Dunsany Appreciation

I was reading a short story the other day: The Sword and the Idol by Lord Dunsany.
It's par the norm for his stories; lyrical, with quick but perfect scene setting, always told with a soft, fairy-tale voice. As I'd like to finish a few short story collections this year (more on that later this week) I try to read a short story a day whenever I find I have a little extra time. You know, in between doing nothing and feeling violently ill. That day it was one from Gollancz' Fantasy masterworks collection Time And the Gods.

As I read it I was struck by a line.

"... And the wolves came trotting in and sat down again on their haunches much closer than before; and the fierce and valiant dogs that belonged to the tribe believed that their end was about to come while fighting, as they had long since prophesied it would."

The Sword and the Idol isn't exactly a tale of anthropomorphic beasts, although the creatures that live alongside Man do regard him with certain thoughts and emotions and almost show a level of reasoning in their approach with him. But in the dogs' long since prophesied it becomes something of a level above the primal. It becomes storied myth. At a stroke, with half of a sentence, Dunsany imbues his narrative with unexpected depth. Alongside the tale that is already unwinding he lays out another narrative, heretofore completely unknown and when conveyed; still unknowable. Something pointing to a world apart, above that of Man: The prophecies of Beasts.
It's something almost whimsical and yet so powerful, effortlessly summoning up such fantastic imagery.

It's only a small part of the tale, and not what this story really is about. But having given you the start of this segment, I'd be remiss in not giving you the end of it.

"Then the flame caught the lofty stack of brushwood, and rushed out of it, and ran up the side of it, and stood up haughtily far over the top, and the wolves seeing this terrible ally of Man revelling there in his strength, and knowing nothing of his frequent treachery to his masters, went slowly away as though they had other purposes. And for the rest of that night the dogs of the encampment cried out to them and besought them to come back."