In early 20th-century England, Edward Lessingham and Lasy Mary Scarnsdale conduct a passionate if tumultuous courtship. After the First World War, they raise their children in their Cumbrian idyll, until tragedy strikes. On the world of Zimiamvia, Duke Barganax pursues the divine Lady Florinda who toys with his affections like a cat with a mouse. Meanwhile, King Mezentius struggles to hold his Threee Kingdoms together against the intrigues of his enemies. And over a fish dinner in Memison the true relationship between worlds and lovers will be made shockingly clear . . .

A classic work of unsurpassed imagination, from the author J.R.R. Tolkien called "the greatest and most convincing writer of invented worlds that I have read". Unavailable since 1978, the three books of Zimiamvia--the magical realm where noble warriors, treacherous villains, and beautiful ladies go when they die--now come together in one magnificent volume.

Start an epic journey through a realm of enchantment and treachery in 'Mistress of Mistresses' by Eric Rücker Eddison. Within the mystical tapestry of the Three Kingdoms—Rerek, Meszria, and Fingiswold—powerful nobles and rulers engage in a deadly dance of political intrigue. As the charismatic King Mezentius breathes his last, the fate of the realm hangs in the balance, teetering on the edge of dissolution. Amidst shifting alliances and mounting conspiracies, the future of the kingdoms is uncertain, and destinies clash in a battle for supremacy.

The third volume in the classic epic trilogy of parallel worlds, admired by Tolkien and the great prototype for The Lord of the Rings and modern fantasy fiction.

The lost classic masterpiece of magical realms, admired by Tolkien and the great prototype for The Lord of the Rings and modern fantasy fiction.

The classic epic trilogy of parallel worlds, admired by Tolkien and the great prototype for The Lord of the Rings and modern fantasy fiction. Also includes The Worm Ouroboros.

This book reveals the unique contribution made by the three founding fathers of British fantasy—Lord Dunsany, E. R. Eddison and J. R. R. Tolkien—to our culture’s perennial reassessment of the meanings of time, death and eternity. It traces the poetic, philosophical and theological roots of the striking preoccupation with mortality and temporality that defines the imagined worlds of early fantasy fiction, and gives both the form of such fiction and its ideas the attention they deserve. Dunsany, Eddison and Tolkien raise some of the oldest questions in existence: about the limits of nature, human and divine; cosmic creation and destruction; the immortality conferred by art and memory; and the paradoxes and uncertainties generated by the universal experience of transience, the fear of annihilation and the desire for transcendence. But they respond to those questions by means of thought experiments that have no precedent in modern literary history. This book has won the '2021 Mythopoeic Scholarship Award' for Myth and Fantasy Studies.

Like its companion volume, "The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction", this massive reference of 4,000 entries covers all aspects of fantasy, from literature to art.