After the battle Archbishop Sigeric of Canterbury and the aldermen of the south-western provinces advised King Æthelred to buy off the Vikings rather than continue the armed struggle.

A modern embroidery created for the millennium celebration in 1991 and, in part, depicting the battle, can be seen at the Maeldune Centre in Maldon.

Linguistic study has led to the conjecture that initially the complete poem was transmitted orally, then in a lost manuscript in the East Saxon dialect and now survives as a fragment in the West Saxon form, possibly that of a scribe active at the Monastery of Worcester late in the 11th century.

[2] It is fortuitous that this was attached at an early date to a very notable manuscript, Asser's Life of King Alfred, which undoubtedly assisted in its survival.

The keeper of the collection, John Elphinstone (or his assistant, David Casley),[3] had transcribed the 325 lines of the poem in 1724, but the front and back pages were already missing from the manuscript (possibly around 50 lines each): an earlier catalogue described it as fragmentum capite et calce mutilatum ('mutilated at head and heel').

Three Anglo-Saxon warriors, Wulfstan, Ælfhere and Maccus blocked the bridge, successfully engaging any Vikings who pressed forward (lines 72–83).

It is believed by many scholars that the poem, while based upon actual events and people, was created to be less of a historical account and more of a means of enshrining and lifting up the memories of the men who fought and lost their lives on the battlefield protecting their homeland, especially in the case of the English commander of the battle, Byrhtnoth.

The forces engaged by the Anglo-Saxon were raiding, or (in Old Norse) "í víking", to gather loot, rather than to occupy land for settlement.

Therefore, if Byrhtnoth's forces had kept the Vikings off by guarding the causeway or by paying them off, Olaf would likely have sailed farther up the river or along the coast, and raided elsewhere.

The poem may, therefore, represent the work of what has been termed the "monastic party" in Ethelred's court, which advocated a military response, rather than tribute, to all Norse attacks.

And on that year it was decided to pay tax to Danes for the great terror which they made by the sea coast; that first [payment] was 10,000 pounds.

The Life of Oswald, written in Ramsey around the same time as the battle, portrays Byrhtnoth as a great religious warrior, with references to Biblical prophetic era figures.

[5] In 1170, the Liber Eliensis retold and embroidered the story and made the battle two fights, with the second being a fortnight long against overwhelming odds.

The widely accepted precise date is taken from notices for the death of Byrhtnoth in three abbey calendars; those of Ely, Winchester and Ramsey.

[7] More precise details come from The Battle of Maldon narrative, which describes how the Vikings established themselves on an island, separated from the mainland by a tidal inlet which could be crossed by a "bridge" or "ford" at low tide.