Anonymous, The Battle of Brunanburh

Paul Cavill (University of Nottingham)

Ed. by Hugh Magennis, Queen's University Belfast
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.01: English Writing and Culture: Old English, 500-1066.
Vol. editors: Richard William Dance (University of Cambridge), Hugh Magennis (Queen's University Belfast)

Dates

First circulation or publication 937

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Poetry (any)

Resources

The Battle of Brunanburh is a 73-line poem found in four extant manuscripts of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (Corpus Christi College Cambridge 173, Cotton Tiberius A. vi, Cotton Tiberius B. i and Cotton Tiberius B. iv) and one manuscript now lost, but copied and published before 1731 when the original was destroyed (Cotton Otho B. xi). The poem constitutes the complete entry for the year 937 in the manuscripts with the only addition of the annal number. Like the other tenth-century poems in the Chronicle, The Capture of the Five Boroughs (942), The Coronation of Edgar (973) and The Death of Edgar (975), the poem is a panegyric. It is composed in regular Old English verse, and uses the full repertoire of …

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770 words

Citation: Cavill, Paul. "The Battle of Brunanburh". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 30 October 2002 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=10536, accessed 23 November 2024.]

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