In referring to places of battles, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle often uses a formula, referring to an army, usually Vikings, having ‘held control of the place of slaughter’ (wælstowe geweald ahtan). It is perhaps revealing in these cases that the battlefield was seen as a place that could be controlled, and maybe helps to explain why sea battles are not remembered, but it does not necessarily mean that Anglo-Saxon victories were any less significant – as we have already seen, an action did not have to be large in order to qualify as a ‘battle’ – rather that to an English audience Viking armies contested control of the landscape, whereas victorious Anglo-Saxon armies were reasserting the status quo. Either way, the sites of battles were often important.