The Sword of Welleran and Other Stories

By Lord Dunsany

The Sword of Welleran -- The Fall of Bubbulkund -- The Kith of the Elf-Folk -- The Highwayman -- In the Twilight -- The Ghosts -- The Whirlpool -- The Hurricane -- The Fortress Unvanquishable, Save for Sacnoth -- The Lord of Cities -- The Doom of La Traviata -- On the Dry Land

• Language: English
• Publisher: Start Classics
• Release date: Jun 13, 2014
• ISBN: 9781633553378

Lord Dunsany

Edward J. M. D. Plunkett, the 18th Baron of Dunsany, was one of the foremost fantasy writers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Lord Dunsany, and particularly his Book of Wonder, is widely recognized as a major influence on many of the best known fantasy writers, including J.R.R. Tolkien, H.P. Lovecraft, and C.S. Lewis. Holding one of the oldest titles in the Irish peerage, Lord Dunsany lived much of his life at Dunsany Castle, one of Ireland’s longest-inhabited homes. He died in 1957, leaving an indelible mark on modern fantasy writing.

Reviews for The Sword of Welleran and Other Stories

[altheaann · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Review of just the title story:

The city of Merinma's heroes and defenders are legendary. Just the rumors of their martial prowess have effectively protected the city into an age of peace and safety. Which has been a good thing, since all the heroes are long-dead, leaving only statues and monuments behind. But when the city finally faces emboldened invaders, the spirit of those heroes enters the populace... but also causes them to realize that an era is passed and gone.
Dunsany's artificially elevated language may be slightly off-putting to some, but this is an interesting, thought-provoking tale.

[tonari-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The professor, speaking the truth, has no fault, but he and the ones who declared the commercial success of the "tolkenian" vision of fantasy (Terry Brooks and Dungeons & Dragons above all) were a curse for this genre. Today, any writer of fantasy must deal with the pattern elves-dwarves-orcs-humans-hobbits/halflings to embrace it, deny it or parody it, at least to some extent.

Maybe fantasy was much more simple for Lord Dunsany: there was no Tolkien, no Terry Brooks, no Weis-Hickman; he had not to care about what other fantasy writers had written before him because there had been nearly none. Maybe he had heard something about William Morris and George Macdonald, and read some of their books, but even so fantasy at those times was like a virgin forest, waiting to be discovered. Nowadays I imagine this same forest crossed by a highway and its trees cut down to build a metropolis... but that's another story.
Yes, maybe fantasy was much more simple for Lord Dunsany: in no other ways I can explain his originality, the freshness of his tales, the sense of wonder he is able to move in the reader. Lord Dunsany writes fantasy and he doesn't feel any shame in using elements which today fantasy(less) writers will firmly refuse: he makes talk an Earthquake and a Hurricane; he makes one of his characters speak with a Whirlpool resting on the sand (!!!); he makes your spine chill with his honiric landscapes (oh my god, the dreams of Gaznak); he summons the reader in his tales. And then he leaves him free.
Of course, some novels in the collection are more exciting than others: I loved "In the twilight"and "The fortress Unvanquishable, save for Sacnoth" while "The Fall of Babbulkund" bored me a little.
Somewhere you will find christian-influenced elements and maybe you too, you will think "Oh no, another Lewis!" as I did at first. But keep on reading: you will notice that the religious parts too, far from being moral lessons for the "pious" reader, are well inserted in the context, enriching the story.
Am I forgetting something? Yes, the language. Well it's not so difficult: sometimes you will need a little patience, but nothing compared to William Morris's The wood beyond the world. So don't worry.

Four stars, no doubt. And now the gods of Pegana await me.

[paulgtr234 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Some weird and fascinating stories. The language and structures of these stories is archaic and it takes a little work to follow where the author is going. The effort is worth the trip in most cases. Lord Dunsany has a wild imagination and takes the reader for quite a ride.