The Roots of the Mountains

by William Morris

The Roots of the Mountains: Wherein is Told Somewhat of the Lives of the Men of Burgdale, Their Friends, Their Neighbors, Their Foemen, and Their Fellows in Arms tells the story of the Dalemen, whose lives are disrupted by the Wolfings, and the invading Huns who follow them. Peaceful artisans, the Dalemen live in the Burgdales, a fictitious group of Germanic settlements at the foot of a mountain range. Credited with being an influence on J. R. R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, The Roots of the Mountains was written by pioneering fantasy writer William Morris in 1890. Its contribution to fantasy literature was recognized by the Newcastle Forgotten Fantasy Library in 1979.

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Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Classics

426 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1890

About the author

William Morris was an English architect, furniture and textile designer, artist, writer, socialist and Marxist associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the English Arts and Crafts Movement. Morris wrote and published poetry, fiction, and translations of ancient and medieval texts throughout his life. His best-known works include The Defence of Guenevere and Other Poems (1858), The Earthly Paradise (1868–1870), A Dream of John Ball and the utopian News from Nowhere. He was an important figure in the emergence of socialism in Britain, founding the Socialist League in 1884, but breaking with the movement over goals and methods by the end of that decade. He devoted much of the rest of his life to the Kelmscott Press, which he founded in 1891. The 1896 Kelmscott edition of the Works of Geoffrey Chaucer is considered a masterpiece of book design.

Reviews

[Steve R · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved re-reading this 1889 work by William Morris, one of my all-time favourite writers. It can be called a novel, a prose romance, or an early example of what would later become the fantasy genre. All these descriptions apply, but it is essentially a recasting of what Morris had learned from reading the Icelandic sagas, Chaucer, and other medieval works. Thus, while the story is no doubt important, the manner in which it is told is even more important.

I would actually read certain of his long sentences over again to myself while reading this story, so entrancing is Morris’ adoption of an archaic manner of speech. And he really did use long sentences. Often, five or six principal clauses were combined with as many adjectival and adverbial phrases before a period was ever encountered. Narrative development in terms of overt action was not his main purpose. He gives over a passage of more than ten pages to a description of the dress, weapons, facial features and emotional demeanours of the various groups that arrive in Burgdale to the Folk-mote prior to their attack on their common foemen. Even the title is actually ‘The Roots of the Mountains wherein is told somewhat of the lives of the men of Burgdale their friends their neighbours their foemen and their fellows in arms by William Morris.’ The sonorous trance one feels while reading his prose is almost an emotional one and exists in its adjectives and adverbs much more than in its narrative action.

The entire story is launched by the unexplained stirrings within the heart of Gold-mane, the protagonist, who is also known as Face-of-God, a passage which presents both the stylistic and narrative principles of Morris’ writings:

‘And yet I am sitting honoured and well-beloved in the House of my Fathers, with the holy hearth sparkling and gleaming down there before me; and she who shall bear my children sitting soft and kind by my side, and the bold lads I shall one day lead in battle drinking out of my very cup: now it seems to me that amidst all this, the dark cold wood, wherein abide beasts and the Foes of the Gods, is bidding me to it and drawing me thither. Narrow is the Dale and the World is wide; I would were dawn and daylight, that I might be afoot again.’

He does go ‘afoot again’, encounters both a new love and a daunting challenge which will affect the very survival of both his people and that of neighbouring settlements.

The bad guys are the ‘Dusky Men’ who have conquered and enslaved the people of many other groups, making men and women alike into thralls who labour for the pleasure of their vanquishers. Published just after Morris’ passionate embrace of socialism and his tireless yet ultimately relatively fruitless work for the Socialist League, I sensed an influence of his disdain for the capitalist class in his description of these ‘Foemen’. As one who has escaped thralldom explains, ‘They had no mind to do any many work, it was we must do all that for their behalf, and it was altogether for them that we laboured , and naught for ourselves; and our bodies were only so much our own as they were needful to be kept alive for labour.’ In other words, it was almost the same as the subsistence wages paid to the proletarian workers who were equally serving as thralls to the capitalist class in the factories of Victorian England. As Gold-mane leads the combined forces against the Dusky Men, one feels Morris working out a dream of the overthrow of this parasitical class in his own country.

There are two love stories developed throughout the story, with many inspired passages detailing longing looks, hesitant embraces and passionate declarations. One of the affairs seems to have had fate overwhelm both the man and the woman, while in the other a broken heart is healed by the tender ministrations of a new lover. Somewhat treacly stuff, but still well presented with requisite romantic language.

While it was over four hundred pages long, I purposely read this book very slowly so as better to savour the exquisite enjoyment its narrative and even more its language provided.

Highly recommended.

Original review:

A historical fantasy novel set in the Germanic territory of Burgdale, this novel shows the manner in which the Dalemen - weavers, smith and traders - work with the Woodlanders - hunters, carpenters - and with the Shepherds to confront the challenge posed to their semi-idyllic community by the Sons of the Wolf and the invasion force of Dusky Men. The Sons are driven into Burgdale by the Men, and the novel recounts the manner in which they are integrated into the pre-existing social order. particularly in the cases of five pairs of lovers, some of whom eventually marry. Not remembered; scheduled for re-reading.

[Marko Vasić · Rating 5 out of 5]

Inasmuch the legend of Culhwch and Olwen from The Mabinogion was J.R.R. Tolkien’s inspiration for the story of Beren and Lúthien, and episode with Kulervo from The Kalevala for the Turin Turambar’s saga, thus “The Roots of the Mountains” was professor’s immense inspiration for Aragorn-Eowyn-Faramir Triade. Albeit somewhat soporific and prolix, considering quite plain narrative motive, I daresay that this book is genuine gem of late Victorian English literature. It abounds with brilliant archaic phrases and sentence-constructions, as well as with marvellous geographic descriptions and topography which create the illusion of distance and space with its landscapes. Thus, it is not peculiar that Tolkien fancied much Morris’ literary expression, for onomastics is quite quintessential for both writers. Accordingly, Morris’ secondary world of this chivalric romance is settled in Dale, which is located at the Roots of the Mountains that nearly encircle it. The inhabitants belong to three different assemblages of people: the Burgdalers, the Shepherds, and the Woodlanders, all of whom speak the same language but are culturally somewhat different. On his traverses throughout the forest, the main protagonist named Face-of-God (or Gold-mane, as his secondary name), once strayed, and thus discovered another distantly related folk in the mountains, the Kindred of the Wolf, who warn him of an impending attack by the Dusky Men, a horde of foul warriors from the East. The Dalesmen unite with each other and the Kindred of the Wolf to annihilate the Dusky Men and reclaim Silverdale, the homeland taken from the Kindred of the Wolf, as well as freeing the people of Rosedale, the home of a people of a different language who had been subjugated and cruelly enslaved by the Dusky Men. Face-of-God yonder encountered a war-maidens Bow-may and Sun-beam, and Sun-beam’s brother Folk-might. At once Gold-mane fell in love with Sun-beam and they betrothed, albeit Face-of-God had a very intimate friend named Bride in his home town. Now, quite obvious are some parallels inbetween “The Roots Of the Mountains” and The Lord of the Rings. The first: usage of the term “burg” as a part of the name of the city or region (to Morris’ – Burgdale, to Tolkien – Hornburg) as well as “dale” (in Tolkien’s The Hobbit or There and Back Again, Dale was a city in the roots of Lonely Mountain which was desolated by Smaug). The second: shield-maidens that are mere reflection from The Nibelungenlied which William Morris translated from Middle German and Tolkien admired much. Particularly, the Bride was quite obvious inspiration for professor Tolkien's character of Eowyn, well known shield-maiden from “The Lord Of the Rings” trilogy. Eowyn was lovesick for Aragorn, as well as Bride was for Face-of-God. And both maidens found their soulmates at length: Bride – Folk-might and Eowyn – Faramir. Both shield-maidens avidly longed for a battle. This brilliant passage from “The Roots Of the Mountains” vividly adumbrates the Bride in her war-gear: “... there came a stir in the throng and it opened, and a warrior came forth into the innermost of the ring of men, arrayed in goodly glittering War-gear; clad in such wise that a tunicle of precious gold-wrought web covered the hauberk all but the sleeves thereof, and the hem of it beset with blue mountain-stones smote against the ankles and well-nigh touched the feet, shod with sandals gold-embroidered and gemmed. This warrior bore a goodly gilded helm on the head, and held in hand a spear with gold-garlanded shaft, and was girt with a sword whose hilts and scabbard both were adorned with gold and gems: beardless, smooth-cheeked, exceeding fair of face was the warrior, but pale and somewhat haggard-eyed: and those who were nearby beheld and wondered; for they saw that there was come the Bride arrayed for war and battle, as if she were a messenger from the House of the Gods, and the Burg that endureth for ever.“ Furthermore, Bow-may’s name was Tolkien’s obvious inspiration for Beleg Strongbow, for the term “may“ in its archaic form stands for “power“ or “strong“ as well as the abbreviation for “maiden“. And Bow-may certainly was an formidable female character, an excellent archer and devoted friend, as well as Tolkien’s Beleg. The Doom-ring was settled amidst Shadowy Vale. And in The Silmarillion, Doom-ring is pivotal spot in Valinor. Shadowy Vale had lofty Hall where council afore the battle with Dusky Men took place. In “The Lord Of The Rings“ Shadowy Vale is somewhat of Rivendel, where Council of Elrond took place afore the congregation of The Fellowship. Therewithal, in Tolkien’s work, Dusky Men are mere reflections both of Swarthy People mentioned in “The Silmarillion“ and of Orcs. In “The Roots Of the Mountains“, the Dusky Men were described as: “short of stature, crooked-legged, long armed, very strong for their size, with small blue eyes, snubbed-nosed, wide-mouthed, thin-lipped, very swarthy of skin, exceeding foul of favour”. On account of the features of the peoples mentioned in “The Roots Of the Mountains“, their polytheistic property is quite obvious. Their Gods are of Earth, Air and Water, and their connection with nature is strong. Yet, Dusky Man are monotheistic people. Theme and main motive of “The Roots Of the Mountains“ is forthcoming battle of the people of Shadowy Vale and Burgdale with Dusky Man in order to release people from thraldom and regain the occupied territory. Thus, besides the romantic parts, this story is much about devotion and unity of kindred people in order to ostracise the foes. Thus, neglecting all the tedium that permeates here and there, this book is quite important and inevitable literature for all Tolkien’s pithy admirers which are interested in all professor’s inspirations and admirations on his way to create his own mythology.

[Mel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I should have enjoyed this more than I did. I had a beautiful old 19th century edition. It was gorgeous and the story was a nice sweeping epic. There were strong female characters and the women went to war as well as the men. It was all the things that game of thrones wasn't. The only problem was that the characters were characters from a fairy tale or saga and it was hard to keep them apart in my mind as they had little personality of their own. Though I did like the two main women. I took a break from reading this for quite a lot of months. I think I would have enjoyed it more if I'd read it more quickly. I'm glad I own a copy as I definitely want to go back and try reading it again later.

[The Usual · Rating 3 out of 5]

Geography obsession? Check.
Multiple songs embedded in the text? Check.
Demonisation of characters who Don’t Look Like Us? Check.
Firm if rather simplistic sense of right and wrong? Check.

Really, I can see why you’d compare this with Tolkien.

On the other hand, since it’s William Morris:

Strong interest in the aesthetic qualities of the prose? Check.
Tableau-like quality to some of the description? Check.
Focus on visual decoration? Check.
What Chesterton called a flat quality – a sense of length and breadth but not depth, like highly ornamented wallpaper? Check.

Worth reading but lacks intricacy and I think outstays its welcome.

[Nathan Albright · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is telling and altogether appropriate that this particular book I read was published by Eccentric Books.  This is an eccentric book.  It is deliberately and flamboyantly eccentric, and in reading this book I continually thought of other works with which this work is related.  I pondered the connection between this sprawling 400 page story of the edge induced cohesion of the Wolfmen through the attacks of the dusky Huns and two particular works in particular, one of them the ring cycle by Wagner and the other writings of Tolkien.  Indeed, this book (and its predecessor, which my library sadly does not have) was a particularly strong influence on Tolkien's writing in several ways.  It portrays the Anglo-Saxons as being peaceful inhabitants of various dales, divided into clans and engaging in marriage, until their peace is disturbed by a cosmic evil in the Huns.  When one reads Tolkien, one sees numerous strands of influence here from the mix of prose and poetry, the heroic and often tragic sentiment of the epic story, the stilted dialogue and somewhat flat characterization, the embedding of the story within a large historical narrative of little particular excitement, and so on.

Let us understand that if this book is not as long as the Lord of the Rings, it is a prose epic nonetheless.  The characters in this book have somewhat ridiculous names, including our hero Face-of-God, his estranged partner The Bride, the woman he falls in love with Sun-Beam, the man who marries The Bride Folk-Might, and so on and so forth.  The conversation takes place in a ponderous fashion that is deliberately archaic, and even the placenames are provided in classic Anglo-Saxon style as Silverdale (or The Dale) or Shadowdale as the case may be.  There are various meetings, called things, where men (and women) make various plans and decide what course of action to make.  The Huns are a cosmic evil that destroys all of the proud German peoples before them until the people of the Wolf unite among themselves and send all their men to smash against the Huns and break them, but it takes quite a while for the action to get started.  The author portrays the Huns as brave but defiled, and the battle is costly even if it is victorious, there being no promise that there will not be some other sort of war later on even if this one is successful.  The dead are mourned, young men and women are given in marriage to each other, children are born to them, and life goes on.

It is unclear what the author was trying to do here unless this work is taken as part of the context of various epics of the history of the German people are taken together.  Tolkien's Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit and the remaining works of his sprawling corpus of Middle Earth can be viewed as a similar effort at providing a prose epic fit for England as a Germanic people that is nonetheless free of domination by the wicked Huns.  It will likely be impossible for anyone who is familiar with Tolkien (and it is unlikely that anyone not familiar with Tolkien will even look for this book) to not see the numerous parallels and similarities and influences that this work had on Tolkien's writing of Middle Earth.  If Tolkien did it better--and he did--then this work is evidence of Morris' profound influence on Middle Earth that certainly makes that effort far less original.  Yet it is all too common for later works to be remembered and their roots to be forgotten.  And this book deserves to be remembered for the way it serves as some of the roots that tie the soaring achievements of the Middle Earth legendarium to the context of late 19th and early 20th century works of German and Anglo-Saxon nationalism, as well as for being an entertaining read in its own right.

[J.D. Gormaz · Rating 5 out of 5]

William Morris was a (nineteenth century) Renaissance man. Besides being a polymath, he became the forerunner of the high fantasy genre with this novel and his medieval fantasies (The Well at the World's End). He was the direct inspiration to R.R.Tolkien. Although these works may not have stood the passage of time well, their historical value makes them a must-read for the high fantasy lovers.

[Çağrı · Rating 1 out of 5]

Blatant denigration of some people and flattering of others is just tastless politics and I believe have no place in art. All the blatant racism towards Turkic people from a Socialist person who is pampering Germanic and English-folk is just a garbage for me; even if it was the greatest story-telling of all time.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful, evocative novel that captures the essence of the great mythic sagas. It is not an easy read, as Morris revels in archaic language to tell a tale which seems to have been handed down from long ago. Its pace is languid, but doing helps make both the setting and characters come alive.

[Robert Barner · Rating 2 out of 5]

Tough to read. The dialogue is in Middle English. Great story however.

[Liam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as enjoyable as The House of the Wolfings, but still a fine tale.

[Cindy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Easy and engaging

This was a joy to read. There is a lot of antiquated language but the prose is poetic and there is a lot of poetry mixed in. It's a n adventure rife with love and violence.

[Josh · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like all of the William Morris that I have read. He is great at re-creating the lives of the ancient Germanic tribes and blending in myth and the supernatural.

I gave Roots of the Mountain a three because it was tedious at times. Morris included many elements of chivalric romance in this story which is not only anachronistic, but boring. I think that he wore his Victorian cap a little too much when writing this book.

The story is great though. It supposedly influenced Tolkien in the LOTR cycle, but I think that was more in spirit than any content. As exceptions, the Dunedain may be compared to the lost tribe of the Wolf and the Dark Men are almost certainly orcs, but that's about it.

[Dennis F. Hyde · Rating 1 out of 5]

Roots of the Mountains

Go to Webster's Dictionary look up the word "BORING" and there you will find the definition of this book. A waste of good ink. I can't believe I wasted two hours trying to get interested in this thing. Don't waste your time or money on this.......

[Maria · Rating 1 out of 5]

Loved the first twenty pages for the language, the sense of place. But unendurable after 100 pages