"The Arthurian Interlude is brilliant, in topic and in scansion, in strength and depth of language. The most accomplished, imaginative and technically-correct alliterative verse in Modern English since Tolkien.”—Tom Shippey....
more"The Arthurian Interlude is brilliant, in topic and in scansion, in strength and depth of language. The most accomplished, imaginative and technically-correct alliterative verse in Modern English since Tolkien.”—Tom Shippey.
“astounding work, and very beautiful.”—Grevel Lindop.
“A remarkable, ambitious and visionary project by an Anglo-Saxonist with a profound knowledge of the Celtic material: truly A Matter of Britain.” — Prof.John Carey (UCC).
“Sumptuous, extraordinarily resourceful, word-rich poetry, the alliterative mode impressively achieved, a muscular system actively and consistently providing its peculiar auditory power, demanding to be read aloud...” — S. A. J. Bradley, Professor Emeritus of Anglo-Saxon, University of York.
“…dense atmospheric descriptiveness, an exhaustive mythological erudition, a diction that seems to harness the entire history of the English language.” — Dr Dennis Wise, Tolkien & Lovecraft scholar, University of Arizona.
“…a splendid and legitimate development of medieval legend, enriched mightily from folklore and other mythologies...[its] poetic language carries me along like a great river." — Professor Ronald Hutton
“One of the truly great mythic works of our time. Every now and then a work comes along that is of such stature that one can only marvel at its creator. Not since John Heath-Stubbs and David Jones have I seen such ambitious astounding brilliance. This profound work expands the Arthurian myth further than anyone else since Geoffrey of Monmouth and Malory. In this brief volume Rahul Gupta has captured the essence of the Arthurian mythos and translated it into a sequence of poems which are both technically and emotionally brilliant. Its visionary impact is tremendous. As someone who has studied and written about this topic for over 50 years I have to say that I am in awe of the author’s understanding of the greatest myth ever to emerge from our culture. If you have even the smallest interest in the Arthurian myths you should read this work. If you are a lover of poetry you should read this work. If you love great literature you should read this work. These are still only a taste of what will, when completed, be one of the masterworks of this century, but they call out to be read. Be prepared for a fantastic and glorious experience.” — John Matthews, Arthurian author, Order of Bards, Ovates & Druids, &c.
Three long excerpts from my Arthuriad, as published in the 2021 book, are to appear in Dennis Wilson Wise, 'Speculative Poetry and the Modern Alliterative Revival: A Critical Anthology', alongside work by C.S. Lewis, Auden, Heath-Stubbs, Edwin Morgan, Poul Anderson, John Myers Myers, Paul Edwin Zimmer, &c, due to be published this year by Fairleigh Dickinson University Press.
" [...] Epic calls for an ‘answerable’ epic style, a diction and a form fit for the genre, and proper to the specific work. Such stylistic elements should be designed to work, part, parcel and all of a piece, with the artefact as a single whole, that it may self-evidently embody its own justifying and unifying æsthetic rationale. For an epic poem on ancient and traditional British mythological themes composed in English, Old English and Norse versification affords a linguistic and prosodic soundworld, an equivalent “translating” the Celtic, suited to orchestrating this ‘Tale of the Tribe’.
A special Middle English tradition begins in the written record with Laȝamon (12th-century), with re-tellings continued by the 'Gawayn'-Poet (late 14th) and in 'The Alliterative Morte Arthure' (early 15th). The Middle English Arthurian alliterative poems combine thereby more-or-less Celtic content with an originally Germanic style and language; though it should be noted that Middle English alliterative versecraft falls far from the classic discipline of Old English and Old Norse technique. Although some allusion to Middle English is intended, the versification used in this epic is mostly the Old English form of what is termed alliterative verse, in the stichic epic style of 'Beowulf'. This style bears some likeness to later paragraphed ‘blank verse’. However, the excerpts here also already include passages in the Old Norse stanzaic styles of Eddic fornyrðislag and one nugget of Skaldic dróttkvætt.
The present texts should not be mistaken for the author speaking, in his own voice, “about” himself, as a contemporary private individual.The poem is not Lyric. It does not partake of the poetics of purported confession of the poet’s personal interior life, sensations, or emotions.
Both Synopsis and poem are intended to have a certain element of serious playfulness. They undertake yet another re-telling of shared cultural stories, and in a deliberately and self-consciously stylized fashion: for example, the ancient versification.
This poem is modern mythopœic fiction, an artifice impossible to have been attempted before very recent times. It is not my intention to revive the so-called “alliterative” verse for universal use in all of today’s poems. The versification and diction have been chosen, from linguistically available forms, as styles, fictional devices, suited to the content.
The text on the page is only a score for performance. The paratextual glyphs are meaningful but inessential. The verse is meant to be read aloud and heard, in accordance with the metre.
RG"
I have recourse to slight licence in the dróttkvætt
