The House of the Wolfings: A Tale of the House of the Wolfings and All the Kindreds of the Mark was published by Reeves & Turner in 1889. The Wolfings are a Gothic tribe living in a forest (the Mark) somewhere along the Roman frontier. When the legions advance into their territory, the Wolfings and their allied kindreds must fight or be enslaved.
The narrative mixes prose and verse in the manner of the Icelandic sagas: prose for action and dialogue, verse for elevated moments (prophecy, lament, battle ecstasy). Thiodolf, the Wolfings’ war-leader, wears a magical hauberk given by his lover (a supernatural woman of the forest) — but the hauberk is also a curse, and he must choose between survival and the freedom of his people.
Morris wrote the book after his disillusionment with organized socialism (the Socialist League was fragmenting) and his growing conviction that the pre-capitalist communities of medieval and ancient Northern Europe embodied the social ideals he could not achieve through politics. The Wolfings’ communal society — where land is held in common, decisions are made in assembly, and individual heroism serves the collective — is Morris’s political ideal translated into narrative.
Tolkien drew heavily on The House of the Wolfings for The Lord of the Rings: the forest setting, the mixing of verse and prose, and the hero who must sacrifice himself for his people all reappear in Tolkien’s work.
Collecting The House of the Wolfings
First edition (Reeves & Turner, London, 1889): Blue cloth boards.
Market values:
- First edition, fine: $300–$800
- Very good: $100–$300