The Battle of Maldon

Description

Title: The Battle of Maldon: Together with the Homecoming of Beorhtnoth
Author: J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Peter Grybauskas
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers, 2026
Format: Paperback
Language: English
ISBN-13: 9780008465865

The Battle of Maldon: Together with the Homecoming of Beorhtnoth by J.R.R. Tolkien is a literary and scholarly paperback edition published by HarperCollins Publishers. Edited by Peter Grybauskas, it brings together Tolkien’s engagement with the Old English poem The Battle of Maldon and his own dramatic verse work inspired by its aftermath.

The book presents Tolkien’s prose translation of The Battle of Maldon alongside The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm’s Son, a dramatic dialogue imagining two retainers retrieving Beorhtnoth’s body after the battle. It also includes essays, notes, commentary, and related material that help place the works within Tolkien’s wider scholarly and creative interests.

This edition is well suited for readers interested in J.R.R. Tolkien, Old English literature, medieval poetry, literary criticism, Anglo-Saxon history, and the deeper scholarly roots behind Tolkien’s fiction. It is especially relevant for readers who want to understand how ancient heroic poetry influenced the imagination behind The Lord of the Rings.