by Gary Romeo
“Swords of the Purple Kingdom” was written sometime in 1929. It is not known where or if Robert E. Howard submitted the story for magazine publication. Like “Delcardes’ Cat” and “By This Axe I Rule!” it features a couple who wish Kull to help them get married. Glenn Lord edited the story for it’s initial publication in King Kull, Lancer Books, 1967.
There are lots of minor textual changes. Aside from punctuation, hyphenation, capitalization, spelling, and sentence structure Glenn Lord made the following changes.
Lancer: with the true fighting build
Del Rey: the true fighting build
Lancer: as a different race.
Del Rey: almost as a different race.
Lancer: Nalissa
Del Rey: Delcartes (the name change occurs throughout the story)
Lancer: (line removed)
Del Rey: of which he knew not even herself was aware.
Lancer: Why?
Del Rey: then why –
Lancer: Murom bora Ballin (the name change occurs throughout the story)
Del Rey: Goron bora Ballin
Lancer: breast
Del Rey: mighty breast
Lancer: gave up and left
Del Rey: gave it up as a bad job and left
Lancer: punishment
Del Rey: spankings
Lancer: he said abruptly.
Del Rey: said he abruptly.
Lancer: King Gorna (a typo)
Del Rey: king Borna
Lancer: ruling
Del Rey: kinging it
Lancer: His hair was thin
Del Rey: His hair was thin and sparse
Lancer: small silver stars
Del Rey: small silver star points
Lancer: A dramatic note;
Del Rey: A dramatic note, dramatically worded;
Lancer: tracks
Del Rey: track
Lancer: his heart swelled
Del Rey: his young brave heart swelled
Lancer: Ka-nu (the name change occurs throughout the story)
Del Rey: Kananu
Lancer: Kelkor (the name change occurs throughout the story)
Del Rey: Kelka
Lancer: Delgar (obvious typo, spelled as Dalgar everywhere else throughout the story)
Del Rey: Dalgar
Lancer: but it, being of heavy oak
Del Rey: but of heavy oak
Lancer: shreds
Del Rey: shreds and splinters
Lancer: candle
Del Rey: great candle
Lancer: the guards
Del Rey: the lines
Lancer: slid a hand through the bars.
Del Rey: slid a hand over the sill through the bars into the room.
Lancer: He
Del Rey: There he
Lancer: brows
Del Rey: black brows
Lancer: scarcely suffice now
Del Rey: scarcely answer now
Lancer: with a girlfriend
Del Rey: with a girlfriend of hers
Lancer: hemmed in seraglios
Del Rey: hemmed in in seraglios
Lancer: cuddled
Del Rey: coddled
Lancer: of some one – or something.
Del Rey: of some one – or something – men or – ?
Lancer: Phondar (the name change occurs throughout the story)
Del Rey: Gonda
Del Rey: (line cut) Eyes in which cold flame danced, like a volcano gleaming under fathoms of grey ice.
Lancer: Gardens.
Del Rey: Garden.
Lancer: spoke another voice, whose harsh, grating tones were those of a man
Del Rey: spoke another voice, a harsh, grating one, as the tone of a man
Lancer: racking his brain trying to place the hauntingly familiar voice of the traitor.
Del Rey: racking his brain to remember – whose voice was that of the traitor.
Lancer: from beyond the door
Del Rey: from the door
Lancer: in the moonlight.
Del Rey: in the moon.
Lancer: the remaining soldier
Del Rey: the other soldier
Lancer: slit him
Del Rey: spit him
Lancer: crumbled away
Del Rey: crumbled to decay
Lancer: (line cut)
Del Rey: There was no escape, for on each side was a sheer wall some fifty feet in height.
Lancer: (line cut)
Del Rey: The bell rang then.
Lancer: (line cut)
Del Rey: A wild freedom swept over him and he laughed with such ringing joy that the soldiers at the foot of the stairs stared up at him, gaping.
Lancer: He raised his hand and shouted:
Del Rey: For a moment he struggled with himself. And to those to whom it seems a slight thing, the sacrifice he planned, let them reflect that Kull was an Atlantean; that all his life he had expected to die gloriously in battle. That his race looked on any other death as the ultimate disgrace. Yet now this man, who was king of Valusia and more than king, raised his hand and shouted:
Lancer: broken
Del Rey: break
Lancer: in an instant.
Del Rey: in an instant it seemed.
Lancer: He
Del Rey: Kull
Lancer: wildly and agonizingly
Del Rey: wild and agonized
Lancer: ran to his horse
Del Rey: got him to horse
Lancer: so, under
Del Rey: Under
Lancer: sophisticated and bloodless
Del Rey: polished, sophisticated and bloodless
Lancer: running footsteps
Del Rey: footsteps running
Lancer: his vision
Del Rey: his astounded vision
Lancer: flood of gratitude engulfed him.
Del Rey: flood of gratitude swelled into his throat, nearly strangling him.
Lancer: blades gleaming
Del Rey: blades aflame
Lancer: born killer
Del Rey: born slaughter machine
Lancer: unlike his tribesman
Del Rey: differently from his tribesman
Lancer: little difference between them
Del Rey: little to choose between them
Lancer: (line cut)
Del Rey: with the mystery of the moon in her dark eyes.
Lancer: face alight
Del Rey: face lighted
Even though there are lots of changes I would say that Glenn Lord was on solid ground with several of them. (Although “born slaughter machine” is way cooler than “born killer.”)
Marvel Comics adapted “Swords of the Purple Kingdom” and the finale of “The Altar and the Scorpion” in Kull the Conqueror #9 titling the story “The Scorpion God.” Scripter Gerry Conway probably conflated the two stories to add a weird element.
The story begins with Kull somewhat anxious about his throne. “All Valusia plots behind closed doors, Brule.” Brule and Kull begin discussing Kull’s reign. The reader learns of heathen Grondarians, a threat called the Triple Federation, and that trade is good, and famine nonexistent. The biggest complaint seems to be that Kull is a barbaric foreigner and that Picts and other foreigners rule over Valusia. (A civilized empire undergoing an anti-immigrant wave, go figure!)
Kull and Brule are interrupted when Delcartes/Narlissa comes to court asking for Kull’s help in getting married. This is yet another Kull story about a young couple wanting to be married. This time it is the fault of the girl’s father instead of Valusian marriage laws. Perhaps REH had some bigger theme in mind by contrasting marriage difficulties with Kull’s wrestling with Valusian tradition. It is tempting to think he was subtlety endorsing mixed marriage in the United States but remember “Exile of Atlantis,” “Delcardes’ Cat” aka “The Cat and the Skull,” “Riders Beyond the Sunrise,” “By This Axe I Rule” and this story were all either not submitted or rejected and all remained unpublished in his lifetime. Most likely this reuse of the idea was just REH trying to get it right and make a sell, adding a romance in the background never hurt Edgar Rice Burroughs, rather than an any real obsession with the topic.
The plot eventually takes Kull to a spooky location where a trap awaits. Kull gets to kill many of his foes but eventually the odds are against him. Delcartes’/Narlissa’s lover comes to Kull’s rescue and the masked villain is revealed to be Tu’s nephew, Dondal.
Surprizingly, Kull and Brule blame Tu for Dondal’s bad behavior. “He was deep in debt – Tu was penurious with him. Always maintained that giving young men money was bad for them. Dondal was forced to keep up appearances for his pride’s sake and so fell into the hands of the usurers. Thus Tu is the greatest traitor for he drove the boy into treachery by his parsimony – and I could wish Tu’s heart had stopped my point instead of his.”
To sum up, this story tells us that Valusians are wrong to be afraid of immigrants, that marriage restrictions are wrong, and that crime is sometimes the result of bad parenting.
Was this New Edge Sword & Sorcery before there was such a thing?
spraguedecampfan 
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