Hardest Poetry Book You’ll Ever Read (Probably)

Well, it’s that exciting time again when I can announce the release of a new publication! 😀

I’m super thrilled to be able to share with all of you Anarchy for the Innocents, which I’ve been working on for the past few months, and was in fact one of the reasons for not being too active here on this blog.

Tolkien’s Poetry | Octosyllabic Couplets + New Project Announcement

 

The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun and The Lay of Leithian are, in my opinion, two masterly-crafted long, epic poems (even though the latter, alas, remains unfinished).

I am no poetry expert, having never managed to successfully appreciate many poems (especially those of the modern sort, with free verse and all that), but there was something in Tolkien’s own poetic writings which I found accessible, instant and attractive. And while Tolkien might not be considered one of the great poetry writers, his verses seem to embody a character of their own — steeped in history and language, harking back to the style and tone of the great classical works, The Odyssey, The Divine Comedy and, naturally, Beowulf.

The entire novel of ‘The Hobbit’ in just 76 verses

Following my last post on discovering the first “fragmented” poem I ever wrote about The Hobbit, some of you kindly requested I put my appalling poetry skills back into use and complete the poem I had started.

That is exactly what I have done.

Concluding ‘The Fall of Arthur’ ~ Update 2

The Writing Continues Fervently

You may or may not remember (for which I wouldn’t blame you), that I had in mind a little project that would attempt to conclude Tolkien’s unfinished poem The Fall of Arthur.

You may also recall how much I love this poem and that I had posted an extract way back at the end of August last year (The Writing Begins), hoping to complete the poem in a further 4 cantos (approximately 200 lines each).

Tolkien’s poem ends at Canto V (‘Of the setting of the sun at Romeril’); this project thereby attempts to reconstruct Cantos VI to IX. Weirdly enough, my first update picked up from Canto VII, titled: ‘Arthur lands in Romeril’.

This time, I’m posting an extract from the beginning of Canto VI: ‘The Departure of Gawain’.

As I’ve said before, the verses are more in freestyle form rather than the Old English metre I had originally attempted. I’ve decided to focus more on the rhythm and the sense of every line.

Furthermore, I am in no way attempting to write on the same level as Professor Tolkien – that is rather impossible to do.

Concluding ‘The Fall of Arthur’ ~ The Writing Begins …

A few weeks back I reported the possibility of seeing the completion of Tolkien’s The Fall of Arthur, here.

I expressed my desire in trying and create my own “fan fiction” and expand on the poem’s narrative – by closely following Christopher Tolkien’s notes on the various abandoned sketches his father never completed.

Approaching Tolkien – Beowulf: A Translation & Commentary

The Anglo-Saxon Epic Receives Treatment from the Anglo-Saxon Professor

If you’ve read your fair share of Tolkien, at some point in your reading you would certainly have comes across numerous references highlighting the author’s fascination towards Anglo-Saxon culture and literature.

Beowulf, made up of three thousand lines written in the Old English metre, remains the single most important work of the period.

But as expressive and fluent as the language is in the original language, many scholars have attempted to translate it into Modern English in the hope of capturing the same spirit and style of the poem: as it was intended to be read.