Ulfcytel Snillingr

Ulfcytel (died 1016) was an early eleventh-century East Anglian military leader. He commanded East Anglian forces in a battle in 1004 against Danish Viking invaders led by Swein Forkbeard; although he lost, the Danes said that "they never met worse fighting in England than Ulfcytel dealt to them". 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; to the puzzlement of historians, he was never formally given the title.

Ulfcytel was a greatly respected English military leader during the reign of Æthelred the Unready (978–1013 and 1014–1016), in which ineffective opposition to Danish Viking invasions ended in the Danish conquest of England. 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 court poet Sigvatr Þórðarson called East Anglia "Ulfkell's Land" after him. The etymology of his name is Scandinavian, but his origin and background are unknown. According to one source, he was married to a daughter of King Æthelred, although historians disagree whether the claim is credible.