CC Spin #45: The Well at the World's End

 The Well at the World's End, by William Morris

I did it!  This was kind of fun.  It's an absolute avalanche of Victorian pseudo-medieval story and prose.  One has to presume a Christian European setting, but completely fictional as far as landscape and countries go.  It is indeed kind of Arthurian, as there are whole sections that involve wandering through a massive forest and popping out here and there to a castle, or a hermit, or just a clearing with a knight or so in it.  But there's plenty else.

I've already told you that our hero is Sir Ralph (Rafe), the youngest son of the king.  Their land is the small and prosperous pastoral kingdom of Upmeads, and you get the impression that it's pretty far out, away from the major action.  Ralph sets out a green young man looking for any adventure he can find, and soon hears of the Well at the World's End, which piques his interest.  It's supposed to grant refreshment, health and long life, and wisdom.  But first he meets two women: a peasant girl at a hostel who is friendly, and (being led as a prisoner) the Lady of Abundance.  Both catch his interest, but the Lady has great power for wisdom and beauty, and every man she meets falls for her (this is less than convenient).

Pretty sure this is the Lady of Abundance

Ralph is fortunate, and the Lady likes him back.  She takes him under her wing and they live together happily in the forest, she teaching him about her long life, her own trip to the Well, and much more.  This is looking permanent, until she is murdered.  Ralph, stunned with grief, wanders away and plans to get himself killed somehow, until he falls in with friends who nurse him along for a while.  He travels ever further towards the Wall of the World (a huge and nearly uncrossable mountain range) and finds a new purpose when he discovers that his friend has been captured and will be sold as a slave.

While this is Ralph meeting his friend Ursula

Many adventures follow as he pursues his prisoner-friend, and finally he and she are free and plan to find the Well.  Which is a whole 'nother prospect and adventure!  It takes Ralph and Ursula a couple of years to get there and back again.

So this is another entry in my list of 'early fantasy books that are kind of odd because they pre-date the template that they helped to establish.'  This was definitely an influence on some of the writers who are more famous now -- I caught a few hints that Lewis might have used in Narnia, and the elements Tolkien borrowed are many.  For example:

• There's a character named Gandolf
• A horse named Silverfax, who is the fastest and best
• An ancient Dry Tree near the end of the world, used as a heraldic device
• A huge carving of a fighting man of old time that guards the entrance to a different land
• Pastoral little Upmeads has to be cleansed of evil invaders before the happy ending can happen

It's a reasonably fun story if you like this sort of thing and can stand several hundred pages of  "Forsooth, varlet" writing.  (Actually Morris never says 'varlet' but you know what I mean.)  I enjoyed it just fine and am glad the Spin made me the opportunity; it was an interesting exercise.  And it wasn't totally predictable