The House of the Wolfings
by William Morris
The first step to characteristic large-scale fantasies that have such an effect on the genre ... It is the House of the Wolves. Here the situation is semi-historical: the European Saxon community resists the crumbling successes of late imperial Rome. The romantic-supernatural story involves a large mix of poetry. Indeed, Morris' main contribution to the book is his beautiful prose and poetry, since the version of the story is actually a collaboration with the Scandinavian scientist Eirikr Magnusson, who provided an actual translation of the original text, which Morris later left as prose and poetry. J.R.R. Tolkien wrote of his impact on The Lord of the Rings: "Dead swamps and approaches to Morannon are imperative ... More for William Morris and his Huns and Romans, as in The House of the Wolves or Roots of the Mountains....
