Nada the Lily

“It is admirable, the epic of a dying people”

ANDREW LANG, 20 APRIL 1892

• Complete text of the 1892 Longmans edition, checked against the page images
• Twenty-three plates newly drawn after C. H. M. Kerr’s illustrations of 1892
• Publisher’s note, author profile and afterword
• Every departure from the 1892 edition listed at the end of the book

Before the great Zulu kings passed into history, their names commanded the allegiance of armies, their warriors carried terror across the plains of southern Africa, and the fate of nations could be determined by a single word spoken beneath the royal spears.

Now an old man remembers.

Mopo has stood in the presence of Chaka, the formidable king whose genius forged a mighty military dominion, and has survived long enough to bear witness to the splendour and darkness of an age when sovereign power was absolute and a warrior’s honour might outweigh his life.

From his recollections rises the extraordinary history of Umslopogaas, the mighty wielder of the axe, and Galazi the Wolf, whose brotherhood leads them into the haunted mountains and among the mysterious wolf-packs of ancient legend. Across their path moves Nada, the Lily, whose beauty and courage belong to a story in which love, royal ambition and the inexorable workings of destiny are drawn together.

Against the thunder of marching regiments, the intrigues of kings and the spectral grandeur of the Ghost Mountain, H. Rider Haggard unfolds an immense historical romance of loyalty, vengeance, heroism and the fearful majesty of a vanished martial world.

First published in 1892, Nada the Lily stands among Haggard’s most powerful achievements, uniting the historical imagination of the great chroniclers with the elemental magnificence of heroic saga. Its extraordinary wolf imagery would later contribute to the inspiration of Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book.

First published in 1892, Nada the Lily is told by the old witch-doctor Mopo: the rise and fall of Chaka, the youth of Umslopogaas and the Wolf-Brethren, and Nada, the Lily of the Zulus. This AETERNUS edition follows the Longmans text of 1892, with twenty-three plates newly drawn after C. H. M. Kerr’s illustrations for that edition.

AMBER SERIES · AETERNUS