on the Worm Ouroboros

musings books

The language is delightful, but one can’t help but agree with Tolkien’s assessment that what underlies the entire saga is “an evil and indeed silly ‘philosophy’” and the ending has one wondering indeed if Eddison admired “arrogance and cruelty.”1

  1. J. R. R. Tolkien and Humphrey Carpenter, The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien (Houghton Mifflin Company, 1981); Eric Rücker Eddison, The Worm Ouroboros (Ballantine Books, 1974). q.v. q.v.