Don Rodriguez

Don Rodriguez: Chronicles of Shadow Valley is a fantasy novel written by Lord Dunsany and first published in 1922.

The story follows a young nobleman who leaves his father’s castle to seek fortune, honour and adventure in a world filled with danger, mystery and romance. Along the way, he is joined by a loyal servant, and together they travel through strange lands where reality often feels like legend.

As the journey unfolds, the novel blends swordplay, humour, and poetic fantasy. Encounters with robbers, magicians, enchanted places and the mysterious Shadow Valley create a dreamlike tale of wandering and discovery.

With its elegant prose and fairy-tale atmosphere, Don Rodriguez: Chronicles of Shadow Valley reflects Lord Dunsany’s distinctive gift for mythic adventure, lyrical imagination and timeless fantasy.

"Being convinced that his end was nearly come, and having lived long on earth (and all those years in Spain, in the golden time), the Lord of the Valleys of Arguento Harez, whose heights see not Valladolid, called for his eldest son. And so he addressed him when he was come to his chamber, dim with its strange red hangings and august with the splendour of Spain: "O eldest son of mine, your younger brother being dull and clever, on whom those traits that women love have not been bestowed by God; and know my eldest son that here on earth, and for ought I know Hereafter, but certainly here on earth, these women be the arbiters of all things; and how this be so God knoweth only, for they are vain and variable, yet it is surely so: your younger brother then not having been given those ways that women prize, and God knows why they prize them for they are vain ways that I have in my mind and that won me the Valleys of Arguento Harez, from whose heights Angelico swore he saw Valladolid once, and that won me moreover also ... but that is long ago and is all gone now ... ah well, well ... what was I saying?" And being reminded of his discourse, the old lord continued, saying, "For himself he will win nothing, and therefore I will leave him these my valleys, for not unlikely it was for some sin of mine that his spirit was visited with dullness, as Holy Writ sets forth, the sins of the fathers being visited on the children; and thus I make him amends. "