A review of ULFHILDR by Mary Thaler

So, Paul Deane just clued me into a new long alliterative poem, Ulfhildr by Mary Thaler, that's hot off the presses -- published November 10, 2023. I wrote it a positive review on Amazon and Goodreads, because really, we're all in this together. You'll find that review below. However, I was a bit more skeptical about some of Thaler's metrical choices, and since I shared these with the group at Forgotten Ground Regain, I'm posting them here below my review.

REVIEW

This is an exciting new long poem in a modified form of the Old English alliterative meter. Calling it an "epic" (as the back cover does) is probably a misnomer; Thaler's narrative is quite linear, and it contains few twists or complications. Yet it's also peppered with powerful passages that show exactly what a modern poet can accomplish with an archaic medieval poetics. The heroine's closing monologue is particular strong. In fact, we find a stronger feminist element in her speeches than we're liable to find elsewhere in most modern stories about Norse-like queens. Besides this monologue, I can point to several other illuminating passages as well. Overall, I'd definitely recommend this booklet, and ULFHILDR is a must-have for anyone interested in the Modern Alliterative Revival.

An example of the nice passage from Ulfhildr's dying monologue:

And how little it takes to bring this labour to nothing
A man's death will do it, or a misspoken jest
Pleasantries blundering where pride already rankles (38)

METRICS
I'm ambivalent about Thaler's use of AV. On one hand, yes, there are a few nice passages .... and I tended to like those passages that adhered more strictly to classic OE -- ax/ax alliteration and valid caesuras, especially. Here are two passages:

Valka, whose anger vied in speed with her feet
Sprang up to answer for her slandered kinswoman,
But the She-Wolf never meant to share the fight
She had laboured to get. Longer speech was unneeded. (26)

.... So the gulf that yawns

Between the waves may show some poor wight how vast
the swells are that drown him. No strand appears,
To give helpful direction. Ulfhildr had before her
A very cold road.

In these passages, despite the forbearance of valid Sievers types, you can anticipate the alliterations and feel the caeasuras. When Thaler falls short, though, it's usually because

1. her alliteration fails to fall on the most strongly stressed syllable(s) of the verse;
2. she overruns her caesuras.

That last one particularly bugs me. In the other thread, Michael mentioned the importance of the caesura (and how the alliterating head-stave falls right after it), but when Thaler overruns her caesura, it renders that device completely useless -- ugly typographically, and rhythmically jarring. Here's a bad example:

After burning the largest beam, the hall-raiders

Clearly, "largest beam" is one unit, but there's no point in having a caesura there except to maintain appearances. Why not rewrite the line as, "After burning the largest beam, the bold hall-raiders"? Although "bold" is a cliche here (and subordinate in stress to "hall"), it's at least passable. In fact I found myself wanting to rewrite several lines, and it was hard to find a consistent rhyme. Still a fascinating little poem overall, though.