Silmarillion Writers' Guild

When we think of poetry, we often think first of the "roses are red, violets are blue" rhymed poetry or, if we're feeling avant garde, free verse. However, before rhymed poetry came with French culture after the Norman Invasion, poetry was alliterative: structured around complex metrical rules and cohered through alliteration: multiple words starting with the same sound.

Tolkien loved alliterative poetry, translated several important alliterative poems, and wrote his own original verse. At Mereth Aderthad 2025, Paul D. Deane will be sharing a paper titled "Love, Grief, and Alliterative Verse in Tolkien’s Legendarium" about how Tolkien and his fans have used alliterative versus to convey some of the works' most important themes surrounding love and grief. Himring had a chance to speak to Paul about his upcoming presentation, as well as his considerable body of research and original work on alliterative verse.

You can read Himring's interview with Paul D. Deane here.