In his Christian England (Volume 1), David L Edwards writes:

“The two most famous lines in their (the Anglo-Saxons) poetry are spoken by a warrior who is about to lay down his life when his lord (‘the man so dear’) has already been killed. Byrthwold cries out towards the end of the battle fought at Maldon in Essex one August day in 991:

     Mind must be stronger, heart must be bolder,

     Courage must be greater, as our power grows less.

When these heroic values received the seed of the Christian religion, a fascinating society was the harvest.”