Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by kerry_handscomb
The Sword of Welleran and Other Stories by Lord Dunsany
5.0
The Sword of Welleran, first published in 1908, is Lord Dunsany’s third book, coming after The Gods of Pegāna and Time and the Gods. It marks a change of focus, and contains several of Dunsany’s best known stories, including the title story itself, along with "The Fall of Babbulkund,” "The Kith of the Elf-Folk,” and "The Fortress Unvanquishable, Save for Sacnoth.” As with all of Dunsany’s early volumes, the illustrations by Sidney H. Sime are lovely.
While the first two volumes are purely fantasy, with no reference to our everyday world, the stories of The Sword of Welleran are sometimes set in in the world we know, with references to London, Paris, East Anglia, and so on; or at least they are “dreamed” by the narrator, who presumably belongs to the world we know. This latter is a device Dunsany will use frequently in future volumes of fantasy stories.
The first two volumes tell of the gods, their prophets, and the kings the prophets serve. While the stories of The Gods of Pegāna and Time and the Gods are individually unique, they belong to a single type, as it were. The stories in The Sword of Welleran, in contrast, are quite varied. "The Sword of Welleran” and "The Fortress Unvanquishable, Save for Sacnoth” are heroic tales; "The Kith of the Elf-Folk” is about a Wild Thing, a kind of fairy; "The Highwayman,” "In the Twilight,” "The Doom of La Traviata,” and "On the Dry Land” all tell of death and the journey of the soul; "The Fall of Babbulkund” tells of a fantastic city and its passing”; "The Ghosts” is, well, a ghost story; "The Whirlpool,” "The Hurricane,” and "The Lord of Cities” are all typically Dunsanian anthropomorphizing of natural forces—the latter of the spider, who eventually conquers all cities!
As with the first two volumes, Dunsany’s writing in The Sword of Welleran is distinct, poetic, and beautiful.
While the first two volumes are purely fantasy, with no reference to our everyday world, the stories of The Sword of Welleran are sometimes set in in the world we know, with references to London, Paris, East Anglia, and so on; or at least they are “dreamed” by the narrator, who presumably belongs to the world we know. This latter is a device Dunsany will use frequently in future volumes of fantasy stories.
The first two volumes tell of the gods, their prophets, and the kings the prophets serve. While the stories of The Gods of Pegāna and Time and the Gods are individually unique, they belong to a single type, as it were. The stories in The Sword of Welleran, in contrast, are quite varied. "The Sword of Welleran” and "The Fortress Unvanquishable, Save for Sacnoth” are heroic tales; "The Kith of the Elf-Folk” is about a Wild Thing, a kind of fairy; "The Highwayman,” "In the Twilight,” "The Doom of La Traviata,” and "On the Dry Land” all tell of death and the journey of the soul; "The Fall of Babbulkund” tells of a fantastic city and its passing”; "The Ghosts” is, well, a ghost story; "The Whirlpool,” "The Hurricane,” and "The Lord of Cities” are all typically Dunsanian anthropomorphizing of natural forces—the latter of the spider, who eventually conquers all cities!
As with the first two volumes, Dunsany’s writing in The Sword of Welleran is distinct, poetic, and beautiful.