“The Curse of the Golden Skull” was first published in The Howard Collector #9, Spring 1967. It was mentioned in King Kull, Lancer Books, 1967 in a teasing fashion:
I had read “Kings of the Night” in the Dell Bran Mak Morn paperback but figured getting this story was a pipe dream. The Howard Collector was not available at the local bookstore! I’d have to send money through the mail to get it! At age 13, I had never done that before! I’d have to go buy a money order! (Believe it or not, my parents did not have a checking account at that time.)
Eventually, I did write to Glenn Lord’s address listed in one of the Lancer Conan paperbacks and acquired a second printing of issue #9 and read the story. I can’t remember the cost but it felt expensive back in 1972 or so, when paperbacks were 75 cents and comic books a meager 12 cents. I think I paid around $2 or $3 for that issue of The Howard Collector.
Despite the expense I remember being quite satisfied with the purchase. That issue contained several poems and letters that seemed like rare jewels to me. I wanted to buy every back issue whatever the expense. I was now comfortable with ordering things through the mail and have never stopped doing so from that day forward.
Marvel Comics adapted the story in Conan the Barbarian #37 in a 3 page prologue scripted by Roy Thomas with art by Neal Adams. The story also appeared on a 1975 phonograph long playing album. That was too exotic a purchase for me back then and I never acquired it to this day.
“The Curse of the Golden Skull” finally appeared with all the other King Kull stories in Kull, Baen Books, 1995 and Kull: Exile of Atlantis, Ballantine (Del Rey) Books, 2006. There are some minor textual differences between The Howard Collector text and the pure-text version published in the Del Rey book. Remember: “EVERYBODY EDITED BACK THEN.”
This is a very short story but it is full of nice imagery and by virtue of Marvel Comics is probably the second most influential King Kull story despite Kull appearing in name only. (The most influential would be “The Shadow Kingdom.”)
The story starts with Rotath of Lemuria having been slain by King Kull. Rotath had been betrayed by the King of Lemuria. We learn of various gods and other beings. “He cursed humanity by the fane of the Black Gods, the tracks of the Serpent Ones, the talons of the Ape Lords and the iron bound books of Shuma Gorath.”
This casual mention of an entity (person?) by Robert E. Howard became a major character in the Doctor Strange comic books. “Shuma-Gorath” was first mentioned by Marvel Comics in their adaptation of Robert E. Howard’s story “Dig Me No Grave” in Journey Into Mystery (Vol. 2) #1 written by Roy Thomas. This adaptation replaces Yog-Sothoth with Shuma-Gorath. Shuma-Gorath next appeared in name only in a Doctor Strange story published in Marvel Premiere #5 in a story written by Gardner Fox. Shuma-Gorath was first illustrated in Marvel Premiere #10.
Marvel Comics has since developed a whole cosmology around Shuma-Gorath. It is actually sort of amazing that this throwaway mention of a character by Robert E. Howard became a major player in the Marvel Universe. (I do not know what his current status is at “the House of Ideas.”)
Back to the story… as Rotath lay dying he places a curse on his bones. “And soon he felt mighty elemental powers set in motion. He felt his bones growing hard and brittle. A coldness transcending earthly coldness passed over him and he lay still. The leaves whispered and the silver god laughed with cold gemmed eyes.”
Centuries pass and an explorer discovers the bones. I won’t spoil the ending. I imagine the explorer to be Indiana Jones. He didn’t like snakes.
“Treason in Zagadar” was first published in The Anthology of Fantasy & The Supernatural, edited by Stephen Jones and David Sutton, Tiger Books International, London, 1994. The story is by Adrian Cole.
From Wikipedia:Adrian Christopher Synnot Cole (born 22 July 1949 in Plymouth, England), is a British writer. He is known for his Dream Lords trilogy, the Omaran Saga and Star Requiem series, and his young adult novels, Moorstones and The Sleep of Giants.
Mr. Cole is a participating member in some of the same Facebook groups that I’m a member of. We have never interacted, but everything suggests he is a personable fellow. I hope he doesn’t mind the few criticisms I have of this short story.
When doing a King Kull pastiche, you have two routes you can follow. Do a “By This Axe I Rule!” or “The Shadow Kingdom” type of story or do a metaphysical story like “The Mirrors of Tuzun Thune” or “The Screaming Skull of Silence.” Adrian Cole chose the former.
The opening line is “Three men sat alone, dreaming of power and grandeur as the huge primordial sun sank down like a bloody ball of fire into the western ocean where Atlantis still held sway…” I thought that a nicely poetic sentence reminiscent of Robert E. Howard.
We are introduced to Gorvic, who is related to King Borna, whom Kull slew to obtain his kingship. Later we are introduced to Xaldeev, a necromancer. Xaldeev secreted Gorvic to Zagadar when Borna’s throne was usurped by Kull. Both Gorvic and Xaldeev mistakenly believe Kull would have had Gorvic slain, as a threat to his throne. Of course, any reader familiar with the Kull stories knows that Kull was not that petty. He left Kaanuub, a known relative of Borna, alone when he became king. But Xaldeev hadn’t read that story. 🙂
Xaldeev is not alone for long. An “obsequious creature” tells Xaldeev he has a visitor. Three people plotting? Are these the three referred to at the beginning? Nope. Finally, we are introduced to Ambellus, a general of Kull’s Red Slayers. To my thinking, this first chapter works just a little too hard to set a mood and somewhat confusingly introduces characters like the “obsequious creature” and a specific “serpent man” who do not figure significantly in the later narrative.
Anyway, onward. Zagadar is a remote southern kingdom that started out as a military outpost allied to Valusia. Gorvic became king of Zagadar when the military outpost declared independence. He is a tested warrior and leader of men having fought off attacking Grondarians and serpent men and other monstrosities that exist in the nearby jungles.
With the second chapter, things come more into focus and the writing became more straight forward in my opinion. Gorvic refers to Kull as “the Tiger” which is kinda cool (at first, anyway.) Gorvic tells Ambellus that Kull and his Red Slayers need to come to Zagadar to help exterminate the serpent men. Ambellus recklessly decides to make a foray into the jungle with his own Red Slayer army to attack a serpent men citadel and to also prove that the Red Slayers are better warriors than any in Zagadar.
It is all a big trap. Ambellus and his men are taken to the citadel and the Red Slayers begin smashing up the place. They are then attacked by a large force of serpent men and wiped out. Ambellus swears “By the Tiger” upon realizing he fell into a trap. Gorvic and Xaldeev have come up with this trap to force “the Tiger” into coming to Zagadar.
When Kull learns his best general was slain by the serpent men, he goes to Zagadar as Gorvic and Xaldeev knew he would. Adrian Cole captures the relationship between Kull and Brule very well. You can feel REH’s voice coming through. But when Kull refers to himself as “the Tiger” I was disappointed. It was cool when others referred to him that way but not so much when Kull referred to himself that way. (Now I’m worried someone will find where REH had Kull doing it too! Oh well, mea culpa if that happens!)
Gorvic and Xaldeev’s plan to kill Kull and install Gorvic as the king of Valusia seems to have a few flaws to my thinking but villains never think it all the way through. The plan as stated is to kill Kull and his army with the aid of the serpent men and then leave for Valusia letting the serpent men take over Zagadar. Why Gorvic thinks Valusians would readily accept him after proving himself incapable of protecting his own kingdom doesn’t enter his thoughts.
Others may disagree but I think Cole makes a bit of a mistake in the fifth chapter titled “Within Accursed Walls” by having Kull and Brule behave somewhat stupidly. They are in Gorvic’s palace deciding how to attack the serpent men when they notice movement in the tapestry. Brule tosses his spear at the moving figure. When they look behind the tapestry, they see a hidden chamber where the intruder has fled. Instead of asking Gorvic about hidden entrances or calling forth guards to search for such, Kull merely opines, “The smell of the serpent. We must sleep lightly this night.”
The next day Kull decides to lead his men to the place where Ambellus was ambushed. Before that happens, the serpent men attack the palace walls. Forgetting that the serpent men have secret access to the palace Kull concentrates the fight on defending the walls. Of course, the serpent men get into the palace via secret access, and they start to win the battle.
I won’t spoil the ending but will say Xaldeev goes rogue and changes the plan conjuring up a pretty nifty beastie. Adrian Cole gets into action mode and the writing won me over despite my nitpicks. I’d welcome more Kull from him.
The story ends more on a Conan note than a Kull one though: “And Kull threw back his head and laughed at the stars, a loud ringing sound, filled with relief that the crisis had passed.”
The book was later reissued as The Giant Book of Fantasy and the Supernatural.
“The King and the Oak” was first published in Weird Tales, February 1939. It was reprinted in two Arkham House books (Dark of the Moon and Always Comes Evening) and also in The Coming of Conan, Gnome Press, 1953 before appearing in King Kull, Lancer Books, 1967.
“The King and the Oak” is the final Kull adventure in the King Kull paperback. The very last entry in the paperback is a truncated version of “The Hyborian Age” titled “Epilog.” “The Hyborian Age” was discussed in a previous post.
There are some very minor textual differences between the Weird Tales, Lancer, and Del Rey versions.
WT: gray
Lancer: gray
Del Rey: grey
WT: hell
Lancer: hell
Del Rey: Hell
WT: And one great oak
Lancer: And one gray oak (probably a typographical error)
Del Rey: And one great oak
WT: “We were the lords ere man had come and shall be lords again.”
Lancer: “We were the lords ere man had come and shall be lords again.”
Del Rey : “We were the lords ere man had come, and shall be lords again.”
WT: As kingdoms of the grass-blades bow before the marching ants,
Lancer: As kingdoms of the grass-blades before the marching ants,
Del Rey: As kingdoms of the grassblades bow before the marching ants,
Marvel Comics adapted the poem in Conan the Barbarian #10. The Marvel version uses the Lancer text in the main. There are some changes in capitalization and punctuation.
All that Thurian Age LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide not L. Sprague de Camp) finally catches up to Kull and he has a helluva bad flashback and attacks a tree. If Kull ever spent time “trimming the hedges” he might have been less prone to metaphysical thinking. But Kull is not Conan. That is perfectly fine though, as the differences between the two resulted in some great stories, andnow, a great poem!
Anyway, as I know very little about poetry I’m turning over the summation to Robert E. Howard scholar and poetry expert, Frank Coffman. Frank, although not friendly to LSD (L. Sprague de Camp not lysergic acid diethyamide) has agreed to help me for this particular blog post and hopefully will submit additional poetry articles in the future.
Reflections on Robert E. Howard’s “The King and the Oak”
by Frank Coffman
Before the shadows slew the sun the kites were soaring free, And Kull rode down the forest road, his red sword at his knee; And winds were whispering round the world: “King Kull rides to the sea.”
The sun died crimson in the sea, the long grey shadows fell; The moon rose like a silver skull that wrought a demon’s spell, For in its light great trees stood up like specters out of Hell.
In spectral light the trees stood up, inhuman monsters dim; Kull thought each trunk a living shape, each branch a knotted limb, And strange unmortal evil eyes flamed horribly at him.
The branches writhed like knotted snakes, they beat against the night, And one great oak with swayings stiff, horrific in his sight, Tore up its roots and blocked his way, grim in the ghostly light.
They grappled in the forest way, the king and grisly oak; Its great limbs bent him in their grip, but never a word was spoke; And futile in his iron hand, the stabbing dagger broke.
And through the tossing, monstrous trees there sang a dim refrain Fraught deep with twice a million years of evil, hate and pain: “We were the lords ere man had come, and shall be lords again.”
Kull sensed an empire strange and old that bowed to man’s advance As kingdoms of the grass-blades bow before the marching ants, And horror gripped him; in the dawn like someone in a trance
He strove with bloody hands against a still and silent tree; As from a nightmare dream he woke; a wind blew down the lea And Kull of high Atlantis rode silent to the sea.
“The King and the Oak” by Robert E. Howard
The meter of Robert E. Howard’s “The King and the Oak” is that of an “expanded” Literary Ballad. The Ballad of Tradition/the Folk Ballad is composed in Accentual Meter (counting the number of accents to the poetic line). This folk/traditional ballad has a Rhyme Scheme [pattern/arrangement] of abcb and a Metrical Scheme of 4-3-4-3 accents, thus the b-lines (the two that rhyme in every quatrain) are an accent shorter than the unrhymed lines.
The literary ballad mimics the folk ballad in terms of both rhyme pattern and metrical pattern, except for the conversion of the meter toAccentual-Syllabic, making use of iambic feet to more precisely measure the rhythm of each line. Thus, abcb, but with iambic tetrameter(u/u/u/u/, four unstressed-stressed or unaccented-accented syllables) in lines 1 and 3 and iambic trimeter (u/u/u/) in the rhyming lines, 2 and 4. This is the rhythm of most church hymns (often called “the Common Measure”) and, not coincidentally, of most modern popular songs.
In “The King and the Oak,” Howard uses this literary ballad form, BUT adds an additional two lines, creating hexains/sestets (stanzas of six lines) rhyming abcbdb with alternations of iambic tetrameter and trimeter. Thus, he “expands” the literary ballad into a six-line form.
As in much of his poetry, Howard uses plentiful Alliteration (the repetition of initial sounds of words). A good example is the first stanza:
Before the SHADOWS SLEW the SUN the kites were soaring free, And Kull RODE down the forest ROAD, his red sword at his knee; And WINDS WERE WHISPERING round the WORLD: “KING KULL rides to the sea.”
As far as the content and possible theme of the poem go, we may make some observations and a few surmises.
The first line uses a fine double Personification, animating both the shadows and the sun, with an interesting Metaphor in the notion that the evening and coming of night is a slaying of the day by the darkness. This, I believe, might derive (perhaps subconsciously, perhaps not) from Howard’s love of Edward FitzGerald’s famous translation of The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám and the opening thereof from the first quatrain of the first edition—albeit done regarding dawn rather than dusk in FitzGerald’s famous poem:
Awake! For Morning in the Bowl of Night Has flung the Stone that puts the Stars to flight. And Lo! The Hunter of the East has caught The Sultan’s Turret in a Noose of Light.
And we also have a nice personification in the whispering winds in Howard’s first stanza.
We might question; however, why Kull’s sword is “at his knee”—a curious place for one, and quite likely done to achieve the rhyme, thus offering sense up on the altar of sound. This is commonly considered a poetic flaw.
In the second stanza too, we may question the Topographia (literally the “depiction of a place: graphein [to draw or depict] and topos [place] from the Greek) and the specific setting of the poem. If the sun (still personified) can be seen “[dying] crimson in the sea,…” (although followed nicely with the Epic[elaborated] Simile and the image of the moon rising “like a silver skull” working “a demon’s spell”), we find ourselves, apparently not near the sea, but rather in a forest of “great trees?” So, how can we [or Kull] see the sea?
A bit heavy, methinks, with “specters” and “spectral” in the transition between stanzas two and three, with the added (perhaps done for transition) repetition of the trees standing up. It must be noted; however, that this repetition for transition’s sake is not at all uncommon in the ballad of tradition, the folk form that Howard was undoubtedly aware of—and in many other narrative poems.
In stanza three, we again have personification and metaphor. The trees “[stand] up” as “inhuman monsters.” They are “living shape[s]” and their normally botanical “limbs” are now animated “ limbs.” Compounding the image further, they have “strange, unmortal [great word coinage there], evil eyes” and [flaming] eyes to boot. Howard’s ability to animate his narratives—in both his poetry and his far-better-known prose is exemplified well in this poem. His stuff displays what I have previously called “Action-Packing.”
In stanza four, we have another simile with the branches turning into snakes. Then—although certainly Howard had not encountered material from his contemporary, J. R. R. Tolkien—we have the “Ent-like” personification of the great oak (hence, the title) uprooting and blocking his path. This begins an almost mystical and, quite simply, eerie coincidence of two great imaginations: REH’s and JRRT’s.
Trees figure prominently in folklore, legend, and myth. The following Motifs (the folkloric term denoting the smallest discernible elements of narrative-sort of like “atoms” of storytelling [or at least “molecules”] are noted in one of the folklorist’s “Bibles,” namely The Motif Index of Folk Literature, edited by Stith Thompson, famed folklorist. Here are some relevant motifs from the Index.
D950.2. Magic oak tree. Type 577. –Irish myth D431.2. Transformation: tree to person. Irish myth D441.1. Transformation: tree to animal. F811. Extraordinary tree. Irish myth F811.24. Man-eating tree. F812.3. Forest of Dangers (Wonders). Irish myth D1610.2. “Speaking tree”)
In literature—as opposed to the “illiterature”/orally transmitted tales of folklore—of course, we have the Ents in Tolkien. Again, certainly no direct influence on REH. But there is still an eerie similarity to Tolkien’s account of the legendary history of the Ents (Ent, Etin, Eotin are all Old English words for “Giant.” In Howard’s poem we have:
“‘We were the lords ere man had come and shall be lords again.’ Kull sensed an empire strange and old that bowed to man’s advance.…”
This is very similar to the account of prior “lordship” of the Ents in Lord of the Rings, looking back at the elder days of Middle Earth.
We also have the famous passage from Macbeth, in which the forest is seen as immutable and eternal. Macbeth is assured by the witches’ apparition that he shall rule until “Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill / Shall come against him.” Macbeth muses: “That will never be./ Who can impress the forest, bid the tree/ Unfix his earth-bound root?” (4.1:93–96).
And, although REH did not live long enough to see the iconic, cinematic version of The Wizard of Oz, in which we have, of course, animated trees capable of anger and hostile action, Howard may have known Baum’s book of the same title.
An interesting division into types of “attacking trees” is made on the website tvtropes.org:
There one finds a reprint of a listing by Diana Wynne Jones in her book The Tough Guide to Fantasyland. According to Jones, there are three types of dangerous, sentient trees:
* Prehensile. These will grab you with their branches and try to eat you. * Mobile. These will quietly move about and get in your way. They may also try to eat you. In extreme cases they will attack buildings. * Poisonous. Avoid any drippings from these.
The Oak in the poem seems to combine types one and two.
The ending of the poem becomes somewhat confusing and, perhaps, even ambiguous. It is left seeming more like an encounter that happened in a dream-state or mystical hallucination rather than a real physical encounter.
So, with “The King and the Oak we have a poem displaying Howard’s technical prowess and abilities as a crafter, an artisan of traditional rhymed and metered verse. It presents a tale with some, I contend, “logistical” flaws in terms of setting. Although the content, meant to be a tale of a mysterious and, as Howard writes, “spectral” encounter certainly works on that level. It seems to me that, in a sort of dream-state, Kull is “informed” of the prior lordship of these animated trees and “awakens” with this received knowledge and then goes about his journeying to the sea. Certainly, if meant to be explicitly “real,” the Oak would have won the battle, defeating Kull, and most likely would have killed him:
“Its great limbs bent him in their grip…”
“And futile in his iron hand, a stabbing dagger broke.…”
“And horror gripped him in the dawn like someone in a trance. He strove with bloody hands against a still and silent tree…”
Thus, we have an “unreal” encounter—even for the fantasy world of the story. Kull learns in his nightmare vision something of the history of this dangerous and dark forest and the sentient tree-folk who used to rule it. Then he goes about his journey to the Sea that “bookends” the framed story within.
Frank’s major collections of verse are: The Coven’s Hornbook & Other Poems (2019), Black Flames & Gleaming Shadows (2020), and Eclipse of the Moon (2021). A formalist, traditional verse poet, he considers himself primarily a sonneteer, but his experiments and innovations with form cross national, cultural, and period boundaries and a plethora of forms.
His collection of occult detective stories, Three Against the Dark: Collected Dr. Venn Occult Detective Mysteries was released in 2022. A collection of short fiction, Maxime Miris: 15 Tales of the Weird, Horrific, and Supernatural, will be released in early 2023.
Frank is a member of the Horror Writers Association and the Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association. He created and moderates the Weird Poets Society Facebook Group.
Thus ends my posts on The Lancer Kull Series. Hopefully all the articles were both interesting and entertaining. Next week starts The Centaur Solomon Kane Series!
“The Mirrors of Tuzun Thune” was first published in Weird Tales, September 1929. It was reprinted in Skull-Face and Others, Arkham House, 1946. It was reprinted again in Avon Fantasy Reader #2, 1947. It also appeared in The Coming of Conan, Gnome Press, 1953. The first paperback appearance was in King Kull, Lancer Books, 1967.
Along with some minor punctuation changes, I noticed a textual change in the first paragraph.
Lancer: The gems in the diadem sparkle drearily like the ice of the white seas …
Del Rey: The gems in the diadem and upon the fingers of the women sparkle drearily like the ice of the white seas …
My guess in that Glenn Lord made the change due to Kull’s asexuality. Mentioning jewels upon the fingers of women could be seen as implying Kull keeps concubines. And, of course, even in this story the reader knows female “beauty meant little to Kull.”
Marvel Comics adapted the story within a Conan adventure in Conan the Barbarian #25. The script was by Roy Thomas and Barry Smith and art by John Buscema and Sal Buscema. Gil Kane and Ralph Reese illustrated the cover. Kull appears in a flashback sequence illustrated by John Severin.
Marvel Comics adapted the story a second time in The Savage Sword of Conan #34. Roy Thomas provided the script and Mike Ploog did the art.
Below are some unpublished notes L. Sprague de Camp made on this story when preparing Dark Valley Destiny, Bluejay Books, 1983. The notes are very astute.
This story and “The Tower of the Elephant” are my favorites REH stories. I can’t recommend these stories enough as a gateway to REH fandom. Both are perfect. I’ve discussed “The Tower of the Elephant” several times before; both on this blog and in various fanzines. But nailing down the wonderment of “The Mirrors of Tuzun Thune” is a bit harder.
The story starts with great pessimistic prose poetry, “There comes, even to kings, the time of great weariness.” The Conan the Barbarian movie put this dialogue in the mouth of King Osric and Max Von Sydow spoke it wonderfully. The Conan movie borrowed even more dialogue from the Kull stories and, of course, Kull’s foe, Thulsa Doom, became Conan’s nemesis. The success of the movie suggests that Conan is the better realized character but the Kull stories had the best atmosphere and dialogue.
After Brule fails to cheer Kull up, a girl approaches the king. “Great king, seek Tuzun Thune, the wizard. The secrets of life and death are his, and the stars in the sky and the lands beneath the seas.”
When an unknown beautiful woman approaches me I suspect she is out to steal my kidney but Kull doesn’t suspect foul play. “Kull looked at the girl. Fine gold was her hair and her violet eyes were slanted strangely; she was beautiful, but her beauty meant little to Kull.”
Kull goes to see Tuzun Thune and after some great dialogue (also borrowed for the Conan the Barbarian movie) gazes into the Mirrors of Tuzun Thune. Kull starts tripping with more introspective thinking than even eating a whole Delta 8 CBD Chocolate Bar can induce.
“I come before this mirror,” mused Kull, chin on fist, “and bring this man to life. This is beyond my understanding, since first I saw him in the still waters of the lakes of Atlantis, till I saw him again in the gold-rimmed mirrors of Valusia. He is I, a shadow of myself, part of myself – I can bring him into being or slay him at my will; yet – he halted, strange thoughts whispering through the vast dim recesses of his mind like shadowy bats flying through a great cavern – “yet where is he when I stand not in front of a mirror? May it be in man’s power thus lightly to form and destroy a shadow of life and existence? How do I know that when I step back from the mirror he vanishes into the void of Naught?”
Kull continues on like this and spends hours contemplating his reflection. Addicted, Kull ignores his day to day duties and returns again and again to gaze into the Mirrors.
As Kull fades, Brule enters, shatters the mirror, and slays Tuzun Thune. Although Tuzun Thune is dead and the house of mirrors desolate, Kull’s memories linger:
“… Kull upon his throne meditates often upon the strange wisdom and untold secrets hidden there and wonders … For there are worlds beyond worlds, as Kull knows, and whether the wizard bewitched him by words or by mesmerism, vistas did open to the king’s gaze beyond that strange door, and Kull is less sure of reality since he gazed into the mirrors of Tuzun Thune.”
This story either grabs you with it metaphysical thinking or it doesn’t. It grabbed me and it grabbed Farnsworth Wright gaining REH a paycheck. It is depressing that REH was only able to sell two Kull stories to Weird Tales. REH had a real knack for thoughtful Sword & Sorcery, and really great Kull stories were never sold. Conan is solid action and adventure but Kull is all that and a little more. I’m not sure I did enough of a convincing write up here but REH’s Kull stories, are to my thinking, some of his best work.
Illustration by Justin Sweet for Kull: Exile of Atlantis, Del Rey, 2006
“Wizard and Warrior” is an unfinished fragment by Robert E. Howard that was reworked by Lin Carter. It is the eleventh story in King Kull, Lancer Books, 1967. Presumably Lin Carter also titled the story.
Illustration by Justin Sweet for Kull: Exile of Atlantis, Del Rey, 2006
Lin Carter edited the fragment and provided an ending. Comparing the first few paragraphs shows the type of changes that Lin Carter made.
Lancer:
Three men sat at a table playing a game with carved ivory pieces. Across the sill of the open window whispered a faint breeze, redolent of the heady perfume of roses from the moonlit garden that lay beyond.
Three men sat at a table. One was a king, the second a prince of an ancient and noble house, the third a chieftain of a terrible and barbaric nation.
“Score!” quoth Kull, King of Valusia, as he moved one of the ivory figures on the board. “My wizard holds your warrior in check, Brule.
Del Rey:
Three men sat at a table playing a game. Across the sill of an open window there whispered a faint breezing, blowing the filmy curtains about and bearing to the players the incense of roses and vines and growing green things.
Three men sat at a table – one was a king – one a prince of an ancient house – one was the chief of a terrible and barbaric nation.
“Score!” quoth Kull, king of Valusia, as he moved one of the ivory figures. “My wizard menaces your warrior, Brule.”
Lin Carter followed the two page draft pretty closely, slightly changing sentence structure and punctuation as he saw fit as the editor of the story.
Marvel Comics adapted the completed Lin Carter version of the story in The Savage Sword of Conan #55. Script by Roy Thomas and art by Alfredo Alcala. Marvel used the title “The Wizard and the Warrior” for Conan the Barbarian #29. That issue was an adaptation of REH’s “Two for Tyre” however.
Brule takes center-stage in this story. REH contrasts Kull as a tiger and Brule as a leopard. He continues to describe Brule: “Immobile features set off a fine head, powerful neck, heavy trim shoulders and a deep chest. These features, with the muscular legs and arms, were characteristics of the nation to which he belonged. But in one respect Brule differed from his tribesman, for whereas their eyes were mostly hard scintillant brown or wicked black, his were a deep volcanic blue. Somewhere in his blood was a vagrant strain of Celt or of those scattered savages who lived in ice caves close to the Arctic circle.” Lin Carter changed the wording in his version to: “This trim, powerful musculature was characteristic of his warlike and barbarous tribe of the Pictish Isles, but in one respect he differed from his fellow tribesmen. Whereas they had glinting eyes of black, his burned a strange blue. Somewhere in his blood was mingled a vagrant strain of Celt or of those scattered savages who live in the ice caves of the cold north, near distant, fabulous Thule.”
At this time in his life, REH was starting his fascination with the Celts and losing touch with Kull as a character. In a previous story, “Riders Beyond the Sunrise” it seemed REH was leading Kull to his doom and possibly replacing him with Kelkor (with the “strange eyes”). Now in this story Brule is the main focus and he acquires the characteristic most associated with Conan, “volcanic blue eyes.” I’m surprised Lin Carter didn’t edit this description more. Brule had been described as being dark-eyed in previous stories and mentioning Celts seems anachronistic for a Kull story. Replacing “Arctic circle” with Thule was arguably a good edit.
In both REH’s and Lin Carter’s version, Brule tells a story of his encounter with a wizard. The reader is informed about Pictish society and internal politics. Brule’s tribe is at war with the Sungara, a rival tribe. Lin gives Brule a mighty (maybe magical, definitely anti-magical) iron sword. (Lin was big on the mighty sword trope.) Brule confronts Aa-thak the wizard. Brule’s iron sword thwarts Aa-thak’s magic in a stalemate until Brule uses the sword to slice Aa-thak’s magic staff. After that Brule easily slays the wizard.
Returning to the game, Brule moves another ivory piece and checkmates Kull. Kull concludes: “The game is yours, Brule, but I cannot object! My sympathies are ever with the warrior against the wizard. Magic fails, as ever it must, against a strong man’s will and wit – as my wits fail against this strong wine, or I should have seen your trap!”
Lin ends the story: “But he called for more wine, and proposed another game.”
“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.
Illustration by Justin Sweet for Kull: Exile of Atlantis, Del Rey, 2006
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.
Unpublished note by L. Sprague de Camp.
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?
“The Striking of the Gong” was first submitted to Argosy. The current text comes from an untitled typescript. Robert E. Howard refers to the story as “The Chiming of the Gong” in a February 1929 letter to Tevis Clyde Smith but it was listed as “The Striking of the Gong” in the files of Otis Kline, who acted as REH’s agent, and that specific phrase ends the tale. Rejected by Argosy, this story was first published in King Kull, Lancer Books, 1967. It was heavily edited by Lin Carter.
Illustration by Justin Sweet for Kull: Exile of Atlantis, Del Rey, 2006
Lin Carter heavily edited this very short story. Comparing the first few paragraphs in the Lancer version with the first paragraph in the Del Rey version shows the typical changes.
Lancer:
Somewhere in the hot, red darkness a dim, faint vibration was born. A pulse of sound, a sourceless whisper, a dim drumming cadence like the beating of a hot, red heart amid the blackness.
The man stirred, prodded toward consciousness by the throbbing echo. He sat up, reaching about with blind hands through the blur of hot darkness, but could feel nothing.
The sound was clearer now, sharper, almost a substance, almost tangible. As it pulsed, it cast forth long rippling tendrils that stirred the hot, breathless dark as a black lake stirs to spreading ripples.
The pulse rose and fell above him, within him; it was as if he rose and fell on the moving surface of a black ocean, riding on the drumming waves. He could not decide if the soundless pulsation was in the darkness about him, or if it drummed within his brain. His very skull rang with the throbbing as a beaten gong. A fantastic thought sent needles of ice through him … being alone here in the pulsating red darkness was like being imprisoned within his own brain ….
Del Rey:
Somewhere in the hot red darkness there began a throbbing. A pulsating cadence, soundless but vibrant with reality, sent out long rippling tendrils that flowed through the breathless air. The man stirred, groped about with blind hands, and sat up. At first it seemed to him that he was floating on the even and regular waves of a black ocean, rising and falling with a monotonous regularity which hurt him physically somehow. He was aware of the pulsing and throbbing of the air and he reached out his hands as though to catch the elusive waves. But was the throbbing in the air about him, or in the brain inside his skull? He could not understand and a fantastic thought came to him – a feeling that he was locked inside his own skull.
Lin Carter’s additional verbiage turned a four page story into a seven page one. The plot, the story contents, and the conclusion are the same as in the original REH version.
Marvel Comics adapted the less verbose REH version in The Savage Sword of Conan #23. Script by Roy Thomas. Art by Rick Hoberg and Bill Wray.
Around February 20, 1928 REH wrote a letter to Tevis Clyde Smith about Sir Richard Burton’s The Kasidah. One of the better known couplets from that work is:
All other Life is living Death, a world where none but Phantoms dwell, A breath, a wind, a sound, a voice, a tinkling of the camel-bell.
“A tinkling of the camel-bell” is a little wimpy for a Kull story title though. “The Striking of the Gong” is much stronger. I can’t say for sure that REH got his idea for this story from reading The Kasidah but we know REH read it.
REH letter to Tevis Clyde Smith, February 20, 1928
REH plays both sides a bit in this letter, lauding science, but still willing to consider alternative ideas. In any case, REH incorporated metaphysical thinking into several Kull stories. He had great success with “The Mirrors of Tuzun Thune” but this story was too slight to gain a payday.
The story starts with a very disoriented Kull. “It is strange” he murmured to himself. “I cannot recall who I am – or where, or how I came to this place. Have I always been here?”
Eventually an aged man greets Kull and Kull remember his own identity and remembers a watchman “striking the gong to tell the hour.” The aged man says, “You passed through the Door. It always seems dark at the beginning, and none remembers the passage hither.”
Kull assumes he is dead but the man tells him that that is not definitely so. He speaks of the Door being still open. There is a lot of metaphysical chatter about worlds within worlds, microverses, and a billion years being as a moment in eternity.
As Kull gazes at “the multitudinous heavens” he is snapped back to his previous reality where Brule informs him that he was attacked by an assassin. Kull believes hours have passed but Brule tells him it was only a moment.
Kull says “Brule, there is no such thing as time or space! For I have traveled the longest journey of my life and have lived millions of years and stood on two different worlds remote in the vastness of the universe during the striking of a gong.”
As mentioned before Lin Carter heavily edited the story. Both versions are slightly enjoyable but only in the context of seeing Kull being trippy again. As standalone stories both versions lack in wonderment.
“By This Axe I Rule!” was rejected by the pulp magazines Argosy and Adventure. There are no weird elements in this story. When Robert E. Howard rewrote the story and it was published as “The Phoenix on the Sword” in the December 1932 issue of Weird Tales he not only added weird sorcery, he changed the lead characters and introduced the world to Conan the Cimmerian. “By This Axe I Rule!” was first published in King Kull, Lancer Books, 1967.
Illustration by Justin Sweet, from Kull: Exile of Atlantis, Del Rey, 2006
There are some textual differences between the Lancer and Del Rey versions. At one point Glenn Lord corrects REH’s math. Had de Camp made this edit I’m sure Big Brother purists would be insisting that 4 + 10 = 20 and that Sprague be treated even more like Winston Smith. (More on that change below.) Besides changing the conspirator’s names (mentioned in the letter excerpt below), and adding various commas, capitalization, and hyphenation; Glenn Lord made some other changes.
Letter from Glenn Lord to L. Sprague de Camp
Lancer: (The conspirators are renamed: Ascalante becomes Ardyon, Ridondo stays Ridondo, Volmana becomes Ducalon, Gromel becomes Enaros, Kaanuub stays Kaanuub.)
Lancer: (in the first paragraph REH originally counted down the last two of the four conspirators. Lancer removes the words: “the third” and “last”)
Lancer: “So fades the life our our enemy” (An obvious typo.)
Del Rey: “So fade the life of our enemy.”
Lancer: There was no point overlooking…
Del Rey: There was no use overlooking…
Lancer: or rather, today
Del Rey: I mean today
Lancer: courtiers
Del Rey: sentries
Lancer: whom
Del Rey: who
Lancer: sombre-looking fellow
Del Rey: somber evil looking fellow
Lancer: useless for he lacks the necessary brains
Del Rey: useless – lacking the necessary brains
Lancer: (line eliminated)
Del Rey: I am the power that has welded these men, useless without me.
Lancer: (line eliminated)
Del Rey: the old dynasty
Lancer: Kelkor
Del Rey: Kelka
This was a needed continuity change for this series.
Lancer: leonine
Del Rey: lion
Lancer: Only as a wife do I want her.
Del Rey: Only as wife I want her.
Lancer: would be a hollow mockery
Del Rey: would be hollow mockery
Lancer: by going into
Del Rey: as to go into
Lancer: me
Del Rey: us
Lancer: You, nor any other king, may alter it.
Del Rey: Neither you, nor any other king, may alter it.
Lancer: (line eliminated)
Del Rey: or any change
Lancer: (word eliminated)
Del Rey: little
Lancer: birds
Del Rey: bird
Lancer: (word eliminated)
Del Rey: shocked
Lancer: sixteen desperate outlaws
Del Rey: ten wild desperate outlaws
This was a needed change. REH had previously indicated there would be 16 outlaws to help in the coup but later mistakenly writes “ten wild desperate outlaws” instead of “sixteen” making the odds 14 to 1, not 20 to 1 as indicated in the text.
Lancer: (adds a line not in the original) In this extremity, Ardyon’s cynical philosophy did not escape him.
Lancer: “He did not leave until it was late in the evening, and only then did Ala find a chance to steal away and come to me.”
Del Rey: “He did not leave until it was late, and then Ala stole away and came to me.”
Lancer: rule
Del Rey: king it
Except for the 10 vs. 16 men and changing Kelka to Kelkor none of these changes were really needed. But editors edit to the way they think best. At that point in time REH was not held in the awe (by zealot fans) that he is today. I’m glad we eventually got pure-text but the edits of de Camp and Glenn Lord, at this stage, were certainly understandable and hardly remain grudge-worthy.
Marvel Comics adapted the story in Kull the Destroyer #11. Writer Roy Thomas completely changes the finale, turning the conspirator Ardyon into a disguised Thulsa Doom. Thulsa Doom wins in the end and Kull is imprisoned. (Kull regains the throne in Kull the Destroyer #29.)
Note made by de Camp in preparing Dark Valley Destiny. De Camp apparently forgot that Glenn Lord made the name changes, not REH.
The story starts by introducing the coup conspirators. It is sort of surprising that none of the plotters are serpent men until you realize that REH was not going for a weird story this time out. Although set in a fantasy world there isn’t any other fantasy here.
The dialogue is poetic and mood setting. There is an “Oath of the Dagger and Flame” complete with blood-letting to seal the deal. Ascalante/Ardyon is the brains of the bunch, masterfully bribing soldiers and organizing the details.
The second chapter has Kull aware of possible impending turmoil, “I prepared myself to seize the throne, not to hold it.” Later he mentions: “And now, in the Temple of the Serpent, there come to burn incense to Borna’s memory…” Readers of “The Shadow Kingdom” might raise eyebrows reading that the Temple of the Serpent is still a thing. That the various Kull stories do not always match up with each other, as in this example, and the many examples of Kull forgetting marriage rules in Atlantis are as bad or worse than marriage laws in Valusia do detract if reading with the mindset that the collected stories are a series instead of standalone stories that REH didn’t always keep in a rigid continuity. Perhaps that unevenness is part of the reason Kull has been less successful than Conan in the marketplace.
The third chapter could almost be from a romance novel if Ala was the main character. She comes across as a delicate lovelorn character deserving of the reader and Kull’s sympathy. There is fine writing here and it could surprize those who are only familiar with the blood and thunder of Conan tales.
The final chapter is blood and thunder and definitely exciting. Readers of the previous Kull stories can appreciate this finale more than those that haven’t. In previous stories we’ve seen Kull fret about laws and somehow by story’s end he makes piecemeal progress. In this story the fed up reader and Kull get to burst out their frustration. Kull declares:
This ending is very satisfying to me in the context of the Kull series. But in real life an actual strong-armed monarch would result in there being a lot of Ridondo on my Spotify playlists.
“Riders Beyond the Sunrise” was first published in King Kull, Lancer Books, 1967. The original untitled draft by Robert E. Howard was edited and completed by Lin Carter. REH only wrote 18 pages then abandoned the effort. The story has some plot similarities to “Delcardes’ Cat” AKA “The Cat and the Skull.”
Illustration by Justin Sweet for Kull: Exile of Atlantis, Del Rey, 2006
Lin Carter rewrote a lot of REH’s prose but closely followed the outline that REH provided. The textual changes are numerous. An example of the type of the simpler changes Lin Carter made are exemplified by the very first paragraphs in each version.
Lancer: “Thus,” concluded Tu, the chief councilor, “did Lala-ah the Countess of Vanara flee with her lover, the Farsunian adventurer, Felnar. And thus she has brought shame to her husband-to-be, and to the very throne of Valusia!”
Del Rey: “Thus,” said Tu, chief councillor, “did Lala-ah, countess of Fanara, flee with her lover, Felgar, Farsunian adventurer, bringing shame to her husband-to-be and to the very throne of Valusia!”
Several of the changes that follow are similar. Mostly commas, sentence structure, and changing names. Apparently Lin thought three “F” names in the first paragraph were too effing much.
Several lines of new prose were added and old prose completely changed. Nevertheless Carter follows the fragment’s plot to where REH concluded it.
Marvel Comics adapted both the REH fragment and the Lin Carter completion in Marvel Preview #19. (They separated each version into two separate chapters.) Marvel Preview had alternating features from issue to issue. Example: #18 featured Star-Lord, #20 featured Bizarre Adventures. This issue featured Kull.
Illustration by Justin Sweet for Kull: Exile of Atlantis, Del Rey, 2006
Glenn Lord initially sought de Camp’s advice for the King Kull volume. He bounced off his idea of renaming the initial untitled story and the merits of including a segment of “The Hyborian Age” in the book. Glenn Lord also followed de Camp’s example in editing grammatical details for the completed stories. He also approached de Camp to complete the unfinished King Kull stories but Sprague had other obligations. So Lin Carter got the job.
Like “Delcardes’ Cat” this story starts with Valusian marriage rules being the impetus for an adventure. Tu is explaining to Kull how Countess Lala-ah is insulting the crown by ignoring her betrothal to Ka-yanna and fleeing away with Felnar.
Kull, once again, lies about Atlantean marriage rules. In the REH version, Kull says, “… in my land women mate with whom they will and with whom they choose.” Maybe so, but they will get burned at the stake if they choose wrongly. Kull conveniently forgets why he is an “Exile of Atlantis.” Carter rewrote the response in his version, “In my land women mate with the men whom their hearts chose. Of course, we were only savages …” Either way Kull is being deceitful but perhaps a little more deceitful and passive/aggressive in Carter’s dialogue.
In either case Tu realizes a new strategy is needed and has a soldier tell Kull of Felnar’s insult. In the REH version, “Tell the barbarian swine who defiles an ancient throne, that I name him scoundrel. Tell him that some day I shall return and clothe his cowardly carcase in the clothing of women, to attend my chariot horses.” Carter rewrites this as: “Tell the barbarian swine who defiles Valusia’s sacred throne that I name him scoundrel, rogue, and vile usurper. Tell him that someday I and my bride, whose title to the royal name is purer than his, shall return with a thousand swords at our back, to pull him from his place. I shall clothe Kull’s cowardly body in the raiment of women and set him to attend the horses of my chariot, which is an occupation more fit to his lowly birth.” In the REH version Kull reacts in pure anger. In Carter’s version Kull reacts in anger but also thinking about the threat to his kingly status. Both versions have their flaws. Kull has been previously portrayed as a thinker and a fighter; so his reaction in the REH version is understandable but it makes him too brutish. Carter’s version makes him too Machiavellian.
There is a good amount of geography in this story. Some of the best clues for map-making are here. This story mentions the kingdom of Zarfhaana, the hills of Zalgara, the Camoonian desert, the wastelands of Grondar, Farsun, and the small principalities south of Thurania. (Lots here, even some capital cities I’m not bothering to mention.) From all this rises a controversy as to what countries comprise the “Seven Empires.” Marvel Comics had Zarfhaana as one of the seven empires. The latest game rule book from Modiphius does not. I’ll let others argue this out for now.
A new character, Kelkor the Lemurian, is introduced. Because of his nationality he is only second in command. In REH’s version there is a lengthy paragraph describing his many virtues. Carter tones that down a bit and mainly has Kull thinking about the injustice of Kelkor’s second in command status. “Kull cursed this blind adherence to King Custom that ruled in Valusia with a power above even the king’s will.”
REH’s unfinished story ends with Kull and his men arriving at World’s End (or Edge) and having to ferry across the river Stagus with Karon the ferryman. REH clearly states this led to the legend of Charon the ferryman, the river Styx (or Acheron), and crossing into to Hades.
No one can really know how REH was planning to end this story. REH himself probably realized everything was leading toward a death-battle for Kull and decided to scrap a literal dead end. Kelkor was obviously intended to have a major role in any conclusion. Perhaps REH intended to replace Kelkor with Kull? Kelkor seems a more Conan-like character.
Lin Carter’s conclusion to the story is a safe one. But he really couldn’t do much else. After crossing the river alone, Kull confronts Felnar and the Countess. The countess fades into mist and Felnar transforms into the skull-faced Thulsa Doom. “Sorcery indeed, O Kull, that has tricked you and lured you near the World’s Edge where your gods can no longer shield you nor aid you against my wrath!”
Kull fights Doom to a standstill until Kelkor (who heroically swam the river to help Kull) advises Kull to strike Doom’s sword from his hand and use it to slay Doom. The ploy works and Kull promotes Kelkor to the highest command. “I have defeated a devil’s magic here – I doubt not that I can defeat an empty law in Valusia.”
Carter’s conclusion was somewhat satisfying but if Kull had been adamant in the beginning that some Valusian laws needed overturning this adventure needed to never occur. If Kull was just honest with Tu about his “exile” from Atlantis and came clean that he was a rule-breaker from youth on, Tu might realize arguing with Kull is a fruitless task!
BUY THIS BOOK IF YOU ARE A KULL FAN. It is chock-full of useful information!
“The Skull of Silence” was written sometime in 1928 and originally titled “The Screaming Skull of Silence.” It was submitted to Weird Tales and rejected. In 1966, Glenn Lord submitted the tale to FantasticStories. They rejected it as well. The story appeared with the new title in King Kull, Lancer Books, 1967 for the first time.
Excerpt from a letter of Glenn Lord to L. Sprague de Camp, December 16, 1966
Illustration by Justin Sweet from Kull: Exile of Atlantis, Del Rey, 2006
There are some textual changes besides the normal punctuation, capitalization, and spelling differences:
Lancer: No poem
Del Rey:
Lancer: understood that natural forces
Del Rey: understood natural forces
Lancer: produced
Del Rey: producing
Lancer: green in color
Del Rey: green in shade
Lancer: for before his amazed stare
Del Rey: for to his amazed stare
Lancer: like all earthly noise
Del Rey: like all earth noises
Lancer: dimly aware
Del Rey: being aware
Lancer: Silence was the absence of sound.
Del Rey: Silence the absence of sound.
Lancer: And Silence screamed!
Del Rey: And Silence screamed!
The Del Rey version quits after “And Silence screamed!” The Lancer version has an additional four paragraphs (presumably by Glenn Lord since Lin Carter is not credited) that close out the story. As a standalone story the concluding paragraphs would be superfluous but since the story is part of a character’s ongoing series those closing paragraphs are arguably needed to tie up and conclude the story.
Marvel Comics adapted the story in Creatures on the Loose #10. This was an excellent adaptation by Roy Thomas and Bernie Wrightson and marked the first (other than cameo) appearance of King Kull at Marvel.
L. Sprague de Camp’s unpublished first thoughts upon reading the story.
I have disagreed with Sprague before and will do so again. This story is one of REH’s best King Kull stories and it blew my mind as a teenager. The only part that was slightly unconvincing to me was Kull ignoring the advice of Kuthulos whom he doted on when Kuthulos pretended to be a cat in the previous story.
The story starts in an interesting way. Detailing the difference between repugnance and fear. And boldly saying, “…real fear in [Kull] was so rare a thing that men mark the day.” The story starts with Kuthulos expounding his particular brand of metaphysical thought and the greatness of the ancient philosopher, Raama. Ka-nu mentions Raama sealing a spectre of silence into a great castle. Brule mentions having seen the castle. Kull’s interest is piqued and organizes a sight-seeing trip.
Once there Kull impetuously has to go inside the castle. Kuthulos warns Kull a second time. But “Kull, impatient of restraint, waved him aside. He was in the grip of a wayward perverseness, a common fault of kings, and though usually reasonable he had now made up his mind and was not to be swerved from his course.”
Kuthulos warns Kull a third time but Kull breaks the seal and opens the door and Silence is unleashed. REH’s description of the horror of “Silence” is amazing.
Kull remembers Raama’s safeguard. A gong of jade that personifies Sound. By repeatedly striking the gong until a last blow that encompasses all “the sound in the Universe rushed together in one roaring, yelling, shattering , engulfing burst of sound! The gong blew into a million vibrating fragments! And Silence screamed!“
A really great and mind-blowing story if you accept the fantasy that sound and silence are material things. And that to me is the strength of the Kull stories. REH’s prose has a dream-like quality and the reader is lulled into accepting these concepts by a tone that is missing from the typical sword & sorcery tale.
spraguedecampfan 