Nerdiest Thing Lately

A couple of weeks months ago my wife hosted an in-game, in-character poetry slam on WoW.  I felt compelled to bring my Tauren epic poet, and I wrote this poem for the occasion.  This is my first longish poem of any kind, and almost my first effort in this meter. If you're interested, this poem is written in an old Nordic alliterative verse-form called Fornyrðislag, on which more here. I might make more like this later, either about Warcraft or not.

If you're intrigued or confused by some of the compound nouns like spear-ash and axe-grove, these are poetic devices called kennings. Kennings are used partly to fit subjects into the constraints of the meter and partly to be amazing in their own right. For most of the ones used here it suffices to know that tree = man, so for example spear-ash = spear-man (Tauren?) = warrior. The kennings are the best part, like the chocolate chips in your ice cream.

Like most such poems, it's a lot better if you already know the story.