“He would pierce and parry before his prince.”
This means that any warrior would do anything to protect his prince, even if his prince is dead, but it is expressed more boldly when alliteration is used. This is very obvious alliteration while others are less obvious:
“Slashed by the sword, he chose to sleep.”
This is still quite obvious but not as much the first instance. This alliteration was used even more in the pre-translated version of the ‘Battle of Maldon’. Here is a sentence in Anglo-Saxon, then its literal translation and then what it had been changed to so it had more alliteration:
“heop 7 hynde, oð þæt he on hilde zecranc.”
The literal translation of this is:
“he hewed and struck, until he perished in the battle.”
This is translated into:
“He humbled and hewed down until at last he fell himself;”
You can see that the translation from Anglo-Saxon to English loses most of the alliteration. The second translation has tried to put it back in but it does not have the same effect as before. This is just one of many difficulties in translating Anglo-Saxon into English.
Honour is expressed in the valiant words of heroic leaders of the armies make (in this poem it is Byrhtnoth):
“Can you hear, you pirate, what these people say? They will pay you a tribute of whistling spears, Of deadly darts and proven swords, weapons to pay you, pierce, slit and slay you in the storm of battle.”
These speeches encourage his troops; get them ready for the battle that is about to happen and to make the enemy afraid. I think the phrase ‘proven swords’ means that his troops have been in battle before and proved their faithfulness to their earl. Also it shows that they are not cowards but fierce warriors. He makes a couple of speeches to his warriors and to the Vikings before getting cut down. The words that he speaks are not that special but he delivers them with emotion and keeps everyone who is listening focused on what he is saying.
The poem also says that a warrior should be true to his words (words that he has spoken before). If he does not be true to his word then he has disgraced his ancestors and they will be aware of that. The cowards who do go against what they have said are named as descendants of their shamed ancestors:
‘Then certain cowards beat a hasty retreat;
The sons of Odda were the first to take flight;
Godric fled from the battle, forsaking Byrthnoth.’
Another rule in the code of honour is to keep on fighting even when you known you are beaten, even if your prince is dead. Also, during the fight, the warriors shouted to each other, encouraging themselves and others around them into fighting on for their lives and not to retreat like a coward:
‘Now that our prince
is slain, the earl on the earth,
we must all incite one another
to fight, for as long as we can wield
our weapons, pierce with out spears,
and lunge and parry with our swords.’
In the other poem ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’ there are not as many rules in the code of honour, probably because of its shorter length.
In the first verse, there is a mention of a code of honour:
“Forward, the Light Brigade!
Charge for the guns! He said”
This shows their readiness to accept an order, even if it is not the right one, and to carry it out without hesitation.
In the next verse, there is a very good example of what the members of the Light Brigade have to live up to and to do if in a battle:
“Their’s not to make reply”
They cannot argue with the leader but just do what is told.
“Their’s not to reason why,”
Here again they cannot question the calls made by the leaders, they just have to carry them out. This means that they have to have amazing amounts of bravery.
“Their’s but to do and die.”
This sentence just shows that they must be willing to die for their country and not to give up on the charge. This is similar to the rules of the code of honour in the other poem, but is made more obvious with this statement.
In the third verse, the Light Brigade charge into ‘The Jaws of Death’ as it is described in the poem. None of them turn back. This shows great bravery and commitment to the brigade, even when almost certain death will come of it. Immediately after this statement, the writer says ‘Into the mouth of Hell’. This is a lot worse than into the ‘jaws of death’.
In the fourth verse, it described the attack on the ‘Cossacks and Russians’. They had more weaponry and the Light Brigade didn’t have many weapons, only sabres:
“Flashed all their sabres bare,
Flashed as they turned in air
Sabring the gunners there
Charging an army, while
All the world wondered.”
This means that the Light Brigade charged the soldiers who had guns and they had swords but still managed to break through the lines. They were doing this, it seems, when the whole world was watching and waiting for news of what they had done.
The end of this verse shows that they did lose men when charging but they had succeeded:
“Cossack and Russian
Reeled from the sabre-stroke
Shattered and sundered
Then they rode back, but not
Not the six hundred.”
This says that their attacks were successful in breaking the line. But, they only broke through the lines temporarily, they soon got beaten back and had to retreat. Unfortunately, many people died but they died heroes as they did not turn and give up, they stayed and fought till the end.
In the fifth and sixth verse it honours the Light Brigade, those who died and those who made it through:
“While horse and hero fell.”
This is very similar to the ‘Battle of Maldon’ as they to honour the heroes of their battles. It is slightly different though as Anglo-Saxons honour their heroes by calling them by their names and not just saying there were heroes.
The different verse style in the ‘Charge of the Light Brigade’ and the ‘Battle of Maldon’ does account for the way that the two writers get the message of codes of honour and heroes across to the reader. The ‘Charge of the Light Brigade’ uses a lot more structured verses (although the verses are different lengths), while the ‘Battle of Maldon’ doesn’t have any set verses and is more like prose. The whole poem relies on its alliteration to make it more interesting to listen to. Not many people were literate then so someone would have had to read it to an audience. This makes it easier to describe the battle and speeches that leaders make.
The structure of the verses in ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’ is not followed all the time. If there is something that the writer wants to get across but does not have enough room, he just carries on the line to the next. The first three verses all have a pause at the end of the fourth line, while the fourth verse doesn’t:
‘Charging an army, while
all the world wondered:’
The writer wants to get in the last bit so just runs on. Also in verse four, he runs on the lines a lot and this makes the verse a lot longer than the first three. This run on builds up to a point at the end of the verse:
‘Cossack and Russian
Reeled from the sabre-stroke
Shattered and sundered.’
There is a lot of alliteration in those three lines. This extra line suggests wonder. The reader expects a stop but the verse carries on to a greater height. This is similar to ‘The Battle of Maldon’ which also contains a lot of alliteration. At the end of this long verse, he repeats the word ‘not’ twice to emphasise that many people have died in this charge.
The last verse is a lot shorter compared to all the others. He again repeats a whole line this time, but not from the same verse. He repeats the line ‘All the world wondered.’ He uses this line both before and after the attack and it compares the actions of the brigade.