Volume 1 Issue 2 Article 11 January 1971 Beyond the Fields We Know Lois Newman Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythpro Part of the English Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Newman, Lois (1971) "Beyond the Fields We Know," Mythcon Proceedings: Vol. 1 : Iss. 2 , Article 11. Available at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythpro/vol1/iss2/11 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Mythopoeic Society at SWOSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Mythcon Proceedings by an authorized editor of SWOSU Digital Commons. An ADA compliant document is available upon request. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Mythcon 51: The Mythic, the Fantastic, and the Alien Albuquerque, New Mexico • Postponed to: July 30 – August 2, 2021 Abstract Discussion of the career and writings of Lord Dunsany, precursor of Tolkien and a great influence on H.P. Lovecraft in particular. Emphasizes Dunsany’s unique literary style, inventive and opulent, and focuses primarily on Tales of Three Hemispheres and The King of Elfland’s Daughter. Keywords Dunsany, Lord This article is available in Mythcon Proceedings: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythpro/vol1/iss2/11 Newman: Beyond the Fields We Know :&:yonb the F1elbs «re Enow by Lois Newman There is in the United States today a revival or interest in fantasy "The City of the Dog"; Bethmoora; Taraphet and Merimna. People also !,iterature. ,,When The Lord or the Rings by J. R.R. Tolkien was had fabulous names; i.e. the end of his story "The Sword of Welleran" discovered m 1965 this was the signal for a strong resurgence of ends "But back from the ramparts and beyond the mountains and over the popularity for heroic fantasy. However Professor Tolkien is only the lands that they had conquered of old. beyond the world and back again to latest in a long line or fantasy writers. The first of the modern writers Paradise, went the souls of Welleran, Soorenard. Mommolek. Rollory. or heroic fantasy was William Norris who wrote his fantasy novels in Akanax, and younge lraine." There is also King Karna-Vootra; the the 1890's. The second or the modern writers was an Irishman. who Jeweller Thangobr-ind: Pombo the Idolater; and Slith, the Thief. though recognized by writers of fantasy to be perhaps the greatest or Certalnly the names in Ounsany's stories are evidence of his great all fantasy writers. 1s unknown to a large percentage of readers today. Imaginative powers and his rather unique approach to the writing or fan• The writer was Lord Dunsany, formally known as Edward John tasy. "To many readers the names In themselves seem magically evoc• Moreton Drax Plunkett, 18th Baron Dunsany. The facts of Lord ative. "3 The names transport the reader from the present to the worlds Dunsany's life arc simple. He was born 1n County Meath, Ireland on created by Dunsany almost immedlately. The openings of his stories July 24, 1878. lie \l'1S heir to the oldest Baronial title in the Br1t1sh invariably begin by using one or more extraordinary names which catch Isles which dated from the 13th century. He lived 1n a castle built 1n the attention of the reader. The opening of "Poltarnces, lleholt.ler of the 12th century by his ancestors who came to Ireland with Wiiham the Oceans", for example, begins, "Toldees, Mondath, Arizim, these·are Conqueror. lie was educated al Eton and Sandhurst. He served in the the Inner Lands, the lands whose sentinels upon their borders do not llocr War with the Coldstream Guards and in World War I was a Captain behold the sea." 1n the lnnsk1lling Fusiliers. Besides being an author he was a well• As to the origins of the names Dunsany used, in speaking of Greek known traveler and sportsman. At one time he was chess champion of and Latin classes during his schooldays at Cheam, he tells us: all Ireland. lie died October 25. 1957. My head began to fill with the sounds of Greek and Latin words, The milieu rn which he grew up and hved had a large influence on and continued to do so afterwards at Eton, until my memory his writing. Perhaps JUSt being an Irishman was a major' influence. held the echoes of more stately syllables than I knew the lie was a good storyteller and as most or his works were fantasy the meanings of; and, when geography was tumbled on top or this, Irish love of the supernatural and myth must have given him his taste my mind was very full of the material needed for the names for the genre m which he chose to write. As a wealthy peer he had of strange rivers and cities. And these, when I came to the freedom to travel and pursue his favorite pastime, hunting. Much write, my mind put together for Itself; and, on the rar c oc• of his writing shows the Influence of his travels to Africa and the Orient. casions when it has failed to do so and I have used conscious In fact he once estimated he spent mnety-seven percent or his lime effort Instead, the name has always been uninteresting, un• ti·avehng and hunting, the rest rn wr1t1ng. convincing, and as though it were not the real name of that With the pubhcauon of The Gods~ Pegana rn 1905 Dunsany began city or river. An example of one of these failures is llabbulk• his long career as a writer of short-stories. novels, verse, plays and und. It was, I think, some sort of effort to combine llabylon essays and autobiographical works. He wrote more than sixty volumes and Orizund, which the poet A E had told me was one of the altogether- -all or them with a quill pen. llis hrst plays were produced cities of Blake. Soon after the story was printed lhe right by the Abbey Theatre in Dubhn 1n 1911, but he did not get along well with name came to me, but too late, and that was Babdaroon. Most Yeats and Lady Gregory and very soon after 1911 got out of the Abbey of the other names satisfy me: I always thought Perdondaris Theatre. Later his plays were very successfully produced rn Eneland was a fair name for a city, while Belzoond and Ourl and Duz and the United States. seem suitable enough for the names of lesser cities •.• 4 Dunsany was well-known durine his ureume, but mainly as a drama• ln addition to certain magical qualities hls names arc examples tist and essayist. A careful searchlllg of both Enghsh and A mer rcan of "ideational onomatopoeia: his Hish, for example, seems precisely guides to periodical literature find him largely ignored during his lifetime right as a name for the Lord of Silence; his Sllth as a name for a thief;"5 and since. This seems strange since practitioners of fantasy have and and Shish for the hurried rush of time. continue to praise him and readers who are introduced to his writings Dunsany's second book, Time and the Gods, publf shed in 1906, become enthusiasuc and want to continue to read his works. contains some stories of myth, but begins to move into tales of heroic This paper rs concerned only with his short-stories and novels of fantasy. His stories begin to show touches of oriental opulance and his a fantastrc nature and will not discuss his plays or books or verse. great delight in color. lie used to speak of "Those !,;astern lands of the The Gods of Pegana, lus hrst book, mtroduces us to an entirely fancy, in which my imagination was always happiest." OC all writers of new pantheon or gods descrtbmg the d1v1nities of the "Third Herms phere." modern fantasy he is the only one who evidences a strong affinity for They dwell upon Pegana and were made by the mighty Dreamer of All Oriental culture and is the only writer who shows the influence of Orien• Things, Mana-Yood-Susha1. It 1s significant his first book" ... began tal mythology to any extent upon his writings. In his autobiographical hke an ancient literature with mythology. He told us first about the Patches of Sunlight (1938) Dunsan,y says the stories in Time and the Gods gods of the lands where his priests and kmgs and shepherds were to were dictated to his wile because her pen moved faster than his quill abide ..• "I He created a separate world of his own; but very ortgmally, did, He also states, "I did not feel in the least as though I were invent• he created a set or gods, myths and legends the people of his created ing, but rather as though I wrote the hratocy of Lands that l had known in world might know and wor-ship. This was a mytholo~ of his own. It forgotten wanderings. " was truly stated "He has the mind of a myth-maker." The Sword of Welleran and Other Stories, published in 1908, con• In addition to Mana-Yood.Sushai, the Dreamer or All Things, there tain some of Dunsany' s best heroic fantasy stories. Beside the title is Skaarl the Drummer, who drums while Mana-Yood Sushai rests from story there is "The Fortress Unvanquishablc, Save for Sacnoth" in which his Labors of creation. When Skaar! stops drumming Mana-Yood-Susha1 the hero Leothric slays the dragon Gaznak and removes from its body the will awaken and the gods will cease to exist. Among other gods residing sword Sacnoth, with which the famed citadel of the enchanter may be on Pegana are KJb, the Giver or Lire; Shd, Whose Soul is by the Sea; overwhelmed and taken.