Conan is iconic within our community and my own readings in the canon are extremely weak. I would like to fix that and hopefully take us on a journey as I review each story. I would like to go in chronological order of the Lancer/Ace series, as that is what I physically own.
This chronology actually starts with “The Thing in the Crypt” by de Camp and Carter – not a Howard. It will be an interesting start!
A short in 6 sections which deals with Conan’s flight from slavery into the wilds and his first encounter with sorcerous forces.
Pursued by wolves across a frozen landscape, Conan is harried until he finds a small cave to take refuge. Within he discovered an ancient crypt of a long dead chief. Taking his blue iron sword, he roars a challenge to the world, for the dead chief to rise and answer.
A fight when Conan dismembers and disassembles the chief at first leads to stalemate and near disaster, until the mummy-like creature is hauled onto a fire. Conan leaves and heads south, suitable equipped for a life of adventure.
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What struck me about this short is the characterisation of Conan and the “purebred” Cimmerians. Great stress is put into their barbarous ways and that reading/writing are considered effeminate. It seemed quite jarring in the flow of the narrative, alongside other weird expositions such as the clunky worldbuilding as the surrounding geography was described, or the throw away line that Atlantis sunk beneath the waves 8000 years ago. For the characterisation of the barbarians to work, I would imagine most of the above would not be considered worth knowing.
Still, this sets up the main beats of the Conan character nicely – starting from nowhere, he gained all he has through his thews and thought.
The story was pretty fun and almost read as a Conan slice of life, for this kind of encounter would be merely Tuesday, if not for the walking dead.