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~ Tips for Poets ~
 

Norse Alliterative Poetry Course

An Introduction & Course Outline

Wassail and welcome ! I´m very happy that your interest has led you here, and equally happy to present you this course about Norse alliterative poetry. My name is Michaela, and I´ll be your guide on this tour.

Learn the craft of creating poetry in modern English, using poetic forms that were employed by the authors of the Old Norse Eddas, by the skalds and in the Icelandic sagas!

We will keep things easy, practical and down-to-earth. First, you will learn to use the basic principle of alliteration, a technique you can employ in almost all other forms of poetry as well, not only in alliterative poetry.

Secondly, we will explore two alliterative poetic forms (verse meters) which are both beautiful and easy, and were commonly used back then: "Fornyrdhislag" (Old Meter) and "Ljodhahattr" (Song Meter).

If you already know something about these topics, or have written poetry before, that is helpful, but not required. We shall cover everything that you need to know from the start.

By the way, you don´t have to know or to learn Old Norse for this course. We will write in modern English. I know a wee bit of Old Norse, and while I am apt at comparing languages and making an educated guess, I am not competent in it, let alone a teacher.

Both alliteration and the verse meters we will use are language tools that, at least theoretically, can be applied to any language of humankind. For example, there is alliterative poetry in German - Richard Wagner´s opera "Ring of the Nibelung" is written in alliteration throughout.

Those of you that do have knowledge of Old Norse (or Old English) may have the interesting added benefit of comparing Old Norse and modern English poetry for themselves. This is not part of this course, however.

What can you expect from this course? Here´s a rough outline of the topics we will cover:

- What is "alliteration"?

- What is a "verse meter"?

- What are the rules for the verse meter "Fornyrdhislag"?

- What are the rules for the verse meter "Ljodhahattr"?

- Included are tests, examples for reading, suggestions for exercises, and advice for free writing.

And of course you can mail me for questions and support!

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