The Worm Ouroboros: A Romance

E.R. Edison’s The Worm Ouroboros inspired the epic-fantasy writers that followed him. This production is of the first edition (1922). The Lords of Demonland are celebrating Lord Juss's birthday when an envoy arrives from Witchland. He brings demands from King Gorice XI of Witchland that the Lords of Demonland kiss his toe and acknowledge him to be their King and they his ill-conditioned disobedient children. The Lords of Demonland reject this utterly and to settle the matter they challenge King Gorice to a wrestling match against their champion Lord Goldry Bluszco. But the situation is worsened by the result of that match and ultimately war is declared. A war that includes dark magic sorcery quests mystical lands and heroic high-adventure. Ursula K. Le Guin called it An eccentric masterpiece C. S. Lewis said it represented A new climate of the imagination Orville Prescott said it was A literary event of the first order. Critics compared Tolkien’s writing to it when he first published The Lord of the Rings and he freely acknowledged its influence. Eddison writes his narrative in a lyrical medieval style and in the tradition of Norse mythology Arthurian myths and Greek tragedy. In his short dedication he says It is neither allegory nor fable but a story to be read for its own sake however the theme of repetition (the cyclical nature of life history and war) is undeniable. The worm (serpent or dragon) Ouroboros is after all “The serpent which eats its own tail�.