Battles did not begin with the crash; they began with things flying. The spear was the one weapon that did both jobs — "used for thrusting, or thrown like a javelin," as English Heritage put it — and in the Bayeux Tapestry "some Saxons are shown holding bundles of spears ready for throwing", which is the plainest evidence there is that a man expected to loose several before he ever touched an enemy. The one opening exchange we can still hear happened at Maldon in Essex on 10 or 11 August 991, where a Viking force had put itself on an island — Northey fits the description — with a tidal causeway between it and the English. Three of Byrhtnoth's men held that causeway, and nobody could get at anyone; so a Viking messenger asked for tribute instead, and the ealdorman of Essex sent back the answer that has outlived everything else about him: "we will pay you with spear tips and sword blades." Then he let them cross, an act the poem attributes to his ofermōd — a word that means either "pride" or "excess of courage", and eight centuries of argument have not settled which. Byrhtnoth was killed, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records his death, and 10,000 Roman pounds of silver — some 3,300 kg — was paid over afterwards on the advice of Archbishop Sigeric. Even that story survives by luck: The Battle of Maldon is a 325-line fragment, its manuscript burnt in the Cotton library fire of 1731, saved only because someone had made a transcript in 1724, and roughly fifty lines were already missing from each end before the fire.

W. Britain name him for the Old Norse compound of álf-, elf, and -geir, spear. He is caught in the half-second before release: weight rolling onto the front foot, spear drawn back low, shield swung up overhead — and because we are looking at its inner face, the planked boards and the single grip bar across the back are on full view, which is not a thing you often see on a painted figure. Why so many men carried a spear rather than a sword is the argument on "Algar" Saxon Defending with Spear, and the god's version of the weapon belongs to "Geir" Viking Defending with Spear and Shield. For a diorama of the moments either side of contact, put him behind "Vali" Viking War Cry — the shout went up as the lines closed, the spears went over just before — with "Seaver" Saxon Shield Wall Defender opposite, shield up, waiting for what is coming down.

Model: 62135 / W. Britain / 1/30 scale / matte finish / 1 piece set