This acclaimed fantasy classic of men, elves, and gods is at once breathtakingly exciting and heartbreakingly tragic. Published the same year as The Fellowship of the Ring, Poul Anderson’s novel The Broken Sword draws on similar Scandinavian and Anglo-Saxon sources. In his greed for land and power, Orm the Strong slays the family of a Saxon witch—and for his sins, the Northman must pay with his newborn son. Stolen by elves and replaced by a changeling, Skafloc is raised to manhood unaware of his true heritage and treasured for his ability to handle the iron that the elven dare not touch. Meanwhile, the being who supplanted him as Orm’s son grows up angry and embittered by the humanity he has been denied. A pawn in a witch’s vengeance, the creature Valgard will never know love, and consumed by rage, he will commit a murderous act of unspeakable vileness. It is their destiny to finally meet on the field of battle—the man-elf and his dark twin, the monster—when the long-simmering war between elves and trolls finally erupts with a devastating fury. And only the mighty sword Tyrfing, broken by Thor and presented to Skafloc in infancy, can turn the tide in a terrible clashing of faerie folk that will ultimately determine the fate of the old gods. Along with such notables as Isaac Asimov and Ray Bradbury, multiple Hugo and Nebula Award winner Poul Anderson is considered one of the masters of speculative fiction. This edition contains the author’s original text.

An exciting action adventure for both the young and old. The serenity of a spring morning encompassing Ebony Castle and its surrounding village suddenly becomes chaotic when out of a clear blue-sky comes a fire breathing creature of destruction. The creature none other than a fabled dragon, a myth made up through the years by the old ones to awe and thrill the children. Yet here is the dragon belching tongues of fire that shatter the hard stones of the castle like they are made of sand. ******* When I return to check my snares the sun's dwindling light is casting long shadows of the trees across the crystallized snow and to my dismay I find five of the snares empty, but when I approach the sixth and find a rabbit caught in it I hurry forward to claim my dinner. Suddenly a sound causes me to glance up and see a gray shape launch itself from a mound of snow, when with a terrifying growl an enormous gray wolf, of almost my own weight, strikes me with enough force to splay me face down in the snow and clamp its jaws onto my shoulder. Suddenly an unbearable pain courses through me as the wolf's fangs dig deep into my flesh, two into my chest and two into my back, my complete right shoulder deep inside the wolfs maw. With a quick motion of his head the wolf tries to tear the flesh from my bones, and if it had not bitten over the bone it surely would have succeeded. The fear of what is happening arouses a strength in me I don't know I had, as I push to my knees and grab the snout of the wolf's open jaw and yank the fangs from my chest. While with the other hand I reached over my shoulder to claw and pull on the wolf's ear until I feel my thumb in the jelly like softness of its eye and squeeze. With a howl of pain the wolf jumps clear of me, but before I can make a move I am aware of at least four other gray shapes bearing down on me. Almost instantly a howl of pain escapes my own lips when another of the gray shapes clamps its jaws onto the calf of my left leg causing a river of fire to run through me, its fangs deep into the flesh trying to tear the meat away. Now everything seems to be moving in slow motion and I see the wolf, with the eye I gouged, limping away, while the huge gaping jaws of another is hurtling towards my head. Behind me, over my shoulder, I also ss the other wolf savagely tearing at the calf of my leg while my blood sprayed out to cover the snow for a large area around me. Suddenly a beam of bright light, about the thickness of a good staff, shoots from the pouch I carry the crystal in and strike the wolf hurtling towards my head. In that instant the gray form disintegrates in a shower of sparks and is no more. Over my shoulder the wolf tearing at my leg also disappears as in succession the beam lash out until all the wolves are vanquished and silence fills the forest. Astounded by this sudden turn of events I fall forward onto the snow as the pain wells up in me until I lose consciousness. Some time later I awake to find my body shaking uncontrollably with cold, the blood in my veins like it's turned to ice. In the darkness of the forest I can see where my blood stains the snow and realize I lost a lot of blood and my body is racked with fever. No matter I know I must move away from this place where the scent of the blood will attract more wolves, and with all the strength I can muster I crawl to a nearby tree and pull myself up only to find I can't put weight on my left leg, however I do manage to hold on and break a good size branch from the tree to use as a staff, then in my delirium hobble forward using the staff to help drag me along. *****

An epic collection of fantasy tales in the grand tradition, including a never-before-published A Song of Ice and Fire story by George R.R. Martin and an introduction by Gardner Dozois.