THE CONAN CHRONOLOGY
  • Home
  • Full Chronology
  • PURE REH CHRONOLOGY
  • COMICS
  • NON-CHRON
  • Contact
  • Home
  • Full Chronology
  • PURE REH CHRONOLOGY
  • COMICS
  • NON-CHRON
  • Contact

Chronologically Speaking, Part Nineteen: "The Frost-Giant's Daughter"

6/1/2026

1 Comment

 
Chronologically Speaking is a series focused solely on placing the Conan of Cimmeria stories in timeline order. It's an analysis of only the text of Robert E. Howard's original Conan tales. I'm examining the stories one at a time, in publication order, to show explicit chronological notes to order the stories.
"The Frost-Giant's Daughter," like many posthumously-published Conan stories, had a pretty circuitous path to publication. I spent a while talking about that path in a recent video I did called "The First(?) Conan Story: The Frost-Giant's Daughter." If you want to go in-depth about the very interesting publishing history of the story, you can watch that video, but here's the much-abbreviated version.

"The Frost-Giant's Daughter" was written in March 1932, very soon after "The Phoenix on the Sword," making it the second Conan story written, and the first conceived as a Conan story.

It was rejected by Weird Tales editor Farnsworth Wright.

Howard sent the story to the fanzine The Fantasy Fan in late 1933 after having made edits to it, retitling it "The Frost King's Daughter," before the zine published it under the title "Gods of the North" in March 1934.

L. Sprague de Camp made further edits to the story and published his version in 1953 in the magazine Fantasy Fiction and then the Gnome Press book The Coming of Conan.
Picture
But the original, unadulterated Howard cut of "The Frost-Giant's Daughter" would not be widely available until it was published in 1976 collection Rogues in the House from the publishing house Donald Grant. That's almost 45 years from pen to publication! It also really muddies the waters as to what version you're reading at any given time. Many places online will present the edited de Camp text or the original Howard text and yet attribute them to The Fantasy Fan's '34 version.

But enough about our real-life placement of the story. This is one of Howard's shortest Conan stories (about 3000 words) and one of the most difficult to place chronologically. It's not overflowing with timeline markers and those that are there need to be interpreted pretty heavily. 
Picture
  • Conan is in the northern reaches of the map with the Aesir, fighting a war with the Vanir. This area is never revisited in any other Howard stories. However, it is spoken of in a few other stories.
    • It is mentioned in "Queen of the Black Coast," in which Conan states that he is familiar with the gods of the north: "I have known many gods. He who denies them is as blind as he who trusts them too deeply. I seek not beyond death. It may be the blackness averred by the Nemedian skeptics, or Crom's realm of ice and cloud, or the snowy plains and vaulted halls of the Nordheimer's Valhalla." This seems to suggest that "The Frost-Giant's Daughter" has occurred by the time "Queen of the Black Coast" takes place.
    • It is also mentioned in "The Phoenix on the Sword." When filling in a map of the areas north of Cimmeria, Conan tells Prospero, who thought that perhaps Vanaheim and Asagard were the stuff of legend, "You had known otherwise, had you spent your youth on the northern frontiers of Cimmeria! Asgard lies to the north, and Vanaheim to the northwest of Cimmeria, and there is continual war along the borders." Obviously, "Frost-Giant" needs to take place before some of Conan's latest adventures as a king.
  • In speaking with Atali, Conan claims, "Far have I wandered, but a woman like you I have never seen."
    • This is perhaps one of the most vexing lines in the story. Conan seems to believe that he has wandered very far, but he doesn't say how far he's wandered. This brings up a very specific memory for me: sitting in my political science class during the first week of classes in my freshman year of college. As someone who'd been obsessively into Rage Against the Machine and had started reading Leonard Peltier and Howard Zinn in high school, I had felt a frustration with my peers, who weren't nearly as interested. I was such a prick. But I got a serious reality check that first week of college when I realized that the pond had just gotten way, way bigger and I realized I didn't know near as much as most people in the class and most people were more politically-involved than me. In other words, I had wandered way less far than I thought I had when I was 18. This colors my interpretation of the line.
  • Atali says to Conan, "'Who are you to swear by Ymir?' she mocked. 'What know you of the gods of ice and snow, you who have come up from the south to adventure among an alien people?'"
    • I suppose this could be interpreted as saying that Conan has come immediately from the south, meaning from Cimmeria, to Vanaheim, but that would imply that Atali had been watching Conan for a long time. We know that Atali was watching Conan's fight with Heimdul - she calls him "Conan of Cimmeria," a name that he doesn't ever say to her, but he did say to Heimdul before he killed him - but it seems unlikely that she had her eye on him before, especially considering the lore dump by "Old Gorm" at the end of the narrative detailing what Atali's modus operandi is.
      • Speaking of Gorm, he too saw Atali when he was young, perhaps suggesting that Atali chiefly targets younger men to lure them back to her brothers.
  • Conan's characterization seems rather young, but this is tricky.
    • In the youngest Conan stories, Conan is often described as a youth. This is somewhat conspicuously absent in "Frost-Giant." Instead, Conan is referred to as a "man" three times.
      • From "The God in the Bowl:" "Arus saw a tall powerfully built youth..."
      • From "The Tower of the Elephant:" "He saw a tall, strongly made youth..."
      • From "Queen of the Black Coast:" "Young in years, he was hardened in warfare and wandering..."
    • Conan's alarm bells about magic and sorcery are not set off by any of the strange happenings that occur. He doesn't seem to consider that Atali might not be just a woman but instead a magical being, and he gets utterly ensorcelled by her fairly easily.
      • "He looked up; there was a strangeness about all the landscape that he could not place or define—an unfamiliar tinge to earth and sky. But he did not think long of this."
      • "He did not wonder at the strangeness of it all, not even when two gigantic figures rose up to bar his way."
      • "Passion fierce as physical agony flooded his whole being, so that earth and sky swam red to his dizzy gaze. In the madness that swept upon him, weariness and faintness were swept away." Conan literally foams at the mouth for Atali, completely losing control of himself.
PictureWhile this is great art, a small part of me always bristles at dark depictions of this story. The story is blindingly bright.
With just the above to guide us, I don't think that the story is very strongly anchored to any specific point in Conan's life. In this series, I ignore all paratext and focus only on the text of Howard's stories, but just for fun, let's see what others have said.

John D. Clark's revised chronology places the story after "Queen of the Black Coast," but I think his reasoning is thin: Conan wears a horned helmet in both: "His horned helmet was such as was worn by the golden-haired Aesir of Nordheim." As I've explored before, I find it more likely that Conan wears or comes across or owns similar items like a horned helmet or red cloak more often than once.

Howard himself had a word on the subject in his famous correspondence with Clark and P. Schuyler Miller that helped birth "A Probable Outline of Conan's Career" in 1936. Howard wrote, "There was a space of about a year between Vanarium and his entrance into the thief-city of Zamora. During this time he returned to the northern territories of his tribe, and made his first journey beyond the boundaries of Cimmeria. This, strange to say, was north instead of south. Why or how, I am not certain, but he spent some months among a tribe of the Aesir, fighting with the Vanir and the Hyperboreans, and developing a hate for the latter which lasted all his life and later affected his policies as King of Aquilonia. Captured by them, he escaped southward in time to make his debut in print." So it seems likely that Howard considered this the first story too, even prior to its official publication.

Dale Rippke's Dark Storm Chronology, which I think is one of the best out there, opines that "The Frost-Giant's Daughter" may have been moved out of first place because of the rapey vibes, choosing a more palatable story to be the introduction if someone was choosing to read chronologically.
Here's a fun side note: in the "Gods of the North" version published in The Fantasy Fan in 1934, Conan is swapped out for "Amra of Akbitana." This version, assuming Amra and Conan have the same life trajectory, would have to place the story much, much later in the chronology, since Amra states exactly how far he has wandered: "Far have I wandered, from Zingara to the Sea of Vilayet, in Stygia and Kush, and the country of the Hyrkanians; but a woman like you I have never seen." This would place the story at least after a mercenary and pirate period.

Ignoring everyone else's two cents on the subject finally brings me to sharing my placement. I am indeed putting "The Frost-Giant's Daughter" as the very first Conan tale. This is not because I think it's strongly tied to his youth - it's not - but because it doesn't really fit anywhere better. Howard had conceived of Asgard and Vanaheim and the wars between their people in "The Phoenix on the Sword," the very first Conan story to be published, so perhaps he felt he'd expand on the idea in the second. In relation to other tales, it probably needs to happen before "Queen of the Black Coast," which I have listed sixth. But the characterization of Conan seems closer to the "God in the Bowl" Conan than any other, so I place it first.

Here's the updated chronology:

1. The Frost-Giant's Daughter
2. The God in the Bowl
3. Rogues in the House
4. The Tower of the Elephant
5. The Nestor synopsis ("The Hall of the Dead")
6. Queen of the Black Coast
7. Xuthal of the Dusk
8. Iron Shadows in the Moon
9. The Devil in Iron
10. The People of the Black Circle
11. A Witch Shall Be Born
12. The Man-Eaters of Zamboula
13. Black Colossus
14. The Pool of the Black One
15. The Servants of Bit-Yakin
16. Red Nails
17. Beyond the Black River
18. The Phoenix on the Sword
19. The Scarlet Citadel
20. The Hour of the Dragon

1 Comment

Chronologically Speaking, Part Eighteen: "The God in the Bowl"

5/18/2026

1 Comment

 
Chronologically Speaking is a series focused solely on placing the Conan of Cimmeria stories in timeline order. It's an analysis of only the text of Robert E. Howard's original Conan tales. I'm examining the stories one at a time, in publication order, to show explicit chronological notes to order the stories.
If you've been following this series, you know that we're now past the end of stories which Robert E. Howard saw published in his lifetime. Like the Nestor synopsis, better known under the title "The Hall of the Dead," given to it by L. Sprague de Camp, was not released in its original REH form for decades. Likewise, "The God in the Bowl" was out for decades, with heavy de Camp edits, for over two decades before the original was published.

​The de Camp version made the page in the magazine Space Science Fiction (a fitting place to publish it, since it is definitely a science fiction story set in space) in September 1952, though it had been written as just the third Conan story, all the way back in 1932. The version that appeared in Space Science Fiction was heavily edited by L. Sprague de Camp, and the original Howard version wouldn't see print until 1975 in the Donald Grant "The Tower of the Elephant" publication. As a reminder, I'm not only using the Howard version for this column.
Picture
This story is quite a bit shorter than most of Howard's Conan stories, but is really interesting, chronologically speaking. There's quite a bit of debate about the earliest Conan stories ("The Frost-Giant's Daughter" and this one in particular are rather controversial) and which order the thief stories occur in.

The traditional wisdom is that the thief stories take place in an east-to-west direction: that is, we go from Zamora to Corinthia to Nemedia ("The Tower of the Elephant," "The Hall of the Dead," "Rogues in the House," then "The God in the Bowl"). That's the way I thought it should go, and it's the way I followed when I did my first chronology. But I think a close reading of the stories supports the idea that it should go from west-to-east, starting with Numalia in Nemedia before going to the unnamed Corinthian city-state, and finishing in Zamora the Accursed, AKA the City of Thieves. I also think that the pendulum is shifting in this direction, as it appears to be the chronology that Heroic Signatures and Titan Comics are following as well.
Here are our chronological hints:
  • ​We are told right away that Conan is a youth: "Arus saw a tall powerfully built youth, naked but for a loincloth, and sandals strapped high about his ankles. His skin was burned brown as by the suns of the wastelands, and Arus glanced nervously at the broad shoulders, massive chest and heavy arms. A single look at the moody, broad-browed features told the watchman that the man was no Nemedian. From under a mop of unruly black hair smoldered a pair of dangerous blue eyes. A long sword hung in a leather scabbard at his girdle."
  • Conan's characterization throughout paints him as someone who is very new to civilization. He's a bit of a rube at times: "The stranger started. 'Why did you do that?' he asked. 'It will fetch the watchman.' 'I am the watchman, knave,' answered Arus." Conan later says, "It was dark when I saw the watchman outside the Temple. When I saw him here I thought he was a thief too. It was not until he jerked the watch-bell rope and lifted his bow that I knew he was the watchman."
    • The thing that is a little tough to square is that Conan speaks Nemedian "with a barbaric accent." So Conan has been here long enough to learn some Nemedian, but not long enough to figure out how guard shifts work. This is probably just what Howard needed to do in order to make sure characters understood one another, but is admittedly a little bit of a blind spot.
  • Conan's a pretty sub-par thief so far: "'I came to steal,' sullenly answered the other. 'To steal what?' rapped the Inquisitor. 'Food,' the reply came after an instant's hesitation." His natural Cimmerian climbing skills are serving him, but he is definitely a novice. He hadn't even planned an alibi!
  • This might be one of Conan's first encounters with sorcery and seems struck a little dumb by the titular god in the titular bowl: "Conan stared in wonder at the cold classic beauty of that countenance, whose like he had never seen among the sons of men. Neither weakness nor mercy nor cruelty nor kindness, nor any other human emotion was in those features. They might have been the marble mask of a god, carved by a master hand, except for the unmistakable life in them—life cold and strange, such as the Cimmerian had never known and could not understand." That last bit strikes me as the most important: he's encountering forces that he has never known and could not understand.
  • The story ends with Conan fleeing Numalia: "Then the full horror of it all rushed over the Cimmerian, and he fled, nor did he slacken his headlong flight until the spires of Numalia faded into the dawn behind him."

I think the traditional wisdom stated up top makes a little more sense if you're also including the L. Sprague de Camp material in your chronology- "Legions of the Dead" and "The Thing in the Crypt" send Conan more eastward across Hyperborea, but the fact that Conan seems so naïve (I love the line in which Arus indignantly tells him "I am the watchman, knave!" That shit is hilarious) and poor at thieving puts this story more to the front. If you'll notice, this moves "Rogues in the House" up several placement as well.

Additionally, I think there's a not-insignificant desire to put "The Tower of the Elephant" as the first thief story (if not the first Conan story altogether) because it's such a good one and works as a fantastic introduction to the character and the world, but if we're applying a formalist approach to the chronology, we have to ignore that. 

I have to place it as the first of the thief stories.

That brings our chronology to this:
​
1. The God in the Bowl
2. Rogues in the House
3. The Tower of the Elephant
4. The Nestor synopsis ("The Hall of the Dead")
5. Queen of the Black Coast
6. Xuthal of the Dusk
7. Iron Shadows in the Moon
8. The Devil in Iron
9. The People of the Black Circle
10. A Witch Shall Be Born
11. The Man-Eaters of Zamboula
12. Black Colossus
13. The Pool of the Black One
14. The Servants of Bit-Yakin
15. Red Nails
16. Beyond the Black River
17. The Phoenix on the Sword
18. The Scarlet Citadel
19. The Hour of the Dragon

1 Comment

Chronologically Speaking, Part Seventeen: The Nestor Synopsis ("The Hall of the Dead")

5/4/2026

1 Comment

 
Chronologically Speaking is a series focused solely on placing the Conan of Cimmeria stories in timeline order. It's an analysis of only the text of Robert E. Howard's original Conan tales. I'm examining the stories one at a time, in publication order, to show explicit chronological notes to order the stories.
With "Red Nails," which I covered last time in this column, I reached the end of the Conan of Cimmeria stories that were published in Weird Tales during Robert E. Howard's lifetime. For a time, most of the rest of Howard's Conan stories were hidden away in a trunk. Years went by without a new story to be published, except for some items like the "Hyborian Age" essay in 1938. Sixteen years passed before a new narrative would come out.

I've been re-reading the Conan stories in publication order for this series, and now that I'm to the posthumous publications, I've got to make a decision: do I read them in the order that any version of them came out in, or by order of when we saw the original, unadulterated text penned by Howard? So many of these stories were heavily edited by L. Sprague de Camp or others and then sometimes had decades between the edited version becoming public and Howard's original story debuting later. Picking one or the other doesn't really matter for this exercise, but since I'm focusing so heavily on Howard's original intent, I'll be picking the order in which the Howard original was published. 
Picture
Literary agent Glenn Lord acquired the Howard trunk full of thousands of unpublished pages and L. Sprague de Camp had the original synopsis for this story by 1966. L. Sprague de Camp's version, entitled "The Hall of the Dead" was published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction as early as 1967 and then was reprinted in the Lancer paperback Conan that same year.

The following decade, Howard's original synopsis, referred to by Conan scholars as "The Nestor synopsis" since Howard's version is untitled, was printed in the fanzine Fantasy Crossroads #1 by the Graceland College Club. Due to its unfinished nature, it has largely been overshadowed by the L. Sprague de Camp edit.

My copy of The Complete Chronicles of Conan came with the original Howard version as one of the last stories inside, but it puts de Camps's "Hall of the Dead" title at the top. Let's take a look at any chronological clues in this short piece:
  • Conan is acting as a thief in Zamora. A section of the city is referred to as "The Maul," which likely refers to the same Maul from "The Tower of the Elephant." Since the city is unnamed, it is possible that it's not Zamora the City of Thieves and that there are multiple Zamorian cities that have a slum section called "The Maul," the same way many cities have a generically-named "Red Light District" or "Chinatown" or "downtown." I think it's most likely that this city is the same as the one in "The Tower of the Elephant."
    • de Camp moves this to Shadizar the Wicked, but there's no reason to believe Howard had this in mind at all.
    • Additionally, one common hypothesis about Zamora is that the City of Thieves has no name (it's not officially "Zamora, Zamora" like "New York, New York" in this hypothesis), and this city matching many other aspects of the one in "The Tower of the Elephant" lends some credence to that idea. 
  • Conan is apparently a more skilled thief than we've seen before, as he has stolen from noblemen and merchants in the nearby Zamorian city, enraging the upper class.
  • Conan opts to allow Nestor to take all the coins and gold in the treasure room while only taking a jade serpent and set of green gems for himself. This strikes me as rather naïve, or perhaps informed by what Conan had seen of the Heart of the Elephant in Yara's tower. 
  • Conan escapes the unnamed city with a young woman, but not with Nestor, so I find it unlikely that the Gunderman mentioned in the beginning of "Rogues in the House" is necessarily the same one as Nestor. That Gunderman was specifically stated to be a deserter, but Nestor is not acting in the service of the military in Gunderland. He's a mercenary, not a conscripted solider. It doesn't really change the placement of "Rogues in the House" or anything right now, but I have a feeling I'll be moving it soon...
Picture
With the above (which isn't much!) it seems like the only real placement we have that makes sense is that this story immediately follows "The Tower of the Elephant," with an implied time of several months elapsing between them so that Conan can become a much more skilled thief. 

Next time, we'll be looking at yet another thief story in "The God in the Bowl."

Here's the updated chronology:

1. The Tower of the Elephant
2. The Nestor synopsis
3. Rogues in the House
4. Queen of the Black Coast
5. Xuthal of the Dusk
6. Iron Shadows in the Moon
7. The Devil in Iron
8. The People of the Black Circle
9. A Witch Shall Be Born
10. The Man-Eaters of Zamboula
11. Black Colossus
12. The Pool of the Black One
13. The Servants of Bit-Yakin
14. Red Nails
15. Beyond the Black River
16. The Phoenix on the Sword
17. The Scarlet Citadel
18. The Hour of the Dragon

1 Comment

Chronologically Speaking, Part Sixteen: "Red Nails"

4/27/2026

0 Comments

 
Chronologically Speaking is a series focused solely on placing the Conan of Cimmeria stories in timeline order. It's an analysis of only the text of Robert E. Howard's original Conan tales. I'm examining the stories one at a time, in publication order, to show explicit chronological notes to order the stories.
"Red Nails" was the first Conan of Cimmeria story to be published after Robert E. Howard's untimely death in June of 1936. The July, August/September, and October issues of Weird Tales serialized "Red Nails" in three parts, with tributes to Howard in The Eyrie sections of the last two, in both poetry and prose form. It was the cover story for the July issue, featuring a Margaret Brundage cover that, as always, looks great.
Picture
One reader wrote, before hearing of Howard's death:
"Glad to hear that Robert E. Howard is coming to the fore with another Conan story. I was afraid the rascally old barbarian was going to sink down in slothful ease upon the Aquilonian throne and not furnish R.E.H. with any more weird adventure material, but I guess you can't keep that wild Cimmerian blood quiet; so more power to him."
I'm sure that reader was very sad to hear of the passing of Howard, but luckily, this isn't the final Conan story we have to cover, as many had an arduous posthumous journey to publication.

Similar to The Hour of the Dragon, there are many lines in "Red Nails" in which Conan just outright states the different things that he's done in his life, which makes it pretty easy to place, but so many clues make this a bit of a longer one! ​

Starting in Chapter 2 of the story, the chronological clues really start flowing. Here's what we've got:
  • Conan states that he has spent extensive time in sea ports, meaning that he has had at least one pirate period before this story's events: "As for being penniless—what rover isn't, most of the time? I've squandered enough gold in the sea-ports of the world to fill a galleon."
  • He states that he has recently been with the Free Companions in the western ocean near Zingara and Shem: "The Zingarans sank my last ship off the Shemite shore—that's why I joined Zarallo's Free Companions."
    • As laid out mostly in "Queen of the Black Coast," the coastline of the western Hyborian Age world seems to run (from north to south): the Pictish Wilderness, Argos, Zingara, Shem, Stygia, Kush, and then the other Black Kingdoms with names we don't know.
  • Conan and Valeria are in either the southern reaches of of Stygia or the northern reaches of Kush, with Conan stating these two lines:
    • "I've been this far south, but not this far east. Many days' traveling to the west will bring us to the open savannas, where the black tribes graze their cattle. I have friends among them." 
    • "Who'd have thought to find a city here? I don't believe the Stygians ever penetrated this far."
    • This suggests that Conan thinks it's more likely they're in the nation of Kush rather than in Stygia. However, the story seems to imply that the ancient architecture of the city of Xuchotl was mostly likely built by the ancestors of the Stygians. 
    • Additionally, Conan is very familiar with survivalism in this region as evidenced by his line to Valeria: "'If we ate that we wouldn't need the bite of a dragon,' he grunted. 'That's what the black people of Kush call the Apples of Derketa. Derketa is the Queen of the Dead. Drink a little of the juice, or spill it on your flesh, and you'd be dead before you could tumble to the foot of this crag.'" So Conan is clearly culturally familiar with the people and flora of this region. This and the preceding line about having friends among the black tribes suggests that this story takes place after "Queen of the Black Coast" and possibly other southern-set stories like "Pool of the Black One."
  • Conan outright states that he was a kozak before he was a pirate: "I was a kozak before I was a pirate." This is where we run into some debate about the order of this story and others. Some Conan readers interpret this line to mean that Conan was a kozak immediately preceding this piratical period. I don't think this is necessarily the case though, as Conan merely says this to furnish the idea to Valeria that he has some experience riding horses, unlike most pirates. The whole speech goes: "Your posterior must have been sore, too, after that long ride. You pirates aren't used to horseback... I was a kozak before I was a pirate... They live in the saddle. I snatch naps like a panther watching beside the trial for a deer to come by." This obviously places "Red Nails" at least after the kozak stories in his mid-career.
  • In that same scene, he says that he was once a Zuagir raider: "Skin your teeth in that pear. It's food and drink to a desert man. I was a chief of the Zuagirs once—desert men who live by plundering the caravans." So the story clearly follows the desert caravan days of stories like "The Man-Eaters of Zamboula."
    • Another line likely signals Conan's Zuagir days, but not by name: He states, "“I've looted enough from the Khitan caravans to know what I'm talking about, that's jade!" This could also be reference to his Turanian mercenary period.
  • To finish that conversation, Conan states that he's never been a king: "'I've never been king of an Hyborian kingdom,' he grinned, taking an enormous mouthful of cactus. 'But I've dreamed of being even that. I may be too, some day. Why shouldn't I?'" So obviously, we're set prior to the king stories at the end of his life.
  • Conan appears to have been to the nation of Punt, which means this story probably takes place after "The Servants of Bit-Yakin:" "'Green fire-stones,' growled Conan. 'That's what the people of Punt call them. They're supposed to be the petrified eyes of those prehistoric snakes the ancients called Golden Serpents. They glow like a cat's eyes in the dark. At night this hall would be lighted by them, but it would be a hellishly weird illumination.'"
  • Conan also clearly references the events of "The People of the Black Circle" and his time in Vendhya: "I was a war-chief of the Afghulis who live in the Himelian mountains above the borders of Vendhya. These people favor the Kosalans. But why should Kosalans be building a city this far to the west?"
  • Conan and Valeria finish the story headed west toward the coast: "'It's a long way to the coast,' she said presently, withdrawing her lips from his. 'What matter?' he laughed. 'There's nothing we can't conquer. We'll have our feet on a ship's deck before the Stygians open their ports for the trading season. And then we'll show the world what plundering means!'"
It seems most likely that Conan and Valeria do make it to the coast and parting sometime thereafter. Eventually, Conan works his way up north toward Aquilonia where he takes a job as a scout.

Here's the chronology thus far:

1. The Tower of the Elephant
2. Rogues in the House
3. Queen of the Black Coast
4. Xuthal of the Dusk
5. Iron Shadows in the Moon
6. The Devil in Iron
7. The People of the Black Circle
8. A Witch Shall Be Born
9. The Man-Eaters of Zamboula
10. Black Colossus
11. The Pool of the Black One
12. The Servants of Bit-Yakin
13. Red Nails
14. Beyond the Black River
15. The Phoenix on the Sword
16. The Scarlet Citadel
17. The Hour of the Dragon

Included below are some items from the "Red Nails" issues addressing Howard's death.
Picture
The first page of "The Eyrie" in the August/September issue, breaking the news of Robert E. Howard's death to Weird Tales readers
Picture
The poem by R.H. Barlow following the conclusion of "Red Nails" in the October 1936 issue of Weird Tales
0 Comments

Chronologically Speaking, Part Fifteen: "The Hour of the Dragon"

4/20/2026

0 Comments

 
Chronologically Speaking is a series focused solely on placing the Conan of Cimmeria stories in timeline order. It's an analysis of only the text of Robert E. Howard's original Conan tales. I'm examining the stories one at a time, in publication order, to show explicit chronological notes to order the stories.
As Robert E. Howard's career progressed, diversifying his writing into other markets to make more money became a larger and larger concern. As​ Weird Tales would not be published in the UK until 1942, putting a book together and selling it in England was part of Howard's plan to break into a new, untapped market. He submitted a short story collection in 1933 which was rejected, and then had several false starts on original novels before crafting The Hour of the Dragon​ in 1934.  According to Willard Oliver, he began the novel on St. Patrick's Day and wrote furiously for two months.

Howard essentially cannibalized many of his best Conan of Cimmeria stories (a practice that wasn't unique to him), especially "The Scarlet Citadel," to create his only novel-length Conan adventure, but as I've said before, it reads more like a victory lap than an annoying retread.
Picture
"Despite having two stories to draw upon, Howard still spent long days writing and rewriting the novel, for in the end, according to [author Patrice] Louinet, 'Howard wrote five versions of his story, with several parts of these rewritten two or three times.' Although Howard liked to lay claim to the Conan stories coming so easily to him, that was a tall tale unto itself, for Howard worked incredibly hard on his stories, this novel especially." 
​
-Willard Oliver, "Robert E. Howard: The Life and Times of a Texas Author," pg. 370
The UK publisher of the book went bankrupt before it could publish the story, so it was serialized in Weird Tales across five issues from December 1935 to April 1936, a mere three months before Howard died.

It would later be published in book form in 1950, acquiring the secondary title Conan the Conqueror, which it would be attached to on and off for the next seventy-five years.
Picture
Usually, I use this column to explore all the chronological markers in a story to place it in timeline order, but seeing as this story is much longer than all others and I don't want to bore you to death, I think it would be more expedient to do one thing: place it within relation to the other King Conan stories. The Hour of the Dragon obviously takes place during his kingship, so does it take place before, in-between, or after "The Phoenix on the Sword" and "The Scarlet Citadel?" Surprisingly, this is a tough question!
Let's take a look:
  • Quotes like this abound in the book and place it in Conan's very-late career: "'A devilish dream it was, too. I trod again all the long, weary roads I traveled on my way to the kingship" ... The king was an enigma to the general, as to most of his civilized subjects. Pallantides knew that Conan had walked many strange roads in his wild, eventful life, and had been many things before a twist of Fate set him on the throne of Aquilonia. 'I saw again in the battlefield whereon I was born," said Conan, resting his chin moodily on a massive fist. "I saw myself in a panther-skin loin-clout, throwing my spear at the mountain beasts. I was a mercenary swordsman again, a hetman of the kozaki who dwell along the Zaporoska River, a corsair looting the coasts of Kush, a pirate of the Barachan Isles, a chief of the Himelian hillmen. All these things I've been, and of all these things I dreamed; all the shapes that have been I passed like an endless procession, and their feet beat out a dirge in the sounding dust.'"
  • One section seems to refer back to "The Phoenix on the Sword" and Conan's experience with Thoth-Amon in that story: "Conan's scalp prickled. In Stygia, that ancient and evil kingdom that lay far to the south, he had seen such black dust before. It was the pollen of the black lotus, which creates death-like sleep and monstrous dreams; and he knew that only the grisly wizards of the Black Ring, which is the nadir of evil, voluntarily seek the scarlet nightmares of the black lotus, to revive their necromantic powers. The Black Ring was a fable and a lie to most folk of the western world, but Conan knew of its ghastly reality, and its grim votaries who practise their abominable sorceries amid the black vaults of Stygia and the nighted domes of accursed Sabatea." 
    • The tricky thing is that Thoth-Amon is never referred to as being of the Black Ring in that story. It does frequently refer to him as "Thoth-Amon of the Ring," but that more likely refers to the Serpent Ring of Set (like a physical jewelry ring, not a "ring" of sorcerers) from that story.
    • Another quote seems to suggest the same thing: "'Crom!' he muttered. 'The black hand of Set!' He had seen that mark of old, the death-mark of the black priests of Set, the grim cult that ruled in dark Stygia."
  • Conan seems to have been king of Aquilonia for at least a few years. Zenobia tells him: "And I have loved you, King Conan, ever since I saw you riding at the head of your knights along the streets of Belverus when you visited King Nimed, years ago."
    • Additionally, we get this line suggesting a few years on the throne: "Conan's volcanic temper, never long at best, burst into explosion. Not in years, even before he was king, had a man spoken to him thus and lived."
    • Likewise, "Valerius is now the rightful heir of the throne. He had been driven into exile by his royal kinsman, Namedides, and has been away from his native realm for years."
    • If we look back to "The Scarlet Citadel" for a comparison, when Pelias is awakened by Conan, he asks what has happened to King Numedides (the spelling has changed) and realizes that he's been trapped for ten years. So "Scarlet Citadel" definitely happens within the first ten years of Conan's kingship.
  • It is possible that Howard intended the cities of Tamar and Tarantia to be different cities. Some people have suggested over the years that it's not that he changed the name of the capital from Tamar to Tarantia like he sometimes changed names like "Numedides" to "Namedides" but that Conan actually had the capital of Aquilonia moved to a new city. If that was the case, it would push The Hour of the Dragon to a more certain last place. I think it's more likely that he just changed the name of the capital city.
  • Finally, there is the question of Zenobia, who Conan vows to make queen of Aquilonia in the final line of the story: "She was a slave in Nemedia, but I will make her queen of Aquilonia!" It is possible that Zenobia never made it back to Aquilonia or died between stories, so it's not a sure chronological marker that she's never mentioned in any other King Conan story. However, seeing as she was a literal king's ransom and Conan appears to win The Hour of the Dragon's conflict so decisively, I think it's most likely that she got to Aquilonia safe and sound where she did indeed become Conan's wife.
Ultimately, there isn't a dead giveaway about this story's temporal relationship to the other two King Conan stories. Instead, we're going to have to go off vibes. Within "The Phoenix on the Sword," Conan's kingship seems relatively new. Having not adjusted to their new king, the people of Aquilonia are missing the old king and his power is tenuous. Within "The Scarlet Citadel," Conan's powers seem much more settled within the Hyborian kingdoms. He seems much more well-adjusted to the position and he is challenged only by invading armies, and we get quotes like this: "Today no Aquilonian noble dares maltreat the humblest of my subjects, and the taxes of the people are lighter than anywhere else in the world."

Seeing as Conan seems to wield the full power of his kingdom and even seems to be the equivalent of a Hyborian Age superpower, I'm going to have to settle on the idea that The Hour of the Dragon is the last story. It seems most likely to me that Conan does bring Zenobia back and continues his powerful reign with her at his side. It's an all-around happy ending.

Here's our updated chronology.

1. The Tower of the Elephant
2. Rogues in the House
3. Queen of the Black Coast
4. Xuthal of the Dusk
5. Iron Shadows in the Moon
6. The Devil in Iron
7. The People of the Black Circle
8. A Witch Shall Be Born
9. The Man-Eaters of Zamboula
10. Black Colossus
11. The Pool of the Black One
12. The Servants of Bit-Yakin
13. Beyond the Black River
14. The Phoenix on the Sword
15. The Scarlet Citadel
16. The Hour of the Dragon

0 Comments

Chronologically Speaking, Part Fourteen: "The Man-Eaters of Zamboula"

4/10/2026

0 Comments

 
Chronologically Speaking is a series focused solely on placing the Conan of Cimmeria stories in timeline order. It's an analysis of only the text of Robert E. Howard's original Conan tales. I'm examining the stories one at a time, in publication order, to show explicit chronological notes to order the stories.
Picture
"The Man-Eaters of Zamboula," published under the revised title "Shadows in Zamboula" in the November 1935 issue of Weird Tales, was the third-to-last Conan story that would see publication during Robert E. Howard's lifetime. In-between "Beyond the Black River" and "The Man-Eaters of Zamboula," he'd penned "The Black Stranger," but the public wouldn't see that story for some time, and not until L. Sprague de Camp had heavily edited it and re-titled it "The Treasure of Tranicos."

By mid-1935, Howard was noticeably tiring of Conan the Cimmerian. He said so in letters and to friends, and he in particular grew resentful of the fact that WT editor Farnsworth Wright owed him about $860 (multiple thousands of dollars in today's cash) because the magazine had had financial troubles. He was ready to move on. But letter-writers in "The Eyrie" liked the story, and it did grace the cover of the November issue.
Picture
There are not a ton of chronological clues in this story, but there are enough that you can place in pretty firmly on one side of "A Witch Shall Be Born:"
  • Conan has recently been with the Zuagir raiders, which were introduced to us in "A Witch Shall Be Born," and he's been with them for some time: "You have dwelt for many moons in the tents of the Zuagirs, and you are our brother! Go not to the house of Aram Baksh!"
  • Conan has been with the Zuagirs long enough to absorb some of their culture and folk tales: "All the tales he had heard in the Zuagir tents of devils and goblins came back to bead his flesh with clammy sweat. Now the monster slid noiselessly into the room, with a crouching posture and a shambling gait; and a familiar scent assailed the Cimmerian's nostrils, but did not reassure him, since Zuagir legendry represented demons as smelling like that."
  • Conan has been in Zamboula for a week: "He had ridden into Zamboula from the desert a week before."
  • This appears to be the only appearance of the golden lotus, apparent revitalizing cousin of the black lotus: "He drew a phial from among his robes. 'This contains the juice of the golden lotus. If your lover drank it he would be sane again.'"
  • Conan rides out of Zamboula westward, appearing to leave the Zuagirs behind: "The noise followed Conan as he rode westward beneath the paling stars."
Because Conan is in the deserts between Shem and Turan and is familiar with the Zuagirs, this story seems to need to take place either right before "A Witch Shall Be Born," or right after it. Since Conan begins the story with the group but seems to be leaving them behind without word at the end, it makes more sense to me to place it afterword.

This brings our updated chronology to this:

​1. The Tower of the Elephant
2. Rogues in the House
3. Queen of the Black Coast
4. Xuthal of the Dusk
5. Iron Shadows in the Moon
6. The Devil in Iron
7. The People of the Black Circle
8. A Witch Shall Be Born
9. The Man-Eaters of Zamboula
10. Black Colossus
11. The Pool of the Black One
12. The Servants of Bit-Yakin
13. Beyond the Black River
14. The Phoenix on the Sword
15. The Scarlet Citadel

0 Comments

Chronologically Speaking, Part Thirteen: "Beyond the Black River"

3/19/2026

0 Comments

 
Chronologically Speaking is a series focused solely on placing the Conan of Cimmeria stories in timeline order. It's an analysis of only the text of Robert E. Howard's original Conan tales. I'm examining the stories one at a time, in publication order, to show explicit chronological notes to order the stories.
After the April 1935 issue of Weird Tales went to print with no Howard stories included (though it did have an Otis Kline and a Clark Ashton Smith), Robert E. Howard's most popular character came back in the May and June issues with one of his best stories ever. "Beyond the Black River" was serialized over those two early-summer editions.

Willard Oliver says in his biography Robert E. Howard: The Life and Times of a Texas Author that Howard told Novalyne Price around this time that he tries to bang out an adventure story or a western every now and then, but "mostly" goes along with Conan. "Beyond the Black River" is firmly Howard's most western Conan story; much has already been written about that.
Picture
The chronological clues in this story firmly place it toward the end of Conan's wanderings and even foreshadow his king stories pretty hard, which would pick up very soon after this one:
  • ​Conan tells Balthus of the siege of Venarium in the very beginning of the story. The way they talk about it makes it sound like it happened at least ten or fifteen years ago: "'My uncle was at Venarium when the Cimmerians swarmed over the walls. He was one of the few who escaped that slaughter. I've heard him tell the tale, many a time. The barbarians swept out of the hills in a ravening horde, without warning, and stormed Venarium with such fury none could stand before them. Men, women and children were butchered. Venarium was reduced to a mass of charred ruins, as it is to this day. The Aquilonians were driven back across the marches, and have never since tried to colonize the Cimmerian country. But you speak of Venarium familiarly. Perhaps you were there?' 'I was,' grunted the other. 'I was one of the horde that swarmed over the hills. I hadn't yet seen fifteen snows, but already my name was repeated about the council fires.'"
  • Conan states that he has been to the mountains beyond the Vilayet Sea and implies that he has been south to Kush, indicating wide travels in his past and also putting this firmly after his Turanian mercenary days and Black Coast pirate days: "'I saw it carved in the rock of a cave no human had visited for a million years,' muttered Conan, 'in the uninhabited mountains beyond the Sea of Vilayet, half a world away from this spot. Later I saw a black witch-finder of Kush scratch it in the sand of a nameless river."
But really, all you need are the two following quotes which Conan says toward the end of the narrative:
  • Conan has already been a Barachan pirate, which we already know takes place later on in the timeline: "And the coast is dangerous to ships. I've sailed along it when I was with the pirates of the Barachan Isles, which lie southwest of Zingara."
  • Conan describes in detail his extensive travels and experiences: "'I've roamed far; farther than any other man of my race ever wandered. I've seen all the great cities of the Hyborians, the Shemites, the Stygians and the Hyrkanians. I've roamed in the unknown countries south of the black kingdoms of Kush, and east of the Sea of Vilayet. I've been a mercenary captain, a corsair, a kozak, a penniless vagabond, a general—hell, I've been everything except a king, and I may be that, before I die.'"
    • So "Beyond the Black River" is clearly after his pirate periods in "Queen of the Black Coast" and "The Pool of the Black One." I'm noticing we haven't seen much of the Red Brotherhood yet.
    • It's after his mercenary captain periods in "Xuthal of the Dusk" and "A Witch Shall Be Born."
    • It's after his kozak experiences in "Iron Shadows in the Moon," "The Devil in Iron," and "The People of the Black Circle."
    • It's after his penniless vagabond days as a thief in "The Tower of the Elephant" and "Rogues in the House."
    • It's after his general experiences in "Black Colossus" and "The Servants of Bit-Yakin."
    • And of course, his kingship is coming soon.
Even without those incredibly explicit chronological markers, the character of Conan in this story is cool, controlled, and mature, much more like King Conan than thief Conan.

Here's our updated chronology as we reach the final stories that would be published within Robert E. Howard's lifetime:

​1. The Tower of the Elephant
2. Rogues in the House
3. Queen of the Black Coast
4. Xuthal of the Dusk
5. Iron Shadows in the Moon
6. The Devil in Iron
7. The People of the Black Circle
8. A Witch Shall Be Born
9. Black Colossus
10. The Pool of the Black One
11. The Servants of Bit-Yakin
12. Beyond the Black River
13. The Phoenix on the Sword
14. The Scarlet Citadel

0 Comments

Chronologically Speaking, Part Twelve: "The Servants of Bit-Yakin"

3/4/2026

0 Comments

 
Chronologically Speaking is a series focused solely on placing the Conan of Cimmeria stories in timeline order. It's an analysis of only the text of Robert E. Howard's original Conan tales. I'm examining the stories one at a time, in publication order, to show explicit chronological notes to order the stories.
Picture
"The Servants of Bit-Yakin," also known as "Jewels of Gwahlur," was the thirteenth Conan of Cimmeria story to be published. First seeing print in the March 1935 issue of Weird Tales, there had been a three-month gap between "A Witch Shall Be Born" and this one. In preceding months, Howard had a Conan story, or at least part of one, published in August, September, October, November, and December of 1934. He'd recently been experimenting with new characters and different genres, like El Borak and Kirby O'Donnell, so it seems like he was probably a little burnt out on the Cimmerian again. He might have come back to the Hyborian Age for "The Servants of Bit-Yakin" since it was easily his best-selling series and characters like El Borak and O'Donnell hadn't been as reliable.

Because Robert E. Howard's original title for this story was "The Servants of Bit-Yakin," that's the one I'm going to use to refer to it throughout this post, but it's much better-known under it's published title of "Jewels of Gwahlur." Both titles present interesting opportunities to put your own spin on the pronunciation and I've heard many variations in how to say both "Bit-Yakin" ("Bit-YAY-kin?" "Bit-Yah-keen?") and "Gwahlur" (Rhymes with "squalor?" Rhymes with "allure?")
Picture
Sword & sorcery author Fritz Leiber wasn't a huge fan of this one, rating it as one of the three worst Conan stories. I would rate it a little higher; the adventure is a good time. I would agree that the prose suffers, though. Weirdly enough, there's one point where Conan balks at the character Muriela by saying "Goddess! Ha!" or "Goddess! Bah!" It comes across as repetitive in a useless way, like he didn't know what else to have Conan say or he didn't realized he'd had Conan say almost the same thing three times in a row. It's kind of grating, not poetic.

While the writing probably isn't Two-Gun Bob's best, it's a pretty fun story that's easy to place in the timeline. It has lots of chronological markers!
  • Conan is described as having already been to the Black Coast and the Baracha Isles, placing this story firmly after both of those pirate periods: "Conan the Cimmerian, late of the Baracha Isles, of the Black Coast, and of many other climes where life ran wild, had come to the kingdom of Keshan following the lure of a fabled treasure that outshone the hoard of the Turanian kings." 
    • That means this story is definitely after "Queen of the Black Coast" and "Pool of the Black One."
  • In fact, Conan's fame as Amra the Lion has preceded him into these southern kingdoms in which the story takes place: "Conan's fame had preceded him, even into distant Keshan; his exploits as a chief of the black corsairs, those wolves of the southern coasts, had made his name known, admired and feared throughout the black kingdoms."
  • Not only is Conan famed as a pirate, but he also clearly has military leadership experience and is known for that as well: "His reckless ferocity impressed the lords of Keshan, already aware of his reputation as a leader of men, and the prospects seemed favorable." This places the story likely after "Black Colossus" as well.
  • It is said that Conan knows Thutmekri "of old," but he's not a character we've seen before. I wonder how the two met seeing as they do not like each other.
  • Conan is clearly on par with master thieves. In many instances, he is silent and completely unseen when he wants to be: "Conan became stealth personified. A velvet-footed shadow, he melted into the thickets." This places the story well after his thieving days when he usually gets caught.
  • Conan has obviously been to Asgalun, Shem at least once: "The art was unmistakably Pelishti; he had seen frescoes of identical characteristics on the walls of Asgalun." It seems Howard has changed the name since he referred to it as "Askalon" in "Queen of the Black Coast."
  • But really, it's characterization that clearly places this story late along Conan's life into his thirties at least. This Conan of "Bit-Yakin" is shrewd, intelligent, well-spoken, discerning, and extremely good with languages: "Many a sheltered scholar would have been astonished at the Cimmerian's linguistic abilities, for he had experienced many adventures where knowledge of a strange language had meant the difference between life and death." This Conan is far more like the King Conan we see in "The Phoenix on the Sword" than any part in the timeline before it.
It's the characterization that really dominates where this story belongs. Even without saying Conan has already lived through his Barachan pirate days, this is a much older, wiser, worldly Conan.

"The Servants of Bit-Yakin" is without a doubt a lesser Conan story for me, but it's still a pretty fun one. I love the opening during which Conan is doing a death-defying climb. The whole setting is one I want to delve much deeper into. His interplay with Muriela is endearing. The scene where he finds Zargheba's decapitated head staring at him is a certified chiller. And there's just enough magic and politicking to add a few more layers to it. Its prose isn't always top-notch and leans more heavily on Howard's racism than some other stories, but it's far from one that should be discounted.

This updates our chronology to the following:

1. The Tower of the Elephant
2. Rogues in the House
3. Queen of the Black Coast
4. Xuthal of the Dusk
5. Iron Shadows in the Moon
6. The Devil in Iron
7. The People of the Black Circle
8. A Witch Shall Be Born
9. Black Colossus
10. The Pool of the Black One
11. The Servants of Bit-Yakin
12. The Phoenix on the Sword
13. The Scarlet Citadel

0 Comments

Chronologically Speaking, Part Eleven: "A Witch Shall Be Born"

1/19/2026

0 Comments

 
Chronologically Speaking is a series focused solely on placing the Conan of Cimmeria stories in timeline order. It's an analysis of only the text of Robert E. Howard's original Conan tales. I'm examining the stories one at a time, in publication order, to show explicit chronological notes to order the stories.
Picture
"A Witch Shall Be Born" is the twelfth Conan story published in Weird Tales, making the page in the December 1934 issue. Release only one month after the conclusion of "The People of the Black Circle," this story is rather unique in REH's canon. Narratively, it has one of the most unique structures, being interrupted by an epistle from a Nemedian scholar about halfway through. This fills in some of the story from a 30,000-foot view and, in my opinion, annihilates the pacing. Additionally, it's one of the stories in which Conan is mostly a secondary character. "Witch" is instead the story of Taramis and Salome: identical twin sisters. It also features one of the most depicted Conan scenes of all time- his crucifixion- that even made it into the 1982 movie.

This story is a bit of a disappointment to read after the soaring highs of "People of the Black Circle," but, as I've found often writing this column, doesn't mean that it's any less interesting to mine it for chronological markers.
Picture
  • The story takes place over the course of about seven months: "Seven months have passed since then, during which time it seems as though the devil himself had been loosed in this unfortunate realm. Taramis seems to have gone quite mad."
  • Conan has evidently become captain of the guard in Khauran: "But when the palace guard was ordered to disarm likewise and disband, the captain of the guard, Conan, interrupted." 
    • This hints at a slightly later placement in the timeline. Conan does command various military and paramilitary units over the course of his life, but many of them appear in the second half of his life.
  • Conan recognizes Olgerd Vladislav as a hetman of the kozaki along the Zaporoskan River, which is east of Khauran and south of the Vilayet Sea, near where Conan spent time in "The Devil in Iron" and "Iron Shadows in the Moon." This implies that "A Witch Shall Be Born" takes place after those eastern-set stories: "'If I could come down from this beam I'd make a dying dog out of you, you Zaporoskan thief!' he rasped through blackened lips. 'Mitra, the knave knows me!' exclaimed the other. 'How, knave, do you know me?' 'There's only one of your breed in these parts,' muttered Conan. 'You are Olgerd Vladislav, the outlaw chief.' 'Aye! and once a hetman of the kozaki of the Zaporoskan River, as you have guessed.'"
  • This is the story that introduces us to the Zuagir raiders: "The mercenaries of Constantius are men from the Shemitish cities of the west, Pelishtim, Anakim, Akkharim, and are ardently hated by the Zuagirs and other wandering tribes."
    • On a side note, how do you pronounce the word "Zuagir?" I've kind of settled on "zwah-GEAR," but I'm never quite sure.
  • Like several other stories, Conan is wearing a broad gold belt buckle: "He was clad in black mesh-mail, and the only glitter about him was the broad gold buckle of the belt which supported his sword in its worn leather scabbard." He also wears lots of black in this story.
  • Conan displays some of the tactician mindset that we see in later stories, further pushing this story later in his life. The Conan of "A Witch Shall Be Born" is more similar to the Conan of "Black Colossus" or "The Phoenix on the Sword" than that of "Queen of the Black Coast" or "Rogues in the House." Notably, he has more control over his men than he did in "The People of the Black Circle." They even follow Conan when he deposes Vladislav.
  • Conan ends the story as chief of the Zuagirs and decides to stay with them to harry the Turanian borders: "No, lass, that's over with. I'm chief of the Zuagirs now, and must lead them to plunder the Turanians, as I promised. This lad, Valerius, will make you a better captain than I. I wasn't made to dwell among marble walls, anyway."
Because of everything listed above, I'm inclined to believe that this story takes place in the second half of Conan's life, after his other eastern adventures in "Iron Shadows in the Moon," "The Devil in Iron," and "The People of the Black Circle." He's worked his way a little bit back westward by the end of this one.

I recognize that this is much, much later than some of the other popular chronologies, especially the Miller / Clark one. 

This leaves our updated chronology here:

1. The Tower of the Elephant
2. Rogues in the House
3. Queen of the Black Coast
4. Xuthal of the Dusk
5. Iron Shadows in the Moon
6. The Devil in Iron
7. The People of the Black Circle
8. A Witch Shall Be Born
9. Black Colossus
10. The Pool of the Black One
11. The Phoenix on the Sword
12. The Scarlet Citadel

0 Comments

Chronologically Speaking, Part Ten: "The People of the Black Circle"

12/22/2025

0 Comments

 
Chronologically Speaking is a series focused solely on placing the Conan of Cimmeria stories in timeline order. It's an analysis of only the text of Robert E. Howard's original Conan tales. I'm examining the stories one at a time, in publication order, to show explicit chronological notes to order the stories.
Picture
Robert E. Howard had his eyes set on the novel form when he published "The People of the Black Circle." Around the time he began working on an attempt at Almuric and The Hour of the Dragon, he wrote what would become the longest Conan story to date, at about 31,000 words which earned him $250 (about six grand in today's dollars). "The People of the Black Circle" was written in January and February 1934 and since Weird Tales editor Farnsworth Wright liked it so much, it was published quickly, appearing in the serial in the September, October, and November '34 issues of WT.

"Black Circle" is one of Howard's absolute best, and is rather unique in how it places itself in chronology. There are few references to other stories outside of when Conan literally tells other characters about his life.
  • Conan's characterization when he meets with Chunder Shan in the beginning is very cool, controlled, and confident. He seems very practiced. It hews much closer to the Conan we see in "The Pool of the Black One" than earlier stories.
  • Conan has become a leader- a hetmen of the Afghuli hillmen. However, he's not so engrained that they won't turn on him. "They don't love you—or any other outlander—but you saved my life once, and I will not forget." He's clearly become very skilled in his leadership qualities (and his obvious strength doesn't hurt either).
  • Conan drops a reference to his days in Zamora: "I've seen the priests of Zamora perform their abominable rituals in their forbidden temples, and their victims had a stare like that man. The priests looked into their eyes and muttered incantations, and then the people became the walking dead men, with glassy eyes, doing as they were ordered." It was already clear that this was long after his thieving days.
  • Conan has likely been to Yezud, in Zamora, and come across the spider cult there: "It was like a big black jade bead, such as the temple girls of Yezud wear when they dance before the black stone spider which is their god. Yar Afzal held it in his hand, and he didn't pick up anything else. Yet when he fell dead, a spider, like the god at Yezud, only smaller, ran out of his fingers."
    • The spider cult of Zath is never explored in the Howard stories, but is shown in the novel Conan and the Spider God and referenced in Spawn of the Serpent God.
  • Interestingly, this story is the only time Conan is given the moniker "Conan of Ghor:" "How that one man escaped, I do not know, nor did he; but I knew from his maunderings that Conan of Ghor had been in Khurum with his royal captive." He's referred to by this name twice in the narrative.
Picture
Toward the end of the story, the real chronological markers begin to show up as Conan begins mentioning previous life periods.
  • "Black Circle" must come after his days with the Free Companions shown or referenced in "Iron Shadows in the Moon" and "The Devil in Iron:" "There is a chief of the Khurakzai who will keep you safely while I bicker with the Afghulis. If they will have none of me, by Crom! I will ride northward with you to the steppes of the kozaki. I was a hetman among the Free Companions before I rode southward. I'll make you a queen on the Zaporoska River!"
    • That line about being a hetman among the Free Companions before he rode southward is the most telling aspect of this speech. This seems to place the three most eastern stories together in the timeline. Conan likely heads east to the Vilayet Sea where he experiences the events of "Iron Shadows in the Moon," then "The Devil in Iron," and afterward rides south to Vendhya where he ingratiates himself to the Afghulis in this story.
  • At the very end of the story, Conan lists to Yasmina Devi many of the things he has done in his life: "Listen: I was born in the Cimmerian hills where the people are all barbarians. I have been a mercenary soldier, a corsair, a kozak, and a hundred other things. What king has roamed the countries, fought the battles, loved the women, and won the plunder that I have?" There's a lot going on in this paragraph!
    • We've seen Conan be a mercenary soldier in "Xuthal of the Dusk" and "Black Colossus."
    • We've seen him be a corsair in "Queen of the Black Coast" and we'll see him be one again in "The Pool of the Black One."
    • We've seen his kozak days in "The Devil in Iron" and "Iron Shadows in the Moon," likely immediately preceding this narrative.
    • Conan's "hundred other things" is fun to speculate about. I suppose it would need to encompass his thief days and his early wanderings with the Aesir too. But we haven't actually gotten to that story yet. It leaves the door open for a lot of options.
    • Conan has "roamed the countries" of at least Cimmeria, Zamora, Nemedia, Argos, Kush, Stygia, Turan, Hyrkania, Shem, Afghulistan, and Vendhya.
    • He's "fought the battles" which are too numerous to count.
    • He's "loved the women:" Bêlit, for sure. Is he including Natala? Thalis? Probably Olivia.
    • Funnily enough, most of the plunder Conan wins must be off the page. Most of the time, the treasure he's jonesing for in each story either ends up out of reach. He very frequently ends stories empty-handed, fleeing with just his life.
    • Conan makes an off-hand comment about how kings haven't lived the life he has, so it must be prior to his kingship.
Based on the other aspects of this chronology, grouping the eastern stories together, I think it makes the most sense to place "The People of the Black Circle" before Conan journeys back westward to become a captain of spearmen in "Black Colossus." This solves the "mad dash" issue and is internally consistent with Conan's "riding southward" line.

I find it interesting that "Black Colossus" is so much further back now than many other chronologies place it. I'm not against it, I just didn't really expect it.

Here's the updated chronology:

1. The Tower of the Elephant
2. Rogues in the House
3. Queen of the Black Coast
4. Xuthal of the Dusk
5. Iron Shadows in the Moon
6. The Devil in Iron
7. The People of the Black Circle
8. Black Colossus
9. The Pool of the Black One
10.  The Phoenix on the Sword
11. The Scarlet Citadel

0 Comments

Chronologically Speaking, Part Nine: "The Devil in Iron"

12/8/2025

2 Comments

 
Chronologically Speaking is a series focused solely on placing the Conan of Cimmeria stories in timeline order. It's an analysis of only the text of Robert E. Howard's original Conan tales. I'm examining the stories one at a time, in publication order, to show explicit chronological notes to order the stories.
Picture
When Robert E. Howard sat down to write "The Devil in Iron," the tenth Conan story to reach publication, it was after a period of nine months during which he didn't write anything for his sword-and-sorcery series character. He had been experiencing bouts of burnout, taking a few months between Conan stories and trying out different genres. He did the same thing right before "Queen of the Black Coast." Perhaps this long gap is why this story is so devoid of other connections to the Hyborian world.

"The Devil in Iron" was published in the August 1934 issue of Weird Tales and followed a very similar plot to the previous story Howard had written, "Iron Shadows in the Moon." Both feature islands in the Vilayet Sea, pirates, iron golem enemies, and fairly forgettable one-off companions. "Devil in Iron" was voted the best story of the issue despite how it re-tread earlier subjects and earned Howard $115.
Picture
There is very little mooring this to one single place in Conan's life.
  • Conan is a new chief to the kozaks: "'That is because of the new chief who has risen among them,' answered Ghaznavi. 'You know whom I mean.' 'Aye!' replied Jehungir feelingly. 'It is that devil Conan; he is even wilder than the kozaks, yet he is crafty as a mountain lion.'
    • As a side note, I wondered in my Chronologically Speaking entry about "Iron Shadows in the Moon," why Conan bristles at the term "kozak." Seeing as this story tells us it means "wastrel," I get the sense that it's sort of a slur.
    • Conan evidently met the kozaks with nothing but the clothes on his back and quickly rose through the ranks: "This was Conan, who had wandered into the armed camps of the kozaks with no other possession than his wits and his sword, and who had carved his way to leadership among them."
  • Conan refers to the black lotus of Xuthal, which places this story after "Xuthal of the Dusk:" "Her sleep was too deep to be natural. He decided that she must be an addict of some drug, perhaps like the black lotus of Xuthal." This line has vexed many previous chronologizers, because the general consensus seems to be that Conan should be a little older in "Xuthal," but since I've placed it early, this isn't a problem for me right now.
  • Has Conan seen a copy of the Book of Skelos? This story seems to imply that he has: "Conan had seen rude images of them, in miniature, among the idol huts of the Yuetshi, and there was a description of them in the Book of Skelos, which drew on prehistoric sources." But where would he have seen a Book of Skelos? The copies seem to be exclusively in the hands of powerful wizards, who Conan is famously not a fan of. Or is this a strangely-worded sentence that just means that there are pictures in the Book of Skelos of the snake creatures he's looking at?
  • Conan evidently understands Nemedian: "There was no door in that wall, but he leaned close and heard distinctly. And an icy chill crawled slowly along his spine. The tongue was Nemedian, but the voice was not human." This makes sense based on the placement of "Rogues in the House" well before this.
Here's the really tricky question about placing this story: Are the Free Companions / kozaks essentially the same group as the pirates of the Red Brotherhood? Consider this line about the kozaks.
Ceaselessly they raided the Turanian frontier, retiring in the steppes when defeated; with the pirates of Vilayet, men of much the same breed, they harried the coast, preying off the merchant ships which plied between the Hyrkanian ports.
If the barriers between the kozaks and the pirates are permeable, which this line seems to imply they are, then when we see Conan "carving" out leadership in the group, perhaps this is the same event we see at the end of "Iron Shadows in the Moon," when Conan meets the Red Brotherhood and immediately starts rising in the ranks. In the previous stories in which Conan is a mercenary, he's apparently just of the rank-and-file members, not in leadership, so those stories would go before this.

Some fellow Conan chronology nerds like Dale Rippke have hypothesized that Conan is younger in "Iron Shadows" because of how he approaches the Red Brotherhood (they would argue he does so naively), but that's not an impression I agree with.

Other timelines place this story chronologically right before "The People of the Black Circle," in which Conan is the hetman of the Afghuli hillpeople. That's possible, but I'm inclined right now to place it right after "Iron Shadows in the Moon." That way, he isn't traipsing back all over the world and spends some time on the Vilayet before going anywhere else. I'm not opposed to changing its placement if that makes more sense in the future, but right now, I think it works best immediately after its twin "iron" story.

Our full chronology is now:

1. The Tower of the Elephant
2. Rogues in the House
3. Queen of the Black Coast
4. Xuthal of the Dusk
5. Iron Shadows in the Moon
6. The Devil in Iron
7. Black Colossus
8. The Pool of the Black One
9.  The Phoenix on the Sword
10. The Scarlet Citadel

2 Comments

Chronologically Speaking, Part Eight: "Queen of the Black Coast"

12/1/2025

0 Comments

 
Chronologically Speaking is a series focused solely on chronologizing the Conan of Cimmeria stories. It's an analysis of only the text of Robert E. Howard's original Conan tales. I'm examining the stories one at a time, in publication order, to show explicit chronological notes to order the stories.
Picture
Appearing in Weird Tales in May 1934, "Queen of the Black Coast" is the ninth Conan of Cimmeria story published and appeared just one month after "Iron Shadows in the Moon." In the last four stories published, three of them are pirate stories, and this is the third time in nine that Howard's made use of the black lotus powder as a plot device. However, these are more quirks of publishing rather than a throughline in Howard's writing. "Queen of the Black Coast" had been written and set to Farnsworth Wright at Weird Tales by August 1932, but wouldn't be published for almost another two years. Howard was paid $115 for it.

There are lots of interesting chronological markers in this story!
  • Conan begins the story having been a mercenary, but one out of work for a time: "I came into Argos seeking employment, but with no wars forward, there was nothing to which I might turn my hand." He begins the story in Argos, probably in the port city of Messantia.
  • Conan's clothing suggests that his mercenary work has taken him to several different places: "He saw a tall powerfully built figure in a black scale-mail hauberk, burnished greaves and a blue-steel helmet from which jutted bull's horns highly polished. From the mailed shoulders fell the scarlet cloak, blowing in the sea-wind. A broad shagreen belt with a golden buckle held the scabbard of the broadsword he bore. Under the horned helmet a square-cut black mane contrasted with smoldering blue eyes."
    • The scarlet cloak mentioned here is somewhat of a point of contention for Conan scholars since he wears a scarlet cloak four times: in "Black Colossus," "The Snout in the Dark," "Queen of the Black Coast," and the Yaralet fragment. Is it the same cloak? I'm inclined to say no.
  • Conan is explicitly said to be "young in years," but seems to be well-traveled. Conan's clothing matches some of the places he's probably been so far: "Young in years, he was hardened in warfare and wandering, and his sojourns in many lands were evident in his apparel. His horned helmet was such as was worn by the golden-haired Aesir of Nordheim; his hauberk and greaves were of the finest workmanship of Koth; the fine ring-mail which sheathed his arms and legs was of Nemedia; the blade at his girdle was a great Aquilonian broadsword; and his gorgeous scarlet cloak could have been spun nowhere but in Ophir."
    • His horned helmet from Nordheim may have been acquired around the events of "The Frost-Giant's Daughter," if we allow ourselves to look quite a bit ahead in the publication order.
    • His hauberk and greaves are from Koth, which Conan visits in several stories, possibly placing this one after "Xuthal of the Dusk."
    • His ring-mail is from Nemedia, which he visits in "Rogues in the House."
    • His blade is Aquilonian, which he hasn't been to yet in publication order, but is right near Argos on the Hyborian Age map.
    • The cloak is from Ophir, which Conan has not explicitly visited yet.
  • Conan says that he has spent "considerable time" among civilized people: "By Crom, though I've spent considerable time among you civilized peoples, your ways are still beyond my comprehension." How much is considerable time? I'm not sure... a few years?
  • Conan says that he learned archery from the Hyrkanians, placing his Turanian mercenary period (Turanians are ethnically Hyrkanians) prior to "Queen of the Black Coast:" "It's not my idea of a manly weapon, but I learned archery among the Hyrkanians, and it will go hard if I can't feather a man or so on yonder deck."
  • Conan has familiarity with many gods, specifically Bel, which he clearly states he learned of during his thieving days in Zamora. "Some gods are strong to harm, others, to aid; at least so say their priests. Mitra of the Hyborians must be a strong god, because his people have builded their cities over the world. But even the Hyborians fear Set. And Bel, god of thieves, is a good god. When I was a thief in Zamora I learned of him."
  • Conan seems to know Nemedia and Nordheim intimately, which is further evidence that "Rogues in the House" and "The Frost-Giant's Daughter" should take place before this story: "I have known many gods. He who denies them is as blind as he who trusts them too deeply. I seek not beyond death. It may be the blackness averred by the Nemedian skeptics, or Crom's realm of ice and cloud, or the snowy plains and vaulted halls of the Nordheimer's Valhalla."
  • Conan recognizes the black lotus, but only as Taurus of Nemedia used it in "The Tower of the Elephant." This places "Xuthal of the Dusk" likely later: "He recoiled, recognizing the black lotus, whose juice was death, and whose scent brought dream-haunted slumber."
  • This final chronological note is not about "Queen of the Black Coast's" relation to other stories, but to itself. How much time passes between chapters one and two? Chapter two includes this passage: "Conan agreed. He generally agreed to her plans. Hers was the mind that directed their raids, his the arm that carried out her ideas. It mattered little to him where they sailed or whom they fought, so long as they sailed and fought. He found the life good." This implies that Conan and Bêlit have settled into a relationship and a rapport. She is the mastermind, he is the muscle. Since this states that they have apparently conducted multiple raids, sailed multiple places, and fought multiple people, how much time has Conan been first mate aboard the Tigress? A few weeks? A few months? If Conan has settled into pirate life, I'd guess their sojourn lasts a few months.
So what do we know for sure?
  • This story must take place after his thieving days. The places it firmly after "Rogues" and "Tower."
  • This story takes place after he is a mercenary for Turan, where he learned archery.
What events are probable, but not 100% clear?
  • Conan has been to Nordheim and Nemedia.
  • Conan doesn't seem to have ever been a pirate before.
  • Conan probably hasn't come across the "Xuthal" version of the black lotus.
What is possible?
  • Conan has been to Aquilonia, to get his sword.
  • Conan has been to Koth, to get his armor.
  • Conan has been to Ophir, to get his cloak.
Here's the thing: I don't think we should give that much weight to his clothing. Argos is a city that is usually portrayed as a hub of commerce. The mercenary bands which Conan has been with are universally described as extremely diverse, motley crews. I find it far more likely that he's simply bought these clothes or picked items off dead bodies on the battlefield. In later stories, he's frequently clad in just a loincloth, which means that he's probably rapidly gaining and losing articles of clothing anyway. 

Therefore, we should focus on Conan's characterization and other clues. He's after his thieving days, during his mercenary days, but probably before "Xuthal of the Dusk." Additionally, if we look back to "Iron Shadows in the Moon," Conan smiles enigmatically about pirates and makes a crack at the end by calling Olivia "the Queen of the Blue Sea," which might be a reference to his time with Bêlit. So this story is probably set before "Iron Shadows" as well.

All of the above would place "Queen of the Black Coast" early, but not first. Here is the updated timeline:

1. The Tower of the Elephant
2. Rogues in the House
3. Queen of the Black Coast
4. Xuthal of the Dusk
5. Iron Shadows in the Moon
6. Black Colossus
7. The Pool of the Black One
8.  The Phoenix on the Sword
9. The Scarlet Citadel

0 Comments

Chronologically Speaking, Part Seven: "Iron Shadows in the Moon"

11/22/2025

1 Comment

 
Chronologically Speaking is a series focused solely on chronologizing the Conan of Cimmeria stories. It's an analysis of only the text of Robert E. Howard's original Conan tales. I'm examining the stories one at a time, in publication order, to show explicit chronological notes to order the stories.
Picture
"Iron Shadows in the Moon" was published as "Shadows in the Moonlight" in Weird Tales' April 1934 issue. Published three months after "Rogues in the House" and just one month prior to "Queen of the Black Coast," I'm realizing the Robert E. Howard was in a bit of a pirate phase. "Pool of the Black One," "Iron Shadows," and "Black Coast" are all samplings of Conan's different pirate periods (Barachan, Red Brotherhood, and Black Coast, presented ironically in reverse-chronological order), and I've never realized they were all published pretty close to one another.

This is far from my favorite Conan story, but it's pretty brief and has some interesting chronological clues in it which are more fun to deal with than the times he straight-up says he's been somewhere or done something.

​It's actually really fun to try to place!
Picture
  • Conan has recently been with the kozaks, or kozaki, the loose mercenary group. "'I am Conan, of Cimmeria," he grunted. 'I was with the kozaki, as the Hyrkanian dogs called us.'"
    • This is the first time the kozaks have been mentioned in the eight stories we've read for this project. 
    • Conan is pretty much done in his travels with the kozaki because every time he mentions them, he does so in past tense. For example, "I was one of those dissolute rogues, the Free Companions, who burned and looted along the borders. There were five thousand of us, from a score of races and tribes." It sounds like all the rest of them were killed in battle.
    • Conan refers to the group as the "Free Companions," not as the kozaki. He seems to bristle at the term kozaki.
    • As a Free Companion / kozak, Conan was employed by a "rebel prince of Koth." Although this story is obviously set before his kingship, it's worth noting that it's also obviously set before "The Scarlet Citadel," since Koth is his enemy in that story. His time with the Free Companions took him to Koth, Zamora, and Turan. "We had been serving as mercenaries for a rebel prince in eastern Koth, most of us, and when he made peace with his cursed sovereign, we were out of employment; so we took to plundering the outlying dominions of Koth, Zamora and Turan impartially."
  • Conan is once again clad extremely simply. His clothing can sometimes be used as a marker for time if he's acquired weapons or cultural garb in his travels, but it's not really helpful here. He's wearing just a loincloth and also looks like shit as he's been hiding in a swamp. "He was powerfully built, naked but for a girdled loin-cloth, which was stained with blood and crusted with dried mire. His black mane was matted with mud and clotted blood; there were streaks of dried blood on his chest and limbs, dried blood on the long straight sword he gripped in his right hand. From under the tangle of his locks, bloodshot eyes glared like coals of blue fire."
  • Interestingly, Conan says that he hasn't really interacted with the people of Turan, which kind of contradicts his previous statement about plundering the empire: "I haven't done with them ("the people of Turan") yet. Be at ease, girl."
  • Howard sort of previews "Queen of the Black Coast" in an interesting throwaway line. Olivia expresses fear about pirates, and Conan grins "enigmatically:" "'Storms are rare on Vilayet at this time of year. If we make the steppes, we shall not starve. I was reared in a naked land. It was those cursed marshes, with their stench and stinging flies, that nigh unmanned me. I am at home in the high lands. As for pirates—' He grinned enigmatically, and bent to the oars." 
    • If we look ahead a little bit, this places "Iron Shadows in the Moon" firmly after "Queen of the Black Coast" and before "The Pool of the Black One." Conan is clearly older, more intelligent, more mature, and more controlled in "Pool," and has clearly had experience with pirates prior to this one, so "Black Coast" has to come first.
  • Conan ends the story setting sail with the Red Brotherhood, having become their captain through trial by combat. While doing this, he makes a sly reference to the next story, telling Olivia, "I'll make you Queen of the Blue Sea! Cast off there, dogs! We'll scorch King Yildiz's pantaloons yet, by Crom!"
Revisiting this story has helped me appreciate it a little more in terms of how it calls forward (though, chronologically, back) to "Queen of the Black Coast" in a few interesting ways. 

Since he starts the story as the seeming last surviving Free Companion and ends the story with the pirates, this is functionally a bridge between his kozaki period and his Red Brotherhood pirate period.

Here's one thing that I think is key to this story's chronological placement: Conan seems to be describing similar events in both a passage from "Xuthal of the Dusk" and "Iron Shadows:"
Picture
If Conan is describing the same rebel prince of Koth and same mercenary bands, which I think he probably is, the Free Companions went south through Shem to outlands of Stygia, then through Kush. From there, they became independent of Almuric's command and apparently went back up through Koth, Zamora, and then to Turan where "Iron Shadows in the Moon" picks up. You'll have to tell me in the comments if you think this makes sense. The thing is, if I do actually look at other chronologies, pretty much everyone else has "Iron Shadows" come before "Xuthal," sometimes waaay before it, so I feel like I may be missing something.

I'm kind of starting to doubt myself with this story... did I miss any other connections?

​Without this connection to "Xuthal of the Dusk," "Iron Shadows" could land pretty much anywhere between "Rogues in the House" and "The Pool of the Black One."

This brings our chronology to its current state:

1. The Tower of the Elephant
2. Rogues in the House
3. Xuthal of the Dusk
4. Iron Shadows in the Moon
5. Black Colossus
6. The Pool of the Black One
7. The Phoenix on the Sword
8. The Scarlet Citadel

1 Comment

Chronologically Speaking, Part Six: "Rogues in the House"

10/27/2025

1 Comment

 
Chronologically Speaking is a series focused solely on chronologizing the Conan of Cimmeria stories. It's an analysis of only the text of Robert E. Howard's original Conan tales. I'm examining the stories one at a time, in publication order, to show explicit chronological notes to order the stories.
"Rogues in the House" was first published in the January 1934 issue of Weird Tales, about three months after readers had been treated to their previous Conan story, "The Pool of the Black One." The story appeared seventh in the mag and didn't make the cover, suggesting perhaps a lack of confidence in this entry in the Conan saga. If that's what they felt, it was certainly misguided, as "Rogues" is a through-and-through banger.
Picture
Picture
  • Conan is thieving, suggesting an early placement alongside "The Tower of the Elephant:" "...because the district on which he bordered was the Maze, a tangle of muddy, winding alleys and sordid dens, frequented by the bolder thieves in the kingdom. Daring above all were a Gunderman deserter from the mercenaries and a barbaric Cimmerian." Many people have in the intervening years questioned whether this is the same Gunderman referred to in the Nestor synopsis that would be turned into "The Hall of the Dead" by L. Sprague de Camp.
  • Conan seems to have improved in his stealth and thieving skills: "But the Cimmerian fled, and learning in devious ways of the priest's treachery, he entered the temple of Anu by night and cut off the priest's head. There followed a great turmoil in the city, but the search for the killer proved fruitless until a woman betrayed him to the authorities."
  • Conan is described as having zero respect for authority that is "instilled" in a person by civilization, which could be suggestive of its earlier placement in the timeline, or could just describe Conan's innate barbarism: "He had none of the fear or reverence for authority that civilization instills in men. King or beggar, it was all one to him."
  • Conan's clothing is simple and threadbare: "He discarded his ragged tunic and moved off through the night naked but for a loincloth." Though Conan also wore a loincloth in "Xuthal of the Dusk," there he had acquired a set of weapons and a large gold-buckled belt. Conan's clothing is more similar to his starter kit in "The Tower of the Elephant."
  • There's a suggestion of Conan being an ignorant, possibly foolish barbarian when Nabonidus reveals his complex mirror system. Conan growls at Thak, threatening him in Cimmerian, like an animal: "Murilo felt his blood freeze again as he looked at the horror which seemed to be staring directly into his eyes. Involuntarily he recoiled from the mirror, while Conan thrust his head truculently forward, till his jaws almost touched the surface, growling some threat or defiance in his own barbaric tongue” and "'Surely he sees us,' muttered Conan. 'Why does he not charge us? He could break this window with ease.'" It makes Conan look like a simpleton.
    • Other lines suggest Conan being a provincial idiot too: "Murilo realized that the priest must be centuries ahead of his generation, to perfect such an invention; but Conan put it down to witchcraft and troubled his head no more about it."
  • Lotus powder is mentioned, this time the gray lotus from the "Swamps of the Dead, beyond the land of Khitai" (that sounds cool as shit; can we get a Conan story set there?), but Conan makes no mention of having come across lotus powder before and does not betray that he knows anything about the lotus, suggesting a placement prior to "Xuthal."
  • Conan's kill of Nabonidus echoes how he killed the spider in "The Tower of the Elephant," but with more confidence and grace. Muscle memory? "Too quickly for the sight to follow, Conan caught up a stool and hurled it."
  • Conan is ready to leave the kingdom for another at the end of the story, suggesting that the next chronological story will take place in a different land. "'I'm tired of this city anyway,' grinned the Cimmerian. 'You mentioned a horse waiting at the Rats' Den. I'm curious to see how fast that horse can carry me into another kingdom. There's many a highway I want to travel before I walk the road Nabonidus walked this night.'"
All of the above leads me to conclude that within our chronology so far, "Rogues" should be only the second in the timeline. I think the elements that put it after "The Tower of the Elephant" are a little weak, though. It's mostly my interpretation of how Conan's thieving and combat skills are described. There's nothing that's a smoking gun, so it could go first.

Here is the updated chronology.

1. The Tower of the Elephant
2. Rogues in the House
3. Xuthal of the Dusk
4. Black Colossus
5. The Pool of the Black One
6. The Phoenix on the Sword
7. The Scarlet Citadel

1 Comment

Chronologically Speaking, Part Five: "The Pool of the Black One"

9/29/2025

0 Comments

 
Chronologically Speaking is a series focused solely on chronologizing the Conan of Cimmeria stories. It's an analysis of only the text of Robert E. Howard's original Conan tales. I'm examining the stories one at a time, in publication order, to show explicit chronological notes to order the stories.
September and October 1933 in Weird Tales were a one-two punch of short Conan stories, with "The Pool of the Black One" coming just one month after "Xuthal of the Dusk." Both of them are a bit of a downturn from the highs of "The Tower of the Elephant" and "Black Colossus," but things would bounce back soon enough with "Rogues in the House" in January of '34. Unlike the last two stories explored in this series, "Pool" didn't make the cover and it wasn't the lead story in the October issue; instead, it appeared third.

"Pool" was the first pirate Conan story to be published, but it wouldn't be the last. It features one of the coolest entrances Conan ever makes, swimming up and onto a boat out of seeming nowhere.
Picture
Picture
  • Conan has evidently learned to speak Zingaran, but speaks it with a heavy accent, as has been noted several times by characters hearing his voice for the first time. "she had never heard Zingaran spoken with such an accent as the stranger spoke it."
  • Conan is obviously employed as a pirate right now, specifically one of the Barachan Isles. When he's accused of being a pirate, he just smiles. Additionally, he is now a skilled sailor: "He proved himself a skilled sailor, and by far the strongest man any of them had seen."
  • Where Conan had previously struggled to grasp social cues in some of the previously-published stories, he is now intimately familiar and comfortable with pirate social conventions, like hazing. "Sancha watched, tense with interest. She had become familiar with such scenes, and knew the baiting would be brutal and probably bloody. But her familiarity with such matters was scanty compared to that of Conan. He smiled faintly as he came into the waist and saw the menacing figures pressing truculently about him. He paused and eyed the ring inscrutably, his composure unshaken. There was a certain code about these things. If he had attacked the captain, the whole crew would have been at his throat, but they would give him a fair chance against the one selected to push the brawl."
  • The story mentions Conan's past in Zamora, placing it after "The Tower of the Elephant," at least: "He had roamed the cities of Zamora, and known the women of Shadizar the Wicked. But he sensed here a cosmic vileness transcending mere human degeneracy."
  • Conan recognizes a wide range of human diversity in the transfigured human figurines by the titular pool: "These figures, not much longer than a man's hand, represented men, and so cleverly were they made that Conan recognised various racial characteristics in the different idols, features typical of Zingarans, Argosseans, Ophireans and Kushite corsairs."
    • It's possible that this means that Conan has already traveled to Zingara, Argos, Ophir, and Kush, but I think more likely just means that he has met and is familiar with pirates of all of those ethnicities. After all, the Barachan pirates are named for their home base, not their origins.
  • Conan mentions the black lotus powder as a smell he remembers, placing this story explicitly after "Xuthal of the Dusk." "'It's that damned fruit they were eating,' he answered softly. 'I remember the smell of it. It must have been like the black lotus, that makes men sleep.'"
Honestly, I think the thing that is most illustrative about the placement of this story along the timeline is Conan's characterization himself. He is so eminently controlled, so smooth and unbothered. He keeps his mouth shut and is content to just smile and leave comments unremarked upon. We see some of his fabled "gigantic mirth" when he's gambling with the rest of the sailors. It's a Conan much more similar to the King Conan of "The Phoenix on the Sword" and "The Scarlet Citadel" to the brutish outlander of "The Tower of the Elephant" or "Xuthal of the Dusk." He seems to be even more smooth than in his considerable growth shown in "Black Colossus."

​For now, I'm placing this before the King Conan stories.

The updated chronology is here:

1. The Tower of the Elephant
2. Xuthal of the Dusk
3. Black Colossus
4. The Pool of the Black One
5. The Phoenix on the Sword
6. The Scarlet Citadel

0 Comments
<<Previous

    Author

    Hey, I'm Dan. This is my project reading through the career of everyone's favorite sword-and-sorcery character, Conan the Cimmerian, in chronological order.

    Picture
    Picture

    Archives

    June 2026
    May 2026
    April 2026
    March 2026
    February 2026
    January 2026
    December 2025
    November 2025
    October 2025
    September 2025
    August 2025
    July 2025
    June 2025
    May 2025
    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024

    Categories

    All
    CHRONOLOGICALLY SPEAKING
    COMICS
    CONAN'S DESCENDANTS
    CRITICISM
    Howard Days
    JIREL OF JOIRY
    KANE
    MARVEL COMICS
    PASTICHE
    ROBERT E. HOWARD ORIGINAL
    SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN
    TITAN COMICS

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly