The House of the Wolfings

Morris penned quite a tale here. This was written in the 1800’s and it’s easy to see why Tolkien enjoyed the verse/ saga style writing presented here. It can be difficult to go from prose to verse so often, but it was beautifully written. The basis is “Welsh” meaning foreigners in Germanic Goth were......more

The first 'fantasy' novel of Morris - and thus, maybe the first fantasy novel ever written, as he really invented the genre. Developed out of his work translating Norse and German medieval epic poems, it tells the story of the Goth tribe who inhabit an area called Mark in the forest of Mirkwood. The......more

If Tolkien had never written The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings series and everything that came along with that, William Morris’s House of the Wolfings would be a much bigger deal, I think. Morris’ book is a wine of similar vintage but with the extra maturity that a several decades’ difference mak......more

This is a (relatively) modern epic, written at least a century ago, but not in the Dark Ages. I am fond of JRR Tolkien’s books and I read that he was influenced by “The House of the Wolfings”. I could see many of the influences, especially the elevated language and many specific terms found in LoTR.......more

An almost forgotten book of historical fantasy from 1888 (free on Gutenberg.org), of a Gothic tribe defending themselves against Roman invasion. Both influential on Tolkien and drawing from common sources with him (you can see a definite kinship with Rohan, plus place names such as "Mirkwood"). The......more