'Rage-inflamed, wreckage-bent, he ripped open the jaws of the hall. Hastening on, The foe then stepped onto the unstained floor, Angrily advanced: out of his eyes stood An unlovely light like that of fire'

Legends from the Ancient North
Beowulf
The Elder Edda
The Saga of the Volsungs
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
The Wanderer: Elegies, Epics, Riddles

These are the great epic stories that inspired J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. Conjuring up a twilight world of quests, treachery, magic, evil and fellowship, they are the most ancient narratives from Northern Europe and bring us as near as we will ever get to the origins of Tolkien's Middle Earth.