We see that javascript is disabled or not supported by your browser - javascript is needed for important actions on the site. Read more

What's New - Home - Login

Member $avings: $81,563,000.92 | Books Available: 796,717 | Members Online: 172

Swap Used Books - Buy New Books at Great Prices!

How To Swap Books Sign Up Search submenu

PBS Market (New Books)

Gift Buying Guide

Book Browser Advanced Search Books Posted Today Member Book Reviews Award Winning Books NYT Best Sellers Amazon Best Sellers Most Traveled Copies Club Wish List

Discussion Forums Book Lists

Club Lists My Book Lists My Watched Lists Create a List

Blog Donations

School Donation Program In Memory of... Military Donation Program Friends of PBS

Box-O-Books Maps The Eclectic Pen Fun Stuff

20 Questions Sudoku Bookmark Creator

Top 100

Requests Posts Swappers Referrers Reviewers

Pulse of PBS Spread The Word

Invite Friends Bookmarks Facebook Page Facebook App More Ways...

Photo Gallery Recipes Club Tag Cloud Member Testimonials

Help Center submenu

How To Swap Books Browse Help Docs Ask the Librarian PBS Member Icons Live Help

Kiosk

PBS Market (New Books) Go Shopping Buy Credits Buy PBS Money Upgrade Membership Gift Certificates Transfer Credits

Need Help?

Search - The Roots of the Mountains: A Book That Inspired J. R. R. Tolkien

The Roots of the Mountains A Book That Inspired J R R Tolkien
Author: William Morris, Michael W. Perry

Tolkien fans who long for more of the same delight that they get from The Lord of the Rings will find it in the writings of William Morris, for he created the literary style that J. R. R. Tolkien brought to such perfection in his tales. As a young man writing to his future wife, Tolkien mentioned the inspiration he was receiving from Morris: "A... more »mongst other work I am trying to turn one of the short stories [of the Finnish Kalevala] . . . into a short story somewhat on the lines of Morris' romances with chunks of poetry in between." Forty-six years later, Tolkien still remembered what he had learned from Morris: "The Lord of the Rings was actually begun, as a separate thing, about 1937, and had reached the inn at Bree, before the shadow of the second war. . . . The Dead Marshes and the approaches to the Morannon owe something to Northern France after the Battle of the Somme. They owe more to William Morris and his Huns and Romans, as in The House of the Wolfings or The Roots of the Mountains." As The Lord of the Rings was being written, Tolkien's close friend, C. S. Lewis, wrote that Morris provides his readers with a "pleasure so inexhaustible that after twenty or fifty years of reading they find it worked so deeply into all their emotions as to defy analysis." In words that could apply equally well to Tolkien, he said: "It is indeed, this matter-of-factness . . . which lends to all of Morris's stories their somber air of conviction. Other stories have only scenery; his have geography. He is not concerned with 'painting' landscapes; he tells you the lie of the land, and then you paint the landscapes for yourself. To a reader long fed on the almost botanical and entomological niceties of much modern fiction . . . the effect is at first very pale and cold, but also fresh and spacious. No mountains in literature are as far away as distant mountains in Morris. The world of his imagining is as windy, as tangible, as resonant and three dimensional, as that of Scott and Homer." If you enjoy what Tolkien wrote about Aragorn, if you admire the bravery of the Riders of Rohan, if you long for more tales of adventure in a vast and unspoiled wilderness, and if you wish that Tolkien had more to say about the courage of women or about romances between men and women, then you will be delighted by these two marvelous tales from the pen of the gifted William Morris.

ISBN-13: 9781587420276
ISBN-10: 1587420279
Pages: 288
Rating:

0 stars, based on 0 rating

Publisher: Inkling Books
Book Type: Paperback
Other Versions: Hardcover
Members Wishing: 0
Reviews: Amazon | Write a Review

Genres:

Literature & Fiction >> Genre Fiction >> Historical
Science Fiction & Fantasy >> Authors, A-Z >> ( W ) >> Williams, Michael
Science Fiction & Fantasy >> Fantasy

Back to the Top ↑

Search - The Roots of the Mountains: A Book That Inspired J. R. R. Tolkien

Loading...