Long Alliterative Poem by Christopher Paolini in the Works

My friend Doug Anderson, who manages the blog Wormwoodiana on old forgotten fantasy texts, just informed me about an interesting new alliterative development: fantasy author Christopher Paolini, author of the Inheritance trilogy, is coming out with a long alliterative poem called The Book of Remembrance.

It's being funded on Kickstarter, apparently, and will feature seven "in-world" texts on "seven of the major battles throughout the history of Alagaësia." The alliterative poem will cover the fourth battle, "The Ambush at Stavarosk."

Although I've never read Paolini, I know he's most famous for publishing Eragon (2002) when only 19 years old. But much like Terry Brooks, I'm sure he's matured from his early efforts -- dude's been around for over two decades now! Either way, any long new alliterative poem is bound to set my whiskers a-quiver. Here's an tidbit posted by Paolini on Twitter (here and here):

So. When our grandsire’s sires strode the land,
in the days that followed the death of the Riders,
then woe was our harvest and hardship our lot.
We had thought to find freedom after the Fall,
to break the shackles the Shur’tugal imposed,
and extend our reach from our mountain realm,
across the furrowed fields of the Hornless.

But. Our freedom was brief and false.
We ran forth and raided many
a village and fort. Victory was ours
more often than not, honor for Svarvok,
won with fierce joy in bloody fights.
Then Galbatorix with new-gathered strength,
sent men with swords against our steads. . . .

. . . Tulkhqa lowered his head. “Talk
no more, for you mangle Svarvok’s truth
with every word, warp it as badly
as that horn you wrecked in fitful wrath. . . .

So, quite interesting on several levels. For me, two main things.

First, this excerpt owes some obvious debts to Beowulf, or at least Seamus Heaney's translation of Beowulf. But, content-wise, it also reminds me -- unintentionally, I'm sure -- of Tolkien's first abandoned effort at a long alliterative poem, The Lay of the Children of Húrin. This is, it has interpersonal conflicts that (Beowulf's flyting with Unferth notwithstanding, is so unlike the Old English text. Tolkien's Túrin, however, is always going out to battle or getting along poorly with various sorts. 

Secondly, we have to talk poetics, right? Well, Paolini stays pretty true to having alliterations in each line, but as isn't unusual in these matters, he ignores the Sievers types.

That's something that I always find jarring as a reader. Yes, yes, I know: I'm the one who's defended "impressionistic" revivalism multiple times. But in Old English poems, the Sievers types are arguably more important than alliteration, so when Paolini's excerpt keeps putting alliteration in the wrong places or, worse, on weak syllables, I do a double-take. Drives me batty. You shouldn't make your readers have to actively search out the alliterations. Instead, they should be the background music of the poem's natural rhythm.

But not everyone can be Tolkien, I guess.