Shearsman Library Vol. 13.
Published 2019. Chapbook, 32pp, 8.5x5.5ins.
ISBN 9781848616530. [Download a PDF sampler from this book here.]

Maldon is a version of the Anglo-Saxon epic fragment usually known as 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, 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, U.C. Cork

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