William Morris ~8 hr read

In the dale of Burgdale live the free folk of the Wolf and the Woodlanders, until the coming of the dreadful Dusky Men, and the men of the dales must gather to war for their homes and their freedom.

William Morris's 1889 novel is a foundational work of modern fantasy, a heroic saga of a free people. Majestic, lyrical, hugely influential. Read it for a cornerstone of the genre, an epic of dale-folk rising against cruel invaders, in the archaic, beautiful style that directly shaped Tolkien's Middle-earth.

In its time

Published in 1889, during the 1880s, lost races and dying earths.

Reading it

~8 hr read (a novel-length work, settle in).