A Love for Alliteration

Dungeons & Dragons.

Swords and Spells.

The Dragon’s Den.

The Book of Marvelous Magic.

The Revenge of Rusak.

Creature Catalog.

Caves and Caverns.

Caves of Chaos.

Horror on the Hill.

Castle Caldwell.

Saga of the Shadow Lord.

Sword and Shield.

The Knight of Newts.

The Monster Manual.

The Fiends Folio.

Deities & Demigods.

Legends and Lore.

Unearthed Arcana … (for Bostonians anyway).

 And the list goes on.

 For reasons I’ve yet to uncover (but suspect involved weed) the creators and authors of so much D&D material appear to have had a fondness for alliteration.  Almost all of the original characters I created when I was 10, and who inspired this novel, had alliterative names originally and I often found myself thinking that a D&D module, locale or character wasn’t truly “in-universe” unless its name was alliterative:

Rocco the Rotten.

Sammy the Short.

Billy the Bad.

Dudley the Dwarf. (Remember I was 10.)

And so this passion, this mindset, this madness is displayed throughout this novel where alliteration becomes, I hope, more than just a clever game, and instead a lyrical and rhythmic guide to the prose.  My goals are akin to those of a Blues player. Despite the fact that we all know how the jam should unfold as the musician limits his or herself to just five notes with which to weave a web of wah-wah while bending blue notes til their bursting point, we are nevertheless often taken and surprised by simple slides and scales, and the requisite resolution after twelve bars with a turn-around that takes us back to hear another verse about the beautiful but oft-broken world of the bluesman's vices.

Perhaps alliteration is out of place in our modern world of primarily written rather than oral traditions (for which alliteration offered a mnemonic device to tellers of tall tales) but in truth, I hope my experimentation with consonantal repetition indeed hearkens back to bedtime stories, spoken words with the slight lilt of song-craft and admittedly perhaps more Seusical than musical.

If vexed you find yourself please advise,

but do refrain from vitriolic replies. 

I seek only a chance to play with letters

and with your kindness I’m sure to do better.

while I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping...


Original Raven image by Chelsea Potts: 
http://ckwolflingdesigns.blogspot.fr/2011/09/illustrator-assignment-3-type-pattern.html