His earlier fantasies "The House of the Wolfings" and "The Roots of the Mountains" were to some degree historical novels. Like these "The Story of the Glittering Plain" is set in a world similar to the distant past of northern Europe. Morris would go on to develop the new genre established in this work in such later fantasies as "Child Christopher and Goldilind the Fair", "The Wood Beyond the World", "The Well at the World's End", and "The Water of the Wondrous Isles".