The Worm Ouroboros

Apr 30, 2012 mark monday rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantastickal-classik

The Worm Ouroboros! It goes around and around and around... and back around again!

This is the story of the Lords of Demonland, their arch-foes the Lords of Witchland, various others (Lords of Goblinland and Impland and Pixyland et al), and their endless conflicts and political maneuverings and deeds of derring-do and black-hearted villainy and mystical quests into the heights of dark mountains and women so awesomely beautiful that it means instant infatuation and fearsome magic that swoops down...more The Worm Ouroboros! It goes around and around and around... and back around again!

This is the story of the Lords of Demonland, their arch-foes the Lords of Witchland, various others (Lords of Goblinland and Impland and Pixyland et al), and their endless conflicts and political maneuverings and deeds of derring-do and black-hearted villainy and mystical quests into the heights of dark mountains and women so awesomely beautiful that it means instant infatuation and fearsome magic that swoops down on both victim & conjurer alike and battles at castle gates and battles at sea and battles, battles, battles. Don't think of "Demons" and "Witches" as, well, demons and witches... those are just words used to describe the superhuman residents of the planet Mercury. The entire book is over the top, larger than life: delirious fantasy pitched to operatic heights, filled with ornate description, stylized dialogue, far-flung dream journeys and dreams of ever more glory. The Worm Ouroboros is an intricately designed relic and a work of strange, byzantine splendor.... This Mortal Coil as a grand and never-ending odyssey of Constant Adventure. I have read nothing like it.

If I were to look at the plot alone, this would be a 3-star book. The narrative is an enjoyably breathless series of scenes full of cliffhangers and courtly intrigue. Fun. But also deeply problematic in a couple ways. The first problem: this book appears to glorify war in the most naive way imaginable: an endless boys' adventure where fighting is always the goal and peace is never the solution. The title and the "ending" in some ways subvert this analysis. I don't know how ironic or critical Eddison intended to be, but the basic idea of endless adventure being an self-perpetuating cycle... that does provide a certain depth as well as an ambiguous response to all of the naivete on display. More problematic is the near complete focus on the aristocrats of the world, enacting their grand battles using thousands upon thousands of common folk as their disposable chess pieces. One aristocrat dies - oh the tragedy! A thousand soldiers die in one minor sally - eh, that was a bad loss but whatever, the game must go on. There is something obviously very wrong about that kind of glorification of battle for battle's sake, no matter the cost. So for an action-packed narrative that is also naively offensive: 3 stars for the fun and 3 stars for the lack of humanity.

But what makes this novel uniquely enjoyable is the language. It truly lifts The Worm Ouroboros to a higher place. It was both a constant delight and a constant challenge. The language itself is highly artificial - archaic even; the descriptive passages are dense, complex, luscious; the heroes and the villains are characterized in the most Olympian terms possible; the Nietzschean morality on display is illustrated with an almost feverish passion; there is a swooningly homoerotic vibe in how the men are depicted; the arch displays of humor and mockery are both sneakily subtle and quaintly broad; a quest by one brother searching for another becomes dreamily transcendent through the author's use of hallucinogenic prose. It is all so intense that it becomes hypnotic. Fully engorged testosterone carefully wrapped up in layer upon layer of dainty filigree and velvety shadow. High Fantasy that is as high as a kite. I smoked it all up; the language often put me to sleep but, just as often, it kept me wide awake with a kind of heady glee. It stimulated parts of my brain that hadn't been stimulated before.

Here is a typically odd, amusing, and rather beautiful passage:

' So speaking, the King was come with Gro into his great bath chamber, walled and floored with green serpentine, with dolphins carved in the same stone to belch water into the baths that were lined with white marble and sunken in the floor, both wide and deep, the hot bath on the left and cold bath, many times greater, on the right as they entered the chamber. The King dismissed his attendants, and made Gro sit on a bench piled with cushions above the hot bath, and drink more wine. And the King stripped off his jerkin of black cowhide and his hose and his shirt of white Beshtrian wool and went down into the steaming bath. Gro looked with wonder on the mighty limbs of Gorice the King, so lean and yet so strong to behold, as if he were built all of iron; and a great marvel it was how the King, when he had put off his raiment and royal apparel and went down stark naked into the bath, yet seemed to have put off not one whit of his kingliness and the majesty and dread which belonged to him.

So when he had plunged awhile in the swirling waters of the bath, and soaped himself from head to foot and plunged again, the King lay back luxuriously in the water and said to Gro, "Tell me of Corsus and his sons, and of Laxus and Gallandus, and of all my men west over seas, as thou shouldest tell of those whose life or death in our conceit importeth as much as that of a scarab fly. Speak and fear not, keeping nothing back nor glozing over nothing. Only that should make me dreadful to thee if thou shouldn't practise to deceive me." '

A shout-out for Lord Gro: a sinister and devious Goblin Judas, a dainty dandy and a star-struck dreamer as prone to flights of romantic fancy as he is to fits of melancholy and despair, inconstant as Hamlet, destined to forever betray his masters, villain and hero, a gloriously unique creation. Go, Gro, Go!

And So: If thou shalt drink deep of the pleasures of language, if thou dost seek fearsome challenge brimming o'er with fantastickal wonder, dread enchantements and treacherous peril... then thou must hasten to consume this rare delight! A lovely treasure, burning boldly, ever-bright! (less)

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Mar 28, 2012 Terry rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, fantasy, that-northern-thing

Another love-it-or-hate-it book. Mannered in its language, weird in so many ways, and chock-full of larger than life characters acting in ways that most people just don't get. If you have a problem with something written in an archaic style, then you probably won't get much out of it, but if you like that kind of thing I think the book repays reading and is definitely worth it.

First off a caveat: it took me two reads of the book to appreciate it and a third to decide that I thought it was geniu...more Another love-it-or-hate-it book. Mannered in its language, weird in so many ways, and chock-full of larger than life characters acting in ways that most people just don't get. If you have a problem with something written in an archaic style, then you probably won't get much out of it, but if you like that kind of thing I think the book repays reading and is definitely worth it.

First off a caveat: it took me two reads of the book to appreciate it and a third to decide that I thought it was genius.

The Worm is definitely unlike almost anything else out there and is a throw-back to much older works. The first sign, as mentioned above, is the prose itself. Eddison uses a faux-Jacobean that is certainly foreign to most people's preference for Hemingway-esque 'transparent prose'. Don't worry overmuch about this though, for Eddison knew what he was doing and he is one of, if not the, only writers post-Renaissance who actually can get away with this style. He knows what he's doing, as opposed to the myriad other fantasy authors who try to add 'realism' to their stories by sprinkling it with 'thee's' and 'thous' without knowing how to properly use the language. This was a man who intimately understood the archaic form of the english language and used it to perfection...he was a stylist and thus anyone who hates stylistic prose will not likely be
drawn to him, but anyone who appreciates the crafstmanship of language (think Morris & Dunsany) has to at least appreciate if not love Eddison. Reading this book is analagous to partaking of a sumptuous feast, so long as you enjoy devouring words.

The characters are not perhaps as 'psychologically realistic' as what is generally expected these days, but I'd definitely say they are more than just names. Think of them as archetypal 'supermen' striding across the pages performing great deeds for their own sake. They don't really want to save the world, just experience it to the full, so they may not be particularly sympathetic according to your world view. I always found that they generally had very distinctive characters, but they did each generally represent one dominant trait or way of looking at the world.

If you want a larger than life adventure in exquisite prose then I think _The Worm_ is great. If you want something else you should perhaps skip it.

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Jul 13, 2009 Keely rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, reviewed, uk-and-ireland, favorites

Though now largely forgotten, Eddison's early works of Fantasy inspired both Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, who never surpassed him in imagination, verbal beauty, or philosophy. In terms of morality, both later authors painted their worlds in broad strokes of black and white, excepting a traitor here or a redemption there. Like in the nationalistic epic 'Song of Roland', evil and good are tangible effects, borne in the blood.

Though similar on the surface, Eddison's is much more subtle. Though he depict...more

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Oct 31, 2012 Jonathan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Jonathan by: Keely

Shelves: classic-challenge, fantasy, fantasy-sci-fi-challenge, classic-literature, gritty-reads

The fantasy genre has become unfortunately muddled in recent history. For every Tolkien work you have a Shannara novel, for every Narnia you end up with an Eragon. Now I'm not an elitist type of reader. I don't disqualify a novel from being entertaining simply because it may be poorly written or a 'clone' of other better fantasy novels. However, that said, the staying power of a fantasy novel diminished when that novel is punctured through with unimaginative cliché or a derivative story.

The poin...more
The fantasy genre has become unfortunately muddled in recent history. For every Tolkien work you have a Shannara novel, for every Narnia you end up with an Eragon. Now I'm not an elitist type of reader. I don't disqualify a novel from being entertaining simply because it may be poorly written or a 'clone' of other better fantasy novels. However, that said, the staying power of a fantasy novel diminished when that novel is punctured through with unimaginative cliché or a derivative story.

The point of writing that brief above paragraph is to point out my point. The point being that I am making the point about fantasy novels and confusion. In fact I think my point is being made about confusion even further. A lot of fantasy is written like this to its detriment, giving fantasy a poor reputation as merely escapist entertainment for the geeks, nerds and fanboys/fangirls.

It is works like The Worm Ouroboros which reveal that fantasy has merit as a work of art and as true literature. This is fantasy written in the sweeping style of the epic, a highly beautiful and poetic style that serves to convey truths and interesting narratives at the same time. The result is that The Worm Ouroboros cannot be equalled by many current fantasy novels in its grandeur. Perhaps older tales like the Iliad, The Odyssey and Le Morte d'Arthur may have the same quality, yet I have not read those yet.

The Worm Ouroboros focuses on a long fantastic history of war between Demonland and Witchland. The very names of these two lands strive to provide an ambient, overwhelming, moral greyness to the world created by Eddison. It is a world where you assume at first that those members of Witchland are the enemy and then turn to consider those of Demonland as the enemy. In so doing the overall analysis is that in war there are two sides who perceive the other as the enemy. In many ways Eddison's tale is a narrative about the other and as he so clearly states, not an allegory.

The language is beautifully archaic, a mixture of Modern and Middle English utilised perfectly by Eddison to describe his world like a painter using molten words for colour. His adjectives bristle with life and energy, in fact his words contain an exuberance lacked by many writers now or ever. This is not only a fantasy classic but a classic of classics.

If you are one of those readers who deny fantasy as a genre, content to allow it to sit as the realm of nerds who dwell alone, then I fully recommend that you seek out this novel instead. It is one of the great classics of fantasy and of literature which reveal the value of using the traditions of epic narrative and to some small degree fairytale to reveal truth. I won't discuss what truths are in this story as I feel that that is up to the individual reader, however I fully recommend this novel to any reader, particularly anyone who has a set idea of fantasy as dull and dead.

Addendum
I must add that I first found the novel hard to get into. However with perseverance I discovered the magnificence of the novel and with much thought have come to recognise how great a masterpiece it is. It is not necessarily easy reading, I believe I missed some minor details here or there, but it is excellent reading serving the purposes of all fine literature!(less)

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Aug 10, 2010 Simon rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy-masterworks, fantasy

This classic is an epic fantasy masterpiece. A perfect example that proves that works of this kind need not be sprawling volumes in sprawling series. Beautifully told (in an albeit antiquated prose style) and lusciously described it features everything that one might want including perilous journeys, great characters, court intrigue, dangerous sorcery and epic battles.

The characters are great heroes and villains of old, paragons of virtue, loyalty, determination or treachery. They deliver speech...more

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Jan 25, 2012 Bill Kerwin rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy

This is an odd book. It begins with a frame story the author abandons after a score of pages, features a host of characters whose names sound like the imaginary friends of a clever six year old (Fax Fay Faz, Goldry Bluszco, Lord Brandoch Daha, etc.), and a meandering narrative often slowed by page upon page of magnificent but hardly essential description. Its style is an Elizabethan pastiche of leisurely--and often difficult--sentences crammed with "hard words" and crowded with allusive phrases...more

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Mar 10, 2009 Jim rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy

This is a 'classic'. A lot of high-powered writers liked it. I tried several times to make it through it before I managed it. The language is almost constructed - it doesn't flow for me as much as writhe around before I finally pin it down. It's in an odd style (Elizabethan?) with a story that reminds me of the Iliad or the Odyssey. Great story, sucky style. Why he writes such long, convoluted sentences with archaic words in such a stilted style is beyond me. All the critics like it, but I doubt...more

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May 12, 2012 Caleb Wilson rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

An idiosyncratic classic. Eddison's marvelous imagination shines throughout, giving us heroes out of a technicolor Medieval romance, whose clothes and dwellings are described in so much detail that it almost approaches French Surrealism, but it's also very apparent that this was written before such a thing as "secondary world" fantasy actually existed, since the book apparently takes place on Mercury, where the countries are called Demonland, Witchland, Pixieland, Impland, and Ghoul-land, despit...more An idiosyncratic classic. Eddison's marvelous imagination shines throughout, giving us heroes out of a technicolor Medieval romance, whose clothes and dwellings are described in so much detail that it almost approaches French Surrealism, but it's also very apparent that this was written before such a thing as "secondary world" fantasy actually existed, since the book apparently takes place on Mercury, where the countries are called Demonland, Witchland, Pixieland, Impland, and Ghoul-land, despite all being made up of fairly normal people. (Though some of them are bright red, and some might have tiny horns.)

The characters are as bold and bright as those of any epic. Only one approaches enough depth that I'd care to know more about him, Lord Gro of Witchland, formerly of Goblinland, who is a serial traitor, drawn by some quirk of personality always to defect to the losing side in any conflict. The rest are like glorious and vivid paper dolls, flat and yet perfect in their setting; Lord Brandoch Daha, the finest swordsman in the world and something of a coxcomb, who when mocked by the enemy for his bejeweled armor, brags that he will replace the jewels that fall out a hundred times over from his plundering; Corund, the ferocious, bald, illiterate, and highly able captain of the villainous King Gorice the XII; Corsus, King Gorice's less able captain who is a drunkard and coward; and many others.

Much of Eddison's invention is purely ornamental, such as a magic cloak which (not entirely reassuringly) guarantees its wearer will never be taken alive in battle, and which is sadly not a big part of the story, and the Golden Basilisk, The Starry Basilisk, and the Bloody Basilisk, which cause whoever they look at, respectively, to catch fire, to shrink into nothing, and to melt down to a skeleton, and which, again sadly, are only mentioned and never seen. On the other hand, there is an awesome mantichore battle which takes places on a cliff-side, and which is followed by a kick-ass mountain climbing episode.

Ultimately, much of the strangeness of "The Worm Ouroboros" comes from its alien attitude towards war. Eddison was apparently no Tolkien who lost all his friends in WWI. In fact, he seems to think that war is pretty cool. Certainly most of his characters do. At the very end, when the evil King Gorice and his dark castle have fallen, the heroes are lost in melancholy because there are no wars left to fight. But don't worry, there is a solution to even this problem...(less)

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Tim Yes! Lord Gro, definitely my favorite character. (btw, Grolik Gark? No existy, it seems. Apparently a figment of my imagination, though surely an Eddi...more
May 14, 2012 06:31am

Caleb Wilson The basilisks were an illusion that appeared to Lord Juss when he was rescuing his brother from the magical mountain-top prison. In fact, they might h...more
May 14, 2012 12:24pm

Dec 14, 2011 Teresa Edgerton rated it 5 of 5 stars

THE WORM OUROBOROS

Rambling, obscure, written after the style of the seventeenth century, filled with characters it is difficult to even like, much less love, and the story is supposed to take place on Mercury, though it is not science fiction and there is no particular reason why the author should have hit on that planet more than any place else — this hardly sounds like a recommendation, I know, yet the book is, deservedly, considered a classic.

The story begins when King Gorice XI of Witchland...more THE WORM OUROBOROS

Rambling, obscure, written after the style of the seventeenth century, filled with characters it is difficult to even like, much less love, and the story is supposed to take place on Mercury, though it is not science fiction and there is no particular reason why the author should have hit on that planet more than any place else — this hardly sounds like a recommendation, I know, yet the book is, deservedly, considered a classic.

The story begins when King Gorice XI of Witchland lays claim to Demonland and demands the fealty of her rulers, Lords Juss, Goldry Bluszco, and Spitfire. (Do not concern yourself with the names. The more you think about them, the less sense they will make. Demons, Witches, Pixies, Imps ... none of these means what you think it does, and names of many of the people and places seem to come from a mishmash of sources.) The Demons, as Gorice surely expects, refuse. A wrestling match between the hulking Gorice and Goldry, not mean wrestler himself, is arranged to decide the matter. Since Gorice has decorated his palace with the skulls and and bones of the ninety-nine champions he has already defeated, he is confident of his triumph. However, when the contest begins to go against him, he cheats, and is still defeated. He loses the match and his life in the process. The Witches, having cheated, accuse the Demons of treachery and murder, refuse to keep their part of the bargain, and depart.

And this sets off a series of kidnappings, battles, defeats, victories, treacheries, heroic deeds, more battles, treason, poisoning, battles, and suicide.

The most fascinating characters are the antagonists, that is, the inhabitants of Witchland, and one Goblin who switches sides so often it is hard to keep track of whose side he is on at any given moment. Yet Gro is no opportunist, for there is something in him that forces him ever to take the losing side when he already knows full well that it is about to suffer a staggering defeat. It is not quite compassion; it is undoubtedly a compulsion; it may be on philosophic or aesthetic grounds. Gro does not appear to be entirely certain himself. Corund, if ruthless and ever willing to advise his overlord to triumph by trickery and outright cheating, is nevertheless steadfast, and perversely honorable in his way. King Gorice XII, a sorcerer of great renown, and in some way a reincarnation of all the previous Gorices (another thing not to think about too much, Eddison often had several incarnations of a character living at once) is simply compelling in his own unmitigated wickedness.

Gorice is monstrous in his will to dominate. He cares for no one and nothing but his own ambitions, but Corund — great-hearted though not good-hearted (a subtle distinction) — forgives his one-time friend Gro his treason, although almost certainly in part to please his wife, the supernaturally beauiful Pryzmyra. Pryzmyra is all magnificent contradiction, by turns fierce and sensuously languid. We are to understand that she was given to Corund in marriage when she was barely more than a child, and he at least in middle age. Now he is old, while she has reached a gorgeous maturity. But she is fierce in her affections, and though naturally attracted to the high and noble, is deeply attached to her husband, even when it causes her great difficulty reconciling her loyalty to himand to the Witchesm with her equally fierce affections for her brother La Fireez, Prince of Pixyland and a staunch ally of the Demons. Why she should feel anything but contempt for Gro is a mystery, but something about him touches her.

The protagonists, however, are hardly less monstrous than the Witches, though in a different way, being egotistical in the extreme. Lord Juss’s bedchamber, for instance, is decorated with murals depicting, not the magnificent deeds of his ancestors, which would be too commonplace, no, his chamber is adorned with murals of his own glorious deeds. In their defense, each of these characters seems to admire the others as much as he admires himself. They are presented as beneficent overlords, yet two of them leave their people when war is threatening, in order to pursue a personal point quest. When given a choice between the easy way and the seemingly impossible they always choose the difficult and dangerous course in order to satisfy their heroic nature -- even though their swift and safe return home is desperately needed in order to turn the tide of battle. One gets the feeling that the people they rule do not matter in the least, and only exist to give these lordly characters someone to rule over — for men such as they must rule. It is in their nature. We wish for them to succeed, partly in grudging admiration, and partly because the results of their failure would be so much worse.

Eddison obviously admired the men of an earlier age — or at least an idealized version of them— and longed for a time when men were heroes and women were goddesses, or else not worth thinking about at all. Much of the book is taken up with the rather tedious adventures of Juss and his friend Brandoch Daha. Thankfully, there are also sections devoted to the Witches’ invasion of Demonland, a tender subplot about unrequited love, and another about the jostling for power among those of Gorice’s henchmen sent to lead the invasion.

One reason why the book succeeds is that the author has perfect command of the style he adopts. Writing in the 1920’s, late Elizabethan/Jacobean English is spot on, and he frequently uses it to create stunning and breathtakingly beautiful t effects. As you may have guessed ,from the description above, in spite of its weaknesses, the story is melodrama at its most heart-stirring and magnificent best, it’s characters, if infuriating, so very much larger than life. If you are up for a truly challenging read, you could hardly do better than The Worm Ouroboros.
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Nov 12, 2009 Jeff rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was great all-around, one of the better fantasy books I've ever read. It's from 1922 but it is weirdly out of time, a crazy mixture of the Iliad and Shakespeare and Arthurian romance, but with a bit of modern sensibility and darkness.

I've been reading fantasy on and off since I was a little kid, but lately I am hardly ever impressed by it at all, after suffering through too many sub-par Tolkien knock-offs. I've particularly avoided "high fantasy" -- the kind that has epic quests and world-...more This was great all-around, one of the better fantasy books I've ever read. It's from 1922 but it is weirdly out of time, a crazy mixture of the Iliad and Shakespeare and Arthurian romance, but with a bit of modern sensibility and darkness.

I've been reading fantasy on and off since I was a little kid, but lately I am hardly ever impressed by it at all, after suffering through too many sub-par Tolkien knock-offs. I've particularly avoided "high fantasy" -- the kind that has epic quests and world-changing plots and warfare -- and mostly only been reading "low fantasy" and "sword and sorcery" stuff like R.E. Howard and Fritz Leiber.

So I was surprised to enjoy a high fantasy again. The Worm Ouroboros has this crazy archaic Elizabethan-style prose, particularly in the dialogue, that was totally fun to read and sent me scrambling to occasionally look up a word. It also had hints of linguistic humor, like when the characters would occasionally read or write a letter, and the text would be have era-appropriate orthography with non-standardized spelling that was difficult to decipher.

It was fun, while reading, to compare The Worm Ouroboros to The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien intended TLOTR and his Middle Earth to represent an invented mythological past of our own world, a great saga for the English to rival Scandinavian and Germanic sagas. But really, TLOTR doesn't feel much like part of our world; it feels pretty much like a remote (but interesting) fantasy world. (If you start getting into "advanced" Tolkien material about Valar and Maiar and whatnot, it really feels out there.) Maybe the hobbits are similar to plain ole' Englishmen, but Tolkien's elves and wizards seem like aliens, his evil powers strange and otherworldly... what is Sauron supposed to be? It's hard to even know, he's not part of the human world or traditional mythology or a Christian devil. It's fantasy.

The Worm Ouroboros, though, really feels like something that takes place in our own world (even though it's sort of set on Mercury). It draws on European myths and ancient Greek archetypes, and in that sense is easier to relate to than Tolkien's world. Its setting, full of lords and ladies and warfare and honor, is really reminiscent of Arthur's knights traipsing through dark forests, or Tristram sailing to Ireland to capture Isolde, while in the background there is unrelenting warfare to rival the Achaeans and the Trojans.

Anyways, great fun... I want to either read more Eddison soon or else pick up the Iliad which is conveniently sitting on my shelf... (less)

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Jan 16, 2011 Tom Meade rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: weird, fantasy

A very strange book, frequently beautiful, ofttimes prolix, and with a thematic structure that left me scratching my head. I don't know enough about Eddison so as to say that he wholly endorsed the view put forward by the Demons - namely, that "fun", or "beauty" is the whole goal of life, and that, should access to this be disbarred, it may be necessary to engage the Gods themselves in assuring the perpetuation of an indefinite cycle of meaningless violence - but given the presence of characters...more

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Aug 05, 2008 Cheryl Terrel rated it 2 of 5 stars

I never knew what bloated meant until I read this book. At least 50% of this book described flowers and clothing. The other 50% was ridiculous. Since it was written following the First World War, I can imagine it being a commentary on the absurdity of the British cultural position toward warfare, but it would have been nice for at least ONE character to be sort of likable/reasonable/intelligent/NORMAL.

The story in a nutshell: one of three brothers is kidnapped, the remaining brothers and their f...more

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Feb 23, 2009 Terence rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Terence by: Atlas of Fantasy (J.B. Post)

Shelves: sf-fantasy

Why read The Worm Ouroboros?

Two reasons, chiefly. The first is that it’s fun; the second is that it’s a pleasure to read something whose author is so obviously in love with the English language, reveling in its intricacies.

To the first reason, if you’re looking for strong, character-driven plots or philosophical ruminations on Man’s condition, look elsewhere. Ouroboros is a celebration of the most pagan warrior virtues of the Western tradition. The basic story is the epic war between Demonland (...more Why read The Worm Ouroboros?

Two reasons, chiefly. The first is that it’s fun; the second is that it’s a pleasure to read something whose author is so obviously in love with the English language, reveling in its intricacies.

To the first reason, if you’re looking for strong, character-driven plots or philosophical ruminations on Man’s condition, look elsewhere. Ouroboros is a celebration of the most pagan warrior virtues of the Western tradition. The basic story is the epic war between Demonland (the “good guys”), ruled by the brothers Juss, Spitfire and Goldry Bluszco, and Witchland (the “bad guys”), ruled by the deliciously wicked Gorice XII. Despite comparisons to Tolkien’s Middle Earth, Eddison’s ethos derives from Homer and the Norse Sagas stripped of their Christian veneer. Our heroes and our villains both are mighty and valiant fighters; and their women are uniformly fair. What sets the Demons and their allies apart is their sense of honor and a barbaric chivalry.

To the second reason: Eddison obviously loves English, most particularly Elizabethan English. Perhaps it’s because I have been reading and watching a lot of Shakespeare these last few months and my brain is more apt to translation than otherwise but I could wish our modern authors were as conscious and as careful and as exuberant in their prose as Eddison. An example taken entirely at random:

“Therewith he looked on the Demons, and there was that in his eyes that stayed their speech.

In a while he spake again, saying, `I sware unto you my furtherance if I prevailed. But now is mine army passed away as wax wasteth before the fire, and I wait the dark ferryman who tarrieth for no man. Yet, since never have I wrote mine obligations in sandy but in marble memories, and since victory is mine, receive these gifts: and first thou, O Brandoch Daha, my sword, since before thou wast of years eighteen thou wast accounted the mightiest among men-at-arms. Mightily may it avail thee, as me in time gone by. And unto thee, O Spitfire, I give this cloak. Old it is, yet may it stand thee in good stead, since this virtue it hath that he who weareth it shall not fall live into the hand of his enemies. Wear it for my sake. But unto thee, O Juss, give I no gift, for rich thou art of all good gifts: only my good will give I unto thee, ere earth gape for me’”

(p. 161).

And this is the tenor for the next 400 pages. Despite that, the prose is very readable and if you can make it past the first chapter or two, the reading is worth the effort. Don’t get me wrong: I don’t want to encounter Elizabethan-style prose in every book I read but one of the things I don’t like about a lot of what passes for literature out there is the dull, turgid writing that ignores English’s rhythms, has its characters talk like denizens of the 21st century, and refuses to push the envelope in what English is capable of.

A third reason I enjoyed The Worm Ouroboros peculiar to myself is Eddison’s ear for names. Sometimes, he produces a real clunker like “Goldry Bluszco” but, on the whole, his instincts are true and when he names a character or a place it “feels” right – Gorice; Corsus, Corund & Corinius (Gorice’s chief generals); Lord Juss; Krothering Keep; Morna Moruna; Lady Mevrian; Carce; and so on.

The gods know I wouldn’t want to live in a world of Demons and Witches but I had a lot of fun vacationing there.(less)

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Feb 11, 2008 D.J. Edwardson rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Readers of Mythology

This book is brilliant and a literary feast that makes modern works seem wanting in their command of the english language. It is written in Jacobian english and is highly stylized, requiring modern readers to have a dictionary handy to be able to follow Eddison's wide-ranging and archaic vocabulary. But those who make the effort will uncover a story rich in heroism, epic characters and events. I did find the ending somewhat disappointing, but it is true to the kind of fatal heroic world view of...more

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Mar 27, 2008 Dave rated it 5 of 5 stars

The critics say that The Worm Ouroboros is up there with The Lord of the Rings as far as classic fantasy goes.

I'm inclined to agree.

It's slow going because of the book's old-timey idiom, but the language is very enjoyable so I don't mind a bit of digestion time.

With so many fantasy tales today sporting dark, cool anti-heroes it's very refreshing to go back to the old themes of idyllic champions, cooperation, and brotherly love.

(ideas that have not been forgotten by metal, thank you DragonForce....more

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Aug 23, 2007 Joel Barnes rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: derring-doers

Shelves: thisyear

wow! nothing like good old epic fantasy fun to keep you going on a backpacking trip. closest comparison is to the Odyssey, rather than lord of the rings, but the fellows in this book make Odysseus look like a hack. Highest quality feats of strength, political intrigue, dashing of skulls on rocks, bringing-forth of darkness, and all manner of derring-do. Totally sweet; although if you can't see yourself reading shakespeare for pleasure, it might be tough to get through due to olde english aspirat...more

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May 19, 2013 Tonari rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Un poema epico in prosa pi�� che un libro fantasy come potremmo intenderlo al giorno d'oggi. Eddison ha uno stile affascinante ed evocativo, per quanto la sua verbosit�� possa affaticare, rallentando di molto la lettura. In certi punti richiede pazienza e impegno, ma stiamo parlando di uno degli scrittori che ha fatto la storia del fantasy e penso proprio ne valga la pena.

Non sono d'accordo con alcune scelte dell'autore, forse ingenuit��: considerando che l'azione si svolge su Mercurio, ho trova

...more

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Jan 18, 2013 Randolph Carter rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, fiction

A flawed classic of high fantasy. Notable for breaking ground where few had tread before in such a sweeping manner. Flawed by being primarily declamation and posturing with little character insight. For instance, why is Lord Gro always tempted to support the underdog? As such, it reads, especially in its faux archaic language, like an Icelandic Saga more than anything else, although there was never any saga this complex. Oh, and there is Wrastling too!

Also, I'm not sure what happens to the "drea...more

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Aug 04, 2011 Ryan Young added it

This should have been such a great book. The prose style is fantastically transporting despite the story. Had Eddison been writing today this would have been a "cycle" of 10 or 12 or 30 books, accompanied by detailed maps and innumerable pages of text. As published, and no doubt due to the strictures of his era, this work suffers from too grand a scope in too small a space. Aside from the whirlwind exposition and overall lack of depth, this novel also suffers from a fatal flaw in morality. After...more

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May 15, 2013 Tait rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, literature

By the three strident trumpet blasts that end Erik Rücker Eddison’s “The Worm Ouroboros” I found myself more impressed, more touched, than I expected I would be. As one of the classic works of pre-Tolkien epic fantasy, published in 1922, this book takes a very different tack than most modern fantasies, focusing on the exploits of a group of truly heroic, larger-than-life adventurers—Juss, Brandoch Daha, Spitfire, and Goldry Bluszco, the Lords of Demonland in their war against the King of Witchla...more By the three strident trumpet blasts that end Erik Rücker Eddison’s “The Worm Ouroboros” I found myself more impressed, more touched, than I expected I would be. As one of the classic works of pre-Tolkien epic fantasy, published in 1922, this book takes a very different tack than most modern fantasies, focusing on the exploits of a group of truly heroic, larger-than-life adventurers—Juss, Brandoch Daha, Spitfire, and Goldry Bluszco, the Lords of Demonland in their war against the King of Witchland—who step into their world already in the prime of their self-won power and glory, rather than the new, stereotypical every-klutz, your Bilbo or Harry Potter, who stumbles, kicking and screaming, into some modicum of ill-fated power.

Due to this sense of immanent empowerment, Eddison’s work felt more mythic, more expansive by far in a single volume than “The Wheel of Time” or “A Song of Ice and Fire,” its vision of life grand and purposive, its romantic tenor almost pure—untouched by the irony and bitterness and eternal defeat that plague the fantasies of these later days. At first I felt that this almost superheroic heroism seemed inhuman—the story is set on Mercury after all—but I was left with the sense that these were characters worth believing in, even despite Tolkien’s dislike of them (though the great fantasy master did highly praise Eddison’s world-building). And beyond the heroes this is a world with a full cast of kings and kingdoms, powerful women, magic that is difficult and dangerous, and the feats worth fighting for—not only the protection of Demonland from pillage by the Witches, but the rescue of the Demon’s brother Goldry from the far prison mountaintops of Zora Rach Nam Psarrion. This is a world in which there is still real love, real truth, and real fantasy, even despite the irrelevant frame narrative and excessive descriptions—though Eddison forgets these entirely once the action get moving.

Unexpected was Eddison’s ending (though, if I’d considered the book’s title, it’s the only possible outcome). After the war is over and all is won, the story carries on to the point that the heroes grow saddened of no longer having a war to fight and adventurers to go on. And so by the aid of the demi-goddess Sophonisba’s rituals and prayer the heroes are granted eternal youth and the rebirth of their slain friends and foes, so that their great deeds can go on, the story sung for all eternity—an ending that reminded me of the eternal return of the ending of King’s “Dark Tower,” but with more a sense of hope and wonder and release than that of ultimate futility.

Ultimately though, it is the majesty of the heroes that I keep returning to in my thoughts since shelving the novel. In Joseph Campbell’s “The Inner Reaches of Outer Space,” an etymological connection is made between the Sanskrit word vīra, ‘brave’ or ‘heroic,’ and the English word virtue, which once connoted ‘excellence,’ ‘capacity,’or ‘power to effect results,’ long before, as Nietzsche quipped, virtue got equated with “conformity with a Christian moral code.” At which, saith Campbell, “the heroic arts lost favor in the west”—and so from Don Quixote to the present day we have wondered what other kinds of heroes we might worship.

I find this connection between virtue and power and heroism to be of extreme significance, in that it suggests that to be truly heroic is to be virtuous, not in an arbitrary religious moral system, but in the human sense of doing the right things for other people. I suspect this is why I responded so favorably to Juss, Brandoch Daha, Spitfire, and Goldry Bluszco, and to the brand of heroism presented in “The Worm Ouroboros”—these are heroes who have true power, but their power is displayed as virtuous to the verge of glorification. This virtue of heroism is not quashed by complications or doubts; it is not ironic. This is the kind of heroism that one might respect and in olden days take as a mythic paradigm of rightness and good action, despite that our later days find such heroism embarrassingly unrealistic.

Does it just seem this way because we have become too uncomfortable with unquestioned representations of power over/against (and too few of power of/through), or have we simply stopped telling such stories, those that seem to glorify war and warriors when such have always led the world into disaster?(less)

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May 04, 2012 Helen Primozic rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy

The "Here is a guy who is having a dream about [insert story here]" device was lame, especially since Eddison seemed to simply forget about it after the first twenty pages or so. The story itself didn't pick up for quite a while, and when it did, a lot of it was (though fun) apparently a waste of time. Plot summary:

Creepy witch king and nice king tick each other off and start fighting.
Nice king's brother goes sailing in a boat. Ship. Whatever.
Creepy witch king makes some creepy witch magic and s...more

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Feb 11, 2012 Ian Hodge rated it 4 of 5 stars

I first read this book this book when I was sixteen and loved it as intensely as only sixteen year olds love. Forty years later my opinion has changed to the extent that it is still one of my favourite books, but I will not read it again. Firstly, the prose is lush and beautiful but at times self-indulgent; secondly the politics/morality of the novel is reprehensible; thirdly, the most attractive characters are the villains, the heroes being vain and insipid. So why am I recommending this book?
I...more

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Nov 27, 2011 Alex Klimkewicz rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy

Epic high fantasy! Compared to Lord of the Rings! Rich and majestic!

Well, I guess all of those are true to certain degrees. E.R. Eddison's The Worm Ouroboros is a challenging read because it is written in Jacobean prose, about 200 years after it went out of style. Here is a fantasy story of epic supermen battling equally powerful and very evil enemies on the fields and in the mountains and on the seas of Mercury. Yes, that Mercury. The planet. They are the lords of Demonland, four epic heroes ag...more Epic high fantasy! Compared to Lord of the Rings! Rich and majestic!

Well, I guess all of those are true to certain degrees. E.R. Eddison's The Worm Ouroboros is a challenging read because it is written in Jacobean prose, about 200 years after it went out of style. Here is a fantasy story of epic supermen battling equally powerful and very evil enemies on the fields and in the mountains and on the seas of Mercury. Yes, that Mercury. The planet. They are the lords of Demonland, four epic heroes against the evil king of Witchland. Ugh.

The book was impressive in it's use of language. I will give it that much. It is interesting to read, and I suppose for Eddison, to write in Jacobean prose, but I found it annoying, because to me it didn't feel authentic, and because at times its seemed anachronistic. In particular: His highness swapt him such a swipe o' the neck-bone as he pitched to earth, the head of him flew i' the air like a tennis ball. (p. 395) Tennis ball? Really? In the ancient days of knights and goblins?
Also, football, which in some early incarnation probably was around, but still seems out of place in the novel: I am now resolved never to put up my sword until of thy bleeding head I may make a football. (p.458)

Okay. Maybe those are too nitpicky, but something like the following excerpt seems really silly: And some shot at them from the wall, until a chance shot came that was like to have stove in Corund's helm, who straightway sent word that when the rout was ended he would make lark-pies of the cow-headed doddipole whosoever he might be that had set them thus a-shooting, spoiling sport for their comrades and endangering their lives. (p.90) And yet I continued for another 400 pages after that line made me stop and laugh.

Most of The Worm Ouroboros is not so funny. Some of it I actually found beautiful, such as the description of the jade lily vase on p. 136: They sat here and there as they listed on chairs and benches, near a huge tank or vase of dark green jade where sulphur-coloured lilies grew in languorous beauty, their back-curled petals showing the scarlet anthers; and all the air was heavy with their sweetness. The great jade vase was round and flat like the body of a tortoise, open at the top where the lilies grew. It was carved with scales, as it were the body of a dragon, and a dragon's head agaping reared itself at one end, and at the other the tail curved up and over like the handle of a basket, and the tail had little fore and hind feet with claws, and a smaller head at the end of the tail gaped downwards biting at the large head. Four legs supported the body, and each leg was a small dragon standing on its hind feet, its head growing into the parent body as the thigh or shoulder joint should join the trunk.

Despite the over elaborate descriptions of all the set pieces, and the clothing of the characters, I felt that none of the four Lords of Demonland were distinguishable from each other. The villains were similarly vague. So King Gorice starts a war just because he is full of himself and wants the other kingdoms to bow to him? That's the motivating conflict! I didn't find that too believable. Where were his advisers telling him maybe it wouldn't be such a good idea to lead his country in a war against the four men that the entire world (of Mercury) acknowledges are the best and brightest (and strongest and bravest) chaps to ever live.

At least the violent battles scenes are good. They seemed very intense for being published in the 1920s. Here are some good bits:

Neither man nor horse might stand up before 'em, and they faring as in a maze now this way now that, amid the thrumbling and thrasting o' the footmen, heads and arms smitten off, men hewn in sunder from crown to belly, ay, to the saddle, riderless horses maddened, blood splashed up from the ground like the slush from a marsh.
(p.392)

Never saw I such feats of arms. As witness Kamerar of Stropardon, who
with a great two-handed sword hewed off his enemy's leg close to the hip, so huge a blow the blade sheared through leg and saddle and horse
and all. (p. 394)

And our own folk fell fast, and the tents that were so white were one gore of blood.
(p.395)

Unfortunately these violent bits were few and far between. Most were in the final battle at the end of the book. Much of the rest of the novel was spent describing the great exploits of Lord Brandoch Daha, Lord Juss, Lord Spitfire, and Lord Goldry Bluszco while they wrestled, climbed mountains, and retold stories of their past glories. Fortunately, their manly feats of strength are much less clunky than their love-making:

But Brandoch Daha, seeing how her face became on a sudden such as are new-blown roses at the dawning, and her eyes wide and dark with love-
longing, came to her and took her in his arms and fell to kissing and
embracing of her. On such wise they abode for awhile, that he was ware
of no thing else on earth save only the sense-maddening caress of that
lady's hair, the perfume of it, the kiss of her mouth, the swell and
fall of that lady's breast straining against his. She said in his ear
softly, "I see thou art too masterful. I see thou art one who will be
denied nothing, on whatsoever thine heart is set. Come." And they
passed by a heavy-curtained doorway into an inner chamber, where the
air was filled with the breath of myrrh and nard and ambergris, a
fragrancy as of sleeping loveliness. Here, amid the darkness of rich
hangings and subdued glints of gold, a warm radiance of shaded lamps
watched above a couch, great and broad and downy-pillowed. And here
for a long time they solaced them with love and all delight. (p. 166)

This is not all that bad though. There are times when the text is annoying, and I think the author even recognized this by putting in a scene when some of the characters read an ancient tome and comment on how antiquated the language is. The language is a stylistic choice, and not a flaw of the story. The main flaw of the book is that it starts with a plot device of a magical bird taking an Earthman from his English conservatory and a magical journey to Mercury, and then that plot device is never returned to again. I think it would have been best just to set this story on some unnamed planet, and then also renamed all the countries so that they were something different than the uninspiring Pixieland.

Overall, while I wouldn't say that I enjoyed the book, I would say that I am glad to have read it. I managed to slough through it, and I did come away with some nice gems in between the dense prose. I'll end with one of my favorite's (of a knave rebuffed by the most beautiful woman in all the land): Like the passing of a fire on a dry heath in summer the flame of his passion was passed by, leaving but a smouldering desolation of scornful sullen wrath: wrath at himself and fate.
(p. 362)
(less)

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Aug 14, 2011 Sean Wadley rated it 5 of 5 stars

Of all the classical pre-Tolkien fantasy this here, Worm Ouroboros, is the best. Really it is quite impossible to offer a succinct review in relation to any quarter of this "magnus opus". Beautiful and far reaching in its depth, it is a vast fantasy book - not vast particularly in pages, in fact its quite short beside our modern greats, such as the song of fire an ice, which I believe is about seven hundred pages? But the vastness lies within the pages, the words the weave the genetic structure...more

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Jun 30, 2011 Zachary Kline added it

FOr once, I can't recommend this book to everybody. It's too strange and complicated for some, but underneath the pseudo-ELizabethan language is a great fantasy story with no pretensions to being anything else. It was written by a British civil servant in the early 1920's, but could have easily been written much earlier, as the language is of the 15th and 16th century at the height of Shakespeare's day and more. The author uses this unique style to tell a story of two warring kingdoms, the epic...more

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Apr 29, 2010 Jason Mills rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Fantasy fans, lovers of language.

Shelves: classics, fantasy, fiction, nectar-of-the-gods

I loved this when I read it 20 years ago, and I loved it all over again with knobs on when I re-read it last year to record it as a free audiobook for librivox (listen here). It's a magnificent fantasy, peopled by larger-than-larger-than-life characters who engage in impossible deeds, tumultuous wars and high adventure. It's written in prose of opulent splendour and it's a soaring, glorious and wildly original work.

On the other hand:

* The apparent protagonist is simply abandoned by the author ab...more

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Nov 12, 2009 David rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I bought this paperback in 1973 and didn't get around to reading it until 2005. Luckily I'd covered it, so it wasn't rotting, but the page edges had yellowed a bit. The beginning was rather ham-fisted and contrived, as he gets his hero from the mundane present into the bewitched world of Demonland, but after that it's far better than any Tolkien. The events and characters are the sort you'd expect in a fantasy of this sort, but it seems to go beyond that and delve into human nature under the gui...more

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Aug 17, 2009 Carl Bettis rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: speculative-fiction

To enjoy The Worm Ouroboros, one must accept the glorification of war, just as one must accept magic spells and E.R. Eddison's invented, pseudo-archaic language. Once you get used to the style, it is mostly unobtrusive and occasionally delightful.

Eddison's heroes are not very clearly drawn. The one exception is the dandy and berserker Brandoch Daha -- and now I've told you everything about him. Eddison often does a better job with the villains, such as King Gorice the nth (take your pick) and th...more

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Feb 17, 2011 Bethany rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy

This book is admittedly hard to read. I struggled through the opening and the weird feeling of having the narrative framework abandoned. But after a few pages I got into the rhythm of the language, and soon found myself in a very compelling story.

Don't bother picking this up if you want your high fantasy books to speak the same vernacular as your primetime sitcoms. If you can't handle Shakespeare or the King James Old Testament, you probably can't handle The Worm Ouroboros. Also, this is a book...more

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Apr 29, 2013 Jareed Reyes added it

Shelves: epic-fantasy, gave-up-on-dropped-to-be-retried

To say that The Worm Ouroboros has drained my love for the classics, is to strain credulity, for I have devoted much time going through the 49 pages more than I would have wanted to.

A plain reason why 'classics,' or in a more encompassing sense, early works in literature experience a fallout, at its more merciful dispositions, has something to do with the language it has been couch with. The philosophies that give life to the plot, the mythologies in the origin of the story, the psychologies of...more

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