The Land Where Time Stood Still

by Arthur Leo Zagat

Release: August 1936
Format: Novelette
Genre: Science Fiction
Audience: Adults
Content: Definite Time Travel
Original Language: English

Twentieth-century American Ronald Stratton and Arthurian damsel Elaise find themselves in a land with people from all ages as well as predators from the 400th century.

This may be the earliest use of something akin to a “wheel of time.”

Time’s all mixed up. It’s as if the universe were the rim of a great wheel, whirling through Time. As if, somehow, we have left that rim, shot inward along different spokes whose outer ends are different years, far apart, and reached the wheel’s axis where all the year-spokes join. The center point of the hub, that doesn’t move at all through Time, because it is the center. Where there is no Time. Where the past and the present and the future are all one. A land, in some weird other dimension, where Time stands still.

DEBUT

“The Land Where Time Stood Still,” Thrilling Wonder Stories, August 1936.

VARIANTS

1 English variant

TAGS(SPOILERS!)

Time Periods

Ancient History (3000 BC to AD 476: Bronze/Iron Ages): many of the warriors on the plains
Middle Ages (AD 476 to 1454): Elaise, knights, and others
Circa AD 1930 to 1939: starting time for Ronny
Near Future, AD 2300 and Beyond: The men from the 600th century have evolved significantly, although their concerns still seem pretty pety.

Timeline Models

Outside of Time: “Where there is no time.”

Time Travel Methods

Time Rifts: “Didn’t Einstein talk about ether-warps, about eddies in the flux of space and time?”

Themes

Land of Time Travelers

Real-World Tags

Monumental Mounds and Similar Earthworks: Silbury Hill

Groupings

Wonder Stories Group (periodical)

TIME TRAVEL ITINERARY (SPOILERS!)

From Silbury Hill, 1936 ⋙ to the land outside of time at an unknown time. Note: Ronny.
From the land outside of time at an unknown time ⋙ to Silbury Hill, 1936. Note: Ronny gets back home . . .
From Silbury Hill, 1936 ⋙ to the land outside of time at an unknown time. Note: . . . but he returns to be with Elaise.