Tales of Three Hemispheres

In Short

This collection of tales moves between the mundane realities of the British countryside or Edwardian London and the vast, uncanny landscapes of the Lands of Dream. Characters encounter ancient gods, sinister couriers, and immortal cities threatened by cosmic forces. Throughout these journeys, the stories trace a recurring movement: mortals venture past the edge of the known world only to discover that human time, mortal memory, and home exert an inescapable pull. The book has endured because it captures the wonder and terror of pure imagination with rhythmic prose and a gentle, ironical view of human ambitions.

The Story

The volume opens in real-world settings that quickly tilt into the strange. In the steaming equatorial lowlands, travelers reach the water-hole named for Bwona Khubla, a dead European explorer whose iron will was so terrifying that his memory continues to haunt the forest and rule his former porters long after his death. Far from the tropics, in the quiet English village of Otford-under-the-Wold, an anxious postman named Amuel Sleggins braves his lonely autumnal route across the marshes to deliver mysterious green letters from China to three grim men and a secretive woman living in a secluded, skin-draped house.

As the tales range farther into distant and mythical realms, mortal desires collide directly with the divine. In a hidden jungle shrine, a man named Ali schemes against his rival Boob Aheera before the five-inch Diamond Idol, bound by a fatalistic acceptance of destiny. On the distant plain of China, a Manchu shepherd quietly observes a absurd, far-away race between cabs carrying London gentlemen in evening dress, casting off the sight as a futile illusion before turning his mind back to the eternal peace of the One. Elsewhere, a mortal tires of peace and begs the ancient gods for war, only to regret the bloodshed and ask for peace again, trapping himself in a cycle of endless dissatisfaction with the gifts of heaven. In a roadside inn, three men rob a weary wayfarer of a sack of giant emeralds, only to be struck with terror when a black-clad rider on a limping horse comes clattering down the dark road to reclaim what is his. In Paris, an ordinary bidder purchases an old brown coat at an auction, only to watch its original owner—a quiet laborer—claim the coat and step out of a window, stumping calmly upward into the sky at a forty-degree angle.

The central narrative arc culminates in a voyage along the sea-like river Yann. A dreamer boards the ship Bird of the River, drifting past ancient, carved cities like Astahahn, where the inhabitants have fettered Time to preserve their living gods. At the mighty city of Perdóndaris, the traveler views a colossal city gate carved from a single piece of solid ivory, and flees in terror upon realizing the scale of the monster that shed it.

Seeking to return to the Yann on a later journey, the narrator searches London for Go-by Street, a hidden alley off the Strand where a comatose shopkeeper sells rare river-waters and sleeps among forgotten idols. Passing through a back door into the Lands of Dream, the traveler visits an old witch whose garden is dug by weary poets seeking pearls to feed pigs, and dances in the ivory palace of the hunter Singanee alongside the beautiful princess Saranoora. Yet upon stepping through the wrong door back into England, the traveler finds London gone, replaced by grassy hills and a single eroded stone lion from Trafalgar Square. Stranded centuries in the future, the dreamer hurries back through the shop, steps through the correct doorway, and returns to modern London, cheering at the sight of hansom cabs and dirty, accustomed streets.

How It Unfolds

The shadow of Bwona Khubla Travelers cross cactus forests to reach a remote water-hole where a formidable explorer died of malaria years prior. His terrifying force of will still dominates his former porters, who demand quinine medicine from the new arrivals to ward off his lingering ghost.

The green letter from China Each autumn, as wild geese fly over the marshes, postman Amuel Sleggins delivers a strange letter to a secluded grey house hung with weasel skins. He hands the envelope to a grim, sly-faced man and quickly escapes as low, eager murmurs rise inside the hut.

Prayers at the hidden shrine Ali pushes through an orchid-scented jungle to reach the golden shrine of the tiny, luminous Diamond Idol. He seeks to outpray his hated rival, Boob Aheera, while reflecting bitterly on how easily white tourists and London newspapers would destroy the forest's mystery if a path were ever cut.

The shepherd and the passing cabs Standing in the sleet, a Manchu shepherd watches a bizarre cab race from Pittsburgh to Piccadilly hurtle across the plain. Unmoved by the spectacle, he returns to his hut, eats hot rice, lights his opium pipe, and dismisses the hurried activity of the Westerners as a passing illusion.

The old coat ascends A bidder at a French auction wins an old brown coat for twenty pounds after outbidding a fierce rival. Soon after, an old laborer enters the room, reclaims his coat without a word, and walks out the open window, stepping upward into the open sky toward the southeast.

Voyage down the River Yann A dreamer sails aboard a river ship alongside sailors of different faiths who pray peacefully side by side at sunset. The vessel floats past ancient Astahahn—a city that has chained Time to protect its ancient gods—and the walled city of Perdóndaris.

The shop in Go-by Street Searching for the passage back to the Lands of Dream, the narrator finds a hidden shop running off the Strand. The sleepy shopkeeper shows him a dingy lumber-room filled with the sleeping gods of forgotten religions, explaining that gods do not die, but merely sleep when worship ends.

The pearl diggers and the ivory hall In the Lands of Dream, the traveler encounters an old witch who beats exhausted poets with a stick as they dig up pearls from hard soil. Leaving her garden, the dreamer joins the lavish court of the hunter Singanee, dancing with the princess Saranoora in a hall overlooking an amethyst abyss.

Lost in the centuries Stepping through an incorrect doorway, the narrator emerges onto quiet grassy hills where London once stood, discovering only a ruined stone lion buried in the grass. Realizing he has slipped into the distant future, he retrogrades his steps through Go-by Street, successfully returning to his original era and its familiar, comforting noise.

The People

• Bwona Khubla: An English explorer whose real name is lost to time. Bittered by malaria, he possessed a relentless, terrifying strength of will that forced his porters forward and continues to inspire dread long after his death at an isolated water-hole.
• Amuel Sleggins: A dutiful English country postman. He dreads his seasonal walk across the wold to the dark, isolated hut, yet completes his rounds faithfully, eager to return to ordinary village faces.
• Ali: A traveler in a tropical region who harbors a deep, fatalistic hatred for his rival, Boob Aheera. He seeks the golden shrine of the Diamond Idol to pray for his own cause while accepting the unfolding of destiny.
• The Manchu Shepherd: A quiet, contemplative figure living on the plains of China. He views the frantic movement of Western travelers with calm detachment, choosing the quiet contemplation of the Ineffable over worldly ambition.
• The River Captain: A generous, open-minded mariner on the River Yann. He shares his sacred yellow wine with the narrator, tells stories of his homeland of Belzoond, and respects the diverse religious traditions of his crew.
• The Shopkeeper of Go-by Street: A heavy, comatose old man in carpet slippers who keeps a hidden shop near the Strand. He acts as a gatekeeper between real-world London and the dream realm, guarding a storehouse of sleeping gods.
• Singanee: A legendary elephant-hunter of the dreamlands. Dressed simply with a gold band in his hair, he dwells in a magnificent ivory palace at the edge of an amethyst precipice, surrounded by dancing queens and golden dragons.
• The Narrator: A sensitive, impressionable dreamer from London. He hungers for the wild beauty and splendour of mythic lands, but ultimately finds himself deeply attached to the familiar, ordinary sights of his home city.

In Its Own Voice

"He had had a name no doubt, some common name such as hangs as likely as not over scores of shops in London; but that had gone long ago, and nothing identified his memory now to distinguish it from the memories of all the other dead but 'Bwona Khubla,' the name the Kikuyus gave him."

"And I too felt that I would pray. Yet I liked not to pray to a jealous God there where the frail affectionate gods whom the heathen love were being humbly invoked; so I bethought me, instead, of Sheol Nugganoth, whom the men of the jungle have long since deserted, who is now unworshipped and alone; and to him I prayed."

"For there have been men who have burned prisons down that the prisoners might escape, and even such incendiaries those dark musicians are who dangerously burn down custom that the pining thoughts may go free."

What It's Really About

At its core, the collection explores the delicate tension between human imagination and the relentless march of Time. The stories repeatedly contrast the fleeting nature of human civilizations—symbolized by the eventual disappearance of London—with the enduring power of myth and memory. Gods in these tales are neither immortal nor absolute; they thrive on human devotion and fall asleep when forgotten, while Time remains the sole wakeful force in the universe. Beneath the rich, exotic scenery lies a meditation on belonging. While the imagination craves the dangerous freedom of uncharted fantasy realms, the human spirit ultimately requires the grounding warmth of routine, domestic comfort, and the familiar streets of home.

Why Read It Today

This collection will captivate lovers of classic fantasy, prose poetry, and speculative fiction who appreciate atmosphere over fast-paced action. Lord Dunsany writes with an enchanting, rhythmic cadence that gives his dreamscapes the weight of ancient myth. Reading these stories feels like stepping into a series of luminous oil paintings, where orchid-choked jungles, amethyst cliffs, and fog-bound London streets exist side by side.

The collection does carry the markers of its period. Readers will encounter early twentieth-century colonial phrasing, casual references to imperial expeditions, and romanticized depictions of exotic locales that reflect the era in which they were written. Yet these historical blemishes are offset by the author's underlying gentle irony toward human pretense and his deep respect for diverse traditions. What stays with the reader is the book's extraordinary visual invention—the sight of a laboring man walking up into the sky, sailors of rival faiths praying together under the stars, and the quiet comfort of returning home to a dirty, familiar street after glimpsing the edge of eternity.