Killing people is easy; leading them is not. In this middle volume collecting the original stories, Conan the Cimmerian demonstrates he has the right stuff for both tasks.
Conan creator Robert E. Howard reveals similar adaptive skill. The first Del Ray Conan volume, The Coming Of Conan The Cimmerian, showcased the vast range of Howard’s imagination; in this second volume we see the depth of his storycraft and world-building powers.
“From death to death it came, riding on a river of human blood. Blood feeds it, blood draws it. Its power is greatest when there is blood on the hands that grasp it, when it is wrested by slaughter from its holder. Wherever it gleams, blood is spilt and kingdoms totter, and the forces of nature are put in turmoil.”
Thus we learn about the Heart of Ahriman, the ancient talisman Conan must retrieve to reclaim his throne in “The Hour Of The Dragon,” a novel-length story which forms the centerpiece of this volume.
Packed with adventure and a lived-in sensibility of a mythical time and setting, “Hour Of The Dragon” is more than enough by itself to make this book worthwhile, but also included in The Bloody Crown are two other Conan stories, “The People Of The Black Circle” and “A Witch Shall Be Born,” both compelling yarns in broadly different ways.
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| Conan in command mode, as pictured in the pages of Dark Horse Comics. Win or lose, he is always at the center of battle, dealing death and asking no quarter. Image from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conan_(Dark_Horse_Comics) |
He wrote all three Bloody Crown pieces in and around 1934, after having already established Conan in earlier, shorter stories you get in the first Del Ray book. This time, Howard is even more confident in Conan and his world and gives himself more room to flesh them out; the result is very satisfying and if anything even faster-paced.
Taken together or in isolation, these stories offer an irresistible conduit to the sword and sorcery genre.
“The Hour Of The Dragon” – The only novel-length story Howard wrote, “Dragon” reintroduces Conan as the king of Aquilonia. Just like the previous two King Conan stories, “The Phoenix On The Sword” and “The Scarlet Citadel,” Conan’s rule is challenged by an otherworldly foe, in this case a 3,000-year-old wizard who longs to replace Conan’s known world of Hyboria with a far nastier one he lost back when.
To stop him, Conan must escape a dungeon, then cross distant lands and seas in search of this secret Heart that will help restore his rule.
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| Hour Of The Dragon was originally sent by Howard to a British publisher in hopes it would be published as a novel. This would not happen until 14 years after Howard's death, when Gnome Press released it under the title "Conan The Conqueror." Image from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hour_of_the_Dragon |
For all the recycling of familiar ideas and themes from other Conan stories, “Hour Of The Dragon” has a freshness and vitality to it. Yes, the opening battle and capture of Conan is a straight recycling of “Scarlet Citadel,” and a fair amount of “Black Colossus” also gets reused in the wizard’s resurrection, but Howard’s narrative approach is electric and his fleshing out of details involving myriad cultural and political issues totally sold me on the reality of this fantasy setting.
As a king, Conan is revealed not at all as a bloodthirsty conqueror, but rather a smart and deliberate ruler whose sense of responsibility to his people is fairly unique for his world (or ours):
“I have no desire to rule an empire welded together by blood and fire. It’s one thing to seize a throne with the aid of its subjects and rule them with their consent. It’s another to subjugate a foreign realm and rule it by fear.”
Conan’s return to and eventual liberation of Aquilonia is one of the most satisfying story arcs Howard ever devised, and the process leading up to it is just as breathless. In one chapter Conan sails with pirates, the next he explores a shadow kingdom where pythons dine on fearful but unresisting city dwellers. In an underground labyrinth he is accosted by a female whose beauty conceals inhuman powers.
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| Conan uncovers a secret in a Stygian tomb as "Hour Of The Dragon" reaches a climax. After failing to land a publisher in Great Britain, Howard sold the novel to his usual market for Conan stories, the pulp magazine Weird Tales, which ran it as a multi-parter. Art by Vincent Napoli from https://www.pinterest.com/pin/661395895265772112/ |
“Hour Of The Dragon” is totally nuts, yet on the basis of nerve alone manages to be compelling and enjoyable throughout. The different peoples that make up Conan’s kingdom are fleshed out; as are the rituals of magic and religion which Howard makes central to the plot. Conan’s exchanges with Xaltuton the undead wizard flash with a nasty bite:
“Why, if I told you, you would not believe me. But I am wearied of conversation with you; it is less fatiguing to destroy a walled city than it is to frame my thoughts in words a brainless barbarian can understand.”
“If my hands were free,” opined Conan, “I’d soon make a brainless corpse out of you.”
Though it starts slowly and shrugs off several odd plot strands along the way, “Hour Of The Dragon” gradually builds up steam and never relents, making for a supercharged saga that reads like a shorter work.
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| Conan's encounters with magic users usually don't go well; here his aiding an old lady is rewarded when she reveals herself to be the witch Zelata, who then explains how Conan can reclaim his kingdom. Above is one of the terrific original drawings by Gary Gianni created for The Bloody Crown. Image from https://karavansara.live/2018/07/19/the-hour-of-the-dragon/ |
“The People Of The Black Circle” – Many if not most Conan enthusiasts actually prefer this novella-length tale to “Hour” and after many years of disagreeing, I finally see their point. This is easily one of the best Conan stories, up there with classics “The Tower Of The Elephant” and “Red Nails” but at the same time very unique in its own dark way.
Conan’s own story arc is clever and pulsating, yet for much of the story it isn’t even the best part, as we are treated to a rare romantic tale from Howard involving two archvillains, the cruel wizard Khemsa and his lover Gitara, who conspire to defy Khemsa’s masters, the also-wicked Seers of the Black Circle, by kidnapping the beautiful Devi of Vendhya.
Like many lovers before and after, this pair’s love is all-consuming. Whether slaughtering jailed captives or an angered mob of mountain tribesmen, they cut quite a path. Gitara is just itching to risk all:
“I will make a king of you! For love of you I betrayed my mistress; for love of me betray your masters! Why fear the Black Seers? By your love for me you have broken one of their laws already! Break the rest! You are as strong as they!”
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| By the time Howard submitted "People Of The Black Circle" to Weird Tales in 1934, he strategically employed half-dressed woman being menaced in order to secure a valuable cover. Here the Devi Yasmina resists the advances of the evil Master of the Circle. Illustration by Margaret Brundage from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_People_of_the_Black_Circle |
Howard employs the pair effectively enough for menace; the surprise for me was discovering how emotionally invested I became in their situation. I never liked them or wished them well, as villains they serve very nicely, but their drive to be alive and make the most of that for one another is impressively rendered.
So is the rest of this tale, as layered in detail and explanatory background as the far longer and more geopolitical “Hour Of The Dragon,” but more tempered and focused in its plot design.
Conan is more an adventurer here, but also a tribal chieftain, still weighed with responsibilities to others. At one point, he finds himself abandoned by his tribe when they blame him for the murder of their jailed comrades (actually effected by Khemsa.) Conan’s response is that of a defiant public servant:
“A chief should never desert his followers, even if they desert him first. They think they were right in kicking me out – hell, I won’t be cast off! I’m still chief of the Afghulis, and I’ll prove it!”
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| After a long battle that takes many lives, Conan confronts the Master of Yimsha in his chamber, where the master's hypnotic powers have limited effect on the wild barbarian. This great Ken Kelly painting captures the awesome feeling of the story's climax. Image from https://www.knoxmercury.com/2017/06/21/fantasy-painter-ken-kellys-career-took-unexpected-turns-frazetta-kiss/ |
Also superb is Yasmina, the Devi, whose strength of character and purpose makes a rare match for Conan both as adventuring and romantic partner. They would make a great couple, if only they both didn’t have their own peoples to look after. Watching them go up against Khemsa and Gitara is a treat, but just part of “Black Circle’s” brilliance.
“A Witch Shall Be Born” – Conan loses his job as captain of the royal guard when his queen Taramis is replaced by her depraved eldritch twin, Salome. His severance package includes being nailed to a cross and left for vultures in the desert sun. A passing band of desperadoes gives him a second chance at life, and revenge.
Not Howard’s most accomplished Conan tale, “Witch” does satisfy in a more basic way that complements the two more sophisticated stories in this collection. Again Conan deals with command responsibilities and is thrust into a battle combining politics and black magic. In this story, though, Conan is less central to the narrative, which is a point against it.
But when Conan does appear, he is memorable, especially when nailed to that cross, suffering excruciating pain yet still able to fight back when a vulture gets close enough for him to get his jaws on its neck:
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| Down but not out, Conan awaits a vulture attack in a scene from a Marvel comics adaptation of "A Witch Shall Be Born," drawn by Ernie Chan. Image from https://www.scifiwright.com/2020/02/conan-a-witch-shall-be-born/ |
Ferocious triumph surged through Conan’s numbed brain. Life beat strongly and savagely through his veins. He could still deal death; he still lived. Every twinge of sensation, even of agony, was a negation of death.
As with the other two stories, set in more temperate climes, Howard also evokes “Witch’s” hard, arid setting with lean and masterful prose. I love the details here, like how one chapter is framed in the form of a letter from a passing scholar. At another point in the narrative, Salome, safe in her castle, gets a battlefield report from a lackey who carries a magic crystal which works just like an iPhone.
Howard’s prescience at times is eerie. In “People Of The Black Circle,” we learn how the evil Seers are able to capture the essence of a young prince through a lock of his hair. “All discarded portions of the human body still remain part of it, attached to it by intangible connections,” he writes. As a follower of true-crime cases solved through DNA evidence, I got a chill reading this.
The Bloody Crown Of Conan also contains other Howard writings, including earlier drafts and synopses of the three stories as well as an untitled and incomplete draft which would later be published after much additional writing from others as “Drums Of Tombalku.” Given the high polish of everything else in this book, it is easy to see why Howard gave up on it just two chapters in. He is clearly flailing.
Howard often wrote fiction for shorter attention spans; this collection showcases just how good he was when he swung for the fences. It drives home the wish he left himself time to produce more novels and novellas.
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