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

11/22/2025

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.

"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!

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:"

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

Kenyon

11/22/2025 01:56:42 pm

As always, I’m absolutely loving this series of articles.

“Iron Shadows in the Moon” is one of the harder stories to really gauge where it could take place. Plenty of arguments for an earlier placement set before “Black Colossus” or “Queen of the Black Coast” and plenty of arguments for it to take place later in Conan’s life. The fun thing is, all arguments are pretty solid and it really comes down to whatever you’re feeling.

But there’s a line that should be looked at, though, about the pirate stories.

I do believe it’s in Red Nails, Conan states “I was a kozak before I was a pirate”.

And you know, if you take that line literally, it really makes a big, but fun headache. But it does raise a question that leans a lot closer to the Dale Rippke/Dark Storm timeline, which is, “Does Iron Shadows take place before QotBC?”

Now, truth be told, I favor QotBC before Iron Shadows, just because of the enigmatic line Conan says, but if we’re going by that logic, doesn’t the line from Red Nails carry just as much weight, if not more?

With that said, I absolutely love this line of thought about Almuric’s Free Companions being the precursor to the events of “Iron Shadows”. From 30,000 strong to 5,000 strong in just a couple of years. I’m definitely on the side of “Xuthal” being a much earlier story than we’ve thought for the better part of 90 years.

Great article man!