First ever standalone edition of one of J.R.R. Tolkien·s most important
poetic dramas, that
explores timely themes such as the nature of heroism and chivalry during war,
and which
features unpub.
In 991 AD, vikings attacked an Anglo-Saxon defence-force led by their duke,
Beorhtnoth,
resulting in brutal fighting along the banks of the river Blackwater, near
Maldon in Essex. The attack is widely considered one of the defining conflicts
of tenth-century England, due to it being immortalised in the poem, The Battle
of Maldon.
Written shortly after the battle, the poem now survives only as a 325-line fragment, but its value to today is incalculable, not just as an heroic tale but in vividly expressing the lost language of our ancestors and celebrating ideals of loyalty and friendship.
J.R.R. Tolkien considered The Battle of Maldon the last surviving fragment of
ancient English heroic minstrelsy·It would inspire him to compose, during the
1930s, his own dramatic verse-dialogue, The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth
Beorhthelm·s Son, which imagines the aftermath of the great battle when two of
Beorhtnoth·s retainers come to retrieve their duke·s body.
Leading Tolkien scholar, Peter Grybauskas, presents for the very first time
J.R.R. Tolkien·s own prose translation of The Battle of Maldon together with
the definitive treatment of The
Homecoming of Beorhtnoth and its accompanying essays; also included and never
before
published is Tolkien·s bravura lecture, The Tradition of Versification in Old
English·a wide-
ranging essay on the nature of poetic tradition.
About the author
J.R.R.Tolkien (1892–1973) was a distinguished academic, though he is best
known for writing The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion, plus
other stories and essays. His books have been translated into over 60 languages
and have sold many millions of copies worldwide.
