Book review: “The Battle of Maldon” by J.R.R. Tolkien

About 50 miles north-east of London lies the ancient English settlement of Maldon. Today, the town is best known for its salt, which is harvested on the banks of the River Blackwater and used by prominent chefs around the world. But more than 1,000 years ago, this same river was the point of entry for an invasion of Vikings.

During the attack, it is said that the Viking leader requested his troops be allowed to cross a land bridge revealed by the tide, so the opposing forces might engage in a ‘fair fight’. In an act of misplaced chivalry, the English commander Byrhtnoth agreed. Many of the English fighters fled, and those that remained were slaughtered, including Byrhtnoth himself.

This battle is chiefly remembered today because of its preservation in an Old English poem, “The Battle of Maldon.” And now, the poem is getting renewed attention thanks to its publication in a new book bearing the name of J.R.R. Tolkien, author of The Lord of Rings.

The poem occupied Tolkien for many years in his academic career as a professor of Anglo-Saxon and English. This new volume, edited by Peter Grybauskas, includes, for the first time, Tolkien’s own translation of the poem, along with several other writings about the poem – both academic and creative.

How The Battle of Maldon relates to The Lord of the Rings

Most readers coming to this volume will be predominantly interested in how “The Battle of Maldon” relates to Tolkien’s more famous Middle-earth writings. And some scholars have already made the case that the Old English poem is a significant influence on Tolkien’s legendarium. Most notably, the famous scene in The Lord of the Rings in which Gandalf prevents a Balrog from crossing a bridge towards his comrades, has been interpreted as an intentional reversal of Byrhtnoth’s actions in “The Battle of Maldon.”

This analysis may sound like a bit of a stretch. But “The Battle of Maldon” was certainly on Tolkien’s mind during the exact period he was writing The Lord of the Rings, as can be seen most strongly in the first section of this new volume.

This first part reprints a short play written by Tolkien. The play, entitled The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm’s Son, takes place in the aftermath of the Battle of Maldon. It took Tolkien some 20 years to complete, a period which Grybauskas notes “almost uncannily tracks the publication of his major works of fiction” – The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Indeed, the play was originally published in 1953, just nine months before The Fellowship of the Ring.

The Homecoming follows two characters as they search for the headless body of the English commander (whose name Tolkien spells as Beorhtnoth) following his defeat by the Viking invaders. And readers will notice many direct parallels with The Lord of the Rings. The primary action of the play is reminiscent of Gimli’s search for Pippin’s body after the Battle of the Black Gate, as well as Frodo and Sam’s journey across the corpse-strewn wetlands of the Dead Marshes. Likewise, Tolkien’s mention of “barrow-wights” in The Homecoming precedes their more prominent role in the “Fog on the Barrow-downs” chapter of The Fellowship of the Ring. And the alliterative verse form Tolkien uses for the dialogue in the play is replicated in the poetry of The Lord of the Rings, such as in the “Song of the Mounds of Mundburg” in The Return of the King.

The history of The Battle of Maldon by J.R.R. Tolkien

However, focusing only on connections to Tolkien’s more famous works does The Homecoming a disservice. Grybauskas rightly notes that it is “an obscurity in the Tolkien canon.” But this obscurity is unjust, as it is one of the most unique and fascinating of Tolkien’s non-legendarium works. The play’s minimalist stage directions (most of the action takes place in near-total darkness) and its cast of just two characters give it a modernist feel, almost like a play from the pen of Samuel Beckett. At the same time, it harks back to ancient poetic traditions, with both its subject matter and use of the alliterative verse form.

This curious mix of the ancient and the modern may explain its obscurity, as it seems to defy any categorization. Indeed, despite being a work of fiction, The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm’s Son was first published by Tolkien, almost apologetically, in an academic journal, alongside related essays on “The Battle of Maldon”, which are also reprinted in this new volume.

The play was performed once for BBC radio, but Tolkien disapproved of the finished product. In the build-up to the performance, he even recorded his own version in his study, complete with sound effects. For those willing to spend more for the ‘deluxe edition’ of The Battle of Maldon, this recording is made available on CD for the first time, alongside related recordings by his son and literary executor Christopher Tolkien.

On J.R.R. Tolkien’s translation of The Battle of Maldon

But, while The Homecoming is the most interesting part of this new volume, most fans will purchase it for the text included in the second section: Tolkien’s translation of “The Battle of Maldon,” which is published here for the very first time. Tolkien fans have already seen a fair number of posthumous publications of his Old English translations. Indeed, the very first posthumous work edited by Christopher Tolkien was a compilation volume bringing together Tolkien’s translations of the poems “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,” “Pearl” and “Sir Orfeo.” And, one of Christopher Tolkien’s last projects before his death in 2020 was a volume compiling his father’s translation of “Beowulf” and related commentaries.

The Battle of Maldon feels much slighter than these. This is partly because the poem exists only in a fragment of some 300 lines, meaning Tolkien’s translation runs to no more than a dozen pages. Furthermore, Tolkien’s translation into prose, rather than a poetic verse form, makes the text feel utilitarian. It seems as if he were trying only to capture the literal meaning of the text for academic purposes, rather than imbuing the translation with any of his own creative artistry.

The third section of the book includes another new Tolkien text: an essay on Old English verse. However, this densely academic text, littered with words like “hemistich” and “anacrusis,” will be entirely inaccessible to most readers, unless they are experts on the metrical patterns of Old English poetry. Likewise, the final section is strictly for the academics in the audience; it includes a selection of shorter writings by Tolkien on “The Battle of Maldon” and Old English verse. Bringing these texts to light is valuable, and they may prove very fascinating for Medievalists. But they will leave the majority of readers scratching their heads.

“The Battle of Maldon” by J.R.R. Tolkien is worth your time

Wisely, Grybauskas concludes the volume with an essay on how the preceding texts relate to Tolkien’s Middle-earth writings, recognizing that most readers will be coming to this book primarily as fans of The Lord of the Rings. Though Grybauskas’s essay is clear and engaging, it fails to identify any meaningful connections between “The Battle of Maldon” and Tolkien’s legendarium, aside from some very general thematic parallels. Instead, he focuses on the similarities between The Homecoming and the Middle-earth writings. This is much more persuasive, but it doesn’t quite make good on the claim on the book’s dustjacket, which argues that “The Battle of Maldon” had a greater influence on Tolkien’s fiction than any Old English poem aside from “Beowulf”

But while “Beowulf” is clearly a primary ingredient in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings – directly providing names and plot elements, such as that of a certain gold-greedy dragon – “The Battle of Maldon” seems much closer to a minor seasoning in the recipe.

That is not to say that “The Battle of Maldon” was not a significant influence in Tolkien’s writing, nor that this volume is without value. But its value should be recognized more in terms of contextualizing and elevating The Homecoming – which is one of the best, and certainly the most underrated, of Tolkien’s non-legendarium works of fiction.

But for those who insist on searching for links between “The Battle of Maldon” and The Lord of the Rings, this volume provides a most complete framework for that exercise. And new significance may be found in the ‘salt of Maldon’ now that these texts are more widely available. After all, it was a seasoning that Tolkien put great importance on. In The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien’s “chief hero” Sam holds onto a wooden box of salt throughout his adventure, which he considers a “treasure.” We cannot say for sure if it was Maldon salt Sam carried, but it nonetheless enabled him to elevate a poor meal in the wilderness into something much greater.

It may be that “The Battle of Maldon” was an ingredient that similarly enabled J.R.R. Tolkien to elevate his tale, even if we haven’t quite detected or tasted the subtlety of that seasoning just yet.

To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and sign up for our exclusive newsletter.

Get HBO, Starz, Showtime and MORE for FREE with a no-risk, 7-day free trial of Amazon Channels