Description

This fantasy novel by the famous 19th century English designer, artist and writer William Morris describes the journey of Hallblithe, a young man on an epic quest to rescue his love.

J.R.R. Tolkien was two years old when the illustrated edition was published in 1894, complete with decorated borders and capitals by Morris and richly detailed pictures by Walter Crane.

Tolkien read Morris’s works as a boy, enjoying both the story and the pictures. This new edition is a close replica of that very book, with more than 700 exquisite graphic images woven into the layout.

William Morris was an enormous influence on Tolkien's literary interests. Tolkien discovered Morris's translations in his teens, and his interest in the great man deepened at Exeter College, Oxford, where Morris had also been an undergraduate. Dart-Thornton’s new introduction to this edition describes more of the links between Morris and Tolkien.

Like Morris, the illustrator Walter Crane was associated with the Arts and Crafts Movement. Crane is renowned as the most prolific and influential children's book creator of his generation. He created all his illustrations as woodcuts for Morris’s Kelmscott Press.

'The Story of the Glittering Plain' is one of several William Morris works known to have inspired J.R.R. Tolkien’s creation of 'The Hobbit' and 'The Lord of the Rings'.