“Ancient” Poems May Be Re-Published In Scholarly Volume

It’s been a fairly quiet week, but some things have happened. Wednesday, for instance, I got my first COVID-19 vaccination. But also I got an email asking about possibly reprinting two poems published twenty and twenty-six years back, respectively, to use in a proposed academic anthology of speculative alliterative poetry in the late 20th century.

These for me are older works, but with a borrowed technique that has much, much more ancient roots. In my case, the newer is one titled “The Worm in the Wood,” first published in STAR*LINE in May-June 2001, a poem opening with quotes from Geoffrey of Monmouth and Sir Thomas Malory, both from the Middle Ages, on the fate of King Arthur. This written in a style “inspired” by the 14th century English poem GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT. And the older, “The Westfarer,” first published in DARK DESTINY II: PROPRIETORS OF FATE (White Wolf, 1995) on Norse explorations of the new world — and werewolves — taking after the Old English epic BEOWULF (no, this one’s not about a werewolf itself) in style, probably from before the 10th century.

Interesting stuff, this, for those into English literary roots, a lot of which filter up to us in the form of horror and fantasy tropes. Dragons anyone, for instance (I think I’ve run across two new anthologies reading right now)? But in any event, I emailed my “yes” yesterday afternoon, Thursday, and today received a reply: Many thanks, James. . . . I’ll send along some paperwork once we’ve got everything finalized on our end.

Keep your eyes on these pages. . . .