Editing Alliterative verse (section)

=== The Inklings as alliterative poets ===
A rather different approach to reviving alliterative verse appears in the work of the so-called [[The Inklings|Inklings]], specifically, [[J. R. R. Tolkien]] and [[C. S. Lewis]]. Both were medievalist scholars, and as such, were familiar with alliterative metrics. Both of them made serious attempts to use and advocate the use of traditional alliterative forms in modern English (though many of Tolkien's alliterative poems were not published until long after his death).<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Phelpstead |first1=Carl |title=Auden and the Inklings: An Alliterative Revival |journal=The Journal of English and Germanic Philology |date=2004 |volume=103 |issue=4 |pages=433–457 |id={{Gale|A406902282}} |jstor=27712458 }}</ref><ref name="A Tale of Two Essays: The Inklings">{{cite journal |last1=Wise |first1=Dennis Wilson |title=A Tale of Two Essays: The Inklings on the Alliterative Meter |journal=Notes and Queries |date=26 August 2023 |volume=70 |issue=4 |pages=310–312 |doi=10.1093/notesj/gjad066 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Goering |first1=Nelson |title=The Fall of Arthur and The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún: A Metrical Review of Three Modern English Alliterative Poems |journal=Journal of Inklings Studies |date=2015 |volume=5 |issue=2 |pages=3–56 |doi=10.3366/ink.2015.5.2.2 |jstor=45387203 }}</ref><ref>{{cite thesis |last1=Gupta |first1=Rahul |title='The Tale of the Tribe': The Twentieth-Century Alliterative Revival |date=September 2014 |url=https://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/8521/ }}{{page needed|date=December 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Wise |first1=Dennis Wilson |title=Dating 'Sweet Desire': C. S. Lewis's education in alliterative poetics |journal=English Text Construction |date=17 November 2023 |volume=16 |issue=1 |pages=82–108 |doi=10.1075/etc.22017.wis |s2cid=265289279 }}</ref>

==== J. R. R. Tolkien ====
{{further|List of Tolkien's alliterative verse|Poetry in The Lord of the Rings}}

[[J. R. R. Tolkien]] (1892–1973) was a scholar of [[Old English|Old]] and [[Middle English]] as well as a fantasy author<ref>{{cite book |last=Carpenter |first=Humphrey |author-link=Humphrey Carpenter |title=Tolkien: A Biography |title-link=J. R. R. Tolkien: A Biography |publisher=[[Ballantine Books]] |location=New York |year=1977 |isbn=978-0-04928-037-3 |pages=111, 200, 266 and throughout}}</ref> and [[List of Tolkien's alliterative verse|used alliterative verse extensively]] in both translations and original poetry; some of his [[Poetry in The Lord of the Rings|poems are embedded in the text]] of his fantasy novel ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]''. Most of his alliterative verse is in modern English, in a variety of styles. Tolkien's longest modern English works in Old English alliterative meter are an alliterative verse play,  ''[[The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm's Son]]'' describing the aftermath of the [[Battle of Maldon]], published in 1953, his 2276-line ''[[The Lay of the Children of Húrin]]'' (c. 1918–1925), published in 1985, and his thousand-line fragment on the [[Matter of Britain]], [[The Fall of Arthur]],<ref>Tolkien, John Ronald Reuel. ''The Fall of Arthur''. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013.{{page needed|date=December 2023}}</ref> published in 2013.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Smol |first1=Anna |last2=Foster |first2=Rebecca |year=2021 |title=J.R.R. Tolkien's 'Homecoming' and Modern Alliterative Metre |journal=[[Journal of Tolkien Research]] |volume=12 |issue=1 |at=Article 3 |url=https://scholar.valpo.edu/journaloftolkienresearch/vol12/iss1/3 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Clark |first=George |title=J. R. R. Tolkien and His Literary Resonances: Views of Middle-earth |date=2000 |publisher=Greenwood Press |location=Westport, CT |pages=39–51 |editor=George Clark and Daniel Timmons}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Shippey |first=Tom A. |title=Roots and Branches: Selected Papers on Tolkien |date=2007 |publisher=[[Walking Tree Publishers]] |location=Zurich and Berne |pages=323–339 |author-link=Tom Shippey}}</ref> He also experimented with alliterative verse based on the [[Poetic Edda]] (e.g., the ''[[Völsungasaga]]'' and ''[[Atlakviða]])'' in ''[[The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun]]'' (2009).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Tolkien |first1=J. R. R. |last2=Tolkien |first2=Christopher |title=The legend of Sigurd and Gudrún |publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt |publication-place=Boston |date=2009 |isbn=978-0-547-27342-6 |oclc=310224953}}</ref> His [[Gothic language|Gothic]] ''poem [[Bagme Bloma]]'' ("Flower of the Trees") uses a trochaic metre, with irregular end-rhymes and irregular alliteration in each line; it was published in the 1936 ''[[Songs for the Philologists]]''.<ref>Tolkien, J. R. R. ''[[Songs for the Philologists]]''. Privately printed in the Department of English, [[University College London]], 1936.{{page needed|date=December 2023}}</ref> He also wrote a variety of alliterative poems in Old English. A version of these appears in "[[The Notion Club Papers]]".<ref name="NCP">{{ME-ref|SD}}, "[[The Notion Club Papers]]"</ref> His alliterative verse translations of Old English and Middle English alliterative poems include some 600 lines of ''[[Beowulf]]'',<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Acocella |first=Joan |date=2 June 2014 |title=Slaying Monsters: Tolkien's 'Beowulf' |url=http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2014/06/02/140602crbo_books_acocella?currentPage=all |magazine=[[The New Yorker]] |access-date=2 June 2014}}</ref> portions of [[The Seafarer (poem)|''The Seafarer'']],<ref>{{cite book |doi=10.1002/9781119691457.ch3 |chapter=Tolkien as Editor |title=A Companion to J. R. R. Tolkien |date=2022 |last1=Shippey |first1=Tom |pages=34–47 |isbn=978-1-119-69140-2 }}</ref> and a complete translation of ''[[Sir Gawain and the Green Knight]]''.<ref>{{cite report |last1=Volkonskaya |first1=M. A. |title=Translator and Language Change: On J.R.R. Tolkien's Translation of ''Sir Gawain and the Green Knight'' |date=2015 |url=https://publications.hse.ru/en/preprints/163150386 |doi=10.2139/ssrn.2674100 |ssrn=2674100 |s2cid=54805306 |url-access=subscription }}</ref>

Tolkien's original alliterative verse follows the rules for Old English alliterative verse, as can be seen in the following lines from ''[[The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm's Son]]'':<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Smol |first1=Anna |last2=Foster |first2=Rebecca |title=J.R.R. Tolkien's "Homecoming" and Modern Alliterative Metre |journal=Journal of Tolkien Research |date=21 May 2021 |volume=12 |issue=1 |id={{Gale|A666511744}} |url=https://scholar.valpo.edu/journaloftolkienresearch/vol12/iss1/3/ }}</ref>

<poem style="margin-left: 2em">
{{pad|1em}}{{pad|1em}}{{pad|1em}}{{pad|1em}}{{pad|1em}}{{pad|1em}}{{pad|1em}}{{pad|1em}}{{pad|1em}}{{pad|1em}} To the left yonder
There's a <u>'''sh'''</u>ade creeping, {{pad|1em}} a <u>'''sh'''</u>adow darker
than the <u>'''w'''</u>estern sky, {{pad|1em}} there <u>'''w'''</u>alking crouched!
<u>'''T'''</u>wo now together! {{pad|1em}} <u>'''T'''</u>roll-shapes, I guess
or <u>'''h'''</u>ell-walkers. {{pad|1em}} They've a <u>'''h'''</u>alting gait,
<u>'''g'''</u>roping <u>'''g'''</u>roundwards {{pad|1em}} with <u>'''g'''</u>risly arms.
</poem>

==== C. S. Lewis ====

Like Tolkien, [[C. S. Lewis]] (1898–1963) taught at [[Oxford University]], where he was Fellow and Tutor in English Literature at [[Magdalen College, Oxford|Magdalen College]]. He was later a full Professor at [[Cambridge University]]. He is best known for his work as a [[Literary criticism|literary critic]]<ref>Walsh, Chad. ''The literary legacy of CS Lewis''. Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2008.{{page needed|date=December 2023}}</ref> and Christian [[Apologetics|apologist]],<ref>Cunningham, Richard B. ''CS Lewis: Defender of the Faith: Defender of the Faith''. Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2008.{{page needed|date=December 2023}}</ref> but he also wrote a variety of modern English poems in Old English alliterative meter. His alliterative poetry includes "Sweet Desire" and "The Planets" in his collected Poems<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lewis |first=Clive Staples |title=Poems |publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt |year=2002}}</ref>  and the 742-line poem "The Nameless Isle" in his ''Narrative Poems''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lewis |first=Clive Staples |title=Narrative Poems |publisher=Harper Collins |year=1972}}</ref> He also wrote an article on the use of alliterative meter in modern English.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lewis |first1=C. S. |chapter=The Alliterative Metre |pages=15–26 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T-clBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA15 |editor1-first=Walter |editor1-last=Hooper |title=Selected Literary Essays |date=2013 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-107-68538-3 }}</ref><ref name="A Tale of Two Essays: The Inklings"/> Like Tolkien, his poems follow the rules of Old English alliterative verse, while maintaining modern English diction and syntax,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Jones |first=Chris |title=Strange likeness: the use of Old English in twentieth-century poetry |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2010 |location=Oxford}}{{page needed|date=December 2023}}</ref> as can be seen from lines 562-67 of ''The Nameless Isle'':<poem style="margin-left: 2em">
The <u>'''m'''</u>arble <u>'''m'''</u>aid, {{pad|1em}} under <u>'''m'''</u>ask of stone
<u>'''sh'''</u>ook and <u>'''sh'''</u>uddered. {{pad|1em}} As a <u>'''sh'''</u>adow streams
Over the <u>'''wh'''</u>eat <u>'''w'''</u>aving, {{pad|1em}} over the <u>'''w'''</u>oman's face
<u>'''L'''</u>ife came <u>'''l'''</u>ingering. {{pad|1em}} Nor was it <u>'''l'''</u>ong after
Down its <u>'''b'''</u>lue pathways, {{pad|1em}} <u>'''b'''</u>lood returning
<u>'''M'''</u>oved, and <u>'''m'''</u>ounted {{pad|1em}} to her <u>'''m'''</u>aiden cheek.
</poem>