Tolkien and Alliterative Verse

Medieval Alliterative Poetry in Tolkien

Compiled by Gavin Foster, MacKenzie Moore, and Alyssa Evans

Amendt-Raduege, Amy M. “‘Worthy of a Song’: Memory, Mortality and Music.” Middle-earth Minstrel: Essays on Music in Tolkien, edited by Bradford Lee Eden, McFarland & Co, 2010, pp. 114-125.

Boulintineanu, Alexandra. “’On the Borders of Old Stories’: Enacting the Past in Beowulf and The Lord of the Rings” in Tolkien and the Invention of Myth, edited by Jane Chance, Kentucky UP, 2004, pp. 263-73.

Bowman, Mary R. “Refining the Gold: Tolkien, The Battle of Maldon, and the Northern Theory of Courage.” Tolkien Studies, vol. 7, no. 1, 2010, pp. 91–115.

Bruce, Alexander M. “Maldon and Moria: On Byrhtnoth, Gandalf, and Heroism in The Lord of the Rings.” Mythlore, vol. 26, no. 1/2, 2007, pp. 149–159.

Bueno Alonso, Jorge Luis. “’Eotheod’ Anglo-Saxons of the Plains: Rohan as the Old English Culture in J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings.” Anuario De Investigación En Literatura Infantil y Juvenil, vol. 2, 2004, pp. 21-35.

Chance, Jane. Tolkien, Self and Other: “This Queer Creature.” Palgrave Macmillan, 2016.

—, editor. Tolkien the Medievalist. Routledge, 2003.

Cutler, Colin J. “Turning Back the Tides: The Anglo-Saxon Vice of Ofermod in Tolkien’s Fall of Arthur.” Mythlore, vol. 37, no. 1 (133), 2018, pp. 63–80.

Eilmann, Julian, and Allan Turner, editors. Tolkien’s Poetry. Walking Tree Publishers, 2013.

Fisher, Jason. “Dwarves, Spiders, and Mirky Woods: J. R. R. Tolkien’s Wonderful Web of Words.” Mythlore, vol. 29, no. 1/2, 2010, p. 5–15.

—. “Horns of Dawn: The Tradition of Alliterative Verse in Rohan.” Middle-earth Minstrel: Essays on Music in Tolkien, edited by Bradford Lee Eden, McFarland & Co, 2010, pp. 7-25.

Flieger, Verlyn. “Poems by Tolkien: The Hobbit” and “Poems by Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings.” J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: Scholarship and Critical Assessment, edited by Michael C. Drout, Routledge, 2007, pp. 520-532.

Forest-Hill, Lynn. “Boromir, Byrhtnoth, and Bayard: Finding a Language for Grief in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings.” Tolkien Studies, vol. 5, no. 1, 2008, pp. 73–97.

Fox, Michael. Following the Formula in Beowulf, Örvar-Odds saga, and Tolkien. Palgrave Macmillan, 2020.

Goering, Nelson. “The Fall of Arthur and The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún : A Metrical Review of Three Modern English Alliterative Poems.” Journal of Inklings Studies, vol. 5, no. 2, Oct. 2015, pp. 3–56.

Grybauskas, Peter, ed. J.R.R. Tolkien: The Battle of Maldon together with The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm’s Son and ‘The Tradition of Versification in Old English.’ HaperCollins, 2023.

—. “A Portrait of the Poet as a Young Man: Noteworthy Omission in The
Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm’s Son.” Tolkien Studies, vol. 17, no. 17, 2020, pp. 163–78.

—. “Dialogic War: From the Battle of Maldon to the ‘War of the Ring.’” Mythlore, vol. 29, no. 3/4, 2011, pp. 37–56.

Gupta, Rahul. “The Tale of the Tribe”: The Twentieth-Century Alliterative Revival. ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2014.

Hall, Mark. “The Theory and Practice of Alliterative Verse in the Work of J.R.R. Tolkien.” Mythlore, vol. 25, no. 1, Oct. 2006, pp. 41–52.

Holmes, John R. “The Battle of Maldon” in J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: Scholarship and Critical Assessment, edited by Michael D.C. Drout, Routledge, 2007, pp. 52-4.

Honegger, Thomas. “The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth: Philology and the Literary Muse.” Tolkien Studies, vol. 4, no. 1, 2007, pp. 189–99.

Kisor, Yvette. “Anglo-Saxon Community in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings.” Mythlore, vol. 34, no. 1 (127), 2015, pp. 163–65.

Kightley, Michael R. “Heorot or Meduseld?: Tolkien’s Use of ‘Beowulf’ in ‘The King of the Golden Hall.’” Mythlore, vol. 24, no. 3/4 (93/94), 2006, pp. 119–34.

Končar, Milica Spremić. “Tradition and Transformation: J.R.R. Tolkien’s Fall of Arthur.” Belgrade English Language and Literature Studies, vol. 8, no. 1, 1, Nov. 2016, pp. 205–17.

Lavinsky, David. “Tolkien’s Old English Exodus and the Problematics of Allegory.” Neophilologus, vol. 101, no. 2, 2017, pp. 305–19.

Lee, Stuart D., and Solopova, Elizabeth. The Keys of Middle-Earth: Discovering Medieval Literature through the Fiction of J.R.R. Tolkien. Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.

Lee, Stuart. “Lagustreamas: The Changing Waters Surrounding J.R.R. Tolkien and The Battle of Maldon” in The Wisdom of Exeter: Anglo-Saxon Studies in Honor of Patrick W. Conner, edited by E.J. Christie, Medieval Institute Publications, 2020, pp. 157-75.

Lemburg, Flora Sophie. “Guþcwen and Ides Ellenrof – The Old English Warrior Woman as Role Model for Female Characters in Tolkien’s Works.” Journal of Tolkien Research, vol. 12, no. 2, 2021, pp. 1-17.

Liebau, Gregory J. “Tolkien’s Arthurian Twilight: Ancient Influences in The Fall of Arthur.” Mallorn: The Journal of the Tolkien Society, iss. 55, 2014, pp. 29-31.

Marchetti, Chiara. “Subtle Speech and Use of Pronouns in Tolkien’s Novels and Old English Poetry.” Journal of Tolkien Research, vol. 14, no. 1, 2022, pp. 1-15.

McGuire, Riley. “The Place of Allegory in Tolkien’s Understanding of the Old English Exodus.” Tolkien Studies, vol. 19, no. 2, 2022, pp. 39–46.

Mitchell, Bruce. “J. R. R. Tolkien and Old English Studies: An Appreciation.” Mythlore, vol. 21, no. 2, 1996, pp. 206–12.

Neidorf, Leonard. “J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Fall of Arthur: Creation from Literary Criticism.” Tolkien Studies, vol. 14, 2017, pp. 91-113.

Nelson, Marie. “‘The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm’s Son’: J.R.R. Tolkien’s Sequel to ‘The Battle of Maldon.’” Mythlore, vol. 26, no. 3/4, 2008, pp. 65–87.

Parks, Joshua T. “Speculative Mythology: Tolkien’s Adaptation of Winter and the Devil in Old English Poetry.” Tolkien Studies, vol. 18, no. 1, 2021, pp. 163–78.

Phelpstead, Carl. “‘With Chunks of Poetry in Between’: The Lord of the Rings and Saga Poetics.” Tolkien Studies, vol. 5, no. 1, 2008, pp. 23–38.

Power, Rebecca. “Tolkien’s Penchant for Alliteration: Using XML to Analyze The Lay of Leithian.” Journal of Tolkien Research, vol. 11, no. 1, 2020, pp. 1-17.

Robbins, Susan. “Old English, Old Norse, Gothic: Sources of Inspiration and Creativity for J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.” Žmogus Ir Žodis, vol. 17, no. 3, 2015, pp. 66–71.

Ruud, Jay. “’Loveforsaken, from the land banished’: The Complexity of Love and Honor in Tolkien’s Fall of Arthur.” Mallorn: The Journal of the Tolkien Society, iss. 56, 2015, pp. 5-10.

Russom, Geoffrey. “Tolkien’s Versecraft in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.” J.R.R. Tolkien and His Literary Resonances: Views of Middle-earth, edited by George Clark and Daniel Timmons, Greenwood Press, 2000, pp. 53-69.

Shelton, James. “Eomer Gets Poetic: Tolkien’s Alliterative Versecraft.” Journal of Tolkien Research, vol. 5, no. 1, 2018, pp. 1-10.

Shippey, Tom. “Tolkien and ‘The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth.’” Roots and Branches: Selected Papers on Tolkien, Walking Tree, 2007, pp. 323-339.

—. The Road to Middle-earth. Allen & Unwin 1982. Second edition Grafton, 1992.

—. J.R.R. Tolkien: Author of the Century. HarperCollins, 2000.

Sipahi, Peri. ‘A Mighty Matter of Legend’: Tolkien’s Rohirrim. A Source Study. 1st ed., Tectum Verlag, 2016.

Smith, Ross. “J. R. R. Tolkien and the Art of Translating English into English.” English Today, vol. 25, no. 3, 2009, pp. 3–11.

Smol, Anna and [Gavin] Foster. “J.R.R. Tolkien’s ‘Homecoming’ and Modern Alliterative Metre.” Journal of Tolkien Research, vol. 12, no. 1, 2021, pp. 1-21.

Smol, Anna. “Bodies in War: Medieval and Modern Tensions in ‘The Homecoming’”in “Something has gone crack”: New Perspectives on J.R.R. Tolkien in the Great War, edited by Janet Brennan Croft and Annika Röttinger, Walking Tree, 2019.

Stratyner, Leslie. “Ðe Us ðas Beagas Geaf (He Who Gave Us These Rings) Sauron and the Perversion of Anglo-Saxon Ethos.” Mythlore, vol. 16, no. 1 (59), 1989, pp. 5–8.

Sudell, T. S. “The Alliterative Verse of The Fall of Arthur.” Tolkien Studies, vol. 13, no. 1, 2016, pp. 71–100.

Tober, Carol. “How J. R. R. Tolkien Used Kennings to Make The Lord of the Rings into a Medieval Epic for the 20th Century.” Binding Them All: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on J.R.R. Tolkien and His Works, Walking Tree Publishers, 2017, pp. 253-278.

Tompkins, J. Case. “’The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm’s Son’: Tolkien as a Modern Anglo-Saxon.’” Mythlore, vol. 23, no. 4, 2002, pp. 67–74.

West, Richard C. “Canute and Beorhtnoth” in A Wilderness of Dragons: Essays in Honor of Verlyn Flieger, edited by John D. Rateliff, Gabbro Head, 2018, pp. 335-58.

Wise, Dennis Wilson. “Paul Edwin Zimmer’s Alliterative Style: A Metrical Legacy of J.R.R. Tolkien and Poul Anderson.” Mythlore, vol. 37, no. 1 (133), 2018, pp. 183–202.

Zimmerman, Manfred. “Rendering of Tolkien’s Alliterative Verse.” Mythlore, vol. 8, no. 2 (28), 1981, pp. 21–21.

Tolkien and Philology

Compiled by Jordan Audas and Redford Ingram

Bratman, David. “Philology and Language Studies: Tolkien’s Professional Work.” Tolkien Studies, vol. 13, no. 1, 2016, pp. 281–83.

—. “Philology and Language Studies: Invented Languages.” Tolkien Studies, vol. 13, no. 1, 2016, pp. 290–92.

Drout, Michael D. C. “J.R.R. Tolkien’s Medieval Scholarship and Its Significance.” Tolkien Studies, vol. 4, no. 1, 2007, pp. 113–76.

Fisher, Jason. “J.R.R. Tolkien: The Foolhardy Philologist.” A Wilderness of Dragons: Essays in Honor of Verlyn Flieger, edited by John D. Rateliff, Gabbro Head, 2018, pp. 72-93.

Gilliver, Peter, Jeremy Marshall, and Edmund Weiner. The Ring of Words: Tolkien and the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford UP, 2006.

Gilson, Christopher. “‘He Constructed a Language L and Another LL’: Diachronic Aspects of Tolkien’s Early Philology.” Tolkien Studies, vol. 17, no. 1, 2020, pp. 75–116.

Goering, Nelson. “Lŷg and Leuca: ‘Elven-Latin,’ Archaic Languages, and the Philology of Britain.” Tolkien Studies, vol. 11, no. 1, 2014, pp. 67–76.

Hemmi, Yoko. “Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings and His Concept of Native Language: Sindarin and British-Welsh.” Tolkien Studies, vol. 7, no. 1 2010, pp. 147-174.

Honegger, Thomas. “The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth: Philology and the Literary Muse.” Tolkien Studies, vol. 4, no. 1, 2007, pp. 189–99.

Jeffrey, David Lyle. “Tolkien as Philologist.” Tolkien and the Invention of Myth, edited by Jane Chance, U of Kentucky P, 2004, pp. 61-78.

Reid, Robin Anne. “Philology and Language Studies: Tolkien’s Use of English.” Tolkien Studies, vol. 13, no. 1, 2016, pp. 283–90.

Scase, Wendy. “Tolkien, Philology, and The Reeve’s Tale: Towards the Cultural Move in Middle English Studies.” Studies in the Age of Chaucer, vol. 24, no. 1, 2002, pp. 325–34.

Shippey, Tom. “Tolkien, Medievalism, and the Philological Tradition.” Bells Chiming from the Past: Cultural and Linguistic Studies on Early English, edited by Isabel Moskowich-Spiegel and Begoña Crespo-García. Brill Academic Publishers, 2007, pp. 265–79.

—. “Fighting the Long Defeat: Philology in Tolkien’s Life and Fiction.” Roots and Branches: Selected Papers on Tolkien, Walking Tree, 2007, pp. 139-156.

Spencer, H. L. “The Mystical Philology of J.R.R. Tolkien and Sir Israel Gollancz: Monsters and Critics.” Tolkien Studies, vol. 14, no. 1, 2017, pp. 9–32.

Wood, Ralph C., editor. Tolkien Among the Moderns. University of Notre Dame Press, 2015.

New Alliterative Poetry

Compiled by Anna Smol and Gavin Foster

Deane, Paul, ed. Forgotten Ground Regained. 2023. https://www.alliteration.net/current-issue/

Delanty, Greg and Michael Matto. The Word Exchange: Anglo-Saxon Poems in Translation. Norton, 2011.

Jones, Chris. “New Old English: The Place of Old English in Twentieth- and Twenty-First-Century Poetry.” Literature Compass, vol. 7, no. 11, 2010, pp. 1009–19.

—. “From Eald Old to New Old: Translating Old English Poetry in(to) the Twentieth-first Century.” Translating Early Medieval Poetry: Transformation, Reception, Interpretation, edited by Kirsty March-Lyons and Tom Birkett, D.S. Brewer, 2017, pp. 13-28.

March-Lyons, Kirsty, and Tom Birkett, editors. Translating Early Medieval Poetry: Transformation, Reception, Interpretation. D.S. Brewer, 2017.

Neuland, Christina, and Florian Schleburg. “A New Old English? The Chances of an Anglo-Saxon Revival on the Internet.” The Evolution of Englishes: The Dynamic Model and Beyond, by Sarah Buschfeld et al., John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2014, pp. 486–504.

Treharne, Elaine. “The Shock of the Old: Early English and Its Modern Re-Tellings.” The Heroic Age, vol. 14, 2010, http://www.heroicage.org/issues/14/treharne.php.

Wise, Dennis Wilson, editor. Speculative Poetry and the Modern Alliterative Revival. University Press Copublishing Division / Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2023.

—. “Carved in Granite: C.S. Lewis’s Revivalism in The Nameless Isle.” Journal of Inklings Studies 13, no. 2, 2023, pp. 151-179.