Nineteenth century British writers and artists looked back to, and in some cases attempted to claim a cultural heritage not their own. Rather than appealing to the indigenous Germanic and Celtic mythos, the literature, art, and culture of Ancient Greece provided a palliative to contemporary anxieties regarding social order, cultural achievement, and identity. This perceived superiority of Southern European antiquity, though seen by writers such as Gladstone as a precursor to medieval Christendom, is curious given the vigorous Northern European (particularly Norse) tradition.
William Morris drew upon the Northern myths as well as the medieval Arthurian Romance tales in his writings, and in the epic collection “The Earthly Paradise”, describes cross-cultural exchange between wandering “Northmen” and the inhabitants of an undiscovered island community of Ancient Greeks. This frame story, along with Morris’s own commentary, around the tales from the Nordic and Hellenistic traditions provides an example of a possible intertwining of the two cultures in the context of the nineteenth century British engagement with antiquity. Morris’s poetry is illustrative not only of perceptions of Germanic and Mediterranean European culture, but also the relation of our present to a multitude of pasts.