In the summer of 991, on a muddy Essex shore, a band of English warriors faced an invading Viking host—and chose to stand. The Battle of Maldon is the greatest surviving poem of the Anglo-Saxon heroic age, a spare and fierce testament to the strength of a promise kept beyond all hope of victory. This faithful modern-English edition renders the poem's known fragment in clear, flowing verse that preserves its driving alliterative power, along with an introduction that places it in history and a set of appendices for reflection. Here you will meet Byrhtnoth, the dauntless ealdorman; Godric, who fled on his lord's horse; and Byrhtwold, whose dying words—'the will shall be harder, the heart the keener'—have echoed down eleven centuries. A timeless meditation on loyalty, courage, and the dignity of endurance: read it as history, as poetry, and as a quiet call to hold your own ground. Part of The World Scriptures Library.