A Tale of the House of the Wolfings was written by William Morris. Morris (1834-1896) was a writer, artist, poet, textile and wallpaper designer, political activist, and translator, one of the true Renaissance men of the nineteenth century.

A Tale of the House of Wolfings is set somewhere in Europe “in times long past.” In a forested plain called the Mark live several communities of men, including the Wolfings, the Hartings, the Elkings, the Bearings, and many others. They all obey the same laws and they live in peace together, each in their own part of the plain and each in their own great wooden hall. The Wolfings are one of the greatest of the Folks and are led by their chief, Thiodolf, “the wisest man of the Wolfings, and the best man of his hands, and of heart most dauntless.”¹ His foster-daughter is Hall-Sun, a beautiful woman who is wise despite being “scarce twenty winters old.” Late one summer the Wolfings hear a sound which they know to be the war-horn of Elkings. When the Wolfings gather together in their House a messenger from the Hartings arrives bearing the war-arrow. He tells the Wolfings that a great army from the South is marching against the Markmen, and that all the armies of the Mark will gather together in three days to do battle with the invaders. Thiodolf orders the Wolfings to prepare for war. That night Thiodolf walks deep into the forest around the House of the Wolfings and meets his lover, Wood-Sun, “a daughter of the Gods of thy kindred, and a Chooser of the Slain!”² She warns him that she cannot foretell the result of the coming war and that he may die in battle against the invaders. She gives him a hauberk, made by the dwarfs, which will leave Thiodolf impervious to harm, and asks him to wear it during the war so that she will not have to mourn for him.

Before the Wolfings leave the Hall-Sun bids them farewell, but the Wolfings are troubled at her words, for she does not foretell their fate, which she had done before past battles. When the Wolfings have gone the Hall-Sun is visited by an old woman who leads the Hall-Sun into a discussion of the coming battle. The Hall-Sun tells the old woman that she has dreamt of the invaders in the House of the Wolfings, and the House itself on fire. The Hall-Sun cries herself to sleep and the crone kisses her good-bye and leaves. The crone is the Wood-Sun in disguise; because she could not see the fate of the coming battle she consulted with the Hall-Sun. When she wakes up the Hall-Sun knows that she was visited by her mother but does not remember what was discussed or what she foretold.

The Wolfings meet up with other men of the Mark, the Beamings and the Elkings, and discuss what they have heard about the invaders, who call themselves “Romans.” Unlike the men of the Mark the Romans are indolent and treat their thralls badly. When the men of the Mark gather Thiodolf is named their War-duke, but he insists that another duke be chosen as well, and the Markmen chose Heriulf, a well-loved warrior, older but huge in stature. But Heriulf admits to being insufficiently clever to dealing with these new invaders and defers the honor of the dukedom to another man, Otter of the Laxings. The Markmen tell each other what they have heard about the Romans, and a man who dwelt among them for three days describes their personalities and tendencies at war.

The Wood-Sun, again disguised as an old woman, returns to the House of the Wolfings and stays with the women. The Hall-Sun speaks with the women, and then a messenger from the men arrives and tells the women about the first battle between the Markmen and the Romans and how Thiodolf led the Markmen to victory. The Wolfing women celebrate, but the Hall-Sun prophesies many deaths in the near future. She also remembers that there is a little-used path that leads from the sea to the House of the Wolfings, and she tells the women that the Romans will use it to march directly to the House. She orders the strongest and hardiest of the women to watch that path and report back if they see the Romans on the path.

Another messenger arrives at the House of the Wolfings and tells Hall-Sun and the women about the second battle between the Markmen and the Romans. It was another victory for the Markmen but one in which many of the Markmen died, including Heriulf, from the Romans’ sling stones and arrows. Thiodolf sends another messenger to the House to retrieve the dwarf-wrought hauberk, which he left behind when the Markmen departed for war. The following night the Wood-Sun meets with Thiodolf, and he tells her that he has not worn the hauberk because “I deem that some doom is wrapped up in it; maybe that I shall fall before the foe if I wear it not; and that if I wear it, somewhat may betide me which is unmeet to betide a warrior of the Wolfings.”³

Otter leads his men to fight the Romans in a different part of the Mark and defeats the Romans in a battle at a ford but also loses many of his men. Otter pursues the Romans and defeats them again, losing still more men. Thiodolf receives information that another force of the Romans is marching on the House of the Wolfings and leads the Markmen back toward the House. They soon encounter the Roman force fighting Otter’s men. During the battle Thiodolf swoons as if he has been wounded, and only recovers when the hauberk is removed from him. He returns to the fight, but a well-meaning servant wraps the hauberk around Thiodolf, and he becomes paralyzed and watches the battle as if in a dream. The Romans defeat the Markmen, but because of the weak will of the Roman leader the Markmen are able to retreat. The Markmen occupy the House of the Wolfings, and Thiodolf meets with the Wood-Sun, who sees what wearing the hauberk has done to Thiodolf and allows him to leave it with her. They part, each knowing that it is their final farewell. The next morning the Markmen meet the Romans in battle, and the House of the Wolfings is taken by the Romans. Before it can be completely put to the torch the Markmen drive the Romans from the House and defeat them. Thiodolf is mortally wounded in the battle.

During his lifetime William Morris was known as much for his graphic design work, especially in the books produced by his Kelmscott Press, as for his writing. But Morris’ most influential work may have been his prose fantasies, including both The House of the Wolfings and The Story of the Glittering Plain. The influence of Morris’ fantasies on twentieth century fantasy writers, especially C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, was significant, as both Lewis and Tolkien acknowledged.⁴ A number of themes and plot elements from Morris’ work appear in Lewis’ and Tolkien’s work, including Morris’ declamatory prose style, the quest plot structure, the use of Northern European source material, setting, and vocabulary–“what later critics were to call ‘the Teutonic thing’ or ‘the Northern thing’”⁵–and the emphasis on landscape as an essential element of a fantasy story. But like H. Rider Haggard (see: The Allan Quatermain Adventures, She) Morris was more than merely influential on later writers–though he certainly was that, and in fact the omnipresence of Northern European source material, setting, and vocabulary in modern fantasy fiction, though obviously caused by J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, is ultimately derived from Morris’ work–and deserves a much greater readership than he currently possesses.

Modern readers may not find The House of the Wolfings completely accessible, and it is a more difficult novel to read than The Story of the Glittering Plain. Most of Wolfings’ dialogue is in the form of poetry or song, and the declamatory narrative style can be off-putting to readers who are accustomed to a less formal narrative approach. Morris does not spend a great deal of space on characterization. Although his characters are recognizably human, neither unrealistically moral nor depraved, they lack psychological depth, and Morris places far more emphasis on recreating the style and approach of the Norse sagas than he does on creating rounded, multi-dimensional characters. And the novel’s vocabulary is old-fashioned and occasionally verges on archaic.

Nonetheless, The House of the Wolfings is often surprisingly absorbing. Unusually for nineteenth century fantasy fiction, Wolfings shows no influence from either the kunstmärchen or Lost World novels (see: The Lost Race Story), and readers already familiar with nineteenth century literature will find Wolfings a pleasant change for those reasons. Wolfings has a slower pace than most modern fantasy novels. This allows Morris to spend a considerable amount of space in describing the details of the Wolfings’ culture and in creating an alien world as detailed as anything in modern science fiction. Morris’ vocabulary is often lyrical and poetic, especially in the novel’s descriptive passages. Morris’ depiction of the Romans as villains and the barbaric Goths as the heroes is both historically innovative–few novels before House of the Wolfings portrayed the opponents of the Romans as anything but evil (but see Hypatia)–and something which may appeal to modern readers, who will have read far more stories in which the Romans were the heroes and may well desire an alternative.

Wolfings’ portrayal of the feudal, pastoral lifestyle of the Marksmen is sentimental and romanticized, but Morris does not omit the harshness of their world. Throughout the novel the characters are aware that they will eventually die, whether of old age or (more likely) in the war with the invaders. Wolfings’ readers cannot pretend that the characters will live forever, as the characters themselves know that is not the case. This acknowledgment of mortality is far more common in nineteenth century fantasies (as in, for example, H. Rider Haggard’s King Solomon’s Mines) than in twentieth century fantasies.

Print: William Morris, The House of the Wolfings (Cabin John, MD: Borgo Press, 2002).

Ingrid Hanson, William Morris and the Uses of Violence, 1856-1890 (London: Anthem Press, 2013).

¹ William Morris, A Tale of the House of the Wolfings and All the Kindreds of the Mark Written in Prose and in Verse (Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1890), 22.

² Morris, House of the Wolfings, 31.

³ Morris, House of the Wolfings, 209.

⁴ As described at length in Michael W. Perry’s Foreword in The House of the Wolfings: A Book That Influenced J.R.R. Tolkien (Seattle: Inkling Books, 2003) and in Perry’s entry on William Morris in the J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: Scholarship and Critical Assessment (Abingdon: Routledge, 2007).

⁵ David Langford, “William Morris,” The Encyclopedia of Fantasy, eds. John Clute and John Grant (New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 1997), 664.