A Dreamer's Tale

Published at the height of his career, A Dreamer's Tales would influence such writers as J. R. R. Tolkein, Ursula K. Le Guin, and H. P. Lovecraft. Recognized as a pioneering author of fantasy and science fiction, Dunsany is a man whose work, in the words of Lovecraft, remains "unexcelled in the sorcery of crystalline singing prose, and supreme in the creation of a gorgeous and languorous world of incandescently exotic vision." "Like a great wall is the mountain to the west. It comes up out of the distance and goes down into the distance again, and it is named Poltarnees, Beholder of Ocean." A Dreamer's Tales, Dunsany's fourth collection of stories, contains some of his finest tales of fantasy and adventure. The distant mountain of Poltarnees has long been a place of wonder for mankind. The stories of old tell of many a traveler who set out to see what lay beyond its insurmountable peak. In