It was written prior to Tolkien's success as author of The Hobbit and adheres to a historic, Northern English meter that falls within the bounds of alliterative verse - as does well-known epic Beowulf and Seamus Heaney's 1999 Beowulf: A New Translation.

Tolkien's modernization of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, another Arthurian legend written in alliterative verse, was first published in 1925.