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

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 As​ Weird Tales would not be published in the UK until 1942, putting a book together and selling it in England was part of Howard's plan to break into a new, untapped market.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.

"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.

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