rowing them for
the
madepayableto AngliaPlus.
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