Wikipedia article of the day for October 18, 2025

The Wikipedia article of the day for October 18, 2025 is Ulfcytel.
Ulfcytel (died 1016) was a greatly respected English military leader during the reign of Æthelred the Unready (978–1013 and 1014–1016), when ineffective opposition to Danish Viking invasions ended in the Danish conquest of England. Ulfcytel commanded East Anglian forces in a battle in 1004 against Danish Viking invaders led by the future king Swein Forkbeard; although Ulfcytel lost, the Danes were badly mauled and said that they had never met such hard fighting in England. He led a local English army to another defeat in the Battle of Ringmere in 1010 and died in 1016 in the Battle of Assandun. He exercised the powers of an ealdorman, the second-highest rank in Anglo-Saxon England, but to the puzzlement of historians he was never formally given the title. Ulfcytel is highly praised in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and Scandinavian skaldic poetry, and also by Anglo-Norman writers and modern historians. Scandinavian sources gave him the byname snilling, meaning "bold", and the Icelandic court poet Sigvatr Þórðarson called East Anglia "Ulfkell's Land" after him.