2009 Yule Poetry Competition
Posted: Thu Dec 10, 2009 12:24 pm
2009 Yule Poetry Competition
Siegfried slaying Fafnir
This year saw the publication of Tolkien’s wonderfully evocative The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun, two ‘new’ lays from old legends, written entirely in 8 line Eddaic fornyrðislag metre. Now, don’t be scared. Although Eddaic fornyrðislag is horribly complicated, with more rules than the European Union, we’re letting you off lightly and asking for poems that just capture the spirit of it. What we’re looking for is a few verses, not more than 32 lines (or much shorter if you like), about one of Tolkien’s heroes. He or she can be from any of his books and all you have to do is tell part of their tale as vividly as possible. The essence of fornyrðislag is to use very few words, but words that cut right to the emotional heart of the tale, plenty of drive and rhythm and as much alliteration as you like, with the first letters or with the sound of the whole word. Each verse should be 8 lines long, made up of two distinct groups of 4.
It’s not as hard as it sounds (because we’ve eliminated most of the really tricksy rhyming rules) and to inspire you and give you a model to help you along, here are a couple of verses from Tolkien's The Lay of the Völsungs describing Sigurd finding the dragon’s hoard after slaying Fafnir:
Gold piled on gold
there glittered paley:
that gold was glamoured
with grim curses.
The Helm of Horror
on his head laid he:
swart fell the shadow
round Sigurd standing.
Great and grievous
was Grani’s burden,
yet lightly leaped he
down the long mountain.
Ride now! ride now
road and woodland,
horse and hero,
hope of Odin!
We're a talented bunch here and I know we can all have some fun with this. So pick your hero and get writing
.
You can submit more than one poem and all entries need to be in by New Year's Day.
The winner can chose between two books out this year: The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun (of course) or the new edition of Tales from the Perilous Realm, illustrated by the wonderful Alan Lee.
Excerpt The Lay of the Völsungs [copyright]The Tolkien Trust 2009/Harper Collins[/copyright][/i]
Siegfried slaying Fafnir
© Unknown
It’s that time of year again. Just as you start to put your brains on ice for Christmas we set you a challenge to get all those little grey cells up and running again.This year saw the publication of Tolkien’s wonderfully evocative The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun, two ‘new’ lays from old legends, written entirely in 8 line Eddaic fornyrðislag metre. Now, don’t be scared. Although Eddaic fornyrðislag is horribly complicated, with more rules than the European Union, we’re letting you off lightly and asking for poems that just capture the spirit of it. What we’re looking for is a few verses, not more than 32 lines (or much shorter if you like), about one of Tolkien’s heroes. He or she can be from any of his books and all you have to do is tell part of their tale as vividly as possible. The essence of fornyrðislag is to use very few words, but words that cut right to the emotional heart of the tale, plenty of drive and rhythm and as much alliteration as you like, with the first letters or with the sound of the whole word. Each verse should be 8 lines long, made up of two distinct groups of 4.
It’s not as hard as it sounds (because we’ve eliminated most of the really tricksy rhyming rules) and to inspire you and give you a model to help you along, here are a couple of verses from Tolkien's The Lay of the Völsungs describing Sigurd finding the dragon’s hoard after slaying Fafnir:
Gold piled on gold
there glittered paley:
that gold was glamoured
with grim curses.
The Helm of Horror
on his head laid he:
swart fell the shadow
round Sigurd standing.
Great and grievous
was Grani’s burden,
yet lightly leaped he
down the long mountain.
Ride now! ride now
road and woodland,
horse and hero,
hope of Odin!
We're a talented bunch here and I know we can all have some fun with this. So pick your hero and get writing
.You can submit more than one poem and all entries need to be in by New Year's Day.
The winner can chose between two books out this year: The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun (of course) or the new edition of Tales from the Perilous Realm, illustrated by the wonderful Alan Lee.
Excerpt The Lay of the Völsungs [copyright]The Tolkien Trust 2009/Harper Collins[/copyright][/i]
