Contributor: Rahul Gupta
Rahul Gupta earned his Ph.D. in alliterative poetrics from the University of York. He has published poems, prose, and translations in Agenda, Long Poem Magazine, many other journals, and anthologies including Speculative Poetry and the Modern Alliterative Revival (Fairleigh Dickinson, 2023), alongside C. S. Lewis and Auden.
His main work, an Arthuriad in Old Englsh and Norse Meters, has been praised as ‘the most accomplished, imaginative and technically-correct alliterative verse in Modern English since Tolkien’ (Tom Shippey) and has beem described by John Matthews in The Temenos Academy
Review, Issue 21, 2018, as "one of the truly great mythic works of our time", “expanding the Arthurian myth further than anyone since Geoffrey of Monmouth and Malory. A prose Synopsis was first published in The Tenemos Academy Review, alongside Matthew's commentary.
The following poems and excerpts from Rahul Gupta's work are published on this site:
- Gleipnir: To Bind the Wolf
- Volund's Revenge
- The Illuminated Manuscript -- Excerpt from The Arthuriad, Part II, Interlude -- The Isle of the Mighty (oiginally published in Long Poem Magazine 15, Spring 2016
- Spawn of the Lightning (Excerpt from The Arthuriad, Part II, Interlude -- Autumn (overlaps significantly with "An Army of Halloween Toadstools", below.
Additional excerpts from The Arthuriad appear in Dennis Wise's critical anthology of modern alliterative verse:
- An Army of Hallowe’en Toadstools
- The Wild Hunt of the Winter Wind
- Riding the Winds: The Wild Hunt Brings Winter in Weird Fiction Quarterly: Folk Horror, May, 2024
- The Winter Solstice Mumming Play
Additional published excerpts from the Arthuriad include:
- Autumn, Fall and Leaf
- Interlude, page 4 (originally published in Long Poem Magazine)
Some of his other original alliterative poems include:
He has done a number of alliterative translations, including:
Beowulf
Other Old English Poems
- Exeter Book Riddles 2, 5, 13
- Excerpt from 'The Seafarer'
- The Battle of Brunanburh [Originally published in Withowinde 193, pp. 35-37]
- Caedmon's Hymn
- From 'The Second Dialogue of Solomon and Saturn'
- "Deor" in Withowinde 194, pp. 30-31
- "The Old English Rune Poem" in Withowinde 195, pp. 29-31
Poetic Edda
Middle English
- Havelok, to appear in Lincolnshire Folktales Reimagined, Five Leaves Publishing, 2025
- King Arthur Vaunts at Badon Hill (Laȝamon’s ‘Brut’, ll.10619-10645).
- Sir Gawain Starts Out on his Quest (lines 691-747)
- Five Other Excerpts from Gawain
- Names of the Hare (Bodleian Library MS Digby 86)
- Blacksmiths
Niebelungenlied
- Richard Wagner, 'Siegfried' Act 3 Sc1: Alliterative Translation
He is also translating Norse poetry for Reaktion Books