“Sword Woman and Other Historical Adventures”, by Robert E. Howard, illustrated by John Watkiss

 

576 pages, Del Rey, ISBN-13: 978-0345505460

In the early oughts, Del Rey began producing the complete works of Robert E. Howard; Sword Woman and Other Historical Adventures, illustrated by John Watkiss, was the eleventh and last volume to be published; the tales and other items contained within are: Blades for France, The Blood of Belshazzar, Gates of Empire, Hawks of Outremer, Hawks Over Egypt, The Lion of Tiberias, Lord of Samarcand, Red Blades of Black Cathay, The Road of Azrael, The Road of the Eagles, The Shadow of the Vulture, The Skull in the Clouds, The Sowers of the Thunder, Spears of Clontarf and Sword Woman; the poems A Thousand Years Ago, The Outgoing of Sigurd the Jerusalem-Farer, The Sign of the Sickle and Timur-lang; and other Miscellanea, such as Mistress of Death (uncompleted draft), Recap of Harold Lamb’s “The Wolf Chaser”, The Slave-Princess (fragment), The Track of Bohemund (unfinished draft),Untitled fragment (“He knew de Bracy…”), Untitled fragment (“The Persians had all fled…”) and Untitled fragment (“The wind from the Mediterranean…”).

I have to ask myself why, in the modern era in which everyone is Woke and the past is seen as nothing short of dismally unenlightened, does a writer such as Robert E. Howard endure? How is it that this 20^th Century straight white male of a dinosaur still attract legions of fans almost a century after he took his own life? First and most obviously is his quality; few can write such meaningful characters from a broad milieu of peoples and places in such a convincing manner – and then place these characters in one blood-drenched action-packed scenery-chewing scene after another. Sword Woman contains a plethora of such characters, such as *ahem*: Cormac Fitzgeoffrey, the half-Norman/half-Gael Knight of the Third Crusade and protagonist of Hawks of Outremer, The Blood of Belshazzar and The Slave-Princess; Diego de Guzman, a Spaniard who visits Cairo in the guise of a Muslim on a mission on revenge in Hawks Over Egypt; Giles Hobson, the rotund vagabond protagonist of Gates of Empire and possibly Howard’s answer to Sir John Falstaff; Godric de Villehard, another Crusader who fights the mighty Genghis Khan after being wounded and nursed back to life by the medics of the empire of Black Cathay (China?) in Red Blades of Black Cathay;

And, of course, there is Agnes de Chastillon – aka Dark Agnes, Agnes de la Fere and The Sword Woman – who stands as one of Howard’s most interesting and least-appreciated characters. The protagonist of Sword Woman, Blades for France and Mistress of Death, these tales were not published until well after Howard’s death, perhaps accounting for poor Agnes’ lack of recognition. Agnes de Chastillon’s biography begins with beatings by her brute of a father and her arranged marriage – a fate she avoids by killing the would-be bridegroom and fleeing the inevitable wrath of her father and bespoken husband’s family. She meets Etienne Villiers, who at first attempts to sell her to a brothel, and Guiscard de Clisson, a mercenary captain who trains her as a swordswoman. Agnes has red hair and a short temper (much like Howard’s character Red Sonya of Rogatino), but while Red Sonja’s skill in the handling of swords is a divine gift, Agnes’ skill is a mixture of innate talent and training (The Sword Woman may be partially based on Novalyne Price, an American schoolteacher and writer who became close friends with and occasionally dated Howard; wonder what she thought of aka Dark Agnes…)

But Howard’s longevity with fans and critics alike is due to the depths of his intellect, along with his action scenes and humane characterizations. Perhaps unusual for his time, Howard expressed a melancholy for that which had been lost to the march of time, always seeming to cast a forlorn glance over his shoulder at receding history and the glories of those lost chaotic, freer times (one cannot help but feel that Howard did not read his Nietzsche and that he allowed the abyss to gaze back into him). What one also reads in Howard’s fiction is his long-standing belief that barbarism was Mankind’s natural state and that, indeed, one had more to learn and admire in “uncivilized barbarians” than with civilized city-folk. Furthermore, the longer humanity remains civilized the farther they drift from their strong beginnings carved out by the sword and the more decadent they become. Well, whatever one believes – I, for one, like my civilization’s heat and indoor plumbing – Sword Woman and Other Historical Adventures shows yet another side to Robert E. Howard and displays once more his knack for character creation and storytelling – and it makes one mourn his too-early passing all the more.