AN American author has published a teen sci-fi book featuring the Battle of Maldon after being inspired by a J.R.R. Tolkien poem.

Waugh Wright, 46, from North Carolina, has written Aspects, Bright and Fair about 15-year-old Joni, who discovers there is not just one world that exists.

As she investigates she soon finds herself running across several of them, stealing cars in a gang-infested underground city, fighting invaders in a medieval-style kingdom, and dodging gunfire in Hollywood on the Sunset Strip.

Waugh, who grew up in Los Angeles, said: “I had originally read about the Battle of Maldon as a teenager, after reading J.R.R.Tolkien’s The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm’s Son.

“Years later I was writing this book and wanted one of my worlds to be a more classic medieval world.

“I remembered the poem only vaguely, but I went back and re-read it and studied its history a bit more and found it to be perfect.

“In my version of the event, near the end of the battle a group of Vikings and native defenders end up going through a portal to a new small world.”

Waugh hopes to continue the Battle of Maldon theme as he writes more books in the series.

He said: “My current plan is that the third or fourth book in the Cordelian Chronicles will be about the history of Battle of Maldon/ Avalon world and its peoples.

“I envision one part with the poem and one part as a retelling of the battle.

“It will end with a part bringing it up to the present day, with Brith coming to England. ”

The book is available at amazon.co.uk.