In December 1888, the Chiswick Press published Morris' "The House of the Wolfings", a fantasy story set in Iron Age Europe which provides a reconstructed portrait of the lives of Germanic-speaking Gothic tribes. It contained both prose and aspects of poetic verse. A sequel, "The Roots of the Mountains", followed in 1890. Over the coming years he would publish a string of other poetic works; "The Story of the Glittering Plain" (1890), "The Wood Beyond the World" (1894), "The Well at the World's End" (1896), "The Water of the Wondrous Isles" (1897) and "The Sundering Flood" (1898). He also embarked on a translation of the Anglo-Saxon tale, "Beowulf"; because he could not fully understand Old English, his poetic translation was based largely on that already produced by Alfred John Wyatt. On publication, Morris' archaizing "Beowulf" was critically panned. Following the death of the sitting Poet Laureate of Great Britain and Ireland, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, in October 1892, Morris was offered the position, but turned it down, disliking its associations with the monarchy and political establishment; instead the position went to Alfred Austin.