In the novel The Worm Ouroboros, who is the author of this classic high fantasy?

E. R. Eddison wrote the classic high-fantasy novel The Worm Ouroboros. He published it in 1922, presenting an elaborate story of war, rivalry, and heroic ambition in the fictional world of Mercury.

The novel follows Lord Juss and the other Lords of Demonland as they fight the Witch-king Gorice of Witchland. Its style deliberately echoes older heroic and epic literature, using formal language, grand speeches, duels, sieges, and a strong sense of mythic distance.

The title refers to the ouroboros, an image of a serpent eating its own tail. This symbol suggests circularity and recurrence, ideas that also appear in the novel’s structure and its treatment of conflict. Despite the planetary setting, the book is generally discussed as fantasy rather than modern science fiction.

Eddison had a background as a civil servant and wrote several other works influenced by Norse and classical literature. The Worm Ouroboros later became an important reference point for writers and readers interested in pre-Tolkien high fantasy.