Senior Lecturer Peter Grybauskas Edits First Standalone Edition of J.R.R. Tolkien’s ‘Battle of Maldon’ and ‘The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth’

Grybauskas’ book intended for both scholars and fans, grew out of his studies as an English student at the University of Maryland.

By Chloe Kim

English senior lecturer Peter Grybauskas’ most recent publication, “The Battle of Maldon: together with The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth,” will be released on June 6 from HarperCollins.

The volume brings together J.R.R. Tolkien's academic and creative responses to the Old English “Battle of Maldon,” including his one-act play “The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth,” set in the aftermath of the battle. Grybauskas, who edited the volume, includes his notes, commentary and essays on the two works and their relationship to each other.

Grybauskas, a scholar of medieval and fantasy literature, began his work on Tolkien as an undergraduate student at the University of Maryland taking courses with Verlyn Flieger, now Professor Emerita in the Department of English, a leading Tolkien scholar. It was in Flieger’s seminar on Tolkien and war that Grybauskas first encountered “The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth.”

“It was her work that gave me the crazy idea you could study this stuff, not just for fun,” Grybauskas said.

For Grybauskas ’08, M.A. ’10, working on the volume was a “love letter” to “The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth,” which Tolkien published in an academic journal in 1953.

Grybauskas hopes his notes, commentary and essays will help make Tolkien’s lesser-known works appealing to fans wanting to venture beyond “The Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit,” in addition to Tolkien scholars interested in his academic work.

“I love this strange play, and I think that it’s one of the most ignored texts by Tolkien,” Grybauskas said. “I thought it’d be really cool to support it with some of the material that would help contextualize it and help readers to approach it for the first time and appreciate it on a deeper level.”

The book is available for pre-order in the United States starting on May 12.

Join Grybauskas as he discusses “The Battle of Maldon: together with The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth” with Verlyn Flieger and Chip Crane on May 10 from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. Register for the Zoom link here.