# The House of the Wolfings (Recommendations for pre-Tolkien high fantasy) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 2, 2014, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-house-of-the-wolfings-recommendations-for-pre-tolkien-high-fantasy/680344 "2014-02-02T13:29:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Brynhildr\_Budladottir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Brynhildr\_Budladottir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brynhildr_Budladottir)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2014, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-house-of-the-wolfings-recommendations-for-pre-tolkien-high-fantasy/680344/1 "2014-02-02T13:29:22Z")
I found this book by William Morris online a few hours ago and started reading it. I’m really loving the poetry and how old fashioned it is. Anyone else read this? ---
**Author:** ![Brynhildr\_Budladottir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Brynhildr\_Budladottir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brynhildr_Budladottir)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2014, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-house-of-the-wolfings-recommendations-for-pre-tolkien-high-fantasy/680344/2 "2014-02-03T00:49:28Z")
EDIT (that I wanted to add yesterday) [Online text of _The House Of the Wolfings_](http://http://www.marxists.org/archive/morris/works/1888/wolfings/wolfings.htm) Also, does anyone know of any good pre-Tolkien high fantasy? ---
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2014, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-house-of-the-wolfings-recommendations-for-pre-tolkien-high-fantasy/680344/3 "2014-02-03T12:32:48Z")
The usual suspects are Dunsany, Eddison and Morris. You could check out [The Worm Ouroborus](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Worm_Ouroboros) by **E. R. Eddison** , [The King of Elfland’s Daughter](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_King_of_Elfland%27s_Daughter) by **Lord Dunsany** and more **William Morris** , like [The Wood Beyond the World](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wood_Beyond_the_World), although I, personally, didn’t really take to Morris. That was 30+ years ago though, so I mabye should try him again! ---
**Author:** ![Brynhildr\_Budladottir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Brynhildr\_Budladottir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brynhildr_Budladottir)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2014, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-house-of-the-wolfings-recommendations-for-pre-tolkien-high-fantasy/680344/4 "2014-02-03T14:57:16Z")
> [@Meurglys](#): > > The usual suspects are Dunsany, Eddison and Morris. > > You could check out [The Worm Ouroborus](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Worm_Ouroboros) by **E. R. Eddison** , [The King of Elfland’s Daughter](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_King_of_Elfland%27s_Daughter) by **Lord Dunsany** and more **William Morris** , like [The Wood Beyond the World](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wood_Beyond_the_World), although I, personally, didn’t really take to Morris. That was 30+ years ago though, so I mabye should try him again! Is “Worm Ouroborus” the one set on Mercury where they repeat everything over again? ---
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2014, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-house-of-the-wolfings-recommendations-for-pre-tolkien-high-fantasy/680344/5 "2014-02-03T15:21:44Z")
Yes, it is. His other books are loosely connected to it. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2014, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-house-of-the-wolfings-recommendations-for-pre-tolkien-high-fantasy/680344/6 "2014-02-03T23:42:17Z")
> [@Morwen Edhelwen](#): > > EDIT (that I wanted to add yesterday) > > [Online text of _The House Of the Wolfings_](http://http://www.marxists.org/archive/morris/works/1888/wolfings/wolfings.htm) > > Also, does anyone know of any good pre-Tolkien high fantasy? Your link didn’t work, because of an extra “http://” Try this: [William Morris - The House of the Wolfings](http://www.marxists.org/archive/morris/works/1888/wolfings/wolfings.htm) > [@](#): > > Also, does anyone know of any good pre-Tolkien high fantasy? > [@Meurglys](#): > > The usual suspects are Dunsany, Eddison and Morris. > > You could check out [The Worm Ouroborus](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Worm_Ouroboros) by **E. R. Eddison** , [The King of Elfland’s Daughter](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_King_of_Elfland%27s_Daughter) by **Lord Dunsany** and more **William Morris** , like [The Wood Beyond the World](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wood_Beyond_the_World), although I, personally, didn’t really take to Morris. That was 30+ years ago though, so I mabye should try him again! Yeah, if you want poetry and old-fashioned, those are the biggies. I know _The King of Elfland’s Daughter_ is the Dunsany that’s most often mentioned, but I personally prefer _The Charwoman’s Shadow_ or some of his short stories (e.g. "[The Fortress Unvanquishable, Save for Sacnoth](http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Fortress_Unvanquishable,_Save_for_Sacnoth)). Beyond that, you could look at some of the books that were published in the [Ballantine Adult Fantasy series](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballantine_Adult_Fantasy_series). Some are pre-Tolkien, and others at least are from before Tolkien’s influence on the genre became so dominant. There’s also [this](http://www.amazon.com/Tales-Before-Tolkien-Modern-Fantasy-ebook/dp/B000FBJAL4/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1391470857&sr=1-1&keywords=before+tolkien) one-volume anthology. ---
**Author:** ![Brynhildr\_Budladottir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Brynhildr\_Budladottir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brynhildr_Budladottir)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2014, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-house-of-the-wolfings-recommendations-for-pre-tolkien-high-fantasy/680344/7 "2014-02-04T01:08:07Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Your link didn’t work, because of an extra “http://” Try this: [William Morris - The House of the Wolfings](http://www.marxists.org/archive/morris/works/1888/wolfings/wolfings.htm) > > Yeah, if you want poetry and old-fashioned, those are the biggies. I know _The King of Elfland’s Daughter_ is the Dunsany that’s most often mentioned, but I personally prefer _The Charwoman’s Shadow_ or some of his short stories (e.g. "[The Fortress Unvanquishable, Save for Sacnoth](http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Fortress_Unvanquishable,_Save_for_Sacnoth)). > > Beyond that, you could look at some of the books that were published in the [Ballantine Adult Fantasy series](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballantine_Adult_Fantasy_series). Some are pre-Tolkien, and others at least are from before Tolkien’s influence on the genre became so dominant. > > There’s also [this](http://www.amazon.com/Tales-Before-Tolkien-Modern-Fantasy-ebook/dp/B000FBJAL4/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1391470857&sr=1-1&keywords=before+tolkien) one-volume anthology. Thanks, Thudlow! That anthology looks good 🙂