Fantasy Short Stories Mythology Gods and Mortals The Passage of Time Fate vs. Free Will
Time and the Gods is a short story collection by Lord Dunsany, first published in 1906. Dunsany expands the mythic universe introduced in The Gods of Pegana
Across these interlinked tales, Dunsany presents an invented pantheon and creation myth rendered in poetic, dreamlike prose. Mortals, prophets, and kings appear only briefly against a vast backdrop, while Time itself stands as the great force that humbles gods and men alike.
The stories move from temples and deserts to far coasts and star-lit heavens, unfolding as fables about the limits of power, fate and inevitability, and the smallness of human ambition before the eternal. Moments of wonder sit beside quiet tragedies, giving the book the feel of a sacred chronicle recovered from an older world.
Celebrated for its influence on later fantasy, Dunsany’s collection remains a foundational work of modern fantasy and an enduring meditation on time, divinity, and destiny.
"Once when the gods were young and only Their swarthy servant Time was without age, the gods lay sleeping by a broad river upon earth. There in a valley that from all the earth the gods had set apart for Their repose the gods dreamed marble dreams. And with domes and pinnacles the dreams arose and stood up proudly between the river and the sky, all shimmering white to the morning."
#57 in Fantasy (this month)
#148 in Short Stories (this month)
The Time and the Gods book is available for download in PDF, ePUB and Mobi:
Copyright info
Time and the Gods by Lord Dunsany is believed to be in the public domain in the United States only. It may still be copyrighted in other countries. If you are not in the United States, please check your local laws to ensure this eBook is in the public domain in your country before downloading Time and the Gods in PDF or ePub.
Here are brief scriptures for invented deities: births, feasts, twilights, and the silence after. Dunsany writes myth with the economy of prayer and the music of a flute, making grandeur out of restraint. It’s a handbook in how to imply centuries with a sentence and kingdoms with a name.
For fantasy writers and readers, this is a temple to worldbuilding. For everyone else, it’s a reminder that the stories we tell about power—who grants it, who loses it—shape our daily rituals.
Rise, reign, and fading light.
Suggest more than you say.
Lines that linger like hymns.
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Dreamlike high fantasy; gods, chessboard cities, and clean sentences that shaped the genre.
We have 6 books by Lord Dunsany in the AliceAndBooks library