Conan Archive

Conan the Barbarian and Christian the Pilgrim

Posted November 14, 2022 By John C Wright

I recently penned the last entry to a project, begun in 2014, to review all the Conan stories of Robert E. Howard in their publication order. This would seem an apt time to add an afterthought on the perennial question, the selfsame by which Alcuin admonished the monks of Lindisfarne, “What has Ingeld to do with Christ?”

In the war between the pagan Germans and the civilized Romans of Christendom, Robert E. Howard, author of the far-famed Conan of Cimmeria, was clearly on the side of the German barbarians, our enemies.

So why do we read him and love him?

The question is how can a Christian admire Robert E Howard’s Conan stories, which are tales of lurid violence and buccaneering most unchristian in tone and content?

My answer is that the Catholic Church is truly catholic.

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Conan: The Black Stranger

Posted November 6, 2022 By John C Wright

The Black Stranger was unpublished in Robert E. Howard’s lifetime.  It first appears in Fantasy Magazine, in March 1953, seven months after the posthumous publication of God in the Bowl. It is the second and last of his posthumous publications, not counting fragments and pastiches.

Apart from the names of places and protagonists and other cosmetic details, this story is identical with the pirate yarn Swords of the Red Brotherhood, which was eventually published in the Howard anthology Black Vulmea’s Vengeance, Donald M. Grant, 1976. This tale was a prequel to the Spanish Main yarn Black Vulmea’s Vengeance which first appeared in the magazine Golden Fleece in 1938, which stars the Irish freebooter and buccaneer Terrance Vulmea, who is much like Conan in description and action.

The order in which he wrote them is disputed: some say the Conan  story was rewritten as the Vulmea story, others that the Vulmea story was rewritten as a Conan story.

The Red Indians in the Vulmea story are changed to Picts, the Frenchmen to Zingarans, Englishmen to Barachans, the pirate ship War-Hawk changed to the Red-Hand, and the dainty lady Francoise d’Chastillon is the dainty lady Belesa, while her uncle Count Henri is Count Valenso, matchlocks are changed into crossbows, and off we go.

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Conan: God in the Bowl

Posted April 8, 2022 By John C Wright

God in the Bowl did not see publication until appearing in the pages of Space Science Fiction, September 1952, after it had been partly rewritten, perhaps to its detriment, by L. Sprague de Camp. The previous story in the Conan Canon, Red Nails, appeared in the September 1936 issue of Weird Tales: a gap of sixteen years.

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Conan: Hour of the Dragon

Posted October 7, 2021 By John C Wright

Hour of the Dragon was first serialized in Weird Tales magazine, appearing between December of 1935 to April of 1936. It was later published by Gnome Press in 1950 in hardback as Conan the Conqueror. The first Weird Tales episode came one month after Man-Eaters of Zamboula. It is the seventeenth published story in the Conan canon, and the last to see print in Robert E Howard’s lifetime. It is also the author’s only novel-length Conan tale.

Spoilers abound below.

If you have not read it, please avail yourself of that pleasure before reading this review. Like many classics pulps tales of yore, it is available to read without fee, and you may enjoy it.

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Conan: Man-Eaters of Zamboula

Posted August 12, 2021 By John C Wright

Shadows of Zamboula (originally called Man-Eaters of Zamboula) was first published in Weird Tales magazine November of 1935, coming four months after Beyond the Black River. It is the sixteenth published story in the Conan canon.

Spoilers abound below.

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Conan: Beyond the Black River

Posted July 21, 2020 By John C Wright

Beyond the Black River was first published in Weird Tales magazine, serialized from May to June of 1935, the first part coming three months after Jewels of Gwahlur . It is the fifteenth published story in the Conan canon.

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Conan: Jewels of Gwahlur

Posted April 1, 2020 By John C Wright

Jewels of Gwahlur was first published in Weird Tales magazine in March 1935, coming three months A Witch Shall Be Born. It is the fourteenth published story in the Conan canon.

This tale has been republished under the names The Teeth of Gwahlur and The Servants of Bit-Yakin.

Spoilers below.

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Conan: A Witch Shall Be Born

Posted February 22, 2020 By John C Wright

A Witch Shall Be Born was first published in Weird Tales magazine in December of 1934, coming one month after the final installment of People of the Black Circle. It is the thirteenth published story in the Conan canon.

It is also, alas, one of the weaker and more forgettable Conan stories to spring from the masterful pen of Robert E. Howard, but, ironically, it contains one of the strongest and most memorable Conan scenes.

I have no doubt that every fan of Conan already knows which scene I mean. Since it is, perhaps, the best Conan scene ever, it was lifted wholly from the story and placed into the John Milius’ 1982 film CONAN THE BARBARIAN.

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Conan: The People of the Black Circle

Posted July 22, 2019 By John C Wright

The People of the Black Circle was published first published in Weird Tales magazine in three parts over the September, October and November 1934 issues. It is the twelfth published story in the Conan canon.

The first installment appeared one month after Devil in Iron, the previous story. Readers during the fall of 1934 enjoyed a continual diet of Conan yarns.

This is also the first novel-length outing for Conan, and one of Howard’s better efforts (albeit even his worst are better than many a man’s best).

There are sorcerers aplenty among the unearthly menaces in various Conan tales up until now: Thoth-amon in Phoenix on the Sword, Tsotha in The Scarlet Citadel, Yara in Tower of the Elephant, Thugra Khotan in The Black Colossusbut here Conan invades the Black Seers of Yimsha, who are the Roke or the Hogwarts of the Hyborian Age.

He therefore runs afoul not of one warlock or necromancer, but of a whole organization of students and masters of the Dark Arts, and he storms their eerie haunted fortress behind its moat of venomous mists at the climax.

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Conan: The Devil in Iron

Posted May 24, 2019 By John C Wright

“For every beast and for every man there is a trap he will not escape”

The Devil in Iron was published in the August 1934 issue of Weird Tales, several months after the previous story, Queen of the Black Coast. It is the eleventh published story in the Conan canon.

We have reached the halfway mark of the published Conan stories completed by Robert E. Howard.

Howard here recycles elements of his own previous stories – there is a magic blade as in Phoenix on the Sword, the sole bane of an otherwise invulnerable eldritch monster, who is a resurrected necromancer as in The Black Colossus. He resurrects his ancient capital: a haunted city of greenish stone existing without fields or pastures, inhabited by dream-addled sleepwalkers as seen in Xuthal of the Dusk; he is a metal statue raised in grim mockery of life as in Iron Shadows in the Moon.

Conan sees the eldritch backstory of the foe in a convenient vision, as he likewise did in Queen of the Black Coast; and Conan’s sole motive here is neither loot, revenge, or love of adventure, but the raw lascivious lust as was on display in Frost Giant’s Daughter.

One assumes barbarians prefer blondes.

In previous Conan tales, I have complimented Howard’s lyricism, his well knit plots, his adroit use of narrative structure. Here, the evidence of his talent is muted. This reads more like one of the pastiches or homages of Conan by later writers.

While enjoyable, it is, frankly, not one of Robert E Howard’s better efforts.

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Conan and the Gods

Posted March 22, 2019 By John C Wright

In May of 1934, Robert E Howard’s Queen of the Black Coast was  published in Weird Tales. This column is the second to review the story. The first part is here.

Many a fan, this one included, calls Queen of the Black Coast the finest of the Conan stories, in part because of its legendary scope, in part because of its lurid romance, it passages of lyrical poetry, its vivid and bloody battle-scenes, the sense of mystery and adventure, the chilling eldritch visions of ancient eons and shades of the dead, the Viking funeral at the end.

The writing excels on three levels: first, striking characterization gives life to an intimate and tragic romance; second, lyrical world-building conjures a vision of a lost age, cruel but not without its savage beauties; third, a deep and even grim theme dignifies what would otherwise be a mere boy’s adventure tale with adumbration of deep time and an almost Norse melancholy touching the brevity of life, the indifference of the gods.

Let us look at each in turn.

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Conan: Queen of the Black Coast

Posted March 21, 2019 By John C Wright

Believe green buds awaken in the spring,
That autumn paints the leaves with somber fire; 
Believe I held my heart inviolate
To lavish on one man my hot desire.
The Song of Belît

Queen of the Black Coast was  published in the May, 1934, issue of Weird Tales, one month after the previous story, Iron Shadows in the Moon. It is the tenth published story in the Conan canon.

The tale cannot be discussed without spoilers, so be warned.

This should be the introductory tale to any curious but uninitiated reader: it is the best to date.

The passions are deeper and richer than a mere adventure story, the prose both in dry humor and dark pathos is some of Howard’s best, the supernatural horror strikes grimly close to Conan’s heart, and the whole as a legendary feel to it, from the madcap flight on horseback in the opening scene, to the viking funeral at the close.

Here, for the first time, Conan meets a woman as fierce, wild, bold and free as himself. She is his equal and more.

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Conan: Iron Shadows in the Moon

Posted March 5, 2019 By John C Wright

Iron Shadows in the Moon was  published in the April, 1934, issue of Weird Tales as Shadows in the Moonlight. It is the ninth published story in the Conan canon.

From the hints of internal chronology, this is roughly halfway through the mighty barbarian’s career, halfway between his adventure of his earliest years, Frost Giant’s Daughter, and The Scarlet Citadel, of his latest.

In this story, Conan is between jobs as a freelance mercenary and a freebooter pirate, and is introduced into the scene as a man bent on hideous vengeance, wild and untamed as a wounded man-eating tiger.

It is really Conan at his best.

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Conan: The Frost-Giant’s Daughter

Posted December 28, 2018 By John C Wright

Frost Giant’s Daughter is not the name of the eighth story published in the Conan canon of Robert E Howard’s Hyborian Age tales, but it belongs in eighth place in a complete list, if it belongs anywhere. A word of explanation is in order.

This was originally a Conan story, and, based on the internal chronology, his first adventure, when he was still a barbarian wanderer and warrior among the northern tribes.  Farnsworth Wright, the editor of Weird Tales, rejected it. Thrifty as all writers must be, Howard renamed the main character “Amra of Akbitana” retitled it Gods of the North, and under that name published it in the March 1934 issue of The Fantasy Fan. In its original form as a Conan yarn it was not published in Howard’s brief lifetime.

I regret to say that Farnsworth Wright’s decision is a defensible one: this story is below Robert E Howard’s expected level. Were one to read it with the name of the author hidden, it would not be recognized as his work.

Howard’s Conan stories are known and famed for driving, nonstop plots, memorable characters, for vivid descriptions of dramatic action sequences, for the portrayal of raw savagery (and its concomitant superiority to the corruption and softness of civilization), for  exotic locales, eldritch horrors, memorable prose. Here, each element was muted, or missing.

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Conan Canon

Posted December 3, 2018 By John C Wright

Below is a list of reviews of the canonical and complete Robert E Howard Conan stories, including Red Nails, the last one published in his lifetime. As time permits, the list grows and the links will become active.

The list is chronological and includes essays on Conan, and links to online sites where the originals are in the public domain.

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