Home > Appendix N Public Domain Companion: Inspirational Reading List for Referees

Appendix N Public Domain Companion: Inspirational Reading List for Referees

A public-domain-oriented source catalog for old-school fantasy RPG reading, combining Appendix N, Moldvay, Appendix N+1 trails, and N-adjacent alternatives.

On this page: Appendix N + Moldvay · Appendix N+1 · N-adjacent alternatives · Quick-start reading path

Copyright and audio note. This page treats “public domain” primarily as U.S. public-domain availability through Project Gutenberg, Internet Archive, Sacred Texts, H. P. Lovecraft Archive, Digital Comic Museum, and related public-domain repositories. LibriVox links are parenthetical and included where a work-specific public-domain audiobook page was identified or a highly standard LibriVox URL was available. Copyright status of translations, introductions, scans, restorations, and non-U.S. jurisdictions can differ.

1. Appendix N + Moldvay’s Inspirational Reading List

The Source column uses N for Appendix N and M for Moldvay. The public-domain column links directly to public-domain texts where they could be found; when the exact listed works are not public domain, either relevant early public-domain works by the same author are noted or the reader is pointed to the Appendix N+1 trails below.

N = Appendix N; M = Moldvay; (LibriVox) = public-domain audiobook.

Author / entry	Source	Works listed	Public-domain links found	N+1 trail note
Anderson, Poul	N, M	Three Hearts and Three Lions; The High Crusade; The Broken Sword; The Merman’s Children, et al.	Anderson author page (not the listed fantasy novels)	Norse sagas, medieval romance, and northern heroic fantasy.
Baum, L. Frank	M	The Wizard of Oz; The Emerald City of Oz; The Land of Oz, et al.	The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (LibriVox); The Marvelous Land of Oz; The Emerald City of Oz; Baum author page
Brackett, Leigh	N, M	The Coming of the Terrans; The Secret of Sinharat; People of the Talisman, et al.	Queen of the Martian Catacombs; Black Amazon of Mars; Brackett author page (early PD stories, not the exact Moldvay titles)
Brown, Frederic	N	Author only	The Star Mouse; Brown author page (early PD stories, mostly SF)
Bullfinch, Thomas	M	Bullfinch’s Mythology: The Age of Fable, The Age of Chivalry	Bulfinch’s Mythology; The Age of Fable (LibriVox); The Age of Chivalry
Burroughs, Edgar Rice	N, M	“Pellucidar” series; Mars series; Venus series; A Princess of Mars; At the Earth’s Core; Tarzan of the Apes, et al.	A Princess of Mars (LibriVox); At the Earth’s Core (LibriVox); Pellucidar; Tarzan of the Apes (LibriVox); Burroughs author page
Cabell, James Branch	M	Author only	Jurgen; Figures of Earth; Cabell author page
Carroll, Lewis	M	Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland; Through the Looking Glass	Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (LibriVox); Through the Looking-Glass (LibriVox)
Derleth, August	N	Author only	Derleth author page (PG has some early work; Mythos material not cleanly linked here)
Dunsany, Lord	N, M	Over the Hills and Far Away; Book of Wonder; The King of Elfland’s Daughter, et al.	The Book of Wonder (LibriVox); The King of Elfland’s Daughter (LibriVox); The Gods of Pegana (LibriVox); Dunsany author page
Eddison, E. R.	M	The Worm Ouroboros	The Worm Ouroboros
Haggard, H. Rider	M	Author only	King Solomon’s Mines (LibriVox); She (LibriVox); Allan Quatermain (LibriVox); Haggard author page
Howard, Robert E.	N, M	“Conan” series; Conan; Red Nails; Pigeons from Hell	Red Nails; The Hour of the Dragon; The Hyborian Age; Howard author page
Jacobs, Joseph	M	English Folk and Fairy Tales	English Fairy Tales (LibriVox); Celtic Fairy Tales (LibriVox); Jacobs author page
Leiber, Fritz	N, M	“Fafhrd & Gray Mouser” series; The Swords of Lankhmar; Swords Against Wizardry; Swords Against Death, et al.	Conjure Wife; Leiber author page (not Fafhrd & Gray Mouser)
Lovecraft, H. P.	N, M	The Doom that Came to Sarnath; The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath; The Dunwich Horror	The Doom That Came to Sarnath; The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath; The Dunwich Horror; H. P. Lovecraft Archive fiction index
Merritt, A. / A. E.	N, M	Creep, Shadow, Creep; The Moon Pool; Dwellers in the Mirage; The Ship of Ishtar, et al.	The Moon Pool (LibriVox); The Ship of Ishtar
Mundy, Talbot	M	Tros of Samothrace	Om: The Secret of Ahbor Valley; Mundy author page
Norton, Andre	N, M	Witch World; The Year of the Unicorn; The Crystal Gryphon, et al.	Voodoo Planet; Norton author page (not the Witch World books)
Pratt, Fletcher	N, M	The Blue Star; The Well of the Unicorn	The Blue Star; Pratt author page
Smith, Clark Ashton	M	Xiccarph; Lost Worlds; Genius Loci	The Star-Treader and Other Poems; Ebony and Crystal; Smith author page (poetry collections; not the listed story collections)
Stoker, Bram	M	Dracula	Dracula (LibriVox); The Jewel of Seven Stars
Vance, Jack	N, M	The Eyes of the Overworld; The Dying Earth; The Dragon Masters, et al.	Vance author page (early PG items; Dying Earth is not public domain)
Weinbaum, Stanley	N	Author only	A Martian Odyssey; Weinbaum author page
Wellman, Manly Wade	N, M	Author only	The Black Drama; Wellman author page (not the later Silver John material)
Williamson, Jack	N, M	Author only	Williamson author page (early PG items, mostly SF)
Alexander, Lloyd	M	The Book of Three; Black Cauldron; Castle of Llyr, et al.	No clean public-domain link for the listed works identified here. See the N+1 shelves below for older public-domain source trails.	Welsh myth, the Mabinogion, and heroic children’s quest fantasy.
Anthony, Piers	M	A Spell for Chameleon; The Source of Magic; Castle Roogna	No clean public-domain link for the listed works identified here. See the N+1 shelves below for older public-domain source trails.	Fairy-tale comic fantasy, MacDonald, Dunsany, and Oz-like secondary-world play.
Asprin, Robert	M	Another Fine Myth	No clean public-domain link for the listed works identified here. See the N+1 shelves below for older public-domain source trails.	Comic fantasy, trickster tales, theatrical bargains, and Dunsany/Cabell irony.
Barber, Richard	M	A Companion to World Mythology	No clean public-domain link for the listed works identified here. See the N+1 shelves below for older public-domain source trails.	Myth, chivalry, Arthurian reference, bestiaries, and medieval worldbuilding.
Beagle, Peter S.	M	Author only	No clean public-domain link for the listed works identified here. See the N+1 shelves below for older public-domain source trails.	Fairy tales, MacDonald, Dunsany, Morris, and wistful faerie romance.
Bellairs, John	N, M	The Face in the Frost; The House Without a Clock on Its Walls; The Figure in the Shadows, et al.	No clean public-domain link for the listed works identified here. See the N+1 shelves below for older public-domain source trails.	Dunsany, MacDonald, gothic oddities, and haunted-house/weird scholarship.
Bok, Hannes	M	Author only	No clean public-domain link for the listed works identified here. See the N+1 shelves below for older public-domain source trails.	Weird Tales, Dunsany, Lovecraft, Smith, and visual fantasy grotesquerie.
Borges, Jorge Luis	M	The Book of Imaginary Beings	No clean public-domain link for the listed works identified here. See the N+1 shelves below for older public-domain source trails.	Arabian Nights, Pliny, Mandeville, bestiaries, labyrinths, and imaginary books.
Buehr, Walter	M	Chivalry and the Mailed Knight	No clean public-domain link for the listed works identified here. See the N+1 shelves below for older public-domain source trails.	Malory, medieval chronicles, arms-and-armor romance.
Campbell, J. Ramsey	M	Demons by Daylight	No clean public-domain link for the listed works identified here. See the N+1 shelves below for older public-domain source trails.	Lovecraft, Machen, Blackwood, M. R. James, and British weird horror.
Carter, Lin	N, M	“World’s End” series; editor of The Year’s Best Fantasy Stories; Flashing Swords	No clean public-domain link for the listed works identified here. See the N+1 shelves below for older public-domain source trails.	Dunsany, Howard, Morris, Burroughs, Cabell, and sword-and-sorcery anthological roots.
Cherryh, C. J.	M	Author only	No clean public-domain link for the listed works identified here. See the N+1 shelves below for older public-domain source trails.	Ancient war, frontier encounters, planetary romance, and lost-world SF.
Coolidge, Olivia	M	Greek Myths; The Trojan War; Legends of the North	No clean public-domain link for the listed works identified here. See the N+1 shelves below for older public-domain source trails.	Homer, Ovid, Bulfinch, Greek myth, and northern myth retellings.
d’Aulaire, Ingri and Edgar Parin	M	Norse Gods and Giants; Trolls	No clean public-domain link for the listed works identified here. See the N+1 shelves below for older public-domain source trails.	Poetic Edda, Prose Edda, Volsunga Saga, Beowulf, and Kalevala.
Davidson, Avram	M	The Island Under the Earth; Ursus of Ultima Thule; The Phoenix in the Mirror, et al.	No clean public-domain link for the listed works identified here. See the N+1 shelves below for older public-domain source trails.	Arabian Nights, Pliny, Mandeville, Biblical apocrypha, and learned folklore.
de Camp, L. Sprague	N, M	Lest Darkness Fall; The Fallible Fiend; The Goblin Tower, et al.	No clean public-domain link for the listed works identified here. See the N+1 shelves below for older public-domain source trails.	Cabell, Dunsany, Morris, classical history, and rationalized myth.
de Camp, L. Sprague & Fletcher Pratt	N, M	“Harold Shea” series; The Carnelian Cube; The Incomplete Enchanter; Land of Unreason, et al.	No clean public-domain link for the listed works identified here. See the N+1 shelves below for older public-domain source trails.	Mythic source-texts, Norse/Irish/Arthurian literature, and comic portal fantasy.
Delany, Samuel R.	M	Author only	No clean public-domain link for the listed works identified here. See the N+1 shelves below for older public-domain source trails.	Mythic cities, Dunsany, Cabell, Arabian Nights, and philosophical romance.
Eisenstein, Phyllis	M	Born to Exile; Sorcerer’s Son	No clean public-domain link for the listed works identified here. See the N+1 shelves below for older public-domain source trails.	Dunsany, Morris, MacDonald, and picaresque wizard-adventure.
Farmer, Philip Jose / P. J.	N, M	“World of the Tiers” series; The Gates of Creation; The Maker of Universes; A Private Cosmos, et al.	No clean public-domain link for the listed works identified here. See the N+1 shelves below for older public-domain source trails.	Burroughs, Haggard, Wells, Verne, and cross-genre mythic adventure.
Finney, Charles G.	M	The Unholy City; The Circus of Dr. Lao	No clean public-domain link for the listed works identified here. See the N+1 shelves below for older public-domain source trails.	Oz, Carroll, Oriental tales, weird circus/fable, and satirical wonder.
Fox, Gardner	N, M	“Kothar” series; “Kyrik” series, et al.	No clean public-domain link for the listed works identified here. See the N+1 shelves below for older public-domain source trails.	Howard, Burroughs, Dumas, and Golden Age comics/pulp sword adventure.
Funk and Wagnalls	M	Standard Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology, and Legend	No clean public-domain link for the listed works identified here. See the N+1 shelves below for older public-domain source trails.	Bulfinch, Pliny, Mandeville, myth encyclopedias, and bestiaries.
Garner, Alan	M	Elidor; The Weirdstone of Brisingamen; The Moon of Gomrath, et al.	No clean public-domain link for the listed works identified here. See the N+1 shelves below for older public-domain source trails.	Celtic faerie lore, Welsh myth, Mabinogion, and English haunted landscapes.
Gaskell, Jane	M	Author only	No clean public-domain link for the listed works identified here. See the N+1 shelves below for older public-domain source trails.	Burroughs, Haggard, mythic lost-world adventure, and decadent romance.
Green, Roland	M	Author only	No clean public-domain link for the listed works identified here. See the N+1 shelves below for older public-domain source trails.	Howard, Dumas, Sabatini, and sword-adventure serial traditions.
Hazeltine, Alice	M	Hero Tales from Many Lands	No clean public-domain link for the listed works identified here. See the N+1 shelves below for older public-domain source trails.	Homer, Plutarch, Herodotus, Bulfinch, and hero-tale anthologies.
Heinlein, Robert A.	M	Glory Road	No clean public-domain link for the listed works identified here. See the N+1 shelves below for older public-domain source trails.	Burroughs, Haggard, heroic romance, and sword-and-planet adventure.
Hillyer, Virgil	M	Young People’s Story of the Ancient World: Prehistory — 500 B.C.	No clean public-domain link for the listed works identified here. See the N+1 shelves below for older public-domain source trails.	Herodotus, Plutarch, Homer, and ancient-history adventure sources.
Jakes, John	M	Author only	No clean public-domain link for the listed works identified here. See the N+1 shelves below for older public-domain source trails.	Dumas, Sabatini, Howard, and swashbuckling/historical adventure.
Kurtz, Katherine	M	Author only	No clean public-domain link for the listed works identified here. See the N+1 shelves below for older public-domain source trails.	Malory, Grail romance, Celtic Christianity, and medieval dynastic fantasy.
Lanier, Sterling	N, M	Hiero’s Journey	No clean public-domain link for the listed works identified here. See the N+1 shelves below for older public-domain source trails.	Medieval pilgrimage, post-Roman adventure, and weird lost-world tradition.
Le Guin, Ursula K.	M	A Wizard of Earthsea; The Tombs of Atuan; The Farthest Shore, et al.	No clean public-domain link for the listed works identified here. See the N+1 shelves below for older public-domain source trails.	MacDonald, Morris, Dunsany, Taoist/classical myth, and folktale form.
Lee, Tanith	M	Night’s Master; The Storm Lord; The Birthgrave, et al.	No clean public-domain link for the listed works identified here. See the N+1 shelves below for older public-domain source trails.	Arabian Nights, Dunsany, decadent fairy tale, and gothic weird fiction.
Lewis, C. S.	M	The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe; Prince Caspian; The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, et al.	No clean public-domain link for the listed works identified here. See the N+1 shelves below for older public-domain source trails.	MacDonald, Morris, Eddas, medieval romance, and Christian allegorical fantasy.
Macauley, David	M	Castles	No clean public-domain link for the listed works identified here. See the N+1 shelves below for older public-domain source trails.	Castle studies, Malory, medieval architecture, and siege/worldbuilding sources.
McCaffrey, Anne	M	Author only	No clean public-domain link for the listed works identified here. See the N+1 shelves below for older public-domain source trails.	Burroughs, Wells, lost-world SF, dragon myth, and planetary romance.
McHargue, Georgess	M	The Beasts of Never; The Impossible People	No clean public-domain link for the listed works identified here. See the N+1 shelves below for older public-domain source trails.	Bestiaries, Perrault/Grimm, mythic creatures, and wonder tales.
McKillip, Patricia A.	M	Author only	No clean public-domain link for the listed works identified here. See the N+1 shelves below for older public-domain source trails.	MacDonald, Dunsany, fairy tales, Celtic myth, and lyrical quest fantasy.
Moorcock, Michael	N, M	Stormbringer; The Stealer of Souls; “Hawkmoon” series; The Knight of the Swords; Gloriana, et al.	No clean public-domain link for the listed works identified here. See the N+1 shelves below for older public-domain source trails.	Howard, Dunsany, Morris, Cabell, Eddison, and doom-laden heroic romance.
Moore, C. L.	M	Author only	No clean public-domain link for the listed works identified here. See the N+1 shelves below for older public-domain source trails.	Howard, Brackett, Burroughs, weird romance, and gothic dream-quest fiction.
Myers, John Myers	M	Author only	No clean public-domain link for the listed works identified here. See the N+1 shelves below for older public-domain source trails.	Dumas, Stevenson, mythic crossover fiction, and swashbuckling history.
Niven, Larry	M	The Flight of the Horse; The Magic Goes Away	No clean public-domain link for the listed works identified here. See the N+1 shelves below for older public-domain source trails.	Wells, Verne, Burroughs, and weird-science adventure premises.
Offutt, Andrew / Andrew J.	N, M	The Iron Lords; Shadows Out of Hell; editor of Swords Against Darkness / Swords Against Darkness III	No clean public-domain link for the listed works identified here. See the N+1 shelves below for older public-domain source trails.	Howard, Dunsany, Burroughs, sword-and-sorcery, and pulp anthologies.
Peake, Mervyn	M	Author only	No clean public-domain link for the listed works identified here. See the N+1 shelves below for older public-domain source trails.	Gothic romance, Dickens, Walpole, Carroll, and grotesque castle literature.
Renault, Mary	M	The Lion in the Gateway	No clean public-domain link for the listed works identified here. See the N+1 shelves below for older public-domain source trails.	Homer, Plutarch, Herodotus, Greek myth, and ancient heroic history.
Saberhagen, Fred	N, M	Changeling Earth, et al.	No clean public-domain link for the listed works identified here. See the N+1 shelves below for older public-domain source trails.	Norse/Germanic heroic literature, cursed weapons, and doom cycles.
Sellow, Catherine F.	M	Adventures with the Giants	No clean public-domain link for the listed works identified here. See the N+1 shelves below for older public-domain source trails.	Giants in Grimm, Norse myth, and fairy-tale adventure.
St. Clair, Margaret	N	The Shadow People; Sign of the Labrys	No clean public-domain link for the listed works identified here. See the N+1 shelves below for older public-domain source trails.	Machen, Blackwood, weird underground/liminal horror, and occult fiction.
Stewart, Mary	M	The Crystal Cave; The Hollow Hills; The Last Enchantment	No clean public-domain link for the listed works identified here. See the N+1 shelves below for older public-domain source trails.	Malory, Geoffrey of Monmouth tradition, Grail lore, and Celtic romance.
Sutcliff, Rosemary	M	Tristram and Iseult	No clean public-domain link for the listed works identified here. See the N+1 shelves below for older public-domain source trails.	Malory, Tristan traditions, Roman Britain, heroic legend.
Swann, Thomas Burnett	M	Cry Silver Bells; The Tournament of the Thorns; Moondust, et al.	No clean public-domain link for the listed works identified here. See the N+1 shelves below for older public-domain source trails.	Classical myth, Ovid, pastoral faerie, and ancient survivals.
Tolkien, J. R. R.	N, M	The Hobbit; “Ring trilogy” / The Lord of the Rings	No clean public-domain link for the listed works identified here. See the N+1 shelves below for older public-domain source trails.	Eddas, Beowulf, Volsunga, Kalevala, Morris, MacDonald, and medieval philology.
Wagner, Karl Edward	M	Bloodstone; Death Angel’s Shadow; Dark Crusade, et al.	No clean public-domain link for the listed works identified here. See the N+1 shelves below for older public-domain source trails.	Howard, Norse sagas, Machen, Blackwood, and grim sword-and-horror.
Walton, Evangeline	M	Author only	No clean public-domain link for the listed works identified here. See the N+1 shelves below for older public-domain source trails.	The Mabinogion, Welsh myth, Celtic faerie, and myth retelling.
White, Theodore H.	M	The Once and Future King	No clean public-domain link for the listed works identified here. See the N+1 shelves below for older public-domain source trails.	Malory, Arthurian romance, medieval bestiary humor, and chivalric satire.
Williams, Jay	M	Life in the Middle Ages	No clean public-domain link for the listed works identified here. See the N+1 shelves below for older public-domain source trails.	Medieval social history, castles, guilds, towns, and chivalric literature.
Winer, Bart	M	Life in the Ancient World	No clean public-domain link for the listed works identified here. See the N+1 shelves below for older public-domain source trails.	Ancient world primers: Homer, Herodotus, Plutarch, Ovid, and mythology.
Zelazny, Roger	N, M	Jack of Shadows; Lord of Light; “Amber” series / Nine Princes in Amber, et al.	No clean public-domain link for the listed works identified here. See the N+1 shelves below for older public-domain source trails.	Hindu myth, Greek myth, Cabell, Dunsany, and mythic SF/fantasy syncretism.

2. Appendix N+1: Public-Domain Inspirations of the Inspirations

This section asks: when the listed Appendix N/Moldvay author is not public domain, what older public-domain works are the best way to reach the same roots? These are organized as practical shelves: Celtic/Arthurian, northern heroic, fairy-tale, dreamlands, pulp/lost-world, weird horror, myth-history, and bestiary/worldbuilding.

Celtic, Welsh, Arthurian, and chivalric roots

For Prydain, Weirdstone, Arthurian fantasy, Celtic otherworlds, grail quests, enchanted swords, and faerie-border campaigns.

Best for: Lloyd Alexander; Alan Garner; Evangeline Walton; Mary Stewart; Rosemary Sutcliff; T. H. White; Katherine Kurtz; medieval-reference entries.

Public-domain source	Text / audio links	Old-school D&D use
The Mabinogion	Project Gutenberg; Sacred Texts; Vol. 1	Welsh otherworlds, magic cauldrons, cursed families, giants, shapeshifting, strange courts.
Le Morte d’Arthur	Vol. 1 (LibriVox); Vol. 2 (LibriVox)	Knights, quests, relics, betrayals, holy objects, enchanted swords, doomed kingdoms.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight	Project Gutenberg	A tight supernatural challenge-and-test structure, almost a one-shot module.
The High History of the Holy Graal	Project Gutenberg	Mystical castles, grail weirdness, wastelands, and holy/uncanny adventure logic.
The Secret Commonwealth	Project Gutenberg	Second sight, invisible folk, uncanny countryside, and early-modern faerie lore.
The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries	Project Gutenberg	Field-guide style faerie material: changelings, fairy roads, local spirits, thin places.

Norse, Germanic, Finnish, and northern heroic roots

For Tolkien, Anderson, northern doom, dwarfs, giants, dragon-hoards, cursed treasure, singing magic, and old gods.

Best for: Poul Anderson; J. R. R. Tolkien; C. S. Lewis; d’Aulaire; Fred Saberhagen; Karl Edward Wagner; northern heroic fantasy.

Public-domain source	Text / audio links	Old-school D&D use
The Poetic Edda	Sacred Texts	Gods, giants, dwarfs, prophecy, doom, treasure, cosmology.
The Prose Edda	Sacred Texts	Reference shelf for Norse monsters, worlds, gods, and artifacts.
The Story of the Volsungs / Volsunga Saga	Project Gutenberg	Dragon-slaying, cursed gold, doomed heroes, magic swords, revenge cycles.
The Story of Sigurd the Volsung	Project Gutenberg	William Morris’s mythic retelling; strong Tolkien/Anderson/Eddison tone.
Beowulf	Project Gutenberg (LibriVox)	Monster-haunted halls, underwater lairs, dragons, heroic boasts, treasure-hoards.
The Kalevala	Vol. 1; Vol. 2; Sacred Texts	Singing magic, artifact quests, shamanic heroes, witchlands, mythic wilderness.
The Nibelungenlied	Project Gutenberg	Treachery, treasure, heroic violence, cursed legacies, grim feasts.

Fairy-tale, children’s fantasy, and perilous enchantment

For magic rules, child heroes in real danger, goblin underworlds, witch-houses, talking beasts, and reward-with-a-catch logic.

Best for: Piers Anthony; Robert Asprin; Peter S. Beagle; John Bellairs; Ursula K. Le Guin; Patricia McKillip; Tanith Lee; Phyllis Eisenstein; Thomas Burnett Swann.

Public-domain source	Text / audio links	Old-school D&D use
Grimms’ Fairy Tales	Project Gutenberg (LibriVox); Sacred Texts	Forests, bargains, transformations, witches, ogres, cruel justice.
Household Tales	Project Gutenberg	Fuller Grimm collection; rich source of adventure seeds.
The Blue Fairy Book	Project Gutenberg (LibriVox); Sacred Texts	Aladdin, dragons, dwarfs, magical rings, fairy brides, impossible quests.
The Red Fairy Book	Project Gutenberg (LibriVox)	More fairy-tale monsters, enchantments, riddling quests, wonder-tale structure.
English Fairy Tales	Project Gutenberg (LibriVox)	Jack tales, giants, folk tricksters, local monster folklore.
Celtic Fairy Tales	Project Gutenberg (LibriVox); Sacred Texts	Faerie encounters, giants, uncanny bargains, borderlands.
The Princess and the Goblin	Project Gutenberg (LibriVox)	Goblin mines, underground kingdoms, childlike wonder over real danger.
Phantastes	Project Gutenberg (LibriVox)	Dreamlike faerie journey, symbolic encounters, unstable reality.
Lilith	Project Gutenberg (LibriVox)	Dark visionary fantasy; dreamlands, death-realms, and moral weirdness.

Dreamlands, ironic fantasy, and pre-Tolkien secondary worlds

For weird cities, invented gods, borderlands with faerie, underworld satire, and mythic-but-not-quite-respectable fantasy.

Best for: Le Guin; Beagle; Bellairs; McKillip; Moorcock; Jack Vance; Lin Carter; de Camp; Asprin; Anthony; Delany.

Public-domain source	Text / audio links	Old-school D&D use
The Book of Wonder	Project Gutenberg (LibriVox)	A key bridge to dreamlike fantasy cities, gods, strange quests, and perfect short adventure premises.
The King of Elfland’s Daughter	Project Gutenberg (LibriVox)	Faerie realm as alien neighboring power; ideal for borderland campaigns.
The Gods of Pegana	Project Gutenberg (LibriVox)	Tiny mythologies, invented gods, cosmic irony.
Time and the Gods	Project Gutenberg	Compact fantasy theology; useful for cults, temples, and strange pantheons.
A Dreamer’s Tales	Project Gutenberg	Dream cities, exotic quests, fatal wonder.
The Well at the World’s End	Project Gutenberg (LibriVox)	Archaic quest-romance, magic wells, wilderness travel, proto-secondary world.
The Wood Beyond the World	Project Gutenberg (LibriVox)	Enchanted wilderness, witch-women, courtly romance, perilous travel.
Jurgen	Project Gutenberg	Ironic mythic travel, underworlds, gods, cosmological satire.
Figures of Earth	Project Gutenberg	Mythic antihero fantasy, bargains, saints, devils, and strange metaphysics.

Sword-and-sorcery, planetary romance, lost worlds, and expedition fantasy

For ruin exploration, factions in closed environments, hostile wilderness, lost cities, black magic villains, and treasure-driven adventure loops.

Best for: Lin Carter; L. Sprague de Camp; Gardner Fox; John Jakes; Michael Moorcock; Fritz Leiber; Andrew Offutt; Andre Norton; Jack Vance; C. L. Moore; Leigh Brackett; Philip José Farmer; Heinlein; Niven; Cherryh.

Public-domain source	Text / audio links	Old-school D&D use
Red Nails	Project Gutenberg	A near-perfect ruin/city module: sealed ruin, factions, decadence, monsters, treasure, doom.
The Hour of the Dragon	Project Gutenberg	Necromancy, lost jewels, tombs, sorcerers, battlefield fantasy.
A Princess of Mars	Project Gutenberg (LibriVox)	Sword-and-planet template: arena combat, alien factions, ruined cities, superhuman hero.
At the Earth’s Core	Project Gutenberg (LibriVox)	Hollow-earth dungeon world, reptilian overlords, prehistoric wilderness.
King Solomon’s Mines	Project Gutenberg (LibriVox)	Expedition play, treasure maps, lost kingdoms, deadly terrain.
Allan Quatermain	Project Gutenberg (LibriVox)	Lost-race adventure, dangerous travel, ancient cities.
The Moon Pool	Project Gutenberg (LibriVox)	Weird science, hidden civilization, ancient powers, hypnotic horror.
Treasure Island	Project Gutenberg (LibriVox)	Treasure maps, factions, betrayal, wilderness exploration, pirates.
The Three Musketeers	Project Gutenberg (LibriVox)	Adventuring-party dynamics, duels, rival factions, court intrigue.
The Count of Monte Cristo	Project Gutenberg (LibriVox)	Revenge plots, hidden treasure, masks, prisons, long-game NPC planning.

Weird horror, gothic castles, haunted scholarship, and cosmic dread

For haunted ruins, cult sites, cursed books, lich-like survivals, monster-as-mystery design, and dungeons whose real treasure is dangerous information.

Best for: Ramsey Campbell; August Derleth; Hannes Bok; Clark Ashton Smith; Margaret St. Clair; Mervyn Peake; Karl Edward Wagner; Manly Wade Wellman; Fredric Brown.

Public-domain source	Text / audio links	Old-school D&D use
The Castle of Otranto	Project Gutenberg (LibriVox)	The ancestral gothic castle: secret passages, giant omens, inheritance curses.
Edgar Allan Poe	Project Gutenberg author page	Madness, crypts, cursed houses, decadent villains, unreliable narration.
The Fall of the House of Usher	Project Gutenberg	The dungeon as family curse; architecture as psychic disease.
The Great God Pan	Project Gutenberg (LibriVox)	Occult experiment, hidden monstrosity, pagan survivals.
The Willows	Project Gutenberg (LibriVox)	Wilderness as alien intelligence; excellent hexcrawl dread.
The Wendigo	Project Gutenberg	Survival horror, possession, vast forests, unseen predators.
Ghost Stories of an Antiquary	Project Gutenberg (LibriVox)	Cursed objects, old manuscripts, haunted ruins, scholarly doom.
Carmilla	Project Gutenberg (LibriVox)	Vampire atmosphere, aristocratic horror, ruined estates.
The Call of Cthulhu	H. P. Lovecraft Archive	Cults, forbidden knowledge, ancient cosmic entities.
The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath	H. P. Lovecraft Archive	Dreamlands, ghouls, night-gaunts, strange cities, planar travel.

Classical antiquity, world myth, and myth-reference roots

For gods as factions, monster origins, divine curses, mythic underworlds, oracle logic, legendary artifacts, and cross-cultural worldbuilding.

Best for: Olivia Coolidge; Mary Renault; Borges; Avram Davidson; Samuel R. Delany; Roger Zelazny; Thomas Burnett Swann; myth/reference entries.

Public-domain source	Text / audio links	Old-school D&D use
The Iliad	Project Gutenberg (LibriVox)	Heroic wrath, divine intervention, war-camps, champions, artifact armor.
The Odyssey	Project Gutenberg (LibriVox)	Island-hopping adventure, monsters, witches, underworld journeys, cursed travel.
The Aeneid	Project Gutenberg (LibriVox)	Founding myths, divine missions, underworld travel, epic war.
Plutarch’s Lives	Project Gutenberg	Historical heroes as NPC templates, moral flaws, political adventure.
Herodotus	Project Gutenberg	Strange lands, marvels, ethnographic fantasy fuel, ancient campaign texture.
Ovid’s Metamorphoses	Project Gutenberg (LibriVox)	Transformations, divine punishments, monsters, tragic magic.
Bulfinch’s Mythology	Project Gutenberg	Readable myth-reference shelf for Greek, Roman, chivalric, and Charlemagne material.
The Arabian Nights	Sacred Texts; Project Gutenberg Vol. 1	Djinn, thieves, viziers, magical cities, nested stories, wonder-adventure.
The Bhagavad-Gita / The Song Celestial	Project Gutenberg	Divine avatars, cosmic scale, heroic duty, metaphysical fantasy.
Myths and Legends of China	Project Gutenberg	Immortals, dragons, spirit worlds, celestial bureaucracy.
The Mythology of All Races	Internet Archive example volume	Comparative myth source for monsters, gods, heroes, and spirits.

Medieval marvels, bestiaries, pseudo-history, and worldbuilding raw material

For rumor tables, monster lore, weird geography, medieval cosmology, cursed castles, underworld travel, and dungeons that feel half-scholarship, half-nightmare.

Best for: Borges; Barber; Walter Buehr; David Macaulay; Jay Williams; Bart Winer; Funk & Wagnalls; broad worldbuilding.

Public-domain source	Text / audio links	Old-school D&D use
The Travels of Sir John Mandeville	Project Gutenberg	Medieval travel fantasy: monstrous peoples, impossible lands, rumor as geography.
The Old English Physiologus	Project Gutenberg	Bestiary logic: animals and monsters as symbolic, magical, and strange.
The History of Four-footed Beasts and Serpents	Internet Archive	Early-modern monster lore, serpents, beasts, fabulous natural history.
The Natural History of Pliny	Project Gutenberg	Ancient encyclopedia of marvels, minerals, beasts, wonders, and rumors.
Orlando Furioso	Project Gutenberg	Knights, monsters, magic, flying steeds, islands, and high romance chaos.
The Faerie Queene, Book I	Project Gutenberg (LibriVox)	Allegorical monsters, enchanted castles, wandering knights, faerie politics.
Journey to the Centre of the Earth	Project Gutenberg (LibriVox)	Underground expedition template; science-fantasy dungeon scale.
Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea	Project Gutenberg (LibriVox)	Undersea exploration, strange technology, isolated genius, exotic environments.
The Time Machine	Project Gutenberg (LibriVox)	Deep time, Morlocks, underground horror, future-as-dungeon.
The War of the Worlds	Project Gutenberg (LibriVox)	Alien invasion, survival play, apocalyptic hexcrawl.

3. Appendix N+1: N-adjacent works

Appendix N’s prose points beyond the named author list toward fairy tales, mythology, bestiaries, comic books, and SF/fantasy/horror films. This section keeps that N-adjacent spirit. That means no repeat entries for works such as The Mabinogion, The Arabian Nights, Grimm, Lang’s Blue Fairy Book, Bulfinch, Dracula, Alice, Dunsany, Howard, MacDonald, Morris, Wells, or Verne.

N-adjacent row	De-duplicated public-domain alternatives	Why it belongs
Oral / family storytelling tradition	Tales of the Punjab; Japanese Fairy Tales (LibriVox)	Used here instead of repeating The Arabian Nights or The Mabinogion.
Wish-granting figures	The Bottle Imp (LibriVox); The Magic Fishbone	Magic wishes and bargains with a cost, without reusing Aladdin.
Magic rings	The Ring of Gyges in Plato’s Republic (LibriVox)	Invisibility, temptation, and magic-item morality.
Enchanted swords	The Song of Roland (LibriVox); The Story of Grettir the Strong	Heroic weapons, last stands, feud violence, and saga-scale martial legend without reusing Excalibur or Sigurd.
Wicked sorcerers	Old Peter’s Russian Tales (LibriVox); The Yellow Fairy Book (LibriVox)	Koschei/Baba Yaga-style villains, hidden souls, spellbound princesses, and strange folklore rules.
Dauntless swordsmen	The Prisoner of Zenda (LibriVox); Scaramouche (LibriVox)	Swashbuckling without reusing Dumas: imposture, castles, court intrigue, duels, and revolutionary adventure.
Comic books, broadly	Digital Comic Museum; Eerie #1, Avon, 1947; Comic Book Plus	Public-domain Golden Age comics for monster visuals, shock reveals, horror one-shots, and pulp villains.
EC / horror-comics analogues	Avon Eerie category at Digital Comic Museum	EC’s own 1950s titles should not be assumed public domain; use researched PD horror-comics analogues.
Science-fiction movies	A Trip to the Moon; The Lost World	Weird machines, impossible travel, expedition danger, prehistoric plateaus, and monster spectacle.
Fantasy movies	The Thief of Bagdad; The Golem: How He Came into the World	Thieves, palaces, sorcerers, djinn, magical cities, and created guardians.
Horror movies	Nosferatu; The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari; The Phantom of the Opera; Häxan	Vampire castles, plague towns, hidden lairs, expressionist spaces, witch imagery, and ritual horror.
Fairy tales, broadly	The Tales of Mother Goose; The Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault	French courtly fairy-tale logic, Bluebeard doors, ogres, sleeping enchantments, and concise moral traps.
Compilations of myths of various lands and peoples	Myths of Babylonia and Assyria; Teutonic Myth and Legend; Egyptian Myth and Legend	Pantheons, underworlds, demons, culture-specific spirits, and non-Greek mythic campaign fuel.
Science-fiction literature, broadly	The House on the Borderland (LibriVox); The Night Land (LibriVox)	Cosmic vastness, last redoubts, weird houses, and nightmare geographies without repeating Wells/Verne.
Fantasy literature, broadly	Five Children and It (LibriVox); The Enchanted Castle (LibriVox)	Wishes gone wrong, child adventurers, magical spaces, and domestic portals without repeating MacDonald/Morris/Dunsany.
Other imaginative writing	Flatland (LibriVox); A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (LibriVox); The Water-Babies (LibriVox)	Alternate dimensions, anachronistic campaigns, satirical portals, and strange metamorphoses without repeating Alice or Gulliver.

Quick-start reading path