Fiction

by Lord Dunsany ONE NIGHT I sat alone on the great down, looking over the edge of it at a murky, sullen city. All day long with its smoke it had troubled the holy sky, and now it sat there roaring in the distance and glared at me with its furnaces and lighted factory windows. Suddenly I became aware that I was…

by Lord Dunsany ONCE GOING down to the shore of the great sea I came upon the Whirlpool lying prone upon the sand and stretching his huge limbs in the sun. I said to him “Who art thou?” And he said: “I am named Nooz Wāna, the Whelmer of Ships, and from the Straits of Pondar Obed I am come, wherein…

An alternate look at an alternate history by Arvin N. Prebost DO YOU remember the famous “Christmas Truce”? It was a series of spontaneous ceasefires along the Western Front around Christmas in 1914. In the week leading up to this ancient holy day of our people, German, French, and British…

by Lord Dunsany THE ARGUMENT that I had with my brother in his great lonely house will scarcely interest my readers. Not those, at least, whom I hope may be attracted by the experiment that I undertook, and by the strange things that befell me in that hazardous region into which so lightly and so ignorantly…

by Lord Dunsany THE LOCK was quite crowded with boats when we capsized. I went down backwards for some few feet before I started to swim, then I came spluttering upwards towards the light; but, instead of reaching the surface, I hit my head against the keel of a boat and went down again. I struck out almost…

by Lord Dunsany IN THE TOWN by the sea it was the day of the poll, and the poet regarded it sadly when he woke and saw the light of it coming in at his window between two small curtains of gauze. And the day of the poll was beautifully bright; stray bird-songs came to the poet at the window; the air was crisp and…

by Lord Dunsany THE OLD MAN in the Oriental-looking robe was being moved on by the police, and it was this that attracted to him and the parcel under his arm the attention of Mr. Sladden, whose livelihood was earned in the emporium of Messrs. Mergin and Chater, that is to say in their establishment. Mr. Sladden…

by Lord Dunsany IT WAS THE custom on Tuesdays in the temple of Chu-bu for the priests to enter at evening and chant, “There is none but Chu-bu.” And all the people rejoiced and cried out, “There is none but Chu-bu.” And honey was offered to Chu-bu, and maize and fat. Thus was he…

by Lord Dunsany IT WAS THE occupation of Mr. Thomas Shap to persuade customers that the goods were genuine and of an excellent quality, and that as regards the price their unspoken will was consulted. And in order to carry on this occupation he went by train very early every morning some few miles nearer…

by Lord Dunsany THE CHILD that played about the terraces and gardens in sight of the Surrey hills never knew that it was he that should come to the Ultimate City, never knew that he should see the Under Pits, the barbicans and the holy minarets of the mightiest city known. I think of him now as a child with a…