Conan
the Cimmerian is on the same level of recognition and popularity as other
important figures of literature from the early 20th Century such as
Tarzan and Batman. Because of this, his original adventures and an immense
amount of derivative works have permeated the pop culture landscape for several
decades. Until earlier this week, I had never read any of the original Robert
E. Howard Conan stories. Despite this
fact, I’m pretty familiar with the character because I’ve seen both movies from
the 80s starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and I’ve read about 30 or so issues of
the Marvel comic Conan the Barbarian
by Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor Smith. I even reviewed a few of those issues in
their Saga of Conan reprints. You can
find them here and here.
Needless
to say, I’ve always felt like a bit of phoney because I knew of the original Conan stories and I also knew how easily
accessible they are, but I never took the time to read them. I say no more! No
more of this foolery. I have a lovely eBook collecting all of Howard’s stories,
novellas, and novel in a single edition. It was also dirt cheap ($4). I’ll be
reviewing these at the rate of one or two stories per week for the next few
weeks. I’m not sure if I’ll need a break or not at some point, but for now I’m
enjoying myself immensely so I might be able to review them all in relatively
quick succession. Here we go, with the first ever published Conan story.
“The Phoenix on the Sword” by Robert E. Howard, originally published in Weird Tales (Dec. 1932)
I’m not
entirely sure what my overall reaction to this story is. I have a lot of
thoughts, a lot of small reactions, but I can’t really sum them up into
something cohesive. Considering this is a review I don’t have much choice.
Thing is, I’m not sure where to start so I’ll start with the obvious plot
summary.
At the
story’s beginning, Conan is the king of Aquilonia, a kingdom near his home
country of Cimmeria. You can tell that he’s a little awkward in that role. He
doesn’t seem particularly suited for ruling but he’s responsible enough to stay
at the head of the state following his capture of the crown and throne of
Aquilonia from the previous king. Unbeknownst to king Conan, he finds himself
under the threat of a small group of powerful men from the capital who are
planning on killing the king and replacing him with a new king. While the plan
is getting ready to be put into action, one of the sorcerer slaves of Ascalante
(the leader of the conspirers) murders a key member in the plot against Conan.
He then summons a demon to kill his former master. Meanwhile, Conan dreams and
he finds himself on another plane of existence (possibly?) where Epimetreus, an
old sage, blesses the king’s sword with the symbol of the phoenix. Conan wakes
just in time to meet his assassins in his bedchamber and fight them head on
with a magically enhanced sword. He’ll need it, as the ape-like demon summoned
by the sorcery also finds his way to Conan and the old king must face down the
beast in order to survive the night.
My
initial reaction is one of surprise. I didn’t expect the first published Conan story to be set during a time
where Conan is a middle-aged king. I was expecting his first stories to be
about him as a travelling barbarian, thief, or pirate to name some of his most
noteworthy and easily classifiable roles. He’s still mightily strong as is
evident during the battle in the last chapter. He’s also pretty bored with
ruling and he clearly enjoyed this opportunity to fight with other men. He
might be king, but he’s still pretty barbaric. He’s the odd man out in this
story and he doesn’t fit with the rest of the setting.
I was
also pretty surprised at how well plotted this story is. The first two chapters
introduce the setting and the characters, the second two complicate the plot,
and the final chapter ties all the ends together into a satisfying finale.
Another
thing that stood out is the story’s lack of unique details that would make this
specifically a Conan story. I think
there are three main reasons for this. The first is that “The Phoenix on the
Sword” was rewritten from a Kull
story that was rejected for publishing. I haven’t read any Kull stories before and I’m curious to know how closely he
resembles Conan, if at all. I think
this might be why Conan is a king rather than a wandering barbarian which I expect
might be his typical role in these stories.
The second
reason is that Conan specifically and
other works by Robert E. Howard are key in the development of the Sword and
Sorcery genre. It’s not uncommon to read old and influential books that have
either spawned a new genre or were important in the development of a kind of
story to be a little underwhelming. I’ve read a few Sword and Sorcery stories
and novels in my time, and a lot of the elements in those stories were first
presented and developed in Howard’s work. What makes this story noteworthy? Not
much as far as basic building blocks for the story or the genre in which it
belongs but a hell of a lot of stuff when compared to the type of fantasy
written by Howard’s contemporaries.
The third
reason is really simple. Maybe Howard just didn’t really know what he wanted to
do with his Conan stories at this
point. This first story could very well have been a test run. Howard scholars
might say otherwise, and that’s fine, but I’d be really surprised if some of
this didn’t contribute to the lack of distinctly Conan attributes.
Then
again, maybe this story is 100% pure Conan
by Howard and I have no clue because I haven’t read any of them before.
My general
expectation for the story was that it would be similar to the movies and comics
I’ve read. I was expecting it to be a little different, and it was, but not
radically so. I was confident that however different the movie and comic
adaptations were that they would retain some elements from Howard’s stories. I
was right, but there are also some notable differences. I was impressed with
how atmospheric Howard’s writing is. It’s more than I would have guessed.
Howard’s skilled with his descriptions of strange and ancient creatures, both
natural and supernatural.
The descriptions
of the battles were nicely vibrant and energetic. They’re more violent than I
would have guessed. Considering they were originally published in the 1930s I was
expecting the violence to be a bit tamer. Instead, it’s pretty gruesome but
enjoyably so.
In
thinking a bit more about his descriptions I found that he uses them well to
enhance the mood of the story rather than provide the reader with very specific
and realistic depiction of the characters and their surroundings. There is an
odd dichotomy being suitably vague while also being very descriptive in his
narration. Don’t get me wrong, Howard doesn’t run away from the specifics, but
things are just vague enough to allow the reader to fill in the blanks. It’s
not purple prose either, or at least nothing too purple or flowery. I wonder if
this style of narration is one of the reasons for Conan’s lasting success and
popularity. It could be that the slightly vague descriptions, more suggestive than
affirmative, gave fans the opportunity to develop their interpretation of the
characters and the setting.
Rating:
3 Serpent Rings
It’s the
first Conan story I read so I don’t
know what to expect in comparison with later tales. I really enjoyed it and I’m
looking forward to more Swords & Sorcery goodness.
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