 | The House of the Wolfings: A Book That Inspired J.R.R. Tolkein by William Morris
Buy new: £7.95 / Used from: £6.14 A fictional fantasy history of the war between the Goths and the Romans. Absolutely gripping. A considerable part told in verse - but very readable. Published 1887/8.
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 | The Roots of the Mountain: A Book That Inspired J.R.R. Tolkein by William Morris
Buy new: £10.95 / Used from: £9.54 The descendants of Goths from The House of the Wolfings are now in a fight for their very existence with the murderous Huns. Less verse than the previous book. Published c 1889.
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 | The Wood Beyond the World (Wildside Fantasy) by William Morris
Buy new: £8.99 / Used from: £3.37 Handsome young hero leaves loveless marriage to seek adventure, finds a beautiful wicked witch and falls in love with her even more beautiful slave. Published c 1894/5.
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 | The Well at the World's End: 1 by William Morris
Buy new: £7.99 / Used from: £3.14 Ralph, youngest of 4 royal sons, leaves home to find adventure, falls in love, loses love, seeks a magic well, performes brave deeds and so on. Lovely story. Published c 1896.
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 | The Water of the Wondrous Isles by William Morris
Buy new: £14.99 / Used from: £28.23 One of the last of Morris's fantasies. A wonderful story about the adventures of a stolen child, Birdalone, how she escaped from the witch who enslaved her and grew into a wise and beautiful woman.
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 | Lud-in-the-mist by Hope Mirrlees
Buy new: £14.68 / Used from: £4.95 I read a borrowed copy of this book over 30 years ago and spent the next 30 years trying to find and buy a copy of my own. Recently back in print. Buy it while you still can.
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 | The Mabinogion (Dover Thrift)
Buy new: £1.99 / Used from: £0.01 This book is not so much fantasy as legend and mythology - OUR, British mythology. It's an origin, a foundation - hard to read but worth an effort for those interested.
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 | Beowulf: A New Translation
Buy new: £5.97 / Used from: £2.41 Beowulf is another point of origin: not a fantasy but a legend and a foundation for our modern fantasy. There are several translations but Heaney's is the easiest to understand.
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 | Eaters of the Dead by Michael Crichton
Buy new: £4.49 / Used from: £0.22 Eaters of the dead isn't old at all but it's based on the tale of Beowulf - in case you're interested in the story but can't manage the archaic style of the translations from the original manuscript.
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 | The King of Elfland's Daughter (Del Rey Impact) by Lord Dunsany
Buy new: £6.15 / Used from: £6.32 Beyond the fields we know, across the boundary of twilight, lie the lands of Faery. And that is where Alveric must travel, to obey his father and wed Lirazel, the King of Elfland's daughter.
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 | The Saga of the Volsungs: The Norse Epic of Sigurd the Dragon Slayer (Penguin Classics) by none
Buy new: £5.98 / Used from: £8.38 Not fantasy, but a mixture of myth, legend and history. Another one of fantasy's foundation stones. An odd but interesting read - a bit like the Mabinogion.
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