The Worm Ouroboros

The Worm Ouroboros (1922) is a heroic high fantasy novel by Eric Rucker Eddison.

There has been a recent UK paperback edition in the Fantasy Masterworks series. A paperback edition was reissued in Bridgewater, New Jersey, by Replica Books in 1999 with ISBN 073510171X.

The book describes the protracted war between the domineering king of Witchland and the Lords of Demonland in a world (ostensibly on the planet Mercury) that is mainly medieval and partly reminiscent of Norse sagas. As an early and ambitious high fantasy, it invites comparison with Tolkien's Lord of the Rings (which it predates).

Whereas Tolkien invented a backdrop of cultures, histories and languages, in The Worm Ouroboros it is the prose style that is central. It is arguably one of the more convincing examples of mock-archaic high diction. While Eddison relishes exotic personal and place names, he seems to have given little though to plausible etymology and consistency, unlike Tolkien.

The morality of the tale sharply contrasts with Tolkien's heroism of the common man in a fight against evil. The protagonists, the four Lords of Demonland, are notable for their loyalty and their sense of fair play. Nonetheless, theirs is chiefly a warrior ethic of seeking glory in battle (and bragging about it). Their antagonists are, for the most part, noble and worthy opponenents even if their methods are less fair. As a further complication, the most complex and sympathetic character is a traitor, who is however motivated by an entirely unselfish, aesthetic sense of the nobility of failure and the inevitability of decay. One can detect echoes of Nietzsche's Also sprach Zarathustra.