Hereward the Wake, Last of the English.
London and Cambridge: Macmillan and Co., 1866. First edition in book form, in publisher’s cloth.
Hereward was an enigmatic Anglo-Saxon landholder from Lincolnshire, who “was elevated by a historical novel written by Charles Kingsley . . . into one of the most romantic figures of English medieval history: an outlaw and national hero famous for his determined resistance to the Norman invaders of 1066, and a forerunner of the greatest outlaw of English popular mythology, Robin Hood.” Dalton, The Outlaw Hereward the Wake (2009).
It is even believed that Tolkien read Hereward and used several of its distinctive word choices in his own works. Gilliver, Marshall, Weiner, Tolkien and the Oxford English Dictionary (OUP 2006).
8vo. 2 vols. viii, 365pp., [1], [2, ads]; viii, 402pp., [2, ads]. Parrish, pg. 49-60. Sadleir 1338. Very good in publisher’s gilt stamped red morocco cloth, recased with spines laid down, some staining to boards, bookplates in each volume and prior owner stamp/inscription in each, and blind stamp for “W H Smith & Son Library, 186 Strand” being Smith’s short-lived lending library but without other indications of library ownership (Sadleir’s copy had the same blind stamp). Item #326
Price: $500.00