The Worm Ouroboros is a heroic high fantasy novel by Eric Rucker Eddison, first published in 1922. The book describes the protracted war between the domineering King Gorice of Witchland and the Lords of Demonland in an imaginary world that appears mainly medieval and partly reminiscent of Norse sagas. This is the book that shaped the landscape of contemporary science fiction. J. R. R. Tolkien acclaimed its author as ""the greatest and most convincing writer of 'invented worlds' that I have read."" Written in the best traditions of Homeric epics, Norse sagas, and Arthurian myths, it recounts compelling tales of warriors and witches. The Worm Ourorobos is second only to the Lord of the Rings in the pantheon of 20th century English fantasy. You have never read anything like this before

This is the book that shaped the landscape of contemporary science fiction. J. R. R. Tolkien acclaimed its author as "the greatest and most convincing writer of 'invented worlds' that I have read." Written in the best traditions of Homeric epics, Norse sagas, and Arthurian myths, it recounts compelling tales of warriors and witches.

The Worm Ouroboros (1922) is a high fantasy novel by E. R. Eddison. Inspired by the Norse sagas and medieval history, Eddison crafted an epic story of magic, adventure, romance, and war. Praised by New York Times critic Edwin Clark as a novel that "transcends all ordinary life," The Worm Ouroboros is frequently named among the greatest works of fantasy fiction ever produced. At their palace in Demonland, Lord Juss, his brothers Goldry and Spitfire, and their cousin Brandoch Daha receive an ambassador from Witchland. After a brief introduction, the visiting dwarf reveals his business-King Gorice XI demands their absolute fealty. Rather than submit, however, Lord Juss challenges Gorice to a wrestling match with Goldry, to be held on the neutral Foliot Isles. Knowing the fate of Mercury hangs in the balance, Goldry fights bravely and defeats the wicked King. Through black magic, however, an evil sorcerer condemns Gordry to imprisonment on a mystical mountain peak. Distraught, Juss, Spitfire, and Brandoch return to Demonland to mount an army in order to march on the capital of the Witches, who have joined forces with Lord Gro of Goblinland. The Lords of Demonland break through enemy lines, making their way to the citadel of Carce, where they mistakenly believe Goldry has been taken. The Worm Ouroboros is a story of bravery and betrayal by a master of high fantasy whose imaginative gifts have influenced generations of devoted readers. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of E. R. Eddison The Worm Ouroboros is a classic of British literature reimagined for modern readers.

A poignant memoir and tribute to the Oxford poet Nairn by the author who went on to create The Worm Ouroboros and the groundbreaking Zimiamvia fantasy trilogy. Eric Rucker Eddison's first book, originally published privately in hardback during the First World War, is a poignant memoir and tribute to the Oxford poet Philip Sidney Fletcher Nairn, whose work was so inspired by his Scottish ancestry, life in the Lake District, and his subsequent travels across Asia. This first official paperback edition includes a poignant and evocative biography, a dozen photographs, and more than 50 of Nairn's poems, and marks the centenary of his untimely death in Kuala Lumpur in May 1914, aged just 30 years old.

Egil's Saga is the 10th-century Nordic equivalent of The Iliad and The Odyssey. Translated from the Icelandic with an introduction, notes and an essay, this is the first time Eddison's version of this epic heroic saga has been published in paperback. The saga of Egil, son of Grim the Bald, tells the exciting tale of a medieval warrior-poet and his many Viking adventures. Challenged by his ugly appearance and haunted by rumours that his grandfather was a werewolf, Egil devotes himself to Odin, god of kings, warriors and poets, and determines to avenge his father's exile from Norway. With action ranging across Iceland and Scandinavia down to Scotland and England, Egil's thrilling encounters include kings, sorcerers, berserkers and outlaws, as the story follows his transformation from youthful savagery to mature wisdom. Sometimes considered the greatest of the Icelandic sagas, Egil's Saga is the 10th-century Nordic equivalent of The Iliad and The Odyssey. Eddison's acclaimed translation, published in 1930, has been long unavailable, and demonstrates the author's amazing capacity for evocative and erudite language. It reflects the swift dramatic terseness and vivid character-drawing which made the saga style in prose narrative such an enduring model for modern historical and fantasy literature, and his meticulous translation includes elaborate notes and annotations.

The Worm Ouroboros (1922) is a high fantasy novel by E. R. Eddison. Inspired by the Norse sagas and medieval history, Eddison crafted an epic story of magic, adventure, romance, and war. Praised by New York Times critic Edwin Clark as a novel that "transcends all ordinary life," The Worm Ouroboros is frequently named among the greatest works of fantasy fiction ever produced. At their palace in Demonland, Lord Juss, his brothers Goldry and Spitfire, and their cousin Brandoch Daha receive an ambassador from Witchland. After a brief introduction, the visiting dwarf reveals his business-King Gorice XI demands their absolute fealty. Rather than submit, however, Lord Juss challenges Gorice to a wrestling match with Goldry, to be held on the neutral Foliot Isles. Knowing the fate of Mercury hangs in the balance, Goldry fights bravely and defeats the wicked King. Through black magic, however, an evil sorcerer condemns Gordry to imprisonment on a mystical mountain peak. Distraught, Juss, Spitfire, and Brandoch return to Demonland to mount an army in order to march on the capital of the Witches, who have joined forces with Lord Gro of Goblinland. The Lords of Demonland break through enemy lines, making their way to the citadel of Carce, where they mistakenly believe Goldry has been taken. The Worm Ouroboros is a story of bravery and betrayal by a master of high fantasy whose imaginative gifts have influenced generations of devoted readers. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of E. R. Eddison The Worm Ouroboros is a classic of British literature reimagined for modern readers.

The third volume in the classic epic trilogy of parallel worlds, admired by Tolkien and the great prototype for The Lord of the Rings and modern fantasy fiction. E. R. Eddison was the author of three of the most remarkable fantasies in the English language: The Worm Ouroboros, Mistress of Mistresses and A Fish Dinner in Memison. Linked together as separate parts of one vast romantic epic, fans who clamoured for more were finally rewarded 13 years after Eddison's death with the publication of the uncompleted fourth novel, written during the dark years of the Second World War. This new edition of The Mezentian Gate includes additional narrative fragments of the story missing from the original 1958 edition. Together with an illuminating introduction by Eddison scholar Paul Edmund Thomas, this volume returns Edward Lessingham to the extravagant realm of Zimiamvia and concludes one of the most extraordinary and influential fantasy series ever written.

The first volume in the classic epic trilogy of parallel worlds, admired by Tolkien and the great prototype for The Lord of the Rings and modern fantasy fiction. According to legend, the Gates of Zimiamvia lead to a land 'that no mortal foot may tread, but that souls of the dead that were great upon earth do inhabit.' Here they forever live, love, do battle, and even die again. Edward Lessingham - artist, poet, king of men and lover of women - is dead. But from Aphrodite herself, the Mistress of Mistresses, he has earned the promise to live again with the gods in Zimiamvia in return for her own perilous future favours. This sequel to The Worm Ouroboros recounts the story of Lessingham's first day in this strange Valhalla, where a lifetime is a day and where - among enemies, enchantments, guile and triumph - his destiny can be rewritten.

The second volume in the classic epic trilogy of parallel worlds, admired by Tolkien and the great prototype for The Lord of the Rings and modern fantasy fiction. A lady strays from a garden path and enters a different realm. A king wages dynastic war for control of three kingdoms. As villains plot to take control of an alternate world inhabited by the souls of the dead, a mysterious, magical woman seeks her destiny, igniting a splendid pageantry of battles and quests, poisonous love and triumphant passion, doomed loyalties and unsurpassed courage. And while Edward Lessingham engages in an earthly romance in twentieth-century England, seduction in Zimiamvia takes place over the most lavish of banquets...

The lost classic masterpiece of magical realms, admired by Tolkien and the great prototype for The Lord of the Rings and modern fantasy fiction. On the far side of darkness lies a world where two mighty forces are making ready for a war of kingdom against kingdom, warrior against witch, and honour against treachery. It is a world that beckons Edward Lessingham and is totally at odds with his Edwardian background. Torn by greater passions than mere mortals can know, the adventure-loving lords of Demonland are pitted against the cruel enchantments of the witch-king Gorice XII. As swords cross with clash of steel, they begin their odyssey in glory and terror. E.R. Eddison's masterpiece stands as one of the great prototypes of modern fantasy fiction. The intricately woven themes of high adventure, sorcery and the conflict between good and evil transport the reader to epic worlds beyond imagination.

THE WORM OUROBOROS, no worm, but the Serpent itself, is a wonderful book. As a story or as prose it is wonderful, and, there being a cause for every effect, the reason for writing it should be as marvelous again. Shelley had to write the Prometheus Unbound, he was under compulsion; for a superhuman energy had come upon him, and he was forced to create a matter that would permit him to imagine, and think, and speak like a god. It was so with Blake, who willed to appear as a man but existed like a mountain; and, at their best, the work of these poets is inhuman and sacred. It does not greatly matter that they had or had not a message. It does not matter at all that either can be charged with nonsense or that both have been called madmen -- the same charge might be laid against a volcano or a thunderbolt -- or this book. It does not matter that they could transcend human endurance, and could move tranquilly in realms where lightning is the norm of speed. The work of such poets is sacred because it outpaces man, and, in a realm of their own, wins even above Shakespeare.

The Worm Ouroboros is a heroic high fantasy novel by Eric Rucker Eddison, first published in 1922. The book describes the protracted war between the domineering King Gorice of Witchland and the Lords of Demonland in an imaginary world that appears mainly medieval and partly reminiscent of Norse sagas. The work is slightly related to Eddison's later Zimiamvian Trilogy, and collectively they are sometimes referred to as the Zimiamvian series. Eric Rucker Eddison (24 November 1882 - 18 August 1945) was an English civil servant and author, writing under the name "E.R. Eddison." Eddison is best known for the early romance The Worm Ouroboros (1922) and for three volumes set in the imaginary world Zimiamvia, known as the Zimiamvian Trilogy: Mistress of Mistresses (1935), A Fish Dinner in Memison (1941), and The Mezentian Gate (1958).

This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.

THE WORM OUROBOROS, no worm, but the Serpent itself, is a wonderful book. As a story or as prose it is wonderful, and, there being a cause for every effect, the reason for writing it should be as marvelous again. Shelley had to write the Prometheus Unbound, he was under compulsion; for a superhuman energy had come upon him, and he was forced to create a matter that would permit him to imagine, and think, and speak like a god. It was so with Blake, who willed to appear as a man but existed like a mountain; and, at their best, the work of these poets is inhuman and sacred. It does not greatly matter that they had or had not a message. It does not matter at all that either can be charged with nonsense or that both have been called madmen -- the same charge might be laid against a volcano or a thunderbolt -- or this book. It does not matter that they could transcend human endurance, and could move tranquilly in realms where lightning is the norm of speed. The work of such poets is sacred because it outpaces man, and, in a realm of their own, wins even above Shakespeare.