Byrhtnoth (), Ealdorman of Essex ( 931 - 11 August 991), died at the Battle of Maldon. His name is composed of the Old English beorht (bright) and noþ (courage). He is the subject of The Battle of Maldon, an Old English poem, J.R.R. Tolkien's short play in verse, The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth, Beorhthelm's Son, and a modern statue at Maldon. Death in battle His death, while leading the Anglo-Saxon forces against the Vikings in 991, is the subject of the famous Old English poem The Battle of Maldon. As presented there, his decision to allow the Vikings to move to a better position was heroic but fatal. He was said to stand well over six feet in height, and was around the age of sixty years at the Battle of Maldon, with "swan-white hair". Although it is believed that he fell early in the battle, some say that it took three men to kill him, one of them almost severing Byrhtnoth's arm in the process. He had previously had several military successes, presumably also against Viking raiders. Patronage and burial Byrhtnoth was a patron of Ely Abbey, giving it many villages (including Spaldwick, Trumpington, Rettendon, Soham, Fulbourn, Impington, Pampisford and Teversham). He was buried there alongside Archbishop Wulfstan the homilist. The Liber Eliensis records that his widow gave the Abbey a tapestry or hanging celebrating his deeds, presumably in the style of the Bayeux Tapestry, the only surviving example of such a work. This was given immediately after his death, so had probably been hanging in his home previously. Reburials After his burial, his remains, along with six other Saxon 'benefactors of Ely Church' (also known as the seven 'Confessors of Christ') have been moved and reburied three times. Archbishop Wulfstan (died 1023), with six Bishops (Osmund of Sweden, Athelstan of Elmham, Ælfwine of Elmham, Ælfgar of Elmham, Eadnoth of Dorchester) and Byrhtnoth were all exhumed from their burial places in the old Saxon Abbey Church, and in the mid-1150s the remains were reinterred in the 'Northern Part' of the new Norman Church, which by then had been made Ely Cathedral. Following the collapse of the central tower, in 1322, a new octagonal space was created, and a wall was built on its north side to separate the monastic area of the choir from the pilgrim entrance and route to the shrine of Æthelthryth (St Etheldreda). Within this wall