Fantasy

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 THE GIBBELINS eat, as is well known, nothing less good than man. Their evil tower is joined to Terra Cognita, to the lands we know, by a bridge. Their hoard is beyond reason; avarice has no use for it; they have a separate cellar for emeralds and a separate cellar for sapphires; they have filled…

by Lord Dunsany ONE WANDERING nigh Parnassus chasing hares heard the high Muses. “Take us a message to the Golden Town.” Thus sang the Muses. But the man said: “They do not call to me. Not to such as me speak the Muses.” And the Muses called him by name. “Take us a message,”…

by Lord Dunsany AS THE POET passed the thorn-tree the blackbird sang. “How ever do you do it?” the poet said, for he knew bird language. “It was like this,” said the blackbird. “It really was the most extraordinary thing. I made that song last Spring, it came to me all of…

by H. Millard HOMELESS JACK said “I had a dream, man, and in my dream Hitler came to me and spoke, saying” — * * * WHEN I WAS on Earth, I had a horrible nightmare of how the future might be if I didn’t work to change the future in my present. Unfortunately, the forces of evil won at that…