The Sword of Welleran

From The Sword of Welleran and Other Stories, by Lord Dunsany

Lord Dunsany published The Sword of Welleran and Other Stories in 1908. This fantasy tells of a city preserved by the memory of its heroes and the moment when legend must give way to living action. Dunsany was a pioneer of modern fantasy literature, and his style—combining archaic grandeur with philosophical reflection—influenced writers from Tolkien to Ursula K. Le Guin. This reader reflects its era; a few period terms have been modernised. The story is worth a young reader's time because it asks what happens when a people must stop dreaming of the past and act in the present, and because it wrestles with the cost of violence even in a just cause.

Band

Blue · Independent readers, confident, about 10 to 12

Length

long · about 1050 words in 5 sections · 2 pictures

Source

The Sword of Welleran and Other Stories, Lord Dunsany · Project Gutenberg

First published

see the About page in the reader

Regions

Canada · United States

Included formats

• · Web reader and PDF
• · EPUB for e-readers
• · Home-print sheet
• · Folded booklet
• · Binder edition (8.5 × 11)
• · Worksheet
• · Quick Check (10 questions) with answer key
• · Read-aloud script

Readers are engineered from the original public-domain text with AI under HummingRead’s published canon and Content Philosophy, checked by automated audit and sampled by a person. Pictures are made with AI to HummingRead’s brief for each story. How a reader is made.