“The Bloody Crown of Conan”, by Robert E. Howard, illustrated by Gary Gianni

 

384 pages, Del Rey, ISBN-13: 978-0345461520

 

In the early oughts, Del Rey began producing the complete works of Robert E. Howard; The Bloody Crown of Conan, illustrated by Gary Gianni, was the third volume to be published. As with the first volume of the series, this volume continues its tribute to one of fantasy literature’s founding fathers by gathering together the next series of Conan stories written by Robert E. Howard, again published here in the order they were published: The People of the Black Circle, The Hour of the Dragon and A Witch Shall Be Born, along with various miscellanea featuring several untitled synopses, a draft story and notes for The Hour of the Dragon; added to all of this is insightful commentary and, of course, original artwork to complement the blood and guts you’re reading about. Each of these tales is a longer-form novella, as opposed to the short stories and snippets we got in the first volume, and it is indeed a delight to see everyone’s favorite Cimmerian once again striding the plains of the Hyborian age. No mindless, muscle-bound slayer he; rather, this Conan – Howard’s Conan; the ORIGINAL Conan – is the ill-educated yet crafty righter of wrongs and slayer of evil. Readers new to the character or, like me, who wish to get reacquainted with the Cimmerian are encouraged to take full advantage of this collection.

 

Really, Del Rey has done fantasy fans a service by republishing all of Howard’s original stories of his most famous of characters in their original form. With The Bloody Crown of Conan, we see Conan in expanded adventures, which allows Howard to flesh out his character somewhat while also slipping in some of the author’s subtle beliefs (Howard did not think that “civilized” was the same as “honorable”, for instance; indeed, after completing Volume one and, now, Volume two, he would suggest that for all their barbarism, barbarians are the more honorable specimen of humanity, as one’s word and honor is everything to them).

 

But we also see a kind of consistency with Conan here, with Howard placing his character in positions of authority: an Afghuli tribal chieftain in The People of the Black Circle, the King of Aquilonia in The Hour of the Dragon and the Captain of the Khaurani guard in A Witch Shall Be Born. As Howard suggests, Conan’s “barbarism” gives him an edge over his “civilized” adversaries, allowing him to navigate the perplexities of the lands he inhabits in ways his opponents couldn’t dream of doing – oh, the wolf is still there, waiting to strike, but it has been chained through self-discipline, although it is the trainer himself who holds the chain.

 

It has been suggested that, by around 1934, Howard had begun to grow tired of his most famous of characters; if true, it cannot be seen in this volume of stories, which still show Howard at the height of his creative powers and Conan still the original barbaric bad-ass he ever was.