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DON RODRIGUEZ
CHRONICLES OF SHADOW VALLEY
By LORD DUNSANY
To WILLIAM BEEBE
CHRONOLOGY
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.
CONTENTS
THE FIRST CHRONICLE HOW HE MET AND SAID FAREWELL TO MINE HOST OF THE DRAGON AND KNIGHT
THE SECOND CHRONICLE HOW HE HIRED A MEMORABLE SERVANT
THE THIRD CHRONICLE HOW HE CAME TO THE HOUSE OF WONDER
THE FOURTH CHRONICLE HOW HE CAME TO THE MOUNTAINS OF THE SUN
THE FIFTH CHRONICLE HOW HE RODE IN THE TWILIGHT AND SAW SERAFINA
THE SIXTH CHRONICLE HOW HE SANG TO HIS MANDOLIN AND WHAT CAME OF HIS SINGING
THE SEVENTH CHRONICLE HOW HE CAME TO SHADOW VALLEY
THE EIGHTH CHRONICLE HOW HE TRAVELLED FAR
THE NINTH CHRONICLE HOW HE WON A CASTLE IN SPAIN
THE TENTH CHRONICLE HOW HE