The Worm Ourorobos

[uneasy]

Yay! The Worm Ourorobos text is online for free. Has anyone else read it?

http://www.sacred-texts.com/ring/two/

This fantasy epic by E.R. Eddison predates the Lord of the Rings. It's a strange book because about the first 20 pages seems flawed and out of place. It's too bad he didn't go back and edit them. Also the names he gives to the nations are strange (Demons and Witches), and awkwardly set on the planet mercury.

But the rest of the book is a colorful epic of larger than life characters on an almost mythical scale. All the characters speak in a sort of Shakepearean style, which takes some getting used to. I just love the characters and the sound of the language, so I overlook it's other faults.

"It seems we hold court in the woods to-night," said Lord Brandoch Daha. "It is very pleasant. Yet bold thee ready with me to put some fire-brands amongst 'em if need befall. 'Tis likely some of these great beasts are little schooled in court ceremonies."
This is not a fantasy novel for the faint of heart.

[Bikewer]

I absolutely love the "Worm", and have read it several times. The last version I had was an "annotated" job that gave the sources and context for many of Eddison's phrases, place-names and so forth.
The man must have done a lot of reading!

The prose is superb, the story heroic....great stuff.

[whitefork]

I read it back in 1970 or so. That's some thick prose. I found the next book Mistress of Mistresses to be much too dense for me back then.

Nice cover art on the paperback editions.

[uneasy]

I'm glad someone else has enjoyed it. I know it's heresy, but I like this better than Lord of the Rings. One reason is that for it's time, it was very bold and innovative. It predated the world of Robert E. Howard's Conan too. I think Tolkien probably learned some mistakes not to make from Eddison.

[Halbert]

I actually have a first edition of Ouroburos, and love it. NEver quite read the next two, though, as indeed, his prose is ... thick.

[uneasy]

Are you aware that first editions of that book are very valuble? Take care of it.

I think I tried his one about Fish Dinner in Memison (?). I couldn't put my finger on what it was, but I couldn't get past 10 pages. Thick prose is a good description.

[Halbert]

My copy was rather damaged at the time I got it (which is what allowed me to purchase it), but I've kept it in as good of condition as possible.

[whitefork]

I think there were four books in the series: The Worm Ouroboros, Mistress of Mistresses, A Fish Dinner in Memison, and the posthumously published (possibly fragments put together by his editor, The Mezentian Gate.

The Ouroboros was used in the graphics for that Fox show Millenium with Lance Hendriksen, wasn't it? I think Scully got a tattoo of it in an X-Files episode. The image is supposed to be quite archaic, and the novel itself has a circular plot as I recall - starts and end with the same political situation in Witchland?

[Bikewer]

I don't know the origins of the "worm that devoureth itself"; it's a very old idea having to do with circularity, rebirth, and all that.

I know Howard made effective use of it in one of the longer stories, that may have been the inspiration for most of the film's plot. The sorcerer, Thulsa Doom, finds his long-long thumb-ring, which is in the shape of....an Oroborous, and uses it to try to re-establish "that old-time religion".

Concepts used over and over, for sure. Wagner figured them into his operas, and Tolkien borrowed from similar legends.

[Lord Muck oGentry]

What enchanted me was the choice of Dunbar's " Lament for the makaris" as the dirge for Gorice.If Dunbar doesn't make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up, you're probably already dead!

[athon]

Originally posted by Bikewer
I don't know the origins of the "worm that devoureth itself"; it's a very old idea having to do with circularity, rebirth, and all that.

I know Howard made effective use of it in one of the longer stories, that may have been the inspiration for most of the film's plot. The sorcerer, Thulsa Doom, finds his long-long thumb-ring, which is in the shape of....an Oroborous, and uses it to try to re-establish "that old-time religion".

Concepts used over and over, for sure. Wagner figured them into his operas, and Tolkien borrowed from similar legends.

Uroborus is perpetuated in Gnostic tradition (through the dark sorcery cults of Blavatsky et al.), however is worked into Alchemy and ultimately Hellenistic traditions. I'm not aware of it existing outside of societies influenced by ancient Greece, but some 'historians' seem to think there are examples in native American and even Polynesian traditions.

Athon