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This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

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Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany (1878-1957) was an Anglo-Irish writer and dramatist, notable for his work in fantasy published under the name Lord Dunsany. He was a prolific writer, penning short stories, novels, plays, poetry, essays and autobiography, and publishing over sixty books, not including individual plays. The stories in his first two books, and perhaps the beginning of his third, were set within an invented world, Pegana, with its own gods, history and geography. He was initially an Associate Member of the Irish Academy of Letters, and later a full member. He received an honorary doctorate from Trinity College Dublin. His works include The Gods of Pegana (1905), Time and the Gods (1906), The Sword of Welleran and Other Stories (1908), A Dreamer's Tales (1910), The Book of Wonder (1912), Fifty-One Tales (1915), The Last Book of Wonder (1916), Tales of Three Hemispheres (1919), The Man Who Ate the Phoenix (1949), and The Little Tales of Smethers and Other Stories (1952). ... Read more

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All these are gods so small that they be lesser than men, but pleasant gods to have beside the hearth; and often men have prayed to Kilooloogung, saying: "Thou whose smoke ascendeth to Pegana send up with it our prayers, that the gods may hear." And Kilooloogung, who is pleased that men should pray, stretches himself up all grey and lean, with his arms above his head, and sendeth his servant the smoke to seek Pegana, that the gods of Pegana may know that the people pray. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Brilliant, foundational work of fantasy
This was Lord Dunsany's first published novel; it was also, I believe, the first completely invented mythology in the English language, pre-dating even Tolkien's Silmarillion by about a decade. Dunsany's influence on later fantasy has been incalculable, and this is the place to start.

The style is very elevated and high biblical / "mythic",-- far closer to Kahlil Gibran than modern fantasy -- and the intent more literary. High Art fantasy, not low art. The stories are very short, but very powerful and somewhat haunting. The best way to explain the book may simply be to give a sample, as Dunsany's style (though oft imitated) is so unique.

----
"And Limpang-Tung said: "The ways of the gods are strange. The flower groweth up and the flower fadeth away. This may be very clever of the gods. Man groweth from his infancy, and in a while he dieth. This may be very clever too.

"But the gods play with a strange scheme.

"I will send jests into the world and a little mirth. And while Death seems to thee as far away as the purple rim of hills; or sorrow as far off as rain in the blue days of summer, then pray to Limpang-Tung. But when thou growest old, or ere thou diest, pray not to Limpang-Tung, for thou becomest part of a scheme that he doth not understand.

"Go out into the starry night, and Limpang-Tung will dance with thee who danced since the gods were young, the god of mirth and of melodious minstrels. Or offer up a jest to Limpang-Tung; only pray not in thy sorrow to Limpang-Tung, for he saith of sorrow: 'It may be very clever of the gods, but he doth not understand.'"
-------

If you're interested in fantasy, you should read this, especially since it's free; Dunsany's influenced everyone from Lovecraft and Howard to Gaiman and Zelazny, and if you want to be familiar with the fantasy genre, he should be part of your bookshelf.It's a little tough going due to the style, but it's still very much worth reading.

The complete list of stories herein is as follows (remember, each of these is fairly short):

"Preface"
"The Gods of Pegna"
"Of Skarl the Drummer"
"Of the Making of the Worlds"
"Of the Game of the Gods"
"The Chaunt of the Gods"
"The Sayings of Kib"
"Concerning Sish"
"The Sayings of Slid"
"The Deeds of Mung"
"The Chaunt of the Priests"
"The Sayings of Limpang-Tung"
"Of Yoharneth-Lahai"
"Of Roon, the God of Going"
"The Revolt of the Home Gods"
"Of Dorozhand"
"The Eye in the Waste"
"Of the Thing That Is Neither God Nor Beast"
"Yonath the Prophet"
"Yug the Prophet"
"Alhireth-Hotep the Prophet"
"Kabok the Prophet"
"Of the Calamity That Befel Yn-Ilra by the Sea, and of the Building of the Tower of the Ending of Days"
"Of How the Gods Whelmed Sidith"
"Of How Imbaun Became High Prophet in Aradec of All the Gods Save One"
"Of How Imbaun Met Zodrak"
"Pegna"
"The Sayings of Imbaun"
"Of How Imbaun Spake of Death to the King"
"Of Ood"
"The River"
"The Bird of Doom and the End"

New Gods, Same Old Flavor
Herein the reader is introduced to MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI, who created all the lesser gods to play amongst the worlds. There is Kib, creator of all life, and Mung, who takes it away with but a signing of his hands. Meet Sish, the lord and master of Time, and Skarl the Drummer, whose beating can be heard throughout the heavens. Slid is also here, who frolics within the currents of countless rivers and rides the foam atop the waves of all the seas. There are also stories of the lesser home gods to be found, as well as the priests and prophets of Pegana.

Naturally, this isn't a book that presents a story with a beginning, middle, or end. It is really just snippets of history and gods of the land. You can't really read it one chapter at a time, it has to be read all the way through for the reader to get a complete sense of its grandeur. It stretches from the very beginning of time to its end and then back again. After you're done, you don't remember much of the details of the individual stories, but the sense of wonder remains.

This is the first installment of a five book cycle (followed by Time and the Gods, The Sword of Welleran, A Dreamer's Tale, and The Book of Wonder) concerning the fictional world of Pegana. Even though these stories were written nearly a century ago, they have had a great influence upon such well known writers as H.P. Lovecraft, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Neil Gaiman, as well as countless others. Dunsany's tales also rank up there with William Morris' and George MacDonald's for creating one of the first self-contained fantasy worlds and an accompanying imaginary mythology. (Although I've always hated the term "imaginary mythology." Aren't all mythologies imaginary to one degree or another? - not that that detracts from their power or legitimacy.)

Wildside Press has done a great service by reprinting most of the books in this series. I do wish, however, that a collected edition would be made available complete with annotations. (Not even Chaosium's "The Complete Pegana" reprints all the stories involved in the cycle.) As it stands now, readers will have to make do with these incredibly short individual volumes. This book, for instance, has 32 chapters, but is only 106 pages long. And that is using very large type and with a few pictures thrown in!

Nevertheless, it has often been said that some of the best things in life come in small packages. In this case, it is most definitely true.

Word magic
Pegana's interlinked stories are perhaps the most underrated work of fantasy of all time.The poetic beauty and philosophical depth of Dunsany's stories are unmatched by any other writer and his skill with the english language borders on the scary.
This slim volume, as well as subsequent collections such as The Time and the Gods and Sword of Welleran, has more beauty, poetry and sense of wonder than the vast majority of"big fat" fantasy novels written nowadays.Don't missed it.

Thank the "Gods"
"In the mists before the Beginning, Fate and Chance cast lots to decide whose the Game should be." With that enticing opener, Lord Dunsany kicked off "The Gods of Pegana," an intriguing collection of heroes-and-gods tales that the Irish nobleman created.

It starts off by describing the creator of the gods, MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI (always in capitals), and how the gods created the worlds "to amuse Ourselves." And then Dunsany describes the lord of death Mung and his encounters with a poor man, the "chaunt of the priests," the God of Mirth, the rebellion of the Home Gods, prophets and cities and temples and finally the end of Pegana ("For at the last shall the thunder, fleeing to escape from the doom of the gods, roar horribly among the Worlds").

When it comes to fantasy, nobody has equalled the "fictional Bible" of J.R.R. Tolkien, the Silmarillion. But "The Gods of Pegana" (first published in 1905) got to that turf first, with the littler gods under an overseeing deity (MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI -- isn't that a great name?) who made all of them, the lush language and complex histories. It's not hard to see why Tolkien was a fan of Dunsany's.

Dunsany seems to have been having a good time creating his own myths and legends. But even so, there's a feeling of melancholy to "The Gods of Pegana," and the sense that even at the beginning of the world, things are headed straight for the apocalyptic end. There's little of Dunsany's humor and irony in these stories, though his semi-mythic, descriptive language is very much present ("... then shine the blue eyes of the gods like sunlight on the sea, where each god sits upon his mountain.")

Before the Silmarillion, there was "The Gods of Pegana." This enticing early fantasy is a wonderful example of the invented myth, and a good read for fans of the classic fantasies. ... Read more

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General Books publication date: 2009Original publication date: 1922Original Publisher: G. P. Putnam's SonsSubjects: Fiction / ClassicsFiction / Fantasy / GeneralFiction / HorrorFiction / LiteraryFiction / Mystery ... Read more

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This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (4)

Swinging the sword
It's been almost a century since the "Sword of Welleran" collection was first published, compiling the title novella with other stories by early fantasy writer Lord Dunsany. Now finally this collection is back in print, and new readers can get acquainted with Dunsany's elaborate prose and otherworldly plotlines.

The title novella is a robust story written in a delicate style -- it takes place in the city of Merimna, "a marvel of spires and figures of bronze, and marble fountains, and trophies of fabulous wars, and broad streets given over wholly to the Beautiful." It's a city that proudly remembers its mysterious heroes and past victories.

When the hero Welleran is killed, nobody can quite believe it. But he is dead, and when the dead hero finds that he is "but dreams," he decides to haunt a young sleeping leader named Rold, in the hopes that young Rold will take his (Welleran's) sword and attack their enemies.

In the other stories, Dunsany spins stories about the exotic city of Babbulkund, and how it was destroyed, about the exquisite dancing "Kith of the Elf Folk," about the death of Tom the highwayman and the three men who are having some fun with graves, the Book of Magicians, natural disasters having a chitchat, a hero pursuing a monster, and some of the most frightening ghosts imaginable.

Dunsany was one of the few fantasy authors who wrote before Tolkien, and his stories are still striking in their originality and beauty. Most fantasy writers just churn out bad quest novels of at least six hundred pages. Not so with Dunsany, whose stories are as exquisite as they are short, and whose stories about elves and brave heroes never seem cliched.

Except for the odd mention of pharoahs and archbishops, these stories could almost take place in another universe. Dunsany spins up elaborate pictures of cities that never existed and fairy creatures, without seeming trite. Instead, it feels like a book of lost legends, deities, history and myths that has just been dug up again.

His writing is almost as lovely as his world-building. At times it can be a bit formal, but not to the point where it seems rigid or bloodless ("Evening stole up out of mysterious lands and came down on the streets of Paris..."). He lavishes loving detail and quiet grace, even on the grotesque "sins" sitting in the laps of ghosts. Even the cutesy "Hurricane" is beautifully written, and has a poignant depth.

Lord Dunsany's "Sword of Welleran and Other Tales" is one of his most entrancing books, without a single dud story in the entire collection. An exquisite read.

Take out the sword
It's been almost a century since the "Sword of Welleran" collection was first published, compiling the title novella with other stories by early fantasy writer Lord Dunsany. Now finally this collection is back in print, and new readers can get acquainted with Dunsany's elaborate prose and otherworldly plotlines.

The title novella is a robust story written in a delicate style -- it takes place in the city of Merimna, "a marvel of spires and figures of bronze, and marble fountains, and trophies of fabulous wars, and broad streets given over wholly to the Beautiful." It's a city that proudly remembers its mysterious heroes and past victories.

When the hero Welleran is killed, nobody can quite believe it. But he is dead, and when the dead hero finds that he is "but dreams," he decides to haunt a young sleeping leader named Rold, in the hopes that young Rold will take his (Welleran's) sword and attack their enemies.

In the other stories, Dunsany spins stories about the exotic city of Babbulkund, and how it was destroyed, about the exquisite dancing "Kith of the Elf Folk," about the death of Tom the highwayman and the three men who are having some fun with graves, the Book of Magicians, natural disasters having a chitchat, a hero pursuing a monster, and some of the most frightening ghosts imaginable.

Dunsany was one of the few fantasy authors who wrote before Tolkien, and his stories are still striking in their originality and beauty. Most fantasy writers just churn out bad quest novels of at least six hundred pages. Not so with Dunsany, whose stories are as exquisite as they are short, and whose stories about elves and brave heroes never seem cliched.

Except for the odd mention of pharoahs and archbishops, these stories could almost take place in another universe. Dunsany spins up elaborate pictures of cities that never existed and fairy creatures, without seeming trite. Instead, it feels like a book of lost legends, deities, history and myths that has just been dug up again.

His writing is almost as lovely as his world-building. At times it can be a bit formal, but not to the point where it seems rigid or bloodless ("Evening stole up out of mysterious lands and came down on the streets of Paris..."). He lavishes loving detail and quiet grace, even on the grotesque "sins" sitting in the laps of ghosts. Even the cutesy "Hurricane" is beautifully written, and has a poignant depth.

Lord Dunsany's "Sword of Welleran and Other Tales" is one of his most entrancing books, without a single dud story in the entire collection. An exquisite read.

Take out a sword
It's been almost a century since the "Sword of Welleran" collection was first published, compiling the title novella with other stories by early fantasy writer Lord Dunsany. Now finally this collection is back in print, and new readers can get acquainted with Dunsany's elaborate prose and otherworldly plotlines.

The title novella is a robust story written in a delicate style -- it takes place in the city of Merimna, "a marvel of spires and figures of bronze, and marble fountains, and trophies of fabulous wars, and broad streets given over wholly to the Beautiful." It's a city that proudly remembers its mysterious heroes and past victories.

When the hero Welleran is killed, nobody can quite believe it. But he is dead, and when the dead hero finds that he is "but dreams," he decides to haunt a young sleeping leader named Rold, in the hopes that young Rold will take his (Welleran's) sword and attack their enemies.

In the other stories, Dunsany spins stories about the exotic city of Babbulkund, and how it was destroyed, about the exquisite dancing "Kith of the Elf Folk," about the death of Tom the highwayman and the three men who are having some fun with graves, the Book of Magicians, natural disasters having a chitchat, a hero pursuing a monster, and some of the most frightening ghosts imaginable.

Dunsany was one of the few fantasy authors who wrote before Tolkien, and his stories are still striking in their originality and beauty. Most fantasy writers just churn out bad quest novels of at least six hundred pages. Not so with Dunsany, whose stories are as exquisite as they are short, and whose stories about elves and brave heroes never seem cliched.

Except for the odd mention of pharoahs and archbishops, these stories could almost take place in another universe. Dunsany spins up elaborate pictures of cities that never existed and fairy creatures, without seeming trite. Instead, it feels like a book of lost legends, deities, history and myths that has just been dug up again.

His writing is almost as lovely as his world-building. At times it can be a bit formal, but not to the point where it seems rigid or bloodless ("Evening stole up out of mysterious lands and came down on the streets of Paris..."). He lavishes loving detail and quiet grace, even on the grotesque "sins" sitting in the laps of ghosts. Even the cutesy "Hurricane" is beautifully written, and has a poignant depth.

Lord Dunsany's "Sword of Welleran and Other Tales" is one of his most entrancing books, without a single dud story in the entire collection. An exquisite read.

Wielding the "Sword"
It's been almost a century since the "Sword of Welleran" collection was first published, compiling the title novella with other stories by early fantasy writer Lord Dunsany. Now finally this collection is back in print, and new readers can get acquainted with Dunsany's elaborate prose and otherworldly plotlines.

The title novella is a robust story written in a delicate style -- it takes place in the city of Merimna, "a marvel of spires and figures of bronze, and marble fountains, and trophies of fabulous wars, and broad streets given over wholly to the Beautiful." It's a city that proudly remembers its mysterious heroes and past victories.

When the hero Welleran is killed, nobody can quite believe it. But he is dead, and when the dead hero finds that he is "but dreams," he decides to haunt a young sleeping leader named Rold, in the hopes that young Rold will take his (Welleran's) sword and attack their enemies.

In the other stories, Dunsany spins stories about the exotic city of Babbulkund, and how it was destroyed, about the exquisite dancing "Kith of the Elf Folk," about the death of Tom the highwayman and the three men who are having some fun with graves, the Book of Magicians, natural disasters having a chitchat, a hero pursuing a monster, and some of the most frightening ghosts imaginable.

Dunsany was one of the few fantasy authors who wrote before Tolkien, and his stories are still striking in their originality and beauty. Most fantasy writers just churn out bad quest novels of at least six hundred pages. Not so with Dunsany, whose stories are as exquisite as they are short, and whose stories about elves and brave heroes never seem cliched.

Except for the odd mention of pharoahs and archbishops, these stories could almost take place in another universe. Dunsany spins up elaborate pictures of cities that never existed and fairy creatures, without seeming trite. Instead, it feels like a book of lost legends, deities, history and myths that has just been dug up again.

His writing is almost as lovely as his world-building. At times it can be a bit formal, but not to the point where it seems rigid or bloodless ("Evening stole up out of mysterious lands and came down on the streets of Paris..."). He lavishes loving detail and quiet grace, even on the grotesque "sins" sitting in the laps of ghosts. Even the cutesy "Hurricane" is beautifully written, and has a poignant depth.

Lord Dunsany's "Sword of Welleran and Other Tales" is one of his most entrancing books, without a single dud story in the entire collection. An exquisite read. ... Read more

Product Description
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

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The book has no illustrations or index. Purchasers are entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Subjects: Fiction / Classics; Fiction / Literary; ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Incredibly influential work
I'll first quote from Ursula K. Leguin's website:

--------
When people ask me about "a book that changed my life," one of the several hundred honest answers I can give them is A Dreamer's Tales. (Then they look blank, which is too bad.) I was about twelve when I picked it up, one of those nice little leather-bound books the Modern Library used to do, and from the first sentence I was a goner.
. . .

I described this moment also in the first essay in my first book of essays, The Language of the Night, how I stood with the book in my hands there in the living room, silent upon a peak in Darien.
-------

Dunsany was the progenitor of modern fantasy -- before Tolkien, before Lewis, before Howard and before Lovecraft. This may be his best book that's available in the public domain; one story in particular, "Idle Days on the Yann," may be the best short story he wrote, period. Reading this, his influence on every major fantasy author from Lovecraft through to Zelazny is made clear, as is Dunsany's complete uniqueness as a writer.

I won't try to sum up the plots of these stories in a paragraph because these aren't really stories that hinge on plots, or heroes, or quests, or morals, or any of the other common modern fantasy models: though all those figure from time to time, they don't take center stage. Mostly, these stories are carried along by Dunsany's masterful writing style, and to read them is to watch Dunsany show you a series of intricate visions, visions beautiful, pathetic, sublime, and horrible by turn. Nobody else has ever really replicated his voice (the closest I can think of, oddly, is Kahlil Gibran, though Gaiman managed a hint of it in _Stardust_), and Dunsany is able to hook the reader hard just with prose style and clarity of detail. Perhaps the most amazing thing about these stories is how unique and memorable they remain, even after a hundred-odd years' worth of his influence.

Anyway, don't take my word for it; this book's free. Grab this thing and read "Idle Days on the Yann," if nothing else. There's no excuse not to. If you don't like it, thbffff to you.



The stories it contains are:

Preface"
"Poltarnees, Beholder of Ocean"
"Bladgaross"
"The Madness of Andelsprutz"
"Where the Tides Ebb and Flow"
"Bethmoora"
"Idle Days on the Yann"
"The Sword and the Idol"
"The Idle City"
"The Hashish Man"
"Poor Old Bill"
"The Beggars"
"Carcassonne"
"In Zaccarath"
"The Field"
"The Day of the Poll"
"The Unhappy Body"

Classic Dunsany, but Wildside Press edition is worthless
Wildside Press does much good by resurrecting rare old books, but this edition of Dunsany's classic has some of the worst typos I have ever seen.For example:

Page 34:Instead of "Never since then have I seen my city alive," Wildside has: "Now since then have I seen my city alive," disastrously reversing the meaning of the sentence,at the very climax of "The Madness of Andelsprutz".

Page 111: Instead of "But the folk of the Weald arose and went back well-fed to their byres," Wildside has: "But the talk of the Weald arose and went back well-fed to byres" (two errors in one line!).

Page 113:A line has dropped out!Instead of ". . .and beat the roses against cottagers' panes, and whispered news of the befriending night,"Wildside has: ". . . and beat the roses of the befriending night"--ruining one of Dunsany's more evocative passages.

And most ridiculous of all, at the climax of "Blagdaross", instead of "Saladin is in this desert with all his paynims", we get "Saladin is in this desert with all his pyjamas"!

And so on. These errors might be a minor annoyance encountered in, say, "War and Peace", but Dunsany's tales are very short, very carefully crafted, every word selected with care and precision.They are more nearly poetry than prose.Errors of this kind GLARE at the reader.

Wildside boasts that this edition is "authorized" by the Dunsany estate, but Dunsany would have been infuriated by it.Wildside needs to issue a corrected version, and maybe an apology.

Prose-Poems of Imagined Cities
Before there was Tolkein, there were William Morris, E.R. Eddison and Lord Dunsany.Dunsany's richly poetic style is delicious but a bit like a box of chocolates--best savored in small doses; too much and you might get a tummy ache.These are not so much tales as fragments, dreams, wisps of imaginings.Plot takes a backseat; these pieces read more like prose-poems, and are all about setting and language.They work well together since most are about dead or forgotten (imagined) cities or lands.An air of sadness wafts off the pages.Recommended for those who wish to voyage to exotic kingdoms that don't exist and those who enjoy reading ornate, beautiful prose evocative of Swinburne and Tennyson.

Beautiful and thoughtful
Lord Dunsany has a rare imagination and unqiue gift for writing.If you enjoy imaginative and visionary tales or if you are a fan of fictional mythologies, you will like Dunsany.While the stories are often compact, the vision is almost always expansive.He adopts language and prose approrpriate to his subject matter; often dreamy and languid it is a step away from the norm. Dunsany's tales dwell in places seldom visited by modern authors. Highly recommended.

Dreamers
How neat to be able to easily purchase this great book.Dunsany skillfully weaves his tales so the reader is brought into his world of imagination.His was a unique vision.Each tale still speaks to our world today a message of morality.His worlds are very real. ... Read more

Product Description
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more