The Battle of Cynwit, was a battle between

West Saxons la, Regnum Occidentalium Saxonum , conventional_long_name = Kingdom of the West Saxons , common_name = Wessex , image_map = Southern British Isles 9th century.svg , map_caption = S ...

and

Vikings Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...

in 878 at a fort which

Asser Asser (; ; died 909) was a Welsh monk from St David's, Dyfed, who became Bishop of Sherborne in the 890s. About 885 he was asked by Alfred the Great to leave St David's and join the circle of learned men whom Alfred was recruiting for his ...

calls ''Cynwit''. The location of the battle is not known for sure but probably was at Countisbury Hill, near

Countisbury Countisbury is a hamlet on Exmoor in Devon, England. It is roughly two miles east of Lynmouth along the A39. It has a church and pub. The National Trust owns the other buildings. Since 2012, Countisbury has formed part of the civil parish of B ...

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devo ...

Prelude

The Viking army, by tradition, led by Ubba brother of

Ivar the Boneless Ivar the Boneless ( non, Ívarr hinn Beinlausi ; died c. 873), also known as Ivar Ragnarsson, was a Viking leader who invaded England and Ireland. According to the ''Tale of Ragnar Lodbrok'', he was the son of Ragnar Loðbrok and his wife Asl ...

and

Halfdan Ragnarsson Halfdan Ragnarsson ( non, Hálfdan; oe, Halfdene or ''Healfdene''; sga, Albann; died 877) was a Viking leader and a commander of the Great Heathen Army which invaded the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England, starting in 865. One of six sons of R ...

. Sailed from Dyfed (where they had overwintered) and landed on the coast at Countisbury with 23 ships and twelve hundred men. On landing the Viking army discovered that the West Saxons had taken refuge in a stronghold at ''Cynuit'' (Countisbury?), they perceived that the stronghold was unprepared for battle and decided to besiege it instead, particularly as the stronghold did not seem to have any food or water supply.

The battle

According to

(Alfred's biographer) the West Saxons burst out of the fortress, one day, at dawn and were able to overwhelm the Viking forces killing their leader and over eight hundred of his men. They also captured the fabled "

Raven banner The raven banner ( non, hrafnsmerki ; enm, hravenlandeye) was a flag, possibly totemic in nature, flown by various Viking chieftains and other Scandinavian rulers during the 9th, 10th and 11th centuries. The flag, as depicted in Norse artwork, ...

".The Anglo Saxon Chronicle reported it thus:

Aftermath

At the time of the battle

Alfred the Great Alfred the Great (alt. Ælfred 848/849 – 26 October 899) was King of the West Saxons from 871 to 886, and King of the Anglo-Saxons from 886 until his death in 899. He was the youngest son of King Æthelwulf and his first wife Osburh, who bo ...

was on the run from the Vikings in the marshes of Somerset. It was therefore an important victory for the West Saxons won by someone other than Alfred, the

king of Wessex This is a list of monarchs of Wessex until AD 886. For later monarchs, see the List of English monarchs. While the details of the later monarchs are confirmed by a number of sources, the earlier ones are in many cases obscure. The names are give ...

who at the time was spearheading the West Saxon resistance to the Viking invasions. The ''Chronicle'', in addressing the year 878, makes the claim that "all but Alfred the King" had been subdued by the Vikings: The Battle of Cynwit was one of several triumphant stories, recorded by Asser and the Chronicle, for 878 that culminated in victory over the Vikings at the

Battle of Edington At the Battle of Edington, an army of the kingdom of Wessex under Alfred the Great defeated the Great Heathen Army led by the Dane Guthrum on a date between 6 and 12 May 878, resulting in the Treaty of Wedmore later the same year. Primary ...

The battle in fiction

The battle appears in ''The Marsh King'', a children's historical novel by

C. Walter Hodges Cyril Walter Hodges (18 March 1909 – 26 November 2004) was an English artist and writer best known for illustrating children's books and for helping to recreate Elizabethan theatre. He won the annual Greenaway Medal for British children's boo ...

, where its location is called "Kynwit". Although this novel is about King Alfred, it gives due credit to Ealdorman Odda for this victory, although the description of the battle may not be very accurate, showing the Vikings as making a landing at night and being defeated immediately on the landing ground. The battle also features in

Bernard Cornwell Bernard Cornwell (born 23 February 1944) is an English-American author of historical novels and a history of the Waterloo Campaign. He is best known for his novels about Napoleonic Wars rifleman Richard Sharpe. He has also written ''The Saxon ...

's novel ''

The Last Kingdom ''The Last Kingdom'' is the first historical novel in The Saxon Stories by Bernard Cornwell, published in 2004. This story introduces Uhtred of Bebbanburg, a Saxon noble who is kidnapped by Danish Vikings as a young child and is assimilated ...

''. Cornwell ascribes the victory, as well as the killing of Ubba, to his hero Uhtred, though he is supported by forces commanded by Odda. The battle is featured in BBC's and

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a ...

's original show

. Like the novel that the show is based on, the battle culminates with the show's protagonist, Uhtred of Bebbanburg, slaying the

Viking Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...

warlord A warlord is a person who exercises military, economic, and political control over a region in a country without a strong national government; largely because of coercive control over the armed forces. Warlords have existed throughout much of h ...

Ubba in a

duel A duel is an arranged engagement in combat between two people, with matched weapons, in accordance with agreed-upon rules. During the 17th and 18th centuries (and earlier), duels were mostly single combats fought with swords (the rapier and ...

, before Odda's reinforcements arrive to continue and ultimately win the battle.

Notes

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