Old English literature There are five shorter poems: capture of the Five Boroughs (942); coronation of King Edgar (973); death of King Edgar (975); death of Alfred the son of King Æthelred (1036); and death of King Edward the Confessor (1065). The 325 line poem "The Battle of Maldon" celebrates Earl Byrhtnoth and his men who fell in battle against the Vikings in 991. It is considered one of the finest, but both the beginning and end are missing and the only manuscript was destroyed in a fire in 1731. A well-known speech is near the end of the poem: Old English heroic
Joseph the Confessor Joseph the Confessor Joseph the Confessor was a 9th-century Archbishop of Thessalonica and brother of Theodore Stoudites. He is venerated as a saint by the Eastern Orthodox Church. Together with his brother, they pursued a life of asceticism under the guidance of Plato of Sakkoudion in the latter's monastery at Sakkoudion, Bithynia. Later Joseph was unanimously elected archbishop of the city of Thessalonica. Together with his brother he spoke out against the illegal marriage of Emperor Constantine VI (the "Moechian Controversy"), for which, after the torment, he was imprisoned in a dungeon on a deserted island. Emperor Michael I Rangabe