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The Roots of the Mountains

by William MORRIS (1834 - 1896)

Chapter XIV

The Roots of the Mountains was the second in a projected series of three historical novels set in a pre-medieval Germanic world (the third was not completed). It follows the themes of House of the Wolfings, which was published in the same year, into a later generation. A loose alliance of Dalesmen, Woodlanders and Shepherds who have lived in peace around the valley of Burgdale for so long that they barely remember war, find their peace disturbed by the Sons of the Wolf and the invading Dusky Men. Morris’s exploration of the social and economic organization of this fictional pre-medieval world reflects his socialism; the figure of the Dusky Men (unable to breed with the Germanic tribes and slaughtered without compassion) reflects the racial politics of his times. Long neglected, Morris’s two Germanic novels were rediscovered when they were published as the sixteenth and nineteenth volumes in the celebrated Newcastle Forgotten Fantasy Library. - Summary by Phil Benson

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Listen next episodes of The Roots of the Mountains:
Chapter L , Chapter LI , Chapter LII , Chapter LIII , Chapter LIV , Chapter LIX , Chapter LV , Chapter LVI , Chapter LVII , Chapter LVIII , Chapter XIX , Chapter XL , Chapter XLI , Chapter XLII , Chapter XLIII , Chapter XLIV , Chapter XLIX , Chapter XLV , Chapter XLVI , Chapter XLVII , Chapter XLVIII , Chapter XV , Chapter XVI , Chapter XVII , Chapter XVIII , Chapter XX , Chapter XXI , Chapter XXII , Chapter XXIII , Chapter XXIV , Chapter XXIX , Chapter XXV , Chapter XXVI , Chapter XXVII , Chapter XXVIII , Chapter XXX , Chapter XXXI , Chapter XXXII , Chapter XXXIII , Chapter XXXIV , Chapter XXXIX , Chapter XXXV , Chapter XXXVI , Chapter XXXVII , Chapter XXXVIII