Description
Book SynopsisCollector's slipcased edition of the first ever standalone presentation 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poetic dramas, that explores timely themes such as the nature of heroism and chivalry during war, and which features unpublished and never-before-seen texts and drafts.In 991 AD, vikings attacked an Anglo-Saxon defence-force led by their duke, Beorhtnoth, resulting in brutal fighting along the river Blackwater, near Maldon in Essex. The attack is widely considered one of the defining conflicts of tenth-century England, and is immortalised in the poem, The Battle of Maldon.Written shortly after the battle, the poem survives only as a 325-line fragment, but its value to today is incalculable. 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 b
Trade Review ‘If you were to choose only one [book] to gain some insight into the prolific smorgasbord of his multifaceted writing, this is peak Tolkien’
Wall Street Journal
‘Offers valuable insight into Tolkien’s creative process and enriching our understanding of his scholarly contributions’
Amon Hen, Bulletin of the Tolkien Society
‘Tolkien was a storyteller of genius’
Literary Review
