The elder son of a king rides off to win a princess's hand by finding the stone that will reveal all truth. But do the others really want the truth?

We have a vivid Polynesian fable today, or fairy tale, or myth - but a myth that is disrupted in an odd way.

A distinguished visitor arrives on earth, and is given a tour by a "great philosopher". The Stranger innocently (naively?) treats everything like a person; the philosopher sees the world in abstract, scientific terms. It's all very polite, up to a point.

It's time for the big show just before the night closes in, but other people also appear to attract Dante's attention. And there is a meaningful change up in the starry sky.

Dante is sidelined for a while as  Virgil and Sordello talk about merit, and discuss the way no one in this region has the will to progress when it's night. And since it's soon going to be night, Sordello proposes to show them a nice place they can spend the night in: the Valley of the Princes. They go there and Sordello points out several of the rulers sitting together in the valley.

We start with a game of dice, move on to more talk (perhaps evasive) about prayer, meet a new character, and get a bitter and sustained diatribe against the state of affairs in Dante's Italy.

Here's a bit more about "The House of Eld" - the poignant biographical details that lie behind this story.

A Gothic fairy tale, as the young lad goes on a quest to correct the cruel injustices of society, and succeeds - but at what cost?

A kind of fairy tale, though not like any fairy tale you've ever heard before, addressing the smug confidence of controlling religious leaders, though there's no direct reference to religion - that's what makes it a fairy tale, I suppose.

Here are those who died a violent death, turning away from their selfish deeds only at the very last minute. This gives us the chance to hear accounts of some vivid and moving moments after a battle - an aspect of warfare we very seldom pay attention to.