DRUMS OF TOMBALKU

What does a story being just a draft mean for a Robert E. Howard piece? I'm tempted to say "not much," seeing as at least one story was published after just one draft ("Rogues in the House") and several others only went through two to three drafts ("The God in the Bowl," "Red Nails"). Quite a few of his stories existed only as drafts until later writers finished them, so why does it matter that "Drums of Tombalku" is always noted to only be a draft? Well, for one, because its draftiness is pretty interesting. In fact, while this story isn't the best of the Hyborian bunch, I found it much more interesting than I originally thought it would be.

Unlike some of Howard's other drafts which are really just plans or synopses, this story functions as a complete, if short, entry in the canon. It is printed along with other Conan stories, though there is a "finished" version from L. Sprague de Camp out there. I'd like to focus on the Howard version for this.

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"Drums of Tombalku" is a peculiar story. It was an abandoned attempt at Howard writing a full-length novel that also re-used names and ideas that had been bouncing around in Howard's mind seemingly for a long time.

​"Tombalku" almost doesn't feature Conan at all: he's mentioned briefly by the lead character in the beginning and then he appears for a deus ex machina ending just a few pages before the end of the story. The main character, an Aquilonian named Amalric, comes across a girl in the desert. He saves her, is shown to her creepy oasis home city which seems to be about 900 years behind the times, and comes across the god oppressing them. The description is engaging and the mystery of why her town seems so out of touch is pretty creepy. Additionally, the god in the red tower in Gazal is a pretty horrifying image, and it makes for some fun times as Amalric and Lissa flee the city on horseback while being pursued by what feel very similar to Nazgul from Lord of the Rings.

​Conan rescues Amalric and Lissa and is recognized by his "Amra, the Lion" name from his buccaneering days, which is a cool callback. 

Speaking of fun, I am choosing to believe that the two kings at the end of the story are a gay couple ruling the nation together. I'm choosing to believe that the same way I'm choosing to ignore some of the racism in this story because I'm tired of writing about it. I will say that it's a little more easily ignored than some past stories, and I love that the Conan wiki says that the story was bowdlerized when it came out. Gotta love when someone uses the term "bowdlerized."

I'll be the first to admit that I have no idea why I read this story prior to "Xuthal of the Dusk" AKA "The Slithering Shadow." Basically every Conan chronology puts this one after it, so I'm not sure why I read it first. I must've just made a mistake when filling out my original chronology document.

Anyway, it absolutely should be read after "Xuthal." We have a couple of interesting contextual clues about when it takes place- Stygia is at war with the countries surrounding it, and Conan has explicitly come from those battles, so it has to take place afterword. However.

"Drums" reads very much like a draft of "Xuthal," with very similarly-named characters (Amalric and Almuric), both feature a greenish, ancient, lost city in the Stygian desert, both cities are populated by essentially the walking dead, both cities are terrorized by an evil god, and both stories feature a manly man and a frail, young woman, so I honestly believe that this story should be treated as apocryphal. Much like "The Devil in Iron" and "Iron Shadows in the Moon," this story is so reflective of "Xuthal" that it feels like only one of them should count. 

Conan is quickly working his way back west as he's headed for the western coast of the continent eventually. He's still gaining allegiances through his effective command. This could place the story nicely after our other recent stories, so while I would probably remove the story from the chronology if I was being really serious, it would fit right here acceptably.

The biggest problem though is that this story works almost as a two-parter with "Xuthal of the Dusk," and I'm pretty sure we have to move "Xuthal," so it's probably going to have to be moved earlier in the chronology.

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