Battle of Stamford Bridge - Battle

Battle

The Vikings were at an enormous disadvantage. Their army was divided in two; with some of their troops on the west side of the River Derwent and the bulk of their army on the east side. They were not expecting English intervention, and since it was an unseasonably warm day for late September, they left their armour behind at their ships. The English army arrived and annihilated the Vikings who fought a futile defence on the west side of the river. By the time the bulk of the English army had arrived, the Vikings on the west side were either slain or fleeing across the bridge. The English advance was then delayed by the need to pass through the choke-point presented by the bridge. A later folk story has it that a giant Norse axeman (possibly armed with a Dane Axe) blocked the narrow crossing, and single-handedly held up the entire Saxon army. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle states that this axeman cut down up to 40 Englishmen. He was only defeated when an English soldier floated under the bridge in a half-barrel and thrust his spear through the laths in the bridge, mortally wounding the axeman.

Whatever the delay, this had allowed the bulk of the Norse army to form a shieldwall to face the English attack. Harold's army poured across the bridge, forming a line just short of the Norse army, locked shields and charged. The battle went far beyond the bridge itself, and although it raged for hours the Norse army's decision to leave their armour behind left them at a distinct disadvantage. Eventually, the Norse army began to fragment and fracture, allowing the English troops to force their way in and break up the Scandinavians' shield wall. Completely outflanked, Hardrada at this point was killed with an arrow to his wind pipe and Tostig slain, the Norwegian army disintegrated and was virtually annihilated.

In the later stages of the battle, the Norwegians were reinforced by troops who had been left behind to guard the ships at Ricall, led by Eystein Orri, Hardrada's daughter's fiancé. Some of his men were said to have collapsed and died of exhaustion upon reaching the battlefield. These men, unlike their comrades, were fully armed for battle. Their counter-attack, described in the Norwegian tradition as "Orri's Storm", briefly checked the English advance, but was soon overwhelmed and Orri was slain by a Saxon warrior. The Norwegian army routed, pursued by the English army, some of the fleeing Norsemen drowned in the rivers.

So many died in an area so small that the field was said to have been still whitened with bleached bones 70 years after the battle.