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THE BATTLE of MALDON: a MEDIEVAL SCREENPLAY History and Heroism in the Cinematic Adaptation of an Old English Poem

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THE BATTLE of MALDON: a MEDIEVAL SCREENPLAY History and Heroism in the Cinematic Adaptation of an Old English Poem THE BATTLE OF MALDON: A MEDIEVAL SCREENPLAY History and Heroism in the Cinematic Adaptation of an Old English Poem A Thesis Submitted to the Committee on Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in the Faculty of Arts and Science TRENT UNIVERSITY Peterborough, Ontario, Canada (c) Copyright Sarah Elizabeth Miller 2013 English (Public Texts) M.A. Graduate Program September 2013 ABSTRACT The Battle of Maldon: A Medieval Screenplay History and Heroism in the Cinematic Adaptation of an Old English Poem Sarah Elizabeth Miller The Battle of Maldon is an artistic representation of a historical event whose style lends itself to being adapted into a screenplay. This project examines how the poem presents a recent event in an epic heroic style, mixing history with legend, and how the heroism of the men in the poem is celebrated. These explorations lead to the creation of a screenplay which imitates the ways that the poet combines fact and fiction and situates the screenplay within the larger realm of medieval film. Keywords: The Battle of Maldon, Maldon, Byrhtnoth, Anglo-Saxon history, heroism, medieval film, screenplay, Anglo-Saxon poetry, Old English ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Professor Sarah Larratt Keefer, without whose encouragement, enthusiasm, and patience this project would not have been possible. She pushed me when I needed to be pushed, and believed in me when I didn’t believe in myself, and inspired me to go further in my studies than I imagined I could. I will always be grateful. I would also like to thank the members of my committee, Professors Sally Chivers and Sarah Higley, who helped me with those parts of my thesis with which I was least comfortable and provided invaluable insight and recommendations for improving the focus and quality of my thesis. My thanks also extend to the Public Texts program at Trent University and its Directors, Professors Zailig Pollock and Michael Epp, whose patience and understanding surpassed what might be expected of any department. I could not have found a more welcoming and considerate program to attend. I would like to thank Professor Margaret Steffler for her guidance as Chair of the English Department, and Professor Beth Popham for the opportunity to work on an engaging project in the final year of my degree. Finally, I would like to thank my parents for their unending support. Scrabble games with my dad refreshed my mind, and his creative insights were instrumental in the creation of my screenplay. I hope to be able to return the favour someday. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Abstract ii Acknowledgements iii Table of contents iv Introduction: History Memorialized 1 1 The Battle of Maldon: A Medieval Screenplay 3 2 History and The Battle of Maldon 40 3 Heroism in The Battle of Maldon 62 Sources of Heroism 62 Definitions of Heroism 65 Ofermod and the Flawed Hero 70 Byrhtnoth’s Heroism 79 The Heroism of the Loyal Retainers 82 4 Representing the Middle Ages on Film 90 Definitions of Medieval Film 92 Visual Authenticity 99 Other Methods of Authenticity 108 5 Conclusion: History Recovered 122 Bibliography 124 iv 1 Introduction: History Memorialized The Battle of Maldon is a very straightforward poem. Rather than delving into the inner minds of its characters or constructing a complicated narrative made up of stories within stories and references to ancient heroes, the poem concisely relates what happened on August 10th or 11th, 991 A.D., on the shores of Maldon in ‘Englalond.’ The action of the poem is simply and vividly described, interspersed with lucid yet expressive dialogue. The style and the literary tropes used in the poem would have been clearly recognizable to an Anglo-Saxon audience, and the men named in the poem were likely well-known to those who first read and heard the verses. It should, therefore, have been an equally straightforward task to transform the action sequences from the poem into scene directions, and to translate the dialogue into Modern English for a twenty-first century audience, creating an entertaining and thoughtful medieval film, which was my goal. However, any delusions of simplicity quickly evaporated. Although the fragmentary poem recounts the events of a single battle in chronological order, from the Vikings’ arrival on the shores of England to the agonizingly obvious defeat-in-the-making of the Anglo-Saxons, it is not an entry in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, let alone a historical record in a form that we would recognize today. The Battle of Maldon commemorates a historical event, but includes details which would almost certainly have been impossible for the poet to know, and it situates these details within a heroic poetic style which likens the heroes of Maldon to the legendary warriors of old. All historical records are written by someone with an agenda in mind, whether that be to preserve as objective an account as possible of an important event, or to sway the opinions of the public to achieve a political end. The heroic style of The Battle of Maldon implies that it was written as a 2 positive memorialization of the men who, we are told, gave their lives in the battle, and perhaps in order to boost the morale of the Anglo-Saxon people in the face of an increasing number of Viking raids. In spite of the Anglo-Saxon defeat at the battle, the poem brings a visceral sense of hope to its audience through high speech and the belief in the existence of contemporary heroes, in the same way that modern war films transform a military disaster into a showcase of heroic bravery for a general audience by concentrating on individuals. A mere retelling of the events which could be verified might paint a sombre and hopeless image of impotence against the Viking raiders, and would nonetheless be lacking in details essential to a fuller understanding of the battle. My goal then expanded beyond the simple creation of a responsible and entertaining (imagined) film, and grew to include creating an impression of the uncertainty of historical records of all kinds. Thus my aims were somewhat contradictory: I still wanted to try as much as possible to present a depiction of tenth-century Anglo- Saxon England with as few modern anachronisms as possible, but I also wanted to preserve the historical ambiguity of the poem. My project became an exploration of some of the ways that history is recorded and memorialized, and the ways in which people relate to those histories; my screenplay became an exercise in the preservation of an uncertainty which should lead to a constant reevaluation of our assumptions about the past. 3 The Battle of Maldon: A Medieval Screenplay 1 EXT. MONASTIC COMMUNITY AT ELY1 - DAY 1 EXTREME LONG ESTABLISHING SHOT depicting a tenth century monastic community in the dead of winter. It is late afternoon, and the light is dull and grey with blue tones,2 filtered through an overcast sky. 2 EXT. OUTSIDE THE CATHEDRAL AT ELY - DAY 2 ÆLFFLÆD,3 a serious, middle-aged woman in fancy clothes, approaches the cathedral with two attending servants who are carefully carrying a rolled up piece of cloth. At the door they are greeted by an old, obviously high-ranking MONK, the Abbot of the monastic community at Ely. MONK Welcome, Ælfflæd. We hope that you are well, in spite of your loss, which is also our loss. ÆLFFLÆD Thank you. The tapestry4 is ready, and I believe you will be happy with the outcome. They enter the cathedral and the servants carefully unroll the tapestry, which is similar in style to the Bayeux Tapestry. CAMERA ZOOMS IN until the tapestry fills the 1 Byrhtnoth and Ælfflæd were great patrons of Ely Abbey, making several generous bequests during their lifetimes and in their wills. 2 In order to distinguish between flashback scenes and battle scenes, I have assigned different colour tones to each: the flashbacks are set in the winter and have cool grey/blue overtones; the battle scenes take place on a bright, sunny, late summer day, and have warm, golden overtones. 3 Younger daughter of the wealthy Ealdorman Ælfgar, Ælfflæd married Byrhtnoth some time before 951, and through her Byrhtnoth inherited many landholdings. She and Byrhtnoth had no children, but Byrhtnoth had a daughter, Leofflæd, who was most likely born after Byrhtnoth’s marriage to Ælfflæd, making her illegitimate. Ælfflæd’s will dates from around 1002. For more information about Ælfflæd and the rest of Byrhtnoth’s family, see Margaret A.L. Locherbie- Cameron, “Byrhtnoth and His Family,” 253-262; and Pauline Stafford, “Kinship and Women in the World of Maldon: Byrhtnoth and his Family,” 225-235. 4 In the Liber Eliensis, a textile of some sort depicting Byrhtnoth’s deeds is mentioned among the gifts given to Ely by Ælfflæd. It no longer survives, but I imagine the ‘tapestry’ resembling in style the Bayeux Tapestry (which is actually an embroidery). The account of Ælfflæd’s gifts reads: Uxor quippe eius, nomine Ælfleda domina, eo tempore, quo vir idem suus interfectus est et humatus ... et torquem auream et cortinam gestis viri sui intextan atque depictam in memoriam probitatis eius huic donavit [Indeed his wife, Lady Ælfled by name, at the time at which her husband was killed and buried, gave to this church in memory of his probity (certain estates in Essex and Cambridgeshire), and a gold necklace (or ring) and a hanging embroidered (or woven) and figured (or painted or embroidered) with the deeds of her husband]. For further information about the possible appearance of the textile, see Mildred Budny, “The Byrhtnoth Tapestry or Embroidery,” 263-278.
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