Book excerpt: FROM THE FATHER OF MODERN FANTASY THAT INSPIRED TOLKIEN AND LEWIS. Warriors, dwarves, gods, epic battles, magic armor, and a ring. If this all sounds a familiar, it's for good reason. In The House of the Wolfings, the first of the author's many great fantastic romances, William Morris weaves the traditional with the supernatural, and establishes a precursor to the modern epic fantasy genre. Based on a translation of an old Norse saga, Morris reconstructs a portrait of the lives of the Germanic Gothic Tribes galvanized into action againts the attacks of imperial Rome. Thiodolf, the leader of the Wolfings, is one of two men chosen as War-Dukes to lead the tribes against their enemies. Thiodolf may be supported by his lover the Wood-Sun and their daughter the Hall-Sun (both of whom are related to the gods), but he also possesses a dwarf-made mail-shirt that, unbeknownst to him, bears a curse.