The Battle of Maldon

Children who grow up in this town are so lucky.  Their primary school history consists of blood, gore, Vikings, Saxons and a very tall man who lost his head in battle.  I grew up in Billericay and all we had was the Mayflower Ship and the Pilgrims.  I went to a school called Mayflower and drank in the Pilgrim, though so maybe it wasn't all bad.

Today, I watched 90 children and their teachers re-enact the Battle of Maldon. The Saxons sang; "We are Saxons We are Saxons Vikings Go Home We are Saxons."  (To the tune of Yo Heave Ho) and the Vikings were just very noisy and quite scary.  They advanced on each other and finally Brythnoth was killed and the Saxons lost. Brythnoth had a very high pitched cry when he was killed and as his beard was slightly wonky I suspect he may have actually been a woman.

The only problem with this re-enactment is that no self-respecting Viking would go pillaging in November because it was rather chilly.

When I got home I decided to make the Sticky Walnut Tart from the GBBO book (800 calories per slice!!!!) but I needed something to help me warm up.