View source for Battle of Ringmere

{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2020}}
{{Infobox military conflict
| conflict    = Battle of Ringmere Heath
| place       = Near [[Ipswich]]
| coordinates = {{coord|52|20|52|N|0|44|29|E|region:GB|display=inline,title}}<ref>{{cite report |author=<!-- not stated --> |date=2023 |title=River Raiders: Anglo-Saxon and Viking Breckland |editor-last1=Hoggett |editor-first1=Richard |url=https://www.brecsoc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/River-Raiders-Final-Report.pdf |publisher=The Breckland Society |access-date=18 October 2025 }}</ref>
| result      = Danish victory
| combatant1  = [[Anglo-Saxons]]
| combatant2  = [[File:Raven Banner.svg|18px]] [[Denmark|Danish Vikings]]
| partof      = the [[Viking invasions of England]]
| commander2  = [[Thorkell the Tall]]<br>Possibly [[Olaf II of Norway|Olaf Haraldsson]]
| commander1  = [[Ulfcytel]]
}}
{{Campaignbox Viking invasions of England|state=collapsed}}

The '''Battle of Ringmere ''' was fought on 5 May 1010 between an East Anglian contingent led by [[Ulfcytel]] and a Danish army under [[Thorkell the Tall]]. Norse sagas recorded a battle at ''Hringmaraheiðr''; ''[[Old English language|Old English]] Hringmere-hǣð'', modern name '''Ringmere Heath'''.<ref name=WHS>{{Cite journal |last=Stevenson |first=W. H. |title=Notes on Old-English Historical Geography |journal=The English Historical Review |volume=11 |issue=42 |pages=301–304 |date=Apr 1896 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bnwQAAAAYAAJ |accessdate=20 May 2011 |doi=10.1093/ehr/xi.xlii.301 }}</ref> 

The [[Anglo-Saxon Chronicle|Anglo-Saxon chronicle]] records that the English were routed by the flight of Thurcytel "Mare's head", and only the men of [[Cambridgeshire]] stood to fight.

[[John of Worcester]] records that the Danes defeated the English. Over a three-month period the Danes wasted [[East Anglia]], burning [[Thetford]] and [[Cambridge]].<ref name="WHS" />

In his [[Víkingarvísur]], the poet [[Sigvatr Þórðarson|Sigvat]] records the victory of [[Olaf II of Norway|Saint Olaf]], fighting alongside Thorkell the Tall: 
{{poemquote|
Enn lét sjaunda sinni 
sverðþing háit verða 
endr á Ulfkels landi 
Ôleifr, sem ferk máli. 
Stóð Hringmaraheiði 
(herfall vas þar,) alla 
Ellu kind (es olli 
arfvǫrðr Haralds starfi).}}

: ''Yet again Óláfr caused a sword-assembly [BATTLE] to be held for the seventh time in Ulfcytel's land, as I recount the tale. The offspring of Ælla [= Englishmen] stood over all Ringmere Heath; there was slaying of the army there, where the guardian of Haraldr's inheritance [= Óláfr] caused exertion.''<ref name="vik7">Judith Jesch (ed.) 2012, ‘Sigvatr Þórðarson, Víkingarvísur 7’ in [[Diana Whaley]] (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 1: From Mythical Times to c. 1035. [[Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages]] 1. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 544. https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=verse&i=3848</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Viking Invasion of England}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Battles involving the Anglo-Saxons|Ringmere 1010]]
[[Category:Battles involving Norway|Ringmere 1010]]
[[Category:Battles involving Norfolk|Ringmere]]
[[Category:Battles involving the Vikings|Ringmere 1010]]
[[Category:Conflicts in 1010|Ringmere]]
[[Category:1010 in England]]