In this study the author uses topographic references found in the manuscript of the poem ‘Brúnanburh’ to try and locate the ‘site’ of this momentous battle. The first references were maritime then latterly landscape leading to field-names which have a more stable base than the constantly changing place-names.

In accordance with the plan of this collective edition of Anglo-Saxon poetry, as announced in the Preface to the first volume, containing the texts of the Junius Manuscript, the poetical parts of the Vercelli Book are here groped together in a second volume.