Chronologically Speaking, Part Sixteen: "Red Nails"

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.

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.

The first page of "The Eyrie" in the August/September issue, breaking the news of Robert E. Howard's death to Weird Tales readers

The poem by R.H. Barlow following the conclusion of "Red Nails" in the October 1936 issue of Weird Tales