The Battle of Maldon: Together With The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth [Deluxe Edition]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