Thoth-Amon and The Haunter of the Ring by Robert E. Howard

by Gary Romeo

“The Haunter of the Ring” was first published in Weird Tales, June 1934. It was later reprinted in Startling Mystery Stories, Winter 1968/1969. The first paperback appearance was in Black Canaan, Berkley Books, 1978. It has been reprinted several times since then.

REH’s name was not featured on the Weird Tales or Startling Mystery Stories cover. Startling Mystery Stories reused the artwork from Weird Tales to illustrate the story.

Surprisingly this story, which mentions Thoth-Amon, was not reprinted in paperback until Black Canaan, Berkley Books, 1978. You would think its connection to Conan would have popularized the story more even though it doesn’t have the reputation of being one of REH’s best stories. In this book’s introduction by Gahan Wilson, he says, “I seriously suspect “The Haunter of the Ring” was written in [REH’s] sleep.”

All of the various reprints appear to be unedited and taken directly from the original Weird Tales appearance.

This story is one of five featuring John Kirowan and John Conrad. They are members of the Wanderer’s Club. Basically wealthy white guys who cross path with the supernatural. “The Children of the Night” Weird Tales, April/May 1931 is also a Cthulhu Mythos story, so these Conrad and Kirowan stories are sometimes grouped together with REH’s Cthulhu Mythos stories.

In this story an associate of the two men believes he is the reincarnation of his great-grandfather. He is certain that his wife is going to kill him as karmic debt for a murder committed by his ancestor. His wife has attempted to kill him three times already! But it turns out his wife has been hexed by a ring given her by an old boyfriend, Joseph Roelocke: “Oh, a fantastic thing – copper, made like a scaly snake coiled three times, with its tail in its mouth and yellow jewels for eyes.” Kirowan confronts Roelocke and it turns out Roelocke is really Yosef Vrolok, an old enemy of Kirowan’s. Roelocke has summoned the haunter of the ring to do his bidding, but tables are turned, and the haunter takes Roelocke’s soul.

It is a serviceable story that gives the reader some background on Kirowan and has a few more twists and turns that my summary skips over. The most interesting thing for me is that the story mentions “the ancient and accursed ring of Thoth-amon, handed down by foul cults of sorcerers since the days of forgotten Stygia.” This is just one more instance of recognizing that REH envisioned his characters in a shared universe.

REH first introduced Thoth-amon (edited to Thoth-Amon by Farnsworth Wright) in “The Phoenix on the Sword.” Thoth’s ring is described as “a metal like copper, and was made in the form of a scaled serpent, coiled in three loops, with its tail in its mouth. Its eyes were yellow gems which glittered balefully.” Thoth returns off screen in “The God in the Bowl” and is mentioned in The Hour of the Dragon. And, most famously, de Camp added Thoth-Amon to the “The Black Stranger” which he retitled “The Treasure of Tranicos.” This is the only completed REH Conan story that de Camp substantially edited in the Lancer Conan series.

Thoth-Amon as a reoccurring character proved popular. De Camp and Lin Carter used him in Conan the Buccaneer (to good effect) and in Conan of Aquilonia (sadly, to poor effect). Both Marvel Comics and Dark Horse (which eschewed other de Campian additions) used Thoth often. Dark Horse, especially so, even giving Thoth his own mini-series. That de Camp recognized the potential of Thoth is his first posthumous collaboration with REH indicates he understood the average Conan fan.

Surprisingly de Camp was unaware of REH’s use of Thoth in “The Haunter of the Ring” (and the existence of “People of the Dark”) until he received a letter from long-time REH fan, Albert Gechter, informing him of that fact. Sprague responded wanting to know more:

Mr. Gechter corrected the name of the story in his reply:

De Camp, probably wisely, never included “People of the Dark” or “The Haunter of the Ring” in any Conan collection but he was correct to be interested. Conan and Thoth are attention grabbers and like de Camp, I’m always interested in finding out more. Sometimes obsession can be too much though, de Camp blamed Thoth-Amon for spoiling a planned vacation in a letter to Isaac Asimov!

This whole excursion started when I re-read the Solomon Kane story, “The Right Hand of Doom” and my surmising that the ring in that story was Thoth’s ring as well. Roger Simeon just had it silver-plated! The flames removed the silver plating, and the ring is, of course, indestructible.

It waits to be worn again by some future villain.

Hopefully, someone more impressive than this guy!