Maldon is a version of the Anglo-Saxon epic fragment, The Battle of Maldon, which tells the tale of a battle between the Anglo-Saxons and the invading Vikings which took place ca. 991 AD on the shores of the River Blackwater, Essex, almost certainly opposite Northey Island. "Smith's version of 'Maldon' preserves nicely a ghost of the alliterative pattern that rumbles through the original, without trying to reproduce it fully in a clog-dance of consonants. It is recognisably the same poem as the original: it has its linguistic density and compelling narrative pull, but it is free from the mildewed quaintness that sometimes hangs around translation from Old English." -Dr. Alex Davis