Alliterative Verse in Arda

Tolkien loved alliterative verse. He made Beowulf’s Midgeard his professional life’s work, and he wrote thousands of lines of alliterative poetry telling the tale of his own Middle-earth. In Midgeard, pride of place goes to his Lay of Sigurd and Gudrun and his Fall of Arthur. In Middle-earth, pride of place belongs to his alliterative Lay of The Children of Húrin and Lay of Leithian. Not surprisingly, many of his fans have been moved to write alliterative verse of their own. 

I should know. I am one of them. I first read The Lord of the Rings in 1970, as an eleven-year-old. In the 1990s and early 2000s, I spent a large chunk of my life on Elendor MUSH, a Tolkien-themed text-based roleplaying game, where I played Rhunedhel, an Avarin bard who had fled the Uttermost East to seek refuge in Imladris. A bard needs songs, and naturally I wrote them, in my own version of alliterative poetry. They included The Song of Shadows, a tale of adventure in which a pair of Elven lovers work together to recover an heirloom from a mortal King—who may, in fact, be the Witch-king of Angmar. 

Rhunedhel’s masterwork was a long epic poem, The Redemption of Daeron, which tells the tale of Daeron, who loved Lúthien, and twice betrayed her. The poem reveals Daeron wandering grief-stricken in the Uttermost East, and tells the tale of how at long last he learned what really happened to Lúthien. That led in turn to me becoming the editor of Forgotten Ground Regained, the central store on the web for modern English alliterative verse.

In the process, I have collected quite a bit of Tolkien alliterative verse fan poetry. I am delighted to share some of my favorites with you. They are listed below, each with a brief description to give you a sense of their place in Tolkien’s Legendarium.

The poems I have listed here are only a sample of the alliterative verse that has been written by Tolkien fans. But it will give you a great introduction to the world of fan poetry written in Tolkien’s favorite form.

Published Poems

The first several poems on my list have been published, mostly (in the first instance) in Mallorn: The Journal of the Tolkien Society.

Hymn to Earendil by Patricia Masson. This is an alliterative hymn to that most beloved star. It targets the foundation stone of Tolkien’s legendarium.

Patricia Masson was an early Tolkien fan and a particularly skilled and accomplished poet. She died young, in the early 1990s, or we would likely have seen much more work from her. While they aren’t Arda-based, her other poems, such as A Lay of St. Boniface and The Last Valkyrie are also well worth reading.

Slaying the Dragon by Susan Edwards. This poem tells of the burning of Laketown, from Bard’s point of view

The Paths of the Dead by Susan Edwards. This poem tells the tale of how Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli dared the dark together.

Susan Edwards (Tuilinde) began publishing Tolkien fan poetry in the 1980s. Her work sets a standard for poetry that is vigorous in its alliterative form but also true in spirit to Tolkien’s work. Like Patricia Masson, her work was first published in Mallorn.

Lament for Baldor the Brave by Gill Page. This tale describes what really happened to Brego’s son when he dared the dark mountain.

In the early days of Tolkien fandom, Gill Page was leader of the Morgul-hai smial of the Tolkien Society in Maidstone, Kent, England. The PDF snapshot of his poem in an early mimeograph of Mallorn is adorned with period fan art that perfectly captures the spirit of the Morgul-hai, who would show up at Tolkien Society activities cosplaying as Orcs.

Dear Tolkien Society by Lancelot Schaubert – Only a poet and a Tolkien fan would dare to ask the Tolkien Estate for a chance to finish Tolkien’s Fall of Arthur. 

Lancelot Schaubert is part of a new generation of poets who, inspired by Tolkien’s example, have chosen to write primarily in alliterative verse. You can find more of his poems at his author page on Forgotten Ground Regained, or in his published poetry collections.

Tree and Leaf by Malcolm Guite. This poem is a meditation on Tolkien, who is perhaps meditating on “Leaf by Niggle”.

Malcolm Guite is an English poet, singer-songwriter, scholar, and Anglican priest and was for many years chaplain of Girton College, Cambridge. This is the least fanfic poem in my selection, but Guite is a figure Tolkien fans should be aware of. He has written a great deal of interesting work, and is currently writing his own epic version of the Arthurian mythos.

From Fanfic Archives

The remaining poems on my last can be found on major fanfic archives – specifically, An Archive of Our Own (AO3). You can find these and many other fan poetry authors indexed on my SF author and fan page on Forgotten Ground Regained.

Earendil the Seafarer by Himring. This poem describes a conversation between Elwing and Earendil, before Earendil set sail to petition the Valar to rescue Middle-earth from Morgoth.

Tolkien was inspired by the Norse sagas, which preserve a rich array of Old Norse alliterative poems embedded inside prose narratives. Himring does the same kind of thing quite skillfully, as she imagines Elwing and Earendil addressing one another in solemn, spectacular alliterative verse, just before Earendil risks everything and sails Vingilot to Valinor.

Narn Hathaldir ah Aerlin by Aris Katsaris. This poem tells the untold story of Hathaldir the Young, one of the twelve last companions of Barahir …

One of the joys of fanfiction is its ability to take a minor character from Tolkien’s works and craft a story that gives them some of the glory that Tolkien reserved for his major characters. Another joy is the creation of OCs (original characters) and fleshing them out within the world that Tolkien wrought. This fanfic author gives us that in spades.

Wruxled in White by Lindariel. This work is presented as a fragment from a poem about the Istari, featuring one Gandalf Greyhame. 

One of Tolkien’s knacks was his ability to combine high, fateful myth with the mortal, the ordinary, and the comic. This poem achieves a similar kaleidoscopic effect in its description of Gandalf.

The Choices of Lady Éowyn by Zdenka, describing that moment famous from book and film: Who knows what she thought, alone in the watches of the night?

Zdenka is one of the most prolific fanfic authors of alliterative verse. This poem is one of her strongest.