With the Normans appearing from the wrong direction, the English must quickly take action. Here is what happens next in passages from the Carmen where it describes the English responding:
“Suddenly the forest poured forth troops of men, and from the hiding-places of the woods a host dashed forward! There was a hill near the forest and a neighbouring valley and the ground was untilled because of its roughness. Coming in massed order the English custom, they seized possession of this place for the battle.”
So, not a preset shield wall, but a hurriedly assembled one.
Is this not the kind of behaviour when one plan has been thwarted and an emergency fallback is necessary?
If this hill was not the result of prior selection but of necessity, then the English must originally have been positioned for a different kind of action. Concealment beside a road serves interception far better than endurance.
Remember, at this point, the battle hasn’t even begun.
The relative army positions at the start have been determined by decisions made earlier and set a chain of events in motion that arrive at this point.
Harold is therefore forced into a defensive position, and William is obliged to attack it, and both are obliged to accept the ground as it is.
It’s important to realise that this ground was not chosen, it was just ‘there’ at that exact moment and seized.
It’s also not ideal ground for a battle as it provides significant challenges to both sides.
This configuration differs from the familiar image of two long, continuous lines fully engaged across a wide field. The ground simply does not allow it. There is insufficient space for the entire strength of either army to fight simultaneously. What results instead is rotation: successive portions of each army moving into contact while others wait, reform, or recover.
This may seem at odds with modern expectations, but eleventh-century battles depended upon cohesion within command range. Orders travelled by voice, by horn, and by the visibility of flags and standards. Action too far removed from the centre risked confusion and loss of control. Engagement zones were, therefore, naturally compact.
Such close fighting required no comment from contemporary writers. It was not unusual. It was how battles of the period were fought.