The Battle of Maldon 300: Wigelm or Wigelin(e) ?

Abstract The reading “ƿiʒelines bearn” in line 300 of The Battle of Maldon has been the subject of much speculation. This is no doubt partly a consequence of the fact that the poem is known only from a transcript made c. 1724, the original manuscript having been largely destroyed in the fire of the Cotton Library in 1731. Two major questions are apparent. The first involves the accuracy of the reading itself. The second is that of the identity of ƿiʒelin(e) within the context of the poem itself. Since that part of the manuscript in which the poem appeared is now lost, we must assess the transcript within a set of comparative morphological and etymological parameters. The present article favours the emendation of the ƿiʒelines of the transcript to ƿiʒelmes (for OE Wīġhelm ) and rejects the retention of the reading ƿiʒelines deriving from a feminine * Wigelin(e) and denoting the name of the mother of the Ƿistan Þurstanes suna of lines 297–298. Instead, Ƿistan Þurstanes suna is interpreted as the anglicized form of the name of a Scandinavian who had taken the Old English name Wīġhelm on being baptised when entering Ealdormann Byrhtnoth’s entourage.