Barbarian Book Club has challenged other bloggers to read and review stories written before Lord of the Rings was published. Here are some of the results:

Blagdaross by Lord Dunsany (Jeffro: “the man could find more myth and romance and virtue and wonder in a garbage dump than most people would think to put into entire worlds of fantasy.“)

Poltarnees, Beholder of Ocean by Lord Dunsany (another review by Jeffro)

Tales of Wonder by Lord Dunsany (Jon Mollison)

The Sword of Welleran by Lord Dunsany (Barbarian Book Club)

The Folk of the Mountain Door by William Morris (Adventures Fantastic)

Black Heart and White Heart: A Zulu Idyll by H. Rider Haggard (Adventures Fantastic)

Isle of the Torturers, Empire of the Necromancers, and The Dark Eidolon by Clark Ashton Smith (The Eldritch Paths)

Black God’s Kiss by C.L. Moore (Tales of the Rampant Coyote)

The Women of the Wood by A. Merritt (Tales of the Rampant Coyote)

Three Lines of Old French by A. Merritt (Storyhack)

The Tale of the Red Dwarf by Richard S. Shaver (Storyhack)