A very RARE and beautiful and interesting fantasy book!!! The first edition of this important fantasy novel from famed textile designer William Morris, the precursor of much of present-day fantasy literature. This work from British textile designer, prominent member of the Arts and Crafts movement, and poet William Morris is now viewed as hugely influential to J. R. R. Tolkien's 'Lord of the Rings' series. As perhaps the first modern fantasy writer to unite an imaginary world with the element of the supernatural, Morris's novel is a romantically reconstructed portrait of the lives of the Germanic Gothic tribes, written in an archaic style and incorporating a large amount of poetry. Among the numerous parallels with Tolkien's saga, Morris uses Old English-style place names, such as Mirkwood, Germanic personal names such as his character Thiodolf, and dwarven characters depicted as skilled smiths. Book in original cloth with light signs of wear, paper label on spine lightly chipped. Inside very good clean condition. Rarity.