Forgotten Ground Regained
Scholars
Introduction
Alliterative verse would never have become as widely known as it is today if it were not for the work of scholars --medievalists, philologiss, and linguistics -- who painstakingly recovered, transcribed, analyzed, and translated the srviving corpus of medieval alliterative poems. J.R.R. Tolkien was one of the greatest of them, and (almost by accident) his hobby of inventing languages and stories to go with them turned into The Lord of the Rings. His work has done much to popularize alliterative verse, though it is important to realize that J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and others of his generation were the inheritors of an earlier generation of 19th-Century scholars who discovered alliterative poetry and made the first steps toward popularizing it.
Of course, scholars of the Middle Ages -- philogogers, linguists, and others of that ilk -- are the obvious suspects where writing original alliterative poetry is concerned. And yes, many of them have indulged in precisely that guilty pleasure.
And speaking of guilty pleasures ... how about Songs for the Philologists?
Medievalists and Other Scholars Mentioned on the Author Page
Others
Note: The poetry linked here ranges in quality from novice work to brilliant. It is probably just the tenth of the iceberg that shows above the ocean. There is almost certainly much more out there. Send me links if you find them ... use the following email, making the standard substiution: pdeane[at]alliteration.net
Poems
Translations
- Noah’s Flood (from “Purity”), translated by Marie Borroff
- Translations from the Poetic Edda by Rosalind Kerven in Viking Myths and Sagas
- Translation of ‘Song of the Rood’ by Brendan King in the St. Austin Review, March/April, 2021
Audio/Video
- Old English Alliterative Verse (Medievalist Mutterings)
- An alliterative summary of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by Annalee Newitz
- The Fortunes of Men: An alliterative translation from the Old English by B.F.Randall
Blogs and Websites
From Josh Gillingham & Emily Osborne's "Norsevember" competition
Copyright © Paul D Deane, 2023