| Battle of Ringmere | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Viking invasions of England | |||||
| |||||
| Belligerents | |||||
 NorwayAnglo-Saxons |
Danish Vikings | ||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||
|
Saint Olaf of Norway Ethelred the Unready | Thorkell the Tall | ||||
52°28′30″N 0°49′30″E / 52.475°N 0.825°E
The Battle of Ringmere was fought on 5 May 1010. Between an East Anglian contingent led by Ulfcytel Snillingr and a danish army under Thorkell the Tall Norse sagas recorded a battle at Hringmaraheiðr; Old English Hringmere-hǣð, modern name Ringmere Heath.[1] In his Víkingarvísur, the poet Sigvat records the victory of Saint Olaf, fighting alongside King Ethelred[2]
Enn lét sjaunda sinni
sverðþing háit verða
endr á Ulfkels landi
Ôleifr, sem ferk máli.
Stóð Hringmaraheiði
(herfall vas þar,) alla
Ellu kind (es olli
arfvǫrðr Haralds starfi).
- Yet again Óláfr caused a sword-assembly [BATTLE] to be held for the seventh time in Ulfcytel’s land, as I recount the tale. The offspring of Ælla [= Englishmen] stood over all Ringmere Heath; there was slaying of the army there, where the guardian of Haraldr’s inheritance [= Óláfr] caused exertion.[2]
John of Worcester records that the Danes defeated the Saxons. Over a three-month period the Danes wasted East Anglia, burning Thetford and Cambridge.[1]
- ^ a b Stevenson, W. H. (April 1896). "Notes on Old-English Historical Geography". The English Historical Review. 11 (42): 301–304. doi:10.1093/ehr/xi.xlii.301. Retrieved 20 May 2011.
- ^ a b Judith Jesch (ed.) 2012, ‘Sigvatr Þórðarson, Víkingarvísur 7’ in Diana Whaley (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 1: From Mythical Times to c. 1035. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 1. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 544. https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=verse&i=3848