Don Rodriguez: Chronicles of Shadow Valley

by Lord Dunsany

After long and patient research I am still unable to give to the reader of these Chronicles the exact date of the times that they tell of. Were it merely a matter of history there could be no doubts about the period; but where magic is concerned, to however slight an extent, there must always be some element of mystery, arising partly out of ignorance and partly from the compulsion of those oaths by which magic protects its precincts from the tiptoe of curiosity.

Moreover, magic, even in small quantities, appears to affect time, much as acids affect some metals, curiously changing its substance, until dates seem to melt into a mercurial form that renders them elusive even to the eye of the most watchful historian.

It is the magic appearing in Chronicles III and IV that has gravely affected the date, so that all I can tell the reader with certainty of the period is that it fell in the later years of the Golden Age in Spain.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Classics, Speculative Fiction, Literature, Novels, Historical Fiction

188 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1922

About the author

Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett, eighteenth baron of Dunsany, was an Anglo-Irish writer and dramatist, notable for his work in fantasy published under the name Lord Dunsany. More than eighty books of his work were published, and his oeuvre includes hundreds of short stories, as well as successful plays, novels and essays. Born to one of the oldest titles in the Irish peerage, he lived much of his life at perhaps Ireland's longest-inhabited home, Dunsany Castle near Tara, received an honourary doctorate from Trinity College, and died in Dublin.

Reviews

[Rod · Rating 3 out of 5]

★★★½

"But to you I leave my long, most flexible, ancient Castilian blade, which infidels dreaded if old songs be true. Merry and lithe it is, and its true temper singeth when it meets another blade as two friends sing when met after many years. It is most subtle, nimble, and exultant, and what it will not win for you in the wars, that shall be won for you by your mandolin, for you have a way with it that goes well with the old airs of Spain. And choose, my son, rather a moonlight night when you sing under those curved balconies that I knew, ah me, so well; for there is much advantage in the mood n. In the first place maidens see in the light of the moon, especially in the Spring, more romance than you might credit, for it adds for them a mystery to the darkness which the night has not when it is merely black. And if any statue should gleam on the grass near by, or if the magnolia be in blossom, or even the nightingale singing, or if anything be beautiful in the night, in any of these things also there is an advantage; for a maiden will attribute to her lover all manner of things that are not his at all, but are only outpouring from the hand of God. There is this advantage also in the moon, that, if interrupters come, the moonlight is better suited to the play of a blade than the mere darkness of night; indeed but the merry play of my sword in the moonlight was often a joy to see, it so flashed, so danced, so sparkled."

Thus the father on his deathbed bequeaths the son his most prized possession and sends him out into the world to find "the wars" and make his fortune.

Neither as finely crafted nor as consistently well-written as The King of Elfland's Daughter, this, Dunsany's first novel, is nonetheless a lot of fun. Taking place in a fictional, medieval Golden Age of Spain, there are a lot of obvious echos of Don Quixote, as our young protagonist, Rodriguez, sets out to travel the countryside seeking fortune and glory accompanied by his rotund, Sancho Panza-esque manservant, Morāno. In Don Rodriguez, however, if someone appears to be a magician, then he very probably is. Rodriguez' quest may be quixotic, but he's not crazy.

I would have rated it higher, but there were some flaws that I couldn't overlook: Sometimes characters and situations are introduced with some foreshadowing of a future payoff only to never reappear again or to have any particular importance to the story. Also, the stakes never feel very high, and the characters aren't supplied with a great amount of depth. There is some beautiful writing, though, and that is ultimately what makes it worthwhile, not to mention that it's often quite funny.

And Rodriguez remembered all those passes and feints that he had had from his father, and which Sevastiani, a master of arms in Madrid, had taught in his father's youth: and some were famous and some were little known. And all these passes, as he tried them one by one, his unknown antagonist parried. And for a moment Rodriguez feared that Morāno would see those passes in which he trusted foiled by that unknown sword, and then he reflected that Morāno knew nothing of the craft of the rapier, and with more content at that thought he parried thrusts that were strange to him. But something told Morāno that in this fight the stranger was master and that along that pale-blue, moonlit, unknown sword lurked a sure death for Rodriguez. He moved from his place of vantage and was soon lost in large shadows; while the rapiers played and blade rippled on blade with a sound as though Death were gently sharpening his scythe in the dark. And now Rodriguez was giving ground, now his antagonist pressed him; thrusts that he believed invincible had failed; now he parried wearily and had at once to parry again; the unknown pressed on, was upon him, was scattering his weakening parries; drew back his rapier for a deadlier pass, learned in a secret school, in a hut on mountains he knew, and practised surely; and fell in a heap upon Rodriguez' feet, struck full on the back of the head by Morāno's frying-pan.

[Iain · Rating 5 out of 5]

How to describe this book? It's a pretty problem. As might a child, after dashing off to play on a bright summer morning—hours splashing in the river, exploring the forests, duelling with sticks against the Infidel (or the child next door if the Infidel be not available), winning a week's pocket-money at marbles and losing it again—as such a child, when asked "what did you do today?" simply shrugs and replies "oh, nothing much"; just so should I feel, dear Reader, were I to attempt to pin down the precise qualities of this book for you. It doesn't wash. And yet I must make the attempt.

I can say this much: this is a book to be approached lightly. The magic Lord Dunsany weaves is delicate, and you may raise an eyebrow and start to protest that you know the history of Spain, and the events he relates cannot possibly have taken place in the manner he describes. Moreover the characters in his story are surely stereotypes, mere caricatures, and no such people can possibly have walked those dusty roads, and even if they did they cannot have subsisted merely on bacon. Not possible, you say. But when you read of Morano's noble frying pan, of bacon cooked beneath the stars and eaten at the wayfarer's green table, you might find that you believe in Bacon after all.

[Ioannis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Συμπαθητικές ιστορίες, ίσως στην εποχή τους πρωτοποριακές, αλλά προσωπικά δε βρήκα κάτι το ιδιαίτερο... Ίσως αξίζει να διαβαστεί για ιστορικούς λόγους μιας και ο συγγραφέας θεωρείται πρωτοπόρος της λογοτεχνίας του φανταστικού.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

This, as with a lot of Lord Dunsany’s work, has the initial feeling of being a traditional fairy tale, but it’s infused with a different sensibility. It’s a subtle, but profound, difference. The distinction can perhaps only be experienced, not quantitatively described. This book is worthy of a far wider audience than it currently has.

One of the most noteworthy aspects of this book is its portrayal of the differences in perception between a curious, knowledgeable mind and a more practically focused mind, as personified by Rodriguez and Morano, respectively. It’s a book-long illustration of what William Blake meant when he wrote “A fool sees not the same tree a wise man sees,” except the fool occasionally has a more effective approach.

[Simon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well it would seem that the great Lord Dunsany was not infallible. I've loved every other book I've read by him and came to this one with accordingly high expectations and for the first time, he has not lived up to them.

In this story we follow Don Rodriquez after he inherits no more than a rapier and a mandolin from his lordly father and sets out on a quest to win himself a castle (with his rapier) and a lover (with his mandolin).

The problem for me was that the story just wasn't very interesting, the protagonist often impossibly dense and "surprise" plot developments not very surprising. All this probably wouldn't have mattered so much if I had found Dunsany's writing as engaging as I usually do but unfortunately it was not the case. Many of the passages I found long and laborious and frequently found my attention wandering. There were still flashes of Dunsany's brilliance, an occaisional turn of phrase that made me chuckle or left me in awe of its beauty.

Other quirky aspects were frequent, inexplicable and entirely unnecessary remarks of the narrator directed straight at the reader. Some of the dialogue of the characters left me feeling a little uncomfortable from a politically correct stand point (and believe me, I'm usually quite tolerant of this sort of thing in older authors).

Overall I would say that while this story still holds some of that Dunsany magic, I would not recommend it to anyone other than die-hard fans.

[Mohammed Abdikhader Firdhiye · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a different story compared to everything else I read by Lord Dunsany. The prose was at times brilliant, beautiful use of words, language but the story was very simple about the adventures of the young naive Knight Rodriguez whose quest in the story is looking for romantic wars,glory and to win castle in Golden age Spain. It was clear to see what the writer thought about the knight and his chivalrous ways. I have come to expect more subtle meaning than that from this legendary writer. The storytelling was uneven because I wasn't really interested for many of the early chapters. The last chapters story wise was much better.

His prose style and his way with words was more interesting than the actual story. Thats is why I still enjoyed reading this novel. Even a minor work by a master like Lord Dunsany is very enjoyable if you like great style.

I would not recommend this novel to new readers since there are better novels, short stories for that. This more for completist admirers like me.

[Orion · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Don Rodriguez: Chronicles of Shadow Valley conveys its young disinherited protagonist through a fantasized Spain, gifting him with a Sancho Panza companion, good luck with magicians, and a castle" -- The Encyclopedia of Fantasy.

Lord Dunsany's first novel, this is a historic fantasy set in a pastoral Spain that could never exist with all the charm and innocence that the author attributes to it. Don Rodrigues sets out on a quest to find a war to fight in so he can win a castle and wealth of his own. Along the way, he finds a loyal servant who wields a mighty fry pan and encounters a magician who shows them how to astral travel and allows them to see the past and the future. He finds a lady he loves, wins his castle in a fantastic manner and they "live happily ever after."

The beauty of the story is in Dunsany's prose which is a delight to read and well-suited to the fantastic setting he creates. I totally enjoyed this first novel by one of my favorite authors.

[Derek · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's times like this that I regret a lack of Don Quixote in my literary diet: Don Rodriguez is very specific in its style and theme, and a bit more Cervantes would inform. Especially since the Captain Alatriste series appears to share the decline of the Spanish Golden Age as a setting and have a similar multi-layered narration.

In this case, the narrator does not just address the reader directly, but draws him/her in as a participant, using "when we see him next" or "we may have followed" and such inclusive language. It's particularly invasive as a device and way pretentious but the use is totally Dunsany and as such almost works.

Or, at least, your mileage may vary. It's always on the verge of getting lost in description and pure expression, and paragraphs sometimes become an excuse to pour words into, leaving the reader adrift. A thirty page chapter can be a real haul to get through.

But if this is your jam, then you have the opportunity to enjoy the delicate irony laced throughout that doesn't quite hold Rodriguez up for ridicule but does appear to be a long and extremely subtle joke, a joke that at times Rodriguez may be a participant. In particular, the chronicle "How Rodriguez Won A Castle In Spain" is more about his captive, whose desperation-becoming-a-plan is marvelously and patiently done. But was Rodriguez deceived at the end, or did he act deceived in order to preserve the dignity of his gentlemanly captive?

In all, I'm glad I read it, but Dunsany is uniquely exhausting. Even William Morris doesn't take it out of me like this guy does.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

From the book:
Then Rodriguez stepped back a short way and placed his kerchief on the ground; and upon this he put his mandolin and leaned it against the wall. When the mandolin was safe from dust or accident he approached the stranger and drew his sword.
"Señor," he said, "we will now discuss music."
"Right gladly, señor," said the young man, who now drew his sword also. There were no clouds, the moon was full; the evening promised well. - Lord Dunsany

[Alex Sarll]

Dunsany's first novel, though he'd already been publishing short stories for the best part of two decades. So no wonder if it has a very episodic structure, and also leans on a predecessor for support. Rodriguez rides out into Spain as its Golden Age wanes*, and while there is definitely magic here, that doesn't preclude him from also being taken for a mug at times. Early on he acquires a stocky manservant, Morano, who is far less concerned with chivalry than with bacon and getting a good night's sleep. In other words, a younger, sexier Don Quixote, and a more dutiful Sancho Panza (not that I've actually read Cervantes, mind, but between the Penny Dreadfuls and Terry Gilliam** and Borges, I feel like I can triangulate at least an approximate location). Which...sort of defeats the whole point of Don Quixote? And this uncertainty of tone manifests in all sorts of ways. Early on, Dunsany will often tell us that he's skipping passages, much as Goldman would in his book of The Princess Bride book, explaining that the modern reader would find them ridiculously overblown – something of which obviously nobody could accuse Dunsany's famously sparse and economical prose in the rest of the novel. Rodriguez has set out with idealistic intentions of finding the wars, yet the enchanted windows in the House of Wonder soon show him wars past, less glorious than he's been told, and wars future, too horrible to contemplate (cf Dunsany's own shift over the course of the Great War, in which he fought, and where his own romantic early view took quite the battering, as you'd expect). But none of this shakes his ambitions for long, and when he eventually finds the wars, what looks like it's going to be a cruel farce a la Stendhal (he has no idea who the two sides are, nor what they're fighting over) instead resolves itself, unlikely as this might sound, with a rather beautiful way of deciding who to fight for anyway. And when he eventually comes down from that high, we get a time of depression ("He followed the road without hope and only travelled to change his camping grounds"), but one still fixed through moves that are pure fairytale. At times I wondered whether this might be considered as Dunsany trying to do James Branch Cabell, whose Jurgen was a recent (and scandalous) hit at the time – there's certainly something of the same wryness in a fantasy-historical setting. And yet there's not the same...slyness, maybe? It's very hard to put my finger on the distinction, when both of them are romantics with a taste for the archaic, but not incapable of seeing the humour in the inevitable disconnects of life in a fallen world. Both suffused, too, with a sense of yearning for moments missed and times lost. Dunsany is, as ever, excellent here on light and the moods of landscape; the way the light of fondly remembered days stays and magnifies itself in the memory; the sense twilight gives that the human world and the eternal have overlapped for one brief yet timeless moment; the loneliness of being far from human things among imperious mountains. This, alongside that episodic structure, meant the book made perfect bedtime reading at the end of a bad day, which is to say most any day in the 2020s. A single Chronicle helping to send me off to sleep not through tedium, but because it's such a layered conjuration: Dunsany in 1922 is setting down his longing for Rodriguez' chivalrous age, as Rodriguez dreams of a still earlier age, and you could even circle that further with the Pan-Ballantine Adult Fantasy series from which my edition comes, editor Lin Carter dreaming of all three – and somewhere between all four, I can be enchanted far enough away from thoughts of my own hideous era to find communion with them all in the arms of dream.

*The opening note on chronology is pleasingly and pointedly vague – "magic, even in small quantities, appears to affect time, much as acids affect some metals, until dates seem to melt into a mercurial form that renders them elusive even to the eye of the most watchful historians".
**Oh how I used to joke about the eventual release of The Man Who Killed Don Quixote presaging the end times. I watched it in December 2019. Ha. Ha.

[robyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Felt like all the elements of folktale, fairytale and tall tale had been thrown into a bag and shaken together, and the result is this quick, fantastic tale of high adventure; you can imagine it illustrated by Pyle.

[Jordan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Don Rodriguez, with its ornate language and at times whimsical formality, is another gem of a story by Lord Dunsany. A literally breathtaking work of fantasy.

[Tricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Part Fantasy, Part Chivalry

This is a fun story! It's my first taste of Lord Dunsany, so I don't know how it compares with his other works.

Don Rodriguez is the son of a dying don. The don, however, gives the estates to the younger brother since the younger doesn't have any of the personal advantages needed to get on in the world. Rodriguez is sent off into the world with the sword passed down through generations, and a mandolin - both of which he can use skillfully. His dream and aim: to join "the wars" wherever they may be, and to win himself a castle through those wars. This story is his journey to that end, and the adventures he meets on the way - including some very fantastical scenes, such as a trip in the spirit to the sun, sent there by a magician!

The reader, Michael Broschat, has a somewhat dreamy reading style, which fits in well with this story. There are some minor editing rough spots (it certainly isn't seamless editing), but the story doesn't lose much through them.

[François Vigneault · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just re-read it on vacation and it was delightful... the language is deft, the situations comic, and the overall reading experience is wholly cozy and charming. I love the odd palimpsest quality of the writing, Lord Dunsany is writing in a purposefully archaic style to echo the "Golden Age of Spain" setting, but even those moments where his "modern" viewpoint peeks through are now nearly 100 years old, giving several stylistic layers for the reader to parse. The section where Don Rodriguez gets a glimpse of the horrors of the "Wars of the Future" is terribly affecting when you realize this was written in 1922... The Great War had just concluded, bu the Spanish Civil War is just around the corner and WWII right after.

Overall just a lovely and smooth reading experience, transports you to another world of adventure and hijinks but never fully loses a modern point of view that inevitably colors the tale with a palpable sense of nostalgia, loss, mortality, and regret.

[Fraser Sherman · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars more like. Lord Dunsany's first novel isn't as elegant in style as King of Elfland's Daughter, though it does have some great lines. The tone is what really stands out, though, almost ironic in the story of a young Spanish gallant off to win fame in wars, running into multiple adventures and only briefly getting into the action at the climax. There's also the repeated observations that to do such and such a scene justice, the writing would have to get really florid, and readers don't like that these days so ... (I keep wondering if that's a commentary on Dunsany's own work, or readers' reactions). Decidedly different from Dunsany's other works, and not up to his best, but worth reading if you like his fiction.

[Nikolis Asimakis · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very beautiful story. Taking place in Spain somewhere around 1500, we follow young Rodrigeuz in his journey to earn a castle in war with the help of his Castillan family sword and a mandolin. While there are always hints and facts that show that the world is our own, with all its grimdark "glory", the narrator always portrays everything through the young and hopeful eyes of the idealist Rodrigeuz. This comes out as a finely woven fairy tale with a happy ending. It was a very good tale, with many memorable scenes and a rare overall quality. The only minus I could give this book is that, at times, I got bored of the first person narrator interventions. Hence the 4/5. But, in all honesty, it might be my highest 4/5 to date.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book can only be described as amazing. They just don’t write them like this anymore. This book encompasses the fantastic, with some curious narrative asides and flowery prose that suits the mood and timbre of the book. Whenever this story takes place it is in a world that is almost familiar but that is just beyond what we can usually see. It may all just be possible, or may have been at one time. Wait for twilight, look past the shadows and through the blue light of the fading day and listen with your heart, then you will be able to find the land Don Rodriguez travels. May you have pleasant and prosperous adventures.

[Juan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Por si quedaban dudas, Tolkien y Lovecraft le deben mucho a Dunsany, que mezcla a Don Quijote con las 1001 Noches en este libro. Es aventura pura, dura y simple, con una prosa que puede ser densa o hermosa, según quien la lea.

[Denis Borkenkäfer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have to give this one 5 stars, just because I enjoyed reading it so much. Dunsany wrote this in a fun, light tone, in many ways similar to a fairy tale. Perhaps it takes some time getting used to Dunsany‘s unique style, but this charming little book is absolutely worth it.

[Jerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s hard not to like a book that makes bacon central to the narrative.

…where bacon is, and there be hungry men, the things of yesterday are often forgotten.

This is Dunsany’s first novel, and while he’d been writing short stories for years it’s certainly not up to the beauty and wonder of The King of Elfland's Daughter or The Charwoman's Shadow. But I suspect it wasn’t meant to be, that he was deliberately harking back to the older form of novel such as those of William Morris. This is not a story where things happen because the characters do something. Things happen because the characters are born into times when things happen, and wander into places where things happen.

But it also hearkens back to Dunsany’s own short stories, which are often just snippets, slices of a supernatural world without beginning or end.

Don Rodriguez is the better of the two sons of a noble Spanish lord, and so inherits his father’s “long, most flexible, ancient Castilian blade”. The other son, because he would not be able to make his own future, inherits their father’s castle and the valleys around it.

So Don Rodriguez and Morāno, the Sancho-like servant he acquires in an adventure at an inn, quest to find a castle he can be master of.

Like Don Quixote, Don Rodriguez confronts a magical world and is able to convince himself to believe it. Unlike Don Quixote, Rodriguez is also bound to the real world, and often fails to believe in the wondrous things that he wishes were true. They are, ultimately, wishes to him, not reality.

The greatest tension in the book comes not from whether Rodriguez will survive a battle, or escape La Garda, or survive the elements in the Pyrenees, but from whether Rodriguez will believe the impossible long enough for it to come true, and whether his failure to believe the impossible will lose him his dreams.

That, and whether Morāno has enough bacon on hand.

[James F · Rating 3 out of 5]

Don Rodriguez: Chronicles of Shadow Valley is a fantasy-romance of chivalry set in Spain "near the end of the Golden Age." The hero, Don Rodriguez, sets out after his father's death to "find the wars" and win a castle. He is sort of a Don Quixote in his romantic imagination, but unlike Don Quixote he isn't confused about facts, and his romanticism is respected and is shared by some of the other characters -- perhaps one could say he is what Don Quixote thought he was or in a world which corresponded to his imagination. He is accompanied by a servant, Morāno, who is clearly modelled on Sancho Panza. Although there is one chapter in which they meet with a magician from Saragossa and have an out-of-body adventure beyond the Earth, the fantasy element is mainly just the unreal, romance world he lives in, which of course never actually existed, in mediaeval Spain or anywhere else. The real interest in this book is the poetry amd humor of the writing.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid entry by Lord Dunsany, though there are some passages that feel like padding.
The chronicles are picaresque and picturesque in Dunsany's characteristic style. The protagonist seeks his fortune and we are treated to many lengthy descriptions of the landscape in Dunsany's distinctive style. The story is somewhat uneven, but managed to surprise me a bit at the end.

(Spoiler: I expected the protagonist to give up his dream of owning a castle and live in the forest with the men in green. That might even have been a stronger ending, given how disillusioning his quest has been up to the last few chapters, but Dunsany chose to go with a more conventional ending. I do wish La Garda had returned near the end though.)

In sum, disappointing for me only because I enjoy Dunsany's other work a lot more, and I'd been saving reading this for a while.

[Leonard McCullen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A successful melding of the morbid tone of early Dunsany and the humor of his later wonder stories.

His two books of Wonder I found to be highly disappointing, they both felt like exhausting mad-libs exercises that end on a weak punchline. But here, in Don Rodriguez, the characters are sincere and the situations are absurd. (Is that not the reality of our life?)
Outside of a few early events the magic is quite subdued, and what magic there is serves as a clever vehicle for digressions on Death, Warfare, time, love and the human soul (yes! This is the Dunsany I missed in the last three works).

The only downside is that this is a work clearly inspired by and modeled after Don Quixote. And when you imitate such a leviathan of world literature, no matter how quality the work, you doom yourself to wallow in its shadow as a pale imitation.

Edit: I’d like to add that another blatant (but mostly forgotten today) inspiration is William Morris’ The Well at the World’s End. The king of shadow valley, the questioning of chivalric traditions and the magic all bear the mark of Morris.

But make no mistake, this novel is very much worth your time.

[Colin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very Dunsany-ish, dream-like fantasy story of a noble in the "Golden Age of Spain" named Rodriguez who sets forth with his ancestral sword and his mandolin to seek "the wars" so that he may win for himself a castle by capturing a foe and ransoming him for it, in the traditional manner described in medieval stories. He soon acquires an oafish, earthy servant named Morano, and they have adventures, which are dreamy and weird but mostly not fantastic, though there are clear fantasy elements. This was just FUN. I enjoyed it immensely, and it is, in its way, very typical of Gygax's "Appendix N" (and thus unlike most Tolkien-clone fantasy since the 80s).

[Laura Janeiro · Rating 5 out of 5]

For me, a reader and Spanish speaker, it was an experience to accompany an avatar of a young knight, Don Quixote, with his solid, rustic and sensible companion, on the journey that he takes from the beginning of his adventures with the impetus of ideals to fulfill, until the return of the defeated Don Quixote, who has lost his innocence and no longer has or wants to seek anything. On this basis, Lord Dunsany wove adventures worthy of a Robin Hood in a golden age of knights, with an appropriate happy ending and a touch of nostalgia for those times when the magic of fairy tales was not a tale but reality.

[Cathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Imagine if Don Quixote actually got to live a grand romance, with his trusty, comical manservant and won his fair lady for this story. This is probably what Don Quixote imagined for himself when he set out on his adventures. There's some humor with the sidekick but it's done straight. It's a bit too
dense for something that should have a whimsical treatment, but some might enjoy its richness.

[Pablo S. Martín · Rating 5 out of 5]

---Relectura del 16/08/2025 al 20/08/2025---

-Clasificación original: ****. /4 estrellas

-Clasificación actual: ***** /5 Estellas

Aún no he encontrado un libro de Lord Dunsany que no sea un hagasajo leer.
Y la relectura de Don Rodrigo, como se conoció en lengua hispana, no defrauda en lo absoluto.
Como gran mayoría del mundo, y en especial del mundo ingles, Lord Dunsany, para su primera novela, se despachó con uno de sus gustos más clásicos, una novela en el estilo del Don Quijote.
Mas, ya muchos hicieron eso, y más aún en el habla inglesa, aunque no con grandes resultados. Por ello mismo, Lord Dunsany fue un poco más atrás, y en vez de escribir un libro en el estilo del Quijote, escribió un libro de caballerías, similar al Amadís de Gaula, y otras novelas anteriores que tanto inspiraron a Don Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra a escribir su Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Qujote de La Mancha.
Es imposible no hacer referencia a la figura del gigantesco Cervantes, pues aunque el libro de Lord Dunsany es mucho más poético y mágico, quitando todo tipo de experimentación y comentario social satírico del argumento, el aire de epopeyas y épicas caballerescas a la española aún se respira con creces.
No hay capítulo que no tenga un descripción por demás poética, con un lenguaje pristino, fervoroso y maravilloso, mas sin llegar a las cotas barrocas de exhuberancia y complejidad léxica. Por el contrario, Lord Dunsany realiza una perfecta mimetización de la tradicion a su propio estilo.
Se suele decir que esta novela es una rareza dentro de la obra de Lord Dunsany, muy diferente a lo que venía escribiendo en sus cuentos y sus novelas posteriores, pero al haber releído hace poco ''La hija del Rey del País de los Elfos'' su segunda novela, puedo ver la conección entre los mismos, e incluso comprender cuánto experimentó Lord Dunsany con el medio, a su manera, para poder alcanzar la máxima cualidad poética y épica de su segunda novela. Por lo tanto, no me parece que esta, su primera novela, sea tan diferente a lo que se suele encontrar en su obra en general. Tal vez menos fantástica, más centrada en la realidad de una España del siglo de Oro, mas no por ello menos mágica.
La crucial diferencia entre sus dos primeras novelas, sea tal vez el aire, siendo una más realista, y la segunda más cuento de hadas. Lo que diferencia a Lord Dunsany del resto de los escritores de su época, y de fantasía en general, es que él jamás consideró sus escritos como meras ''narraciones fantásticas para niños''. No, Lord Dunsany escribió fantasía adulta para todo aquel que aún logra conectar con esa niñez interior en cada uno y ver el mundo con esos ojos de inocencia, capaces de creer en la mágia más allá de la explicación lógica y adulta que todo pueda tener detrás.
Y es por ello que en esta novela, Don Rodrigo, Lord Dunsany nos muestra una quijoteada que se enfrenta a la realidad dura de la vida.
Con su padre en el lecho de muerte, habiendole entregado su espada, terror de las hordas moriscas y destructora de herejes, Don Rodrigo parte en busca de ''guerras'', designió final de su padre, y allí mostrar su valía y ganar su propia tierra y castillo.
A diferencia de Don Quijote, que creía ser un caballero andante, Don Rodrigo es de noble cuna y se vuelve un caballero andante, rescatando oprimidos y ganando amigos en sus viajes a la vez que va conociendo el mundo más allá de su hogar, conoce el futuro y el porvenir gracias a la mágia de un profesor de universidad y sus artes ocultas, y se enamora de una noble dama que roba su corazón tras solo una mirada. Mas no es suficiente ser noble y de buen corazón, ha de poseer tierras y castillo para valer por sí mismo, así que parte en busca de la gloria que solo las guerras podrán darle. Y es en la guerra en donde conoce la cruda realidad. Tras batallar y vencer, nada obtiene. Solo una ilusión que se desvanece. Mas, al volver al pueblo de su amada, cabisbajoy aflijido por no poder ser quien el desea para ella, un hombre que salvó en una aventura anterior, recompensa su buen corazón con aquello que tanto desea, un castillo en el Valle de las Sombras que da sub título a estas crónicas, y más tarde, convirtiéndose en rey del mismo valle.
Es una historia a la española mucho más realista que las que se contaron posteriores a la obra de Cervantes, mas embebido por el género dramático, Lord Dunsany le imprime una melancolía y dulzura a esta épica que la transforma en una extraña mezcla de novela histórico realista y mágico realismo fantástico.
Es difícil no encontrarle el gusto a esta novela, más aún si uno puede detenerse a apreciar el bellísimo uso del lenguaje hispano que la traducción de la novela de Lord Dunsany permite, y más aún si uno ha disfrutado de autores que han escrito sobre la España profunda y antigua. Por momentos, las descripciones pristinas y miríficas aquí encontradas me recordaron al Federico García Lorca de ''Impresiones y paisajes'', su primer libro de viajes-ensayo de prosa poética. Así de bello es lo escrito por Lord Dunsany, pintando a España tan misteriosa y mágica como las antiguas novelas de caballería lograron hacerlo.

Gracias una vez más, Lord Dunsany, por escribir algo tan hermoso y fabuloso que inspira desde la primera palabra escrita.

[Santiago]

Me tomó mucho tiempo leer este libro, por su prosa lenta y repetitiva principalmente. Una prosa en la que encontrás fragmentos que parecen sacados de poemas épicos. Le tengo poco cariño a los personajes, que por momentos llegaron a enternecerme. Definitivamente voy a seguir leyendo a Dunsany.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Only 134 pages in this e-book, someone got happy with the 3s. This is not as quick and witty as Dunsany's short stories, but is an enjoyable and worthwhile read.

[Stephen Ford · Rating 2 out of 5]

I lost interest... began reading due to Lord Dunsany's influence on HP LOVECRAFT and others... I have several of the books downloaded on my e-reader and may try again at another time!