selections
from One More Barbarian #37
By
Joe Marek
Some Comments on Chronologies in Regards to the
Kull Series
In rereading the Kull series I noticed how few
stories show what I've, in the past, called his "mental
deterioration". I think this has really been overblown by
many critics, including myself. The feeling of unreality from
"The Shadow Kingdom" could have been the Serpent People
working their magic on Kull. His acceptance of the cat speaking
(in "Delcardes' Cat") could have been his own
metaphysical bent, or a result of his having been raised by
tigers, or even Thulsa Doom working his magic on the king.
Kull's reaction to his experience in "The Striking of the
Gong" is not unusual for a near-death experience.
I had thought that there were quite a few
stories that ended saying something like, "The preceding events had a big impact on Kull, and he wondered thereat for the
rest of his life". But, in reality, only "Kings of the
Night" and "The Mirrors of Tuzun Thune" end that
way. Kull was really more together than he's been given
credit for. In fact, the events of "Kings of the Night"
could have left him in such a mental state that he was willing to
accept Tuzun Thune's meandering sophistry in the following story;
but I'm sure that he recovered from all that to live out his life
as a successful and pragmatic barbarian king.
Thus I would like to suggest the following reading order for the Kull stories:
Kull
Exile
of Atlantis
The Shadow Kingdom
Delcardes' Cat
The Skull of Silence
Untitled (the longer fragment)
The Black City
The Altar and the Scorpion
The Striking of the Gong
"By This Axe I Rule!"
Untitled (the shorter fragment)
The King and the Oak
Swords of the Purple Kingdom
[Kings of the Night — Kull doesn't appear until Chapter
Two]
The Mirrors of Tuzun Thune
Kull's actions prior to "The Curse of the
Golden Skull" may happen quite early in his career (Rotath
may even be the Lemurian ventriloquist mentioned in
"Delcardes' Cat"). Stories from "The Shadow
Kingdom" through "The Altar and the Scorpion"
probably occur quite early in his reign (a seven-to-twelve year
period), encompassing his battles against the Serpent People and
similar menaces as he seeks to rid his empire of their blight
(allowing him to take a brief vacation in "The Black
City" on his way back from World's End, encountered in the
longer Untitled fragment). The stories following "The Altar
and the Scorpion" may be spaced at intervals of three to
seven years each, though "The Mirrors of Tuzun Thune"
may follow quite closely on the heels of "Kings of the
Night". ... Although Glenn Lord, by his own admission, renamed
most of the characters in "'By This Axe I Rule!'" so as
not to be the same as those in "The Phoenix on the
Sword", I think it was a mistake to rename the fat baron as
"Kaanuub of Blaal". Kaanuub's offenses in either
"'By This Axe I Rule!'" or "The Mirrors of Tuzun Thune" would be capitol crimes. The idea that he could
survive one to attempt the other is ludicrous. The only reasonable
way to keep Kaanuub's appearance in "Axe" is to presume
"Mirrors" is the kind of petty intrigue hinted at in the
former story; but that would place "Mirrors" before
"Axe" and that feels totally wrong. I, being the Howard
purist that I am, am all for changing the names back to what
Howard had them.
So, Like, Does "Thief,
Reaver, Slayer"
Mean the Same Thing as "Conan the Shitheel"?
I have to admit that I was a bit surprised when
I read Rick McCollum's commentary on "The Frost-Giant's
Daughter" in The Fantastic Worlds of Robert E. Howard.
I'd never much given a thought to Conan's behavior as being controversial, though I recognized it as being quite amoral. The
thing is that REH planned it that way.
Conan is, despite his success, not the typical
Howard hero. Kull, Bran Mak Morn, Turlogh O'Brien and Solomon Kane
are all asexual with high moral standards. Conan, and this was
quite on purpose, is completely the opposite of all this. Howard
designed Conan to be commercially successful, and he designed him
well. And, considering the popularity of Conan, I'd say that REH
did a good job of it. — There is not much point in being upset
about Conan's commercialism (which his amoral behavior is a part
of), because that is exactly what he was designed to be.
In the "Know, O Prince,..." vignette
which originally prefaced "The Phoenix on the Sword"
Conan is described as "A Thief, A Reaver, A Slayer". Now
words like rogue and scoundrel have picked up
romantic connotations to the point where they have no real
meaning, the same is true of reaver, which means one who
steals and plunders. Believe me, anyone who is "A Thief, A
Reaver, A Slayer" is quite enough to give a Law &
Order Nut apoplexy; and these just weren't designed to be
flowery, poetic words.
In one letter, probably written to C.A. Smith,
Howard wrote that some of the models for Conan were tough guys and
oil field bullies. In another letter he says that Conan was
"lawless" when he arrived in the civilized Hyborian
world. Think about the meaning of these words for a minute: tough
guy, oil field bully, lawless. Howard does everything but come
out and call him a criminal; No!, he shows us that!
The anti-hero protagonist of most early 20th
Century Literature was a milque-toast weakling with no moral
strength who didn't have the guts to do The Right Thing.
Howard did this trend one better in the creation of Conan, who is
a different kind of anti-hero, but is one never-the-less.
To some extent, Howard is exploiting the myth
of the Bad Boy. People like Conan attract followers and
lovers at an unbelievable rate. There is an attraction and a
mystique about such men that is hard to describe, but is
never-the-less there. It seems to virtually be magnetic.
So, I guess I'm agreeing that Conan is a
criminal. Many of the killings he commits cannot be shrugged off
as self-defense. I mean, he kills a judge, on the bench, in open
court, just prior to the beginning of "Queen of the Black
Coast".
If Conan were in 20th Century America and the
same age as Rick and me (I was born in 1954 too) he would have
been stealing Eight-Track Tape Players out of people's cars at age
17, a Mafia hit man at 30, and a retired drug lord at the age of
43 (which is about the age he became king of Aquilonia).
So don't bother getting all upset, not only was
this all on purpose, but it predicted the breakdown of modern
American civilization, which no number of Religious Nuts
can ever put right again. — And don't say that Conan would have
ended up in prison in 20th Century America. For every five crimes
that are committed, only one arrest occurs. And this is a
statistic that all the heavy-handed legislation meant to appease
the Law & Order Nuts can do nothing about it; I've been
a victim of crime at least seven times, and there's never been an
arrest, much less a conviction, in these matters.
Conan was probably a very good drinking buddy,
though.
Some Corrections to Robert M. Price's "A
Collector's
Checklist of Howard's Fiction"
[This is a condensation, and revision of the
original article from One More Barbarian #37]
Note: this essay is based on the updated
index by Dave Gentzel.
When I talked to Bob Price back in the early
'80s, and sent him my "An Annotated, Opinionated Bibliography
of Robert E. Howard", I never dreamed that he would turn it
into a standard reference on Howard Collecting.
Originally I did it for myself, to keep track
of the tons of Howard material I was accumulating; and then, as an
anniversary mailing of the Robert E. Howard Press Association
neared, I thought I'd run it and share it with my fellow apa-hacks.
Anyway, I don't want to criticize anyone who
had so many nice things to say about me, but I think Price made
some changes that actually made the index harder to use.
Irregardless of that, for this website appearance, I will only be
discussing actual errors.
"Queen Of The Black Coast" is not in Conan
The Adventurer, it is in Conan Of Cimmeria.
Under the entry "People of the Black
Circle" please add Donald M. Grant before Berkley.
It should be noted that "Wolves Beyond the
Border" was unfinished with synopsis.
The Hour of the Dragon was also
published by Donald M. Grant.
Under both the Bran Mak Morn and Turlogh
O'Brien headings, please also attribute Bran Mak Morn as a
location where one can read "The Dark Man".
"Swords Of The Northern Sea" is not
in Bran Mak Morn, the only Cormac Mac Art story to appear
there was "The Night Of The Wolf".
"The Grey God Passes" wasn't only in
the paperback editions of Marchers of Valhalla, it was also
in the second edition of the hardcover.
One story, "The Footfalls Within", in
the Baen Solomon Kane collection is still unrestored.
The second Terrence Vulmea story is not
"Swords Of The Brotherhood", it is "Swords Of The Red
Brotherhood".
The Lost Valley of Iskander was not published by Donald M.
Grant, both it and Son of the White Wolf appeared in
hardcover from FAX Collectors' Editions.
Don't let the comparison between "The
Shadow in the Well" and "The Isle of Pirates' Doom"
fool you. The place, type and characters may be similar, but the
genres are totally different.
"Drums Of The Sunset" was not in The
Vultures, it was only in The Vultures Of Whapeton.
Every time
The Judgment Of The Desert has
been published, it has been under the title of "Showdown At
Hell's Canyon".
Correct
information for "The Teeth of Doom" can
be found in The Last Celt; it appeared under the editor's
title of "The Tomb's Secret" but under the by-line
of Patrick Ervin, no Brock Rollins (p. 132); the protagonist's
name was changed from Steve Harrison to Brock Rollins because
there was already a Harrison story in that issue (p. 327, note
#20).
According to The Last Celt, the untitled
Steve Bender, Weary McGraw & the Whale fragment is NOT
juvenilia (p. 296).
According to Price's notes at the end of the
Dennis Dorgan section, "Sailor Dorgan And The Turkish
Menace" was left unfinished by Howard. This is not true!
Howard finished it and it was accepted by Oriental
Stories/Magic Carpet. When Glenn rediscovered the story, some
pages were missing form the middle of the story. Check The Last
Celt if you don't believe me.
About the "Odds and Ends" category:
"Hashish Land" is an essay. "The Gondarian
Man" is Science Fiction. "The Last Laugh' is a
contemporary tale in which a barbarian slams a sword down on the
hood of a car. "Etchings in Ivory" are considered prose/poems.
"The Ghost in the Doorway" is historical fantasy.
"A Dream" is part of a letter to Lovecraft.
From the
addenda, "The Abbey" is
contemporary horror. The two pieces from The Trumpet
magazine are mainstream. "The Last White Man" is Science
Fiction.
The
descriptions in the last two paragraphs are
to help the collector know what he's looking for, unfortunately headings such as "Odds and Ends" tell the Collector very
little.
Anyway, and again, I mean no insult to Mr.
Price.
It is an honor that so many people considered
my little scribblings to have merit.
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