"the earliest example of a fantasy map" (Smee)
By MORRIS, William , 1898
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The Sundering Flood.

  • Author: MORRIS, William
  • Publication place: London, New York, Bombay,
  • Publisher: Longmans, Green & Co.,
  • Publication date: 1898.
  • Physical description: First edition. Quarto, (205 by 140mm), vii, 373 pp., last and first page uncut, some minor foxing but generally a clean copy, red cloth boards, with publisher's label to spine, rubbed, small crack to front hinge.
  • Inventory reference: 22891

Notes

The Book
‘The Sundering Flood’ is the work of William Morris (1834-1896), designer, printer, poet, social activist, and the man who “invented… the modern fantasy novel as we know it today” (Carter). His last published work, the end of which was dictated from his deathbed, ‘The Sundering Flood’ was edited posthumously by his daughter, May, and published privately by the Kelmscott Press in 1897, the present example being the first publicly- printed edition.

“It is told that there was once a mighty river which ran south into the sea, and at the mouth thereof was a great and rich city…”. So begins the tale of Osberne Wulfgrimsson and Elfhild, lovers separated by the ‘Sundering Flood’. The novel charts Elfhild’s disappearance, after an invasion by the Red Skinners, Osberne’s quest to find her, and the adventures that he encounters on the way. Incorporating treason, alliances, battles, romance, shadowy supernatural forces, dwarfs, an ageless mentor, and an enchanted sword (“Boardcleaver”), ‘The Sundering Flood’ features aspects that will come to characterize the fantasy genre.

The Map
What makes the map special is that it is “the earliest example of a fantasy map, that is, one that depicts a world of fiction that is entirely autonomous from the primary, or ‘real’ world” (Smee). Extending from “The Great Mountains” in the north, to the “City of the Sundering Flood” in the south, the map includes both topographical details (“Desert Waste” and “Mountain Gorge”) and locations pertinent to the action of the story (for example, “Where Osberne shot the Hart”, “Here they fought the Black Skimmers”, and “Here Osberne finds Elfhild”). Bottom-left is an inset town-plan of “The City”.

Bibliography

  1. Carter, introduction to Morris, 'The Sundering Flood', 1973
  2. Smee, 75.

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