Legends from the Ancient North

Our Legends from the Ancient North are five classics of Norse literature that inspired J. R. R. Tolkien's epic vision in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Reading them brings us as close as we will ever get to the magical worlds of the Vikings and the origins of their twentieth-century counterpart: Tolkien's Middle Earth.

With the final film in Peter Jackson's Hobbit trilogy—The Battle of the Five Armies—hitting theaters this December, there's never been a better time to study up on the ancient myths that helped spawn the world of Bilbo, Gollum and Gandalf the Grey.