Description

Rider Haggard is among a small selection of Victorian and Edwardian writers whom J.R.R. Tolkien acknowledged by name. His books would have been favourites in Tolkien's personal library.

In her introduction to this new edition Cecilia Dart-Thornton asserts, ‘Haggard’s classic is an action-packed adventure filled with Viking feasts duels, battles on land and sea, romance, treachery, magic, beautiful women and brave heroes. In a description that seems to herald “The Lord of the Rings”, Haggard writes that Eric “was strong and great of stature, his hair was yellow as gold, and his grey eyes shone with the light of swords.”'

‘For both authors, landscape plays as important a part as any character, and is described in concise yet evocative language. Haggard plunges his readers among the dizzying precipices, waterfalls, fast flowing rivers, icy winters and stormy seas of his fantastic Iceland, much as Tolkien sweeps us into Middle-Earth.’

Enriched by almost sixty vibrant vignettes and illustrations by the hand of artist Lancelot Speed, this book is a close replica of the 1891 edition, published when Tolkien was one year old.  He read Haggard's heroic fantasy during the formative years of his youth, absorbing, no doubt, the lavish details of the pictures as he perused the tale. Speed was a highly accomplished and prolific fantasy illustrator during Tolkien's lifetime, and he illuminated many titles Tolkien is known to have read.

A dwarf-forged sword wrested from Barrow Dwellers, its bright blade engraved with runes; the appellation: 'Ring-giver'; poetry and song; a hero with grey eyes - these and many more resemblances of style and content exist between Haggard's classic tale and 'The Lord of the Rings'.