William Morris, The Roots of the Mountains

Robert Boenig (Texas A&M University)
Download PDF Add to Bookshelf Report an Error

In November of 1889, William Morris’s

The Roots of the Mountains

was published by Reeves & Turner, the second of his series of eight prose romances that he wrote during the last decade of his life. Its predecessor,

The House of the Wolfings

(1888), recounts the successful struggles of a first-century Gothic tribe against an army of invading Romans. The new book is in many ways a sequel to the earlier one. It too describes a Gothic tribe’s struggles against an invader — this time the Huns, whose violent interactions with the Gothic tribes began in the last quarter of the fourth century. In

The Roots of the Mountains

a heroic tribe called the Sons of the Wolf or the House of the Wolf plays a large role; its members are clearly the descendents of the tribe depicted in

The House of the

2050 words

Citation: Boenig, Robert. "The Roots of the Mountains". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 24 August 2007 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=7618, accessed 19 March 2024.]

7618 The Roots of the Mountains 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here

Leave Feedback

The Literary Encyclopedia is a living community of scholars. We welcome comments which will help us improve.