I have to present a political essay of my choice to my English class today, and I'm a little nervous, but I have friends in that class so hopefully they'll be kind.
Anyway, so I was doing some last minute internet surfing to get as much information about the essay's background as I can (precious little, I'm afraid), and then I stumbled across this. I'm still not sure how. But just the title 'A Dreamer's Tales' hooked me, and when I found that it was written in 1910, I was even more eager to give it a read, because fantasy stories written at the dawn of fantasy have a lovely sort of mood and purity about them that I adore. Ever read 'The Worm Ouroboros?'
Well anyway, I don't have much time, but I read the first story in the collection, called 'Poltarnees, Beholder of Ocean' (don't you just love those old wild sounding fantasy names that folks came up with before Tolkien changed the fantasy genre forever?). I read the story through and actually adore it. It reminds me of Arabian Nights in its ritualistic form of narrative . . . Very nice. Now I'm eager to read the rest of this book. It really does feel like the work of a dreamer, of a Dreamer in a society before Dreaming was taken seriously and thereby tainted and destroyed.
I will definitely be searching out Lord Dunsany's books now . . .
Dunsany is awesome, isn't he? I love his books, especially The King of Elfland's Daughter. I was in love with Orion for a long time. Well, Alveric was good too, but his son was awesome.
ReplyDeleteYou haven't read of his stuff before? I adore him. Such lovely pre-Tolkien/Lewis fantasy, very unlike the modern pulp-fantasy we have now-a-days.
-Linden
I went to the library and searched for his name, and all I found was 'A Dreamer's Tales', which I already read on the internet but borrowed anyway. I'm desperate to find 'The King of Elfland's Daughter', but seemingly the only way of doing that is to buy it online--which I'll probably do.
ReplyDeleteNup, this is a new discovery for me. ER Eddinson (spelling?) is also relatively new to me, just from January. All these 'old' fantasy writers are so wonderful; it's like a breath of fresh air.