The Battle of Maldon provides just what modern readers want from an Old English poem, and what so few Old English poems succeed in providing: a heroic narrative coupled to a clear historical context and date (within a couple of decades). It even has Vikings. As a result, it has attracted a large volume of scholarship, but with The Battle of Maldon: War and Peace in Tenth-Century England, Mark Atherton succeeds in providing both an accessible introduction and a valuable new contribution. The book is organized into two parts. In the first part, Atherton gives close readings and context for the poem in nine chapters, organized thematically; in the second part, he provides three chapters on other accounts of the battle: the two different annals in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle manuscripts, Byrhtferth's account in the Life of St Oswald, and that in the twelfth-century Book of Ely. Appendices provide a text and translation of the poem plus some relevant additional sources; Atherton's extensive use of documentary sources, especially chronicle entries, diplomas, and wills, is one of the book's excellent features. Plentiful photographs and maps help the reader navigate the landscape of Essex, while aspects of tenth-century life relevant to the poem are illustrated with manuscript drawings, surviving objects, and reconstructions. Atherton proceeds briskly through the topics, with restrained use of endnotes and a selective bibliography, making his book readable as well as attractively presented. He maintains a clear focus on offering historically engaged readings of the poem and related texts, rather than making a study of the Maldon campaign itself.

Atherton takes time to explain some basic points, such as pronunciation of the letters ð (eth) and þ (thorn) and the fact that Old English verse lines have four stresses; this signals an audience of undergraduates or nonacademics, for whom indeed the book will be very useful. However, specialists will wish to take note of certain arguments. On the perennial question of the poet's attitude to Byrhtnoth, Atherton argues he is “a Christian hero worthy of emulation” (14). Byrhtnoth's dying prayer is comparable to one in the Regius Psalter, associated with St Æthelwold, and can be connected to Byrhtnoth's patronage of Ely and positive image in the work of Byrhtferth of Ramsey. The mutual affection between Byrhtnoth and his followers is strongly emphasized, as is their bond with each other. Patrick Conner has suggested that the elegies in the Exeter Book might have been performed at meetings of the Exeter Thegns’ Guild; making an imaginative use of this idea, Atherton uses the statutes of the Cambridge Thegns’ Guild to talk about mutual obligations between thegns, a class strongly represented in the poem. He also adapts Conner's argument more directly, suggesting that a meeting of the guild could have been an occasion for performance of Maldon. There is a profitable tension between relating the poem in a detailed way to contemporary conditions and showing its affinities with earlier heroic literature. Indeed, Atherton points to specific parallels that suggest the Maldon poet knew and was responding to Beowulf. This is an important argument, with implications for both the circulation of Beowulf and the character of Maldon.

With the rich contextual material, Atherton incorporates readings of texts much less prominent than Maldon itself and that deserve to be better known. One chapter is dedicated to relating the poem to the account of the Battle of the Holme in the annal for 905 (recte 902) in Anglo-Saxon Chronicle MS B, which tells how a force of Kentishmen refused orders to fall back before a Danish army and were defeated by them, though inflicting much slaughter on the enemy. This chapter and the readings of ASC 993 A and 991 CDE illustrate how much a sensitive analysis can find in chronicle annals, even ones without the fullness and literary patterning of the well-known Cynewulf and Cyneheard story. In the second, shorter part of the book, Atherton illuminates attitudes to the battle around the year 1000 and relates the sources to each other, with the Book of Ely showing how Byrhtferth and his final battle were remembered in the twelfth century.

The arguments are traced with a light hand. For example, Atherton highlights (75) the critical debates over the notorious passage in which the Vikings “practise deception” (lytegian) and Byrhtnoth in his ofermod grants them (alyfan) too much land, and he then offers a discussion of the landlessness and low rank of the poem's Vikings and the ealdorman's role in land disputes. This is an original perspective on what it means to grant too much land, but the implications of lytegian and ofermod are not further expounded. Maybe these are tired questions, but an extra paragraph or two to tie the issues together would have been helpful. I also have a few quibbles over the presentation. Where historic Ordnance Survey maps are reproduced, it would be good to know their dates. Some of the images, especially of manuscripts, are not very sharp; they look much better in the ebook, which also supplies them in color rather than just black and white. Such minor issues aside, I read this book with both pleasure and profit. With economy and grace, it gives an exceptionally rich sense of The Battle of Maldon and other accounts of the same battle in their social and literary contexts. Its place on undergraduate reading lists and scholarly bookshelves is assured.