By heaven’s breeze unfurled

The lion banner and the dragon banner

Flutter around the world.


and which read in fact:


By heaven’s breeze unfurled

The Tiger banner and Dragon banner

Flutter around the world.


Howard’s memory was an exceptional one, and only one word didn’t match. Readers familiar with Howard’s writings will recognize the tiger as Kull’s totem while Conan is often associated with the lion: in the novel The Hour of the Dragon, the lion banner is the emblem of Aquilonia, while the dragon banner is that of its enemy, Nemedia, in a clear homage to Masters.


The last glints of the sun shone on the golden banner of Nemedia with the scarlet dragon, unfurled in the breeze above the pavilion of King Tarascus on an eminence near the eastern cliffs. But the shadow of the western cliffs fell like a vast purple pall across the tents and the army of Aquilonia, and upon the black banner with its golden lion that floated above King Conan’s pavilion. (The Bloody Crown of Conan, Del Rey, 2004, pp. 92–93)


It is of course impossible to ascertain the influence of Masters’ poem on the naming of Howard’s character, but it is a tempting possibility. Another will be detailed below.

It is not conclusively known when–or even if–that first Kull story was ever submitted professionally. The original typescript is a peculiar one, written either between July 1925 and January 1926, or between August and September 1926 (that is to say just before Howard began work on what was to become The Shadow Kingdom.) The various typographical errors and amateurish corrections would seem in favor of the anterior date, but the fact that the story exists as an original and a carbon would tend to indicate the latter. Early in his career, Howard rarely prepared carbons for his stories, but this probably changed in January 1926 when Weird Tales thought they had lost the typescript for a story which had been accepted for publication. Howard had been unable to provide them with the carbon the editors asked for, not having prepared one. On the other hand, neither the original nor the carbon are titled or signed, usually a sure sign that the typescript was not submitted. The only solutions that present themselves, then, are that Howard thought the story unsuitable for submission and never attempted to title or submit it professionally, preferring to start work on The Shadow Kingdom, or that this story was originally the beginning of The Shadow Kingdom, whose convoluted history is detailed below.

The Shadow Kingdom occupies a special place in Howard’s fiction in particular and weird fiction in general, as well as in the author’s heart. In the letter to Alvin Earl Perry, he stated that he “enjoyed writing ‘The Shadow Kingdom’ better than any other tale.” Just after selling the story, Howard confided to Tevis Clyde Smith:


I enjoyed writing it more than any piece of prose I ever wrote. The subject of psychology is the one I am mainly interested in these days. The story I sold before this was purely a study in psychology of dreams and this mss. deals largely in primitive psychology. (REH to Tevis Clyde Smith, ca. October 1927, Selected Letters, 1923–1930, p. 9)


Evidence to be found in Howard’s semi-autobiographical novel Post Oaks and Sand Roughs enables us to trace the first attempts to complete what would become The Shadow Kingdom to 1926. In that novel, Howard’s alter-ego, Steve Costigan “did begin a wild fantasy entitled ‘The Phantom Empire’ (i.e., The Shadow Kingdom),” which he “laid aside partly finished and forgot about” (Post Oak and Sand Roughs, D. Grant, 1989, p. 109). Almost a year later, in the summer of 1927, “he came upon ‘The Phantom Empire,’ deserted several months before, completed it, and then laid it aside and forgot about it.” Some time later, “Steve again discovered ‘The Phantom Empire,’ rewrote it, and again laid it aside.” The story was accepted a short while later by Farnsworth Wright and published in the August 1929 issue of Weird Tales.

A series of letters to H. P. Lovecraft illuminates the source for many of the events depicted in the story. In June 1931, Howard briefly summed up his interests in the Bible to Lovecraft:


As for Biblical history, my real interest begins and ends with the age of Saul, outside of snatches here and there, as in the case of Samson. I’m sure you’re right in your theory that numbers of Aryans must have drifted into the near East of that age, and as far as I can see, the days of Saul and David represent an Aryan phase in the racial-life of Israel. (REH to H. P. Lovecraft, ca. June 1931, unpublished)


He had expressed much the same sentiment in an earlier letter:


I cannot think of Saul, David, Abner and Joab as Jews, not even as Arabs; to me they must always seem like Aryans, like myself. Saul, in particular, I always unconsciously visualize as a Saxon king, of those times when the invaders of Britain were just beginning to adopt the Christian religion. (REH to HPL, ca. February 1931, unpublished)


This seems to have been an important issue with Howard. Tevis Clyde Smith, in the notes for his projected Howard biography, wrote:


Hated Disliked Samuel and Respected Saul–(“So Far the Poet….,” Report on a Writing Man & Other Reminiscences of Robert E. Howard, Necronomicon Press, 1991, p. 36)


Howard even wrote a poem, “Dreaming in Israel,” on the subject.

In the February letter to Lovecraft, Howard went on to elaborate on his admiration for King Saul:


I have always felt a deep interest in Israel in connection with Saul. Poor devil! A pitiful and heroic figure, set up as a figure-head because of his weight and the spread of his shoulders, and evincing an expected desire of being king in more than name–a plain, straight-forward man, unversed in guile and subtlety, flanked and harassed by scheming priests, beleaguered by savage and powerful enemies, handicapped by a people too wary and backward in war–what wonder that he went mad toward the end? He was not fitted to cope with the mysteries of king-craft, and he had too much proud independence to dance a puppet on the string of the high-priest–there he sealed his own doom. When he thwarted the snaky Samuel, he should have followed it up by cutting that crafty gentleman’s throat–but he dared not. The hounds of Life snapped ever at Saul’s heels; a streak of softness made him human but made him less a king…Samuel had him in a strangle-hold; not only did the high-priest have the people behind him, but he played on Saul’s own fears and superstitions and in the end, ruined him and drove him to madness, defeat and death. The king found himself faced by opposition he could not beat down with his own great sword–foes that he could not grasp with his hands. Life became a grappling with shadows, a plunging at blind, invisible bars. He saw the hissing head of the serpent beneath each mask of courtier, priest, concubine and general. They squirmed, venom-ladened beneath his feet, plotting his downfall; and he towered above them, yet must perforce bend an ear close to the dust, striving to translate their hisses. But for Samuel, vindictive, selfish and blindly shrewd as most priests are, Saul had risen to his full stature–as it was, he was a giant chained…To one man Saul could always turn–Abner, a soldier and a gentleman in the fullest sense of the word–too honorable, too idealistic for his own good. Saul and Abner were worth all that cringing treacherous race to which they belonged by some whim of chance.


Most of these sentences echo the general tone and plot of The Shadow Kingdom, where the snake metaphor has given way to actual snake-like characters. They also echo some of Kull’s musings: “As he sat upon his throne in the Hall of Society and gazed upon the courtiers, the ladies, the lords, the statesmen, he seemed to see their faces as things of illusion, things unreal, existent only as shadows and mockeries of substance. Always he had seen their faces as masks, but before he had looked on them with contemptuous tolerance, thinking to see beneath the masks shallow, puny souls, avaricious, lustful, deceitful, a vague horror that lurked beneath the smooth masks. While he exchanged courtesies with some nobleman or councilor he seemed to see the smiling face fade like smoke and the frightful jaws of a serpent gaping there” (p. 41). The “one man” to whom Saul can always turn evokes of course Brule, the spear-slayer. The only notable difference between the two “stories” resides in the absence of an equivalent to the “snaky Samuel”; in Howard’s story, the snake-characters are indistinguishable from one another.

Upon learning of the acceptance of The Shadow Kingdom in September 1927, Howard reacted in a typical fashion and almost immediately proceeded to write another story starring the same character. (Howard had completed Wolfshead in July 1925, the same month the first story starring de Montour, In the Forest of Villefère, was published. A few months later, he would repeat this, completing the second Solomon Kane story, Skulls in the Stars, upon news of the sale of the first, Red Shadows.) This time the writing took much less time than for the first story: Howard wrote an eight-page draft, polished it by rewriting the last two pages of the story and sent the result to Weird Tales. That second Kull story, The Mirrors of Tuzun Thune, was quickly accepted by Farnsworth Wright for $20. Of that story, generally held in high esteem by contemporary as well as modern readers, Howard offered the following comment to his friend Clyde Smith: “more of the Shadow Kingdom, occult and mystical, vague and badly written; this is the deepest story I ever tried to write and I got out of my depth.”

It was some weeks before Howard would return to writing Kull stories. In the first months of 1928, he began what could have been a serial-length Kull story, but abandoned it at the eighteenth page (see p. 65). Howard probably realized that his story was rambling and unconvincing, relegated it to his archives, and immediately began work on another Kull story, which was to be titled Delcardes’ Cat. The history of the composition of this tale is worth detailing: Howard wrote it in two sessions. He titled his first draft Delcardes’ Cat, and only had the idea for the character that was to become Thulsa Doom as he was writing page 22 of a draft that runs 25 pages. The introduction of the new character (whose name was initially Thulses Doom) required a few modifications in the earlier parts of the tale, which of course lacked any references to Thulsa–or Thulses–Doom. Howard, in a particularly unprofessional move, didn’t even rewrite his story, making all his changes on his first draft, and retitled the tale The Cat and the Skull, whose “Skull” is an explicit reference to Thulsa Doom. The story survives as an original (with the modifications) and a carbon (which shows the first stage of the story).

The story is rather poor and suffers from a lack of cohesiveness, which is not surprising given the late addition of Thulsa Doom. The character of Kuthulos is introduced as a “slave,” but later on Tu, the chancellor, suddenly “remembers” that Kuthulos is “a slave, aye, but the greatest scholar and the wisest man in all the Seven Empires.” In fact, it is quite probable that Howard first intended Kuthulos to be the villain of the story, only discarding the idea when he came up with Thulsa Doom. Last, it took Howard several pages before he gave a name to the slave; and it appears, upon close scrutiny of the typescript, that his original name was not Kuthulos, but Kathulos. Not surprisingly, the story was rejected by Weird Tales, apparently to Howard’s surprise, if this is indeed the unnamed story he is alluding to in Post Oaks and Sand Roughs (p. 133). Undaunted, Howard wrote yet another tale featuring Kull, the second and last featuring Kuthulos: The Screaming Skull of Silence. The story was quickly submitted to Weird Tales and likewise rejected.

After a false start and two unsold tales, it would be several months before Howard would return to writing Kull stories. In the meantime, he met with commercial success in the acceptance of his longest story to date. Skullface (Howard’s original form of the title) was written during the second half of 1928, and was accepted for $300 later in the year. It would be hard not to notice that in this story, Stephen Costigan and John Gordon are opposed to the deadly “Kathulos of Atlantis,” whose physical description matched that of Thulsa Doom. Kathulos/Kuthulos had disappeared from the Kull stories only to re-enter Howard’s fiction via another story.

As 1928 was drawing to a close, Howard once again returned to Kull. The Striking of the Gong was the first Kull story not submitted to Weird Tales, but was sent instead to Argosy; The Altar and the Scorpion, a short story in which Kull is only mentioned, was submitted to Weird Tales. Both stories failed to sell. The Curse of the Golden Skull, also barely mentioning Kull, and probably composed in late 1928 or early 1929, likewise met rejection.

The metaphysical tone of the early Kull stories echoed Howard’s philosophical delvings of the time. In January 1928, Howard was writing Clyde Smith: “The subject of psychology is the one I am mainly interested in these days.” The questions of reality and identity are central to those stories which, due to their short length, writing style, and atmosphere, tend more toward the philosophical fable than the kind of fantasy stories Farnsworth Wright would have bought.

This passage from a letter to Clyde Smith, for example, resonates with passages in The Mirrors of Tuzun Thune and The Striking of the Gong:


Life is Power, Life is Electricity. You and I are atoms of power, cogs in the wheels of the Universal system. Life is not predestined, that is, the trivial affairs of our lives are not, but we have certain paths to follow and we cannot escape them…we are sparks of stardust, atoms of unknown power, powerless in ourselves but making up the whole of some great power that uses us as ruthlessly as fire uses fuel. We are parts of an entity, futile in ourselves. We are merely phases of electricity; electrons endlessly vibrating between the magnetic poles of birth and death. We cannot escape these trails in which our paths lie. We do not, as individual entities, really exist, we do not live. There is no life, there is no existence; there is simply vibration. What is a life but an uncompleted gesture, beginning in oblivion and ending in oblivion?…There is no beginning, nor will there ever be an end to the thing. (REH to Tevis Clyde Smith, ca. February 1928)


As a matter of fact, all of Howard’s letters to Tevis Clyde Smith from early 1928 contain lengthy passages on philosophy, religion, psychology and similar interests. Howard was undergoing a period of profound introspection, that very naturally found its way into his fiction. Common to all the themes alluded to in the letters is the central motif of identity, the relation of the self to the universe.

At any rate, in the fourteen months that had followed the sale of The Shadow Kingdom and The Mirrors of Tuzun Thune, Howard had begun or completed six Kull stories, hadn’t succeeded in selling any of them, and none had yet appeared in print.

Between late 1928 and mid-1929, Howard would not complete another Kull story. That he had not decided to cease his efforts in spite of these failures is attested by the two aborted stories he attempted to complete in the first months of the year.

There is little to be said about The Black City, a three page fragment that takes Brule and Kull away from Valusia to the city of Kamula. The other, untitled fragment, however, is particularly interesting. In April 1929, an overjoyed Howard wrote Tevis Clyde Smith:


On my return here I found a returned ms. from Adventure, with a line or two from the assistant editor, telling me to submit some more of my work, and soon after returning I got a letter from Argosy, accepting that story that I told you about…The day after getting that letter I got a check from them for $100. Also a letter from Weird Tales with the advance sheets of a story appearing in the next issue. Farnsworth said he intended publishing a sonnet in the next issue after that and then “The Shadow Kingdom” which is a $100 story, and after that a shorter story [The Mirrors of Tuzun Thune]. I believe he’s paving the way to publish the serial I sold him, but of course I may be wrong.


As the acceptance of The Shadow Kingdom seems to have occasioned the writing of The Mirrors of Tuzun Thune, it was probably the news of the forthcoming appearance of the two Kull stories that prompted Howard to return once more to the character, but abandoning the more metaphysical aspects in favor of straight-adventure stories set in a Fantasy background.

His first attempt didn’t go beyond the third page. This untitled draft (see p. 151) is the first Kull story to display Howard’s growing passion for things Celtic, which had become conscious in December 1928. Why Howard did not complete the story is easily understood: not only does the story make mention of the historical Celts (in a story supposedly set thousands of years B.C.), but he also gives blue eyes to the fragment’s protagonist, Brule. Brule had always been mentioned as having dark eyes in previous stories, and logically so since he was a Pictish warrior. Blue eyes were in fact becoming the staple of Howard’s Celtic or pseudo-Celtic heroes, Conan being the most famous, of course. More than a casual mistake, this was a clue as to what was happening to the series: Howard was growing detached from his Atlantean creation, and more and more interested in Brule. In that fragment, Brule explains the mode of government of his tribe, the Borni:


We all acknowledge Nial of the Tatheli as over-king but his rule is loose. He does not interefere were our affairs among ourselves, nor does he levy tribute or taxes, as the Valusians call it, from any except the Nargi and the Dano and the Whale-slayers who live on the isle of Tathel with his own tribe…Neither does he interfere when two tribes go to war–unless some tribe enroaches on the three who pay tribute. When the war is fought and won, he arbitrates the matter, and his judgment is final…And when the Lemurians or the Celts or any foreign nation or band of reavers come against us, he sends forth for all tribes to put aside their quarrels and fight side by side. Which is a good thing. He might be a supreme tyrant if he liked, for his own tribes is very strong, and with the aid of Valusia he might do as he liked–but he knows that though he might, with his tribes and their allies, crush all the other tribes, there would never be peace again, but revolt as long as a Borni or a Sungara or a Wolf-slayer or any of the tribesmen was left alive.


The fragment stops at this point, and it is very interesting to compare it to what happens in the next–and last–Kull stories.

By This Axe I Rule! and Swords of the Purple Kingdom were completed in rapid succession, probably in May and June 1929. In many ways, both stories mark a return to the roots of the Kull series. In Exile of Atlantis were mentioned the characters of Ascalante and Ala; these are also the names of characters, albeit different ones, in the 1929 story. More important, the plots of the 1929 tales revolve around an attempted coup d’état, as did The Shadow Kingdom. But if The Shadow Kingdom had its origins in Howard’s reading of the Biblical story of Saul, By This Axe I Rule! was inspired by his reading of a classic playwright.

In the early months of 1929, Howard had probably been rereading Shakespeare. In March, he included two erotic playlets in a letter to Smith. Of the first, Howard wrote that his “desires wavered between a wish to write straight jovial obscenity and a desire to simply parody Shakespeare and exaggerate and emphasize what I consider show the bastardness of the scut’s nature.” Not surprisingly, Tevis Clyde Smith later indicated that Shakespeare was Howard’s favorite playwright.

By This Axe I Rule! opens with a scene in which conspirators decide to do away with the king on that same day. The scene takes place late at night, as dawn is nearing. To seal their alliance, all men take an oath.

Act II, scene 1 of William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar takes place in Brutus’ orchard. It is night, and dawn is nearing. As the conspirators agree to assassinate Caesar on that same day, Brutus asks them to join their hands and Cassius subsequently proposes an oath, which Brutus refuses. Despite the small difference, this scene is highly reminiscent of its equivalent in By This Axe I Rule!

After the oath has been sworn, the conspirators of the Kull story depart; Ascalante tells them: “Get back to your places and not by word, deed or look do you betray what is in your minds.” In Julius Caesar, Brutus declares: “Good gentlemen, look fresh and merrily;/Let not our looks put on our purposes”…

And if Howard had found in Shakespeare the basic plot of his story, it could be that Howard himself was also indeed trying to “kill” his king, i.e., to put an end to the character and the series. The character now little resembled what he was in the early stories, having become an autocratic ruler. If, in The Shadow Kingdom, the menace of the serpent-men was an abhorrent one, in the later story there is little difference between Kull and Ascalante, the leader of the conspirators. What the exile Ascalante wishes to do is exactly the same thing Kull did when he ascended the throne: kill the present and legitimate king. Their method is exactly the same, as shown in this passage from The Shadow Kingdom, which describes Kull’s ascent to the throne, but which applies perfectly to Ascalante and what he is doing in By This Axe I Rule!: “a bold snatching of opportunity, the swift whirl of swords, the slaying of a tyrant of whom men had wearied unto death, short, crafty plotting with ambitious statesmen out of favor at court–and Kull, wandering adventurer, Atlantean exile, had swept up to the dizzy heights of his dreams: he was lord of Valusia, king of kings.” (pp. 18–19). Ascalante and Kull have much more in common than one may presume at first glance. Further, Brule, who was always on hand to save Kull’s life in time of danger, is noteworthily absent from the tale, leaving Valusia as the story opens. His departing words are quite disquieting: “We are barbarians, together, even if we have spent most of our lives in this land. I go, now. You have naught to fear save an attempt at assassination, which is no fear at all, considering the fact that you are guarded night and day by a squad of the Red Slayers.” Strange words from a man who saved Kull’s life numerous times, and especially in The Shadow Kingdom, in which Kull was nearly slaughtered in his room by conspirators while he thought he was guarded by the Red Slayers. It is also in By This Axe I Rule! that we at last learn the name of the tyrant Kull killed to win the throne: Borna. The name’s resemblance to Brule’s tribe, the Borni, is striking.

It thus very much seems that Howard was losing contact with his creation and, as he would put it in an oft-quoted passage from a letter to Clark Ashton Smith:


suddenly I would find myself out of contact with the conception, as if the man himself had been standing at my shoulder directing my efforts, and had suddenly turned and gone away, leaving me to search for another character. (REH to Clark Ashton Smith, 14 December 1933, Selected Letters, 1931–1936, p. 59)


By This Axe I Rule! was rejected by Argosy and Adventure, while it is not known where or if Swords of the Purple Kingdom was submitted. The Shadow Kingdom appeared in the August 1929 issue of Weird Tales, followed the next month by The Mirrors of Tuzun Thune. This time, Howard was no longer sufficiently interested in the character to attempt to write new stories.

In February 1930, Kull made a brief come-back in Kings of the Night. It is not uninteresting to note that the protagonist of this story is Bran Mak Morn, the Pictish king, whom we learn to be a direct descendant of Brule, no longer the simple warrior of The Shadow Kingdom, but described as “the greatest of all the Pictish war-chiefs”; Kull had now become only a secondary character, a king without a kingdom in that story.

Kull and Valusia would linger in Howard’s mind until, in March 1932, the character was changed into a Cimmerian and given blue eyes instead of grey–the eyes of Am-ra the Atlantean and of Brule in the Celtic fragment. As to Valusia, its destruction was carried out in the essay The Hyborian Age in April of that year.

Conan and the Hyborian Age were coming.



NOTES ON THE ORIGINAL HOWARD TEXTS


The texts for this book were prepared by Patrice Louinet, Rusty Burke, and Dave Gentzel, with assistance from Glenn Lord. The stories have been checked against Howard’s original typescripts, copies of which were furnished by Glenn Lord, or the first published appearance if a typescript was unavailable. Drafts of Howard’s stories, when extant, have also been checked to ensure the greatest accuracy. Every effort has been made to present the work of Robert E. Howard as faithfully as possible. Deviations from the original sources are detailed in these textual notes. In the following, page, line, and word number are given as follows: 77.1.13, indicating page 77, first line, thirteenth word. Story titles, chapter numbers and titles, and breaks before and after chapter headings, titles, and illustrations are not counted. The page/line number will be followed by the reading in the original source, or a statement indicating the type of change made.

This edition of the Kull stories is based on the best sources available to us; unfortunately, the definitive versions of most of the Kull stories not published during Howard’s lifetime are now probably lost. In 1936, Howard’s father sent the bulk of his son’s typescripts to agent Otis Adelbert Kline. Kline kept the stories he thought had sales potential–among them most of the Kull stories–and resent the rest to Howard’s father. The whereabouts of most of the typescripts that stayed with Kline are unknown, and they are presumed lost. Fortunately, several drafts and/or carbons for these tales were among the lot sent back to Dr. Howard and were eventually acquired by Glenn Lord. This collection is thus based on the best–and sadly only–available texts, and will remain the definitive one unless the lost typescripts are miraculously recovered.


Untitled Story (previously published as “Exile of Atlantis”) Text taken from Howard’s typescript, provided by Glenn Lord. 3.3.8: fragance; 3.5.13: no comma after “man”; 3.6.12: conoiseur; 3.7.1: already; 3.8.11: no comma after “tall”; 3.8.12: no hyphen at “slim waisted”; 3.8.12: no comma after “slim-waisted”; 3.9.1: broad shoulder; 3.11.8: “a” not in original; 3.11.13: accept; 3.13.10: that; 3.17.4: period instead of comma after “fighting”; 3.20.11: comma instead of period after “man”; 3.27.5: comma instead of period after “moon”; 3.29.3: comma instead of period after “Kull”; 3.31.9: “a” capitalized; 3.34.1: no period after “moon”; 3.35.2: dont; 3.35.7: comma instead of period after “bluntly”; 4.8.2: long; 4.10.2: dont; 4.10.6: comma instead of period after “Kull”; 4.12.2: som; 4.17.1: comma instead of period after “anger”; 4.23.2: comma instead of period after “shame”; 4.26.3: semicolon instead of comma after “not”; 4.26.6: comma instead of period after “Gor-na”; 4.35.8: “but” capitalized; 4.38.8: “the” before man; 4.39.5: angerly; comma instead of period after “angerly/angrily”; 4.40.1: no period after “creation”; 5.1.7: comma instead of period after “subject”; 5.11.2: comma instead of period after “Gor-na”; 5.13.3: chai chains (“chai” typed to right edge of paper); 5.28.1: comma instead of period after “east”; 5.36.8: “and” capitalized; 5.39.1: “or” capitalized; 6.5.3: no comma after “sacked”; 6.9.6: “that” capitalized; 6.12.10: ruslte; 6.13.7: “since” capitalized; 6.20.7: Sevn; 6.23.1: comma instead of period after “satisfaction”; 6.24.7: preared; 7.12.1: no comma after “boldly”; 7.14.4: “hawk like” (no hyphen); 7.15.2: no comma after “face”; 7.16.1: disspassionate; 7.39.5: comma instead of period after “sharply”; 7.39.8: some-one; 7.40.2: there on; 8.8.5: abouthard eyed; 8.1.4: comma instead of period after “lines”; 8.8.2: “my” capitalized; 8.15.3: couldont; 8.17.5: no comma after “blood”; 8.25.1: What’s; 8.25.2: KUll’s; 8.28.2: girl’s; 8.31.3: KUll’s; 9.1.3: cruse; 9.4.2: boud; 9.5.7: typicaly; 9.7.7: eached; 9.9.5: lanced; 9.11.4: semi-colon instead of comma after “nodded”; 9.17.3: spell bound (no hyphen); 9.18.1: nd; 9.19.4: eople; 9.32.1: Butno; 9.34.2: footit.


The Shadow Kingdom

Text taken from Weird Tales, August 1929. 27.1.4: hall; 50.13.1: wounded.


The Mirrors of Tuzun Thune

Text taken from Weird Tales, September 1929. No changes have been made for this edition.


Untitled Draft

Text taken from Howard’s typescript, provided by Glenn Lord. Howard changed the name of one character from “Fenar” to “Felgar” beginning on page 5 of the typescript and continuously thereafter. We have thus changed the earlier instances for consistency. 67.2.8: Fenar; 67.10.1: step’s; 67.17.1: rhinocerous; 67.18.7: period instead of question mark after “tale”; 67.19.5: period instead of comma after “Kull”; 67.21.7: comma instead of period after “besides”; 67.23.10: consumated; 67.31.3: period instead of comma after “Valka”; 67.31.5: comma instead of period after “Kull”; 67.34.3: thus; 67.34.5: comma instead of period after “soothingly”; 67.36.3: net work; 67.37.12: no period and quotation mark after “blood”; “blood” followed by “in”; a page apparently missing from typescript at this point; 68.1.11: period instead of comma after “girl”; 68.2.1: period instead of comma after “Aye”; 68.2.5: comma instead of period after “spoke”; 68.2.14: Fenar; 68.4.8: Fenar; no quotation mark; 68.8.13: no single quote after “horses”; 68.17.10: Fenar’s; 68.19.6: reek; 68.20.3: comma instead of period after “Kull”; 68.23.10: comma instead of period after “door”; 68.25.4: kings; 68.25.9: preceeding; 69.2.4: Fenar’s; 69.2.5: period instead of comma after “trail”; 69.2.9: comma instead of period after “ferociously”; 69.5.4: comma instead of period after “Tu”; 69.7.9: comma instead of period after “named”; 69.8.10: period instead of comma after “cities”; 69.21.1: Fenar; 69.25.2: no comma after “allies”; 69.29.2: period instead of exclamation point after “attention”; 69.29.6: comma instead of period after “command”; 69.31.2: curiosly; 69.33.11: caparisioned; 70.8.11: restrain; 70.9.5: comma after “world”; 70.19.11: “were” repeated; 70.23.7: many a drifting; 70.25.5: by gone; 70.28.1: brooding; 70.28.3: clinched; 70.38.5: period instead of comma after “sunrise”; 70.39.1: period instead of comma after “response”; 70.40.1: no quotation mark after “sunrise”; 71.15.4: “him” not in typescript; 71.27.4: that; 71.33.11: debauched; 71.37.13: no comma after “men”; 71.40.1: scruf; 72.3.3: period instead of comma after “steal”; 72.6.2: days (no apostrophe); 72.9.5: period instead of comma after “Valusia”; 72.10.2: apruptly; comma instead of period after “apruptly”; 72.17.2: on; 72.17.6: comma instead of colon after “other”; 72.20.1: period instead of comma after “Aye”; 72.20.4: comma instead of period after “replied”; 72.35.9: period instead of comma after “days”; 72.35.12: And; 72.38.5: period instead of comma after “fellows”; 72.39.4: comma instead of period after “lips”; 75.1.3: period instead of comma after “ways”; 75.2.9: comma instead of period after “contempt”; 75.10.4: comma instead of period after “heed”; 75.13.4: period instead of comma after “barbarian”; 75.18.4: period instead of comma after “position”; 75.19.5: comma instead of period after “end”; 75.19.6: no comma after “North”; 76.3.5: period instead of comma after “Kelkor”; 76.3.7: comma instead of period after “Kull”; 76.4.7: comma after “name”; 76.7.3: comma after “eastern-most”; 76.10.6: period instead of comma after “Kull”; 76.11.6: comma instead of period after “saddle”; 76.12.6: period instead of comma after “any”; 76.12.8: comma instead of period after “Kull”; 76.14.13: no comma after “land”; 76.15.7: rider’s; 76.16.13: no comma after “hard”; 76.19.11: else desires; 76.25.4: comma after “north”; 76.31.11: no comma after “safe”; 76.38.10: comma instead of period after “gate-guards”; 76.40.4: period instead of comma after “say”; 76.40.7: comma instead of period after “answered”; 77.2.2: period instead of comma after “then”; 77.3.1: comma instead of period after “arm”; 77.5.7: comma instead of period after “covetously”; 77.18.3: comma instead of period after “soldier”; 77.22.1: comma instead of period after “tactics”; 77.27.5: “is” not in typescript; 77.31.7: but; 77.35.9: concience; 77.39.8: statue; 78.14.2: committing of; 78.20.4: consumating; 78.25.3: no hyphen in “class like”; 78.32.1: Kull; 78.35.5: period instead of comma after “hear”; 78.36.8: comma instead of period after “mirth”; 79.1.5: comma instead of period after “woman”; 79.3.7: period instead of comma after “gold”; 79.8.8: comma instead of period after “Kull”; 79.11.1: has there; 79.13.7: comma instead of period after “hand”; 79.14.1: period instead of comma after “king”; 79.17.4: period instead of comma after “king”; 79.23.10: comma instead of period after “suspiciously”; 79.34.5: You; 79.37.1: comma instead of period after “response”; 80.15.4: unconcious; 81.4.4: The; 81.8.3: comma instead of period after “Kull”; 81.17.7: Farsuns; 82.3.4: comma after “pass”; 82.6.7: enlessly; 82.7.10: on; 82.15.5: period instead of comma after “sunrise”; 82.19.7: comma instead of period after “Kull”; 82.19.10: “the” not in typescript; 82.22.2: no quotation mark after “Zarfhaana”; 82.25.4: trails; 82.25.5: lead; 82.27.8: horses (no apostrophe); 82.39.6: no comma after “marked”; 83.2.4: comma after “included”; 83.2.11: spoked; 83.6.1: horseman; 83.7.7: They; 83.11.6: disobeidient; 83.13.3: comma instead of period after “sneered”; 83.15.8: My; 83.16.8: too; 83.20.9: no comma after “unable”; 83.21.3: comma after “stand”; $$$$$83.21.6: comma after “open”; 83.35.11: lead; 83.40.12: horrizin; 84.9.4: Would; 84.11.11: period instead of comma after “dawn”; 84.12.5: comma instead of period after “Kull”; 84.14.4: period instead of comma after “beyond”; 84.14.8: comma instead of period after “man”; 84.14.10: rivers; 84.14.11: mark; 84.16.3: comma instead of period after “Kull”; 84.15.4: period instead of comma after “aged”; 84.35.3: no comma after “battle”; 84.37.1: no comma after “this”; 84.37.7: return; 86.2.4: period instead of comma after “cease”; 86.2.6: comma instead of period after “he”; 86.7.5: period instead of comma after “king”; 86.7.14: acquiesing; 86.9.9: period instead of comma after “forward”; 86.4.3: period instead of comma after “Kull”; 86.12.14: sentance; 86.13.2: sentance; 86.17.11: unweildy; 86.20.2: comma instead of period after “spake”; 86.25.5: period instead of comma after “river”; 86.24.8: comma instead of period after “ferryman”; 86.26.1: period instead of comma after “Forward”; 86.26.3: comma instead of period after “Kull”


The Cat and the Skull

Text taken from Howard’s typescript, provided by Glenn Lord. Some questionable readings were checked against Howard’s carbon (see below, “Delcardes’ Cat”) and a transcript prepared by Lord. 89.2.7: a may; 89.17.8: no comma after “usually”; 90.1.3: period instead of comma after “speak”; 90.11.6: period instead of comma after “otherwise”; 90.14.7: “if” capitalized; 90.18.2: geniology; 90.18.7: interupted; 90.29.10: period instead of comma after “old”; 90.29.12: comma instead of period after “Delcardes”; 90.32.1: no opening quote before “How”; 90.32.9: Kully; 90.33.7: period instead of comma after “old”; 90.34.2: timbered; 90.36.5: comma instead of period after “swore”; 90.39.10: comma instead of period after “said”; 91.6.1: paragraph does not begin new line in transcript; 91.8.4: neophites; 91.19.6: “where” capitalized; 91.24.3: period instead of comma after “it”; 91.28.5: comma instead of period after “swore”; 91.30.9: dissapproving; 91.32.5: guilessly; 92.1.11: “you” capitalized; 92.4.6: “the” capitalized; 92.5.4: period instead of comma after “trickery”; 92.5.7: comma instead of period after “maintained”; 92.8.9: comma instead of period after “belief”; 92.16.10: period instead of comma after “defense”; 92.16.13: irrevelently; 92.20.5: “a” capitalized; 92.21.2: period instead of comma after “true”; 92.21.5: “and” capitalized; 92.22.8: comma instead of period after “calmly”; 92.23.1: no opening quote before “Lord”; 92.23.2: Chanceller; 92.25.3: comma instead of period after “snarled”; 92.26.9: period instead of comma after “not”; 92.27.7: comma instead of period after “saying”; 92.27.11: no comma after “Tu”; 93.3.6: comma instead of period after “sourly”; 93.5.4: “this” capitalized; 93.6.6: “no” capitalized; 93.9.10: period instead of comma after “palace”; 93.10.5: “the” capitalized; 93.12.8: period instead of comma after “Valusia”; 93.12.14: “and” capitalized; 94.4.9: equallity; 94.15.1: no comma after “For”; 94.22.7: period instead of comma after “told”; 94.23.3: comma instead of period after “doubt”; 94.26.5: “all” capitalized; 94.29.7: comma instead of period after “Saremes”; 94.32.7: deviding; 94.34.7: “why” capitalized; 94.36.12: period instead of comma after “I”; 94.37.2: “lest” capitalized; 94.40.1: cross roads; 95.17.3: phillosophizing; 96.6.13: curtesy; 96.12.4: “the” capitalized; 97.1.5: period instead of comma after “alone”; 97.1.8: “and” capitalized; 97.5.4: grat; 99.7.9: no comma after “spider”; 99.36.8: comma after “horn”; 100.15.7: disembowlled; 100.16.8: comma after “hand”; 100.27.3: concious; 100.29.4: no comma after “horn”; 103.6.10: conciousness; 103.18.7: where-ever; 103.23.11: no comma after “Kull”; 103.27.2: dazzingly; 103.29.2: comma instead of dash after “shore”; 104.3.9: no comma after “which”; 104.3.11: no comma after “also”; 104.28.6: “bloody” capitalized; 104.31.6: comma instead of period after “king”; 104.33.9: period instead of comma after “race”; 104.34.1: comma instead of period after “sombrely”; 106.12.2: period instead of comma after “lie”; 106.12.5: comma instead of period after “answered”; 106.33.1: period instead of comma after “strong”; 106.33.4: comma instead of period after “lake-king”; 107.1.7: period instead of comma after “ghosts”; 107.3.6: period instead of comma after “doom”; 107.3.13: “for” capitalized; 107.5.3: period instead of comma after “now”; 107.5.12: “for” capitalized; 107.16.2: period instead of comma after “consider”; 107.16.4: comma instead of period after “repeated”; 107.24.11: forgetfullness; period instead of comma after “forgetfulness”; 107.37.6: period instead of comma after “devils”; 107.37.9: comma instead of period after “in”; 107.39.3: period instead of comma after “it”; 108.3.5: “give” capitalized; 108.14.3: period instead of comma after “bold”; 108.14.6: comma instead of period after “lake-king”; 108.19.4: comma instead of period after “Kull”; 108.19.5: am (no capital); 108.19.11: comma after “island”; 108.20.1: no comma after “mainland”; 108.21.7: “the” not in original; 108.34.9: waters; 108.37.8: comma after “below”; 108.38.1: no comma after “surface”; 109.11.8: comma after “itself”; 109.13.1: comma after “forethought”; 109.26.5: “you” capitalized; 109.31.2: period instead of comma after “be”; 109.31.4: comma instead of period after “snarled”; 109.37.12: comma instead of period after “emotion”; 109.39.10: period instead of comma after “carcase”; 111.1.10: comma instead of period after “savage”; 111.10.10: comma instead of period after “dangerously”; 111.14.12: comma before, instead of after, “is”; 111.22.3: comma instead of period after “Tu”; 111.27.4: comma instead of period after “grimly”; 111.30.14: prophesies; 111.39.3: dissappeared; 112.5.2: comma instead of period after “feet”; 112.6.3: decieving; 112.27.4: “to” repeated; 113.2.8: “the” not in original; 113.6.7: prophesies; 113.7.9: Thulses; 113.15.2: period instead of comma after “Kuthulos”; 113.21.9: sentances; 113.25.9: conciousness; 113.29.15: no comma after “Kull”; 113.35.7: no comma after “revealed”; 113.36.2: or; 113.37.8: “that” capitalized; 114.3.7: comma instead of period after “Kuthulos”; 114.20.3: comma instead of period after “hollowly”; 114.39.4: Skull-faced; 115.9.14: Skull-faced; 115.11.9: comma instead of period after “taunted”; 115.20.7: “you” capitalized; 115.21.1: Skull-faced; 115.24.9: posseses; 115.26.4: period instead of comma after “not”; 115.26.6: comma instead of period after “Kull”; 115.30.5: “Lord” begins new paragraph; 115.33.9: “as” not in original; 115.37.1: period instead of comma after “eagles”; 115.37.3: comma instead of period after “Kull”; 115.38.6: “you” capitalized; 116.1.8: “mine” capitalized; 116.7.9: comma instead of period after “Spear-slayer”; 116.10.10: “still” capitalized.


The Screaming Skull of Silence

Text taken from Howard’s carbon, provided by Glenn Lord. This version is probably incomplete, lacking its last page. The carbon is seven pages, while the original in the Kline files ran eight. Some questionable readings were checked against a transcript prepared by Lord. 119.21.9: “and Ka-nu”; 119.24.7: “all” capitalized; 119.31.5: period instead of comma after “necromancer”; 119.32.7: “no” capitalized; 119.33.3: snake’s; 119.36.9: excercize; 120.5.14: villian; 120.10.1: comma instead of period after “knowledge”; 120.11.8: comma instead of period after “slave”; 120.19.6: “an” not in original; 120.19.16: “the” not in original; 120.27.5: comma instead of period after “now”; 121.5.5: my; 121.15.4: comma instead of period after “impatiently”; 121.21.3: days; 121.23.6: comma instead of period after “Brule”; 121.25.1: regioned; 122.1.8: period instead of comma after “Kuthulos”; 122.1.10: comma instead of period after “said”; 122.18.1: light; 122.20.4: period instead of comma after “Kuthulos”; 122.23.6: period instead of comma after “again”; 122.23.9: “then” capitalized; 123.36.7: senseate; 123.37.10: no comma after “belly”; 123.38.2: no comma after “hands”; 124.9.2: sahdes; 124.14.1: warthfully; 124.18.2: “the” not in typescript; 124.19.10: Kull; 124.20.4: absymal; 124.26.5: horse shoe; 124.35.8: attonement; 124.36.8: againt; 124.37.2: ceaslessly; 125.5.6: abscence; 125.8.8: a half-erased compound word beginning with “tiger-” (second word erased) appears at this point in the typescript; 125.32.4: no comma after “roaring.”


The Striking of the Gong

Text taken from Howard’s untitled carbon, provided by Glenn Lord. The title comes from Kline’s listing (a 1929 Howard letter gives it as “The Chiming of the Gong”). The carbon runs five pages, while Kline’s listing indicates the original ran only four. Some questionable readings were checked against a transcript prepared by Lord. 129.2.6: no comma after “reality”; 129.13.7: comma instead of period after “murmured”; 129.19.2: “as” repeated; 129.20.5: period instead of comma after “everything”; 129.20.7: comma instead of period after “mused”; 129.28.6: “but” capitalized; 129.29.4: comma after “recognized”; 129.30.4: no comma after “eyes”; 130.7.10: period instead of comma after “him”; 130.8.2: comma instead of period after “cryptically”; 130.9.10: period instead of comma after “chamber”; 130.10.2: “and” capitalized; 130.19.7: period instead of comma after “dead”; 130.19.11: comma instead of period after “figure”; 130.24.2: “are” not in original; 130.25.1: period instead of comma after “universes”; 130.25.2: “said” capitalized; 130.25.4: comma instead of period after “ancient”; 130.33.7: period instead of comma after “actualities”; 130.34.2: comma instead of period after “tranquilly”; 131.12.2: “the” not in original; 131.15.1: no opening quote before “The”; 131.16.5: period instead of comma after “god”; 131.16.10: comma instead of period after “impatiently”; 131.16.11: “Look” preceded by an en-dash; 131.17.3: “to” not in typescript; 131.26.6: star; 131.38.4: no question mark after “this”; 131.38.6: no question mark after “happened”; 131.39.12: period instead of comma after “realms”; 131.40.12: comma instead of period after “sword”; 132.7.5: “that” capitalized; 132.13.6: skurried; 132.15.4: period instead of comma after “right”; 132.18.4: not; 132.20.5: no quotation mark after “gong.”


The Altar and the Scorpion

Text taken from Howard’s untitled carbon, provided by Glenn Lord. The title comes from the Kline listing. The carbon runs four pages, while Kline’s listing indicates the original ran five. Some questionable readings were checked against a transcript prepared by Lord. 135.1.1: no opening quote before “God”; 135.12.1: “invokation” followed by a comma instead of a period; 135.23.7: “the” capitalized; 135.26.14: comma after “I”; 135.30.1: “the” capitalized; 135.38.7: invokation; 136.10.4: “pent house”; 136.22.4: comma instead of period after “him”; 136.23.9: “the” capitalized; 136.26.4: comma instead of period after “jeered”; 136.35.2: comma after “metallic”; 137.7.5: swordsman; 137.21.3: reverance; 137.35.6: no comma after “frozen”; 137.38.10: no hyphen in “claw like”; 137.39.13: “to” not in original; 138.4.5: screames; 138.8.9: comma instead of period after “tremulous; 138.14.2: comma instead of period after “girl.”


The Curse of the Golden Skull

Text taken from Howard’s untitled carbon, provided by Glenn Lord. The title comes from the Kline listing. The carbon runs four pages, while Kline’s listing indicates the original ran five. Some questionable readings were checked against a transcript prepared by Lord. 141.7.12: which; 141.13.1: Accolyte; 143.14.11: invokation; 143.18.8: trandscending; 143.25.11: highst; 144.35.7: “to” repeated.


The Black City (Unfinished Fragment)

Text taken from Howard’s typescript, provided by Glenn Lord. 147.9.7: comma instead of period after “fury”; 147.14.4: moutain; 147.15.8: no comma after “tier”; 147.17.13: the; 147.18.10: comma instead of period after “fist”; 147.23.8: comma instead of period after “Pict”; 147.25.4: comma after “stench”; 147.33.5: comma instead of period after “Brule”; 148.4.5: proceded; 148.6.4: keeness; 148.28.11: comma instead of period after “Brule”; 148.31.10: comma after “truth”; 148.35.7: sentious; 148.39.3: comma instead of period after “Brule.”


Untitled Fragment

Text taken from Howard’s typescript, provided by Glenn Lord. 153.8.1: comma instead of period after “figures”; 153.19.12: comma instead of period after “man”; 153.23.8: cimson; 154.1.10: equallity; 154.7.7: remeniscense; 154.7.8: It; 154.11.5: horrizontal; 154.11.6: mark; 154.14.6: vitallity; 154.14.8: straight forwardness; 154.17.10: reserved; 154.20.2: no comma after “Kull”; 154.20.8: We; 154.23.9: interefere; 154.23.10: were; 154.29.2: enroaches; 154.35.9: tribes.


By This Axe I Rule!

Text taken from Howard’s draft, provided by Glenn Lord. The draft runs twenty pages (against twenty-three for the–lost–definitive version), with several penciled-in annotations and corrections in Howard’s hand. Howard didn’t always cross out or erase the words or phrases to be replaced; these are mentioned only in case of doubt. 157.2.7: no comma after “dark”; 157.11.9: “the” capitalized; 157.15.1: comma instead of period after “man”; 157.18.1: comma instead of period after “imperturbably”; 157.21.4: exclamation instead of question mark after “swear”; 157.22.11: comma instead of period after “eyes”; 157.25.9: comma instead of period after “Ascalante”; 157.28.4: comma instead of period after “dagger”; 158.2.1: covenented; 158.3.11: no period after “minstrel”; 158.5.6: “the” capitalized; 158.12.5: unbroken; 158.22.4: Kananu; 158.25.3: body guard; 158.27.1: comma instead of period after “satisfaction”; 158.36.7: comma after “through”; 158.39.12: no period after “of”; 159.6.12: “what” capitalized; 159.12.7: he; 159.12.10: comma instead of period after “Kaanuub”; 159.17.1: inchoerencies; 159.19.11: shoulder; 159.23.2: every; 159.23.4: “the” capitalized; 159.25.8: comma after “skalking”; 159.30.7: no comma after “I”; 159.31.2: down fall; 159.35.11: comma instead of period after “outlaw”; 160.2.12: hare brained; 160.5.15: no comma after “men”; 160.6.3: no period after “me”; 160.9.2: it is unclear whether the phrase “the old dynasty” was to be deleted or not; it seems partly erased on the typescript; 160.10.8: king’s; 160.13.2: regeme; 160.15.14: “to” not in original; 160.22.2: “The Lament for the King” between double, not single, quotes; 160.22.4: For; 160.22.13: villian; 160.23.2: villifies; 160.23.5: “that black hearted savage” between double, not single, quotes; 160.29.8: no comma after “knight”; 161.15.6: Moreoever; 161.18.5: “this” capitalized; 161.18.8: states-craft; 161.20.8: comma instead of period after “Brule”; 161.22.13: comma instead of period after “enviously”; 162.18.13: “the” capitalized; 162.23.2: dash after “barbarian”; 162.23.3: parenthesis before “when”; “when” not capitalized; 162.24.13: parenthesis after “me.”; 162.25.13: inscense; 162.30.4: comma instead of period after “notch”; 162.37.1: no comma after “forgotten”; 164.9.4: repbrobate; 164.11.5: “to” not in original; 164.16.4: comma instead of period after “sincerity”; 164.18.1: mean; 164.34.5: “there’s” capitalized; 164.35.8: no comma after “name”; 165.4.7: altar; 165.14.1: comma instead of period after “him”; 165.17.1: “not” not in original; 165.28.9: “Neither” not in original; 165.28.10: “you” capitalized; 165.29.1: altar; 165.30.6: weakning; 165.33.1: enmies; 165.34.9: admanant; 165.37.10: comma instead of period after “hand”; 166.8.9: betwen; 166.22.1: escpecially; 166.29.2: comma instead of period after “sir”; 166.29.3: she; 166.29.8: comma instead of period after “surprize”; 166.34.4: summonsed; 169.1.10: comma after “her”; 169.4.7: “the” capitalized; 169.16.7: comma instead of period after “heavily”; 169.19.4: comma instead of period after “wrath”; 169.23.1: Dont; 169.24.4: comma instead of period after “shoulder”; 169.27.4: semi-colon instead of period after “smiled”; 169.29.7: no comma after “asked”; 169.32.10: “and” capitalized; 169.34.3: comma instead of period after “laughed”; 169.36.4: inch’s; 170.4.1: comma after “born”; 170.23.4: comma instead of period after “man”; 170.26.1: holliday; 170.35.1: Dont; 170.35.3: comma instead of period after “afraid”; 170.39.1: comma instead of period after “foot”; 171.1.3: comma instead of period after “weakly”; 171.9.5: wrestly; 171.18.7: nitches; 172.4.11: uncertainly; 172.10.3: comma instead of period after “Ascalante”; 172.11.1: no comma after “Haste”; 172.13.4: no period after “Ridondo”; 172.16.3: comma instead of period after “Ascalante”; 172.21.3: comma instead of period after “Ridondo”; 172.26.1: comma after “Kull”; 172.33.14: hurlted; 172.35.5: tableaux; 172.37.2: “terrible eyed” (no hyphen); 172.39.3: semicolon instead of colon after “shouted”; 172.39.12: fourteen; 173.1.7: thime; 173.11.4: piece; 173.20.3: no comma after “speed”; 173.27.3: “back hand” (no hyphen); 173.32.17 (or 33.1): “with” not in ts; 173.34.3: one; 173.34.6: no period after “them”; 173.35.7: semicolon instead of comma after “savagely”; 173.38.8: “back his vizor” is typed here, with “off his slouch hat” handwritten above; 173.39.6: comma instead of period after “glaring”; 173.40.2: exclamation instead of question mark after “live”; 174.1.5: no semicolon after “viciously”; 174.2.8: no comma after “and”; 174.21.7: comma instead of period after “breathlessly”; 174.26.5: comma instead of period after “sharply”; 174.40.3: exclamation instead of question mark after “first”; 177.3.6: “him” not in typescript; 177.5.12: for; 177.8.4: villian; 177.23.6: the typescript reads “particularly including honor”; it is unclear which word was to be deleted; 177.24.2: comma instead of period after “murmured”; 177.25.4: what ever; 178.5.6: a sentence was to be added at this point, but the pencil is now too faded on the typescript to decipher; 178.7.4: unifrom; 178.10.6: comma instead of period after “huskily”; 178.11.4: t’will; 178.11.8: ’Tis; 178.36.1: the phrase: “in the evening only did Ala find a chance” appears above the text, in pencil; clearly Howard was to rewrite this passage and several others on the last pages of the draft; 179.5.4: no comma after “his”; 179.6.1: the words “he was himself” appears above the text, in pencil; 179.14.7: others; 180.2.12: wand like; 180.3.13: comma instead of period after “him”; 180.5.3: comma instead of period after “blood”; 180.9.3: comma instead of period after “blazing”; 180.9.9: knigship; 180.12.4: an unreadable sentence beginning with “While he…” is written on the typescript at this point but is too faint to be deciphered; 180.16.4: hve; 180.18.7: fightened.


Swords of the Purple Kingdom

Text taken from Howard’s draft, provided by Glenn Lord. The draft runs twenty-seven pages (against thirty-one for the–lost–definitive version), with several penciled-in annotations and corrections in Howard’s hand. Howard didn’t always cross out or erase the words or phrases to be replaced; these are mentioned only in case of doubt. Some questionable readings were checked against a transcript prepared by Lord. 183.13.2: no comma after “companion”; 183.13.6: powerfully; 183.19.10: no period after “Atlantean”; 183.29.10: no comma after “foreigners”; 183.31.10: looks; 183.32.5: no quotation mark after “race”; 183.35.4: familes; 184.4.12: no comma after “armies”; 184.13.10: ruthlesness; 184.16.9: “Well” capitalized; 184.25.10: in; 184.33.7: comma instead of period after “Brule”; 184.33.13: opening quote before “To”; 184.40.2: lovliness; 185.1.10: brood; 185.4.12: sword hardened (no hyphen); 185.14.14: comma instead of period after “toy”; 185.17.9: comma instead of period after “patience”; 185.22.4: “and” capitalized; 186.4.1: embarrassment; 187.3.3: Formallity; 187.4.4: no comma after “Brule”; 187.5.1: formallity; 187.9.4: the; 187.27.5: formallity; 187.28.12: he; 187.35.8: comma instead of period after “action”; 188.6.7: Borna’s; 188.7.1: over threw; 188.13.4: comma instead of period after “Kull”; 188.33.4: sparce; 189.3.3: comma after “Dondal”; 189.7.10: comma instead of period after “Tu”; 189.24.5: no comma after “long”; 189.24.6: no comma after “slim”; 189.25.11: comma after “rose”; 189.29.6: Acursed; 189.33.13: ecstacy; 189.34.7: rendevous; 190.22.1: comparitively; 190.29.5: sparce; 190.39.8: parrallel; 191.2.7: flag stones; 191.3.4: its; 191.4.5: comma instead of period after “Farsunian”; 191.11.6: comma instead of period after “Pict”; 191.11.7: Cant; 191.13.6: accidently; 191.16.1: terachery; 191.20.6: cut throat; 191.20.8: comma instead of period after “Dalgar”; 191.22.2: period instead of question mark after “beggar”; 191.32.3: conciousness; 191.37.2: dont; 191.37.8: comma instead of period after “dazed”; 192.27.5: Slayer; 192.36.5: comma instead of period after “Kananu”; 192.40.10: “to him” after “king” (193.1.4) in original; 193.7.2: no comma after “mates”; 193.8.1: reminisces; 193.13.5: procedings; 193.20.1: comma after “least”; 193.26.8: semicolon instead of comma after “palace”; 194.1.7: comma instead of period after “king”; 194.14.3: honey combed; 194.22.6: em-dash after “but”; 194.30.4: comma instead of period after “said”; 194.38.3: proceded; 195.2.8: comma instead of period after “king”; 195.9.3: back; 195.23.1: alllowed; 195.27.3: “the” capitalized; 195.30.10: dissappearance; 196.2.9: minature; 196.3.9: over ran; 197.1.5: comma instead of period after “Verulian”; 197.2.2: havent; 197.3.1: no period after “tongue”; 197.5.10: comma instead of period after “companion”; 197.6.2: wont; 197.10.12: comma after “Dalgar”; 197.17.1: Hadnt; 197.17.6: quiered; 197.19.4: cant; 197.20.1: cant; 197.34.6: comma after “relief”; 197.35.10: her; 198.6.3: comma instead of period after “giant”; 198.22.4: en-dash after, instead of before, the quote; 198.23.1: comma instead of en-dash after “cloth”; 198.23.2: “and” capitalized; 198.29.1: comma instead of period after “swiftly”; 198.30.4: he; 198.30.9: reward; 198.31.7: a; 198.34.2: comma instead of period after blazing; 198.35.13: “how” capitalized; 198.37.10: comma instead of period after “breathlessly”; 199.7.12: comma instead of period after “obeyed”; 199.9.12: comma instead of period after “voice”; 199.11.1: “the” capitalized; 199.12.5: comma instead of period after “Verulian”; 199.14.2: it; 199.14.11: cloesly; 199.23.8: comma instead of period after “Gonda”; 199.34.2: no comma after “Kull”; 199.35.1: rion; 200.1.9: effected; 200.7.10: litteraly; 200.14.2: tiger like; 200.15.11: alos; 200.20.4: colon instead of period after “girl”; 200.21.1: like wise; 200.22.8: reasuringly; 200.30.6: soldier; 200.40.10: black smith; 201.1.5: seem; 201.4.1: hair; 201.15.1: no quotation marks before and after “Well”; 201.15.4: no quotation mark before “here”; 201.15.12: no quotation mark after “too”; 201.17.1: leader ship; 201.17.6: no period after “Valusian”; 201.18.14: unconcious; 201.30.14: hin; 202.4.1: hammer like; 202.9.2: Verulian; 202.11.5: comma instead of period after “one”; 202.13.10: comma instead of period after “shriek”; 202.13.11: Dont; 202.22.6: “must” repeated after “necessarily”; 205.14.3: mw; 205.22.7: grat; 206.2.13: foot steps; 206.5.10: asounted; 206.6.11: no comma after “naked”; 207.1.11: helment; 207.1.11: comma after “helmet”; 207.3.8: comma after “man”; 207.3.13: comma after “same”; 207.15.2: no comma after “cruel”; 207.15.4: imbeded; 208.30.5: comma instead of period after “Kull”; 208.33.3: comma instead of period after “ejaculated”; 208.33.7: comma after “Tu”; 208.40.13: comma instead of period after “moodily”; 209.14.1: comma instead of period after “blood”; 209.20.9: resplendant; 209.33.13: comma instead of period after “him”; 209.36.5: comma instead of period after “head”; 210.4.2: comma instead of period after “arm”; 210.7.2: “have” not in original; 210.16.10: another.


The King and the Oak

Text taken from Howard’s typescript, provided by Glenn Lord. No changes have been made for this edition.


Kings of the Night

Text taken from Weird Tales, November 1930. 217.1.2: Cæsar; 217.37.12: Cæsar; 221.18.3: Cæsar; 221.22.5: Cæsar; 222.10.13: Cæsar; 222.36.5: stedfast; 227.18.13: “will-power” hyphenated at line break; 239.38.9–10: way possible; 241.10.3: “side-long” hyphenated at line break; 244.8.1: comma after “guard.”


Summer Morn

Howard’s original is no longer extant. It was, however, among the poems microfilmed by Robert Barlow. Text taken from Glenn Lord’s transcription of the microfilm.


Am-ra the Ta-an

Text taken from Howard’s typescript, provided by Glenn Lord. No changes have been made for this edition.


The Tale of Am-ra

Text taken from Howard’s typescript, provided by Glenn Lord. No changes have been made for this edition.


Untitled and Unfinished Fragment

Howard’s original was not located in time for this edition. Text taken from Glenn Lord’s typed copy of Howard’s original.


Untitled and Incomplete Fragment

Text taken from Howard’s typescript, provided by Glenn Lord. Only pages 10 and 11 of this fragment have come to us. No changes have been made for this edition.

The Shadow Kingdom (Draft)

Text taken from Howard’s typescript, provided by Glenn Lord. No changes have been made for this edition.


Delcardes’ Cat

Text taken from Howard’s typescript, provided by Glenn Lord. No changes have been made for this edition.


The King and the Oak (Draft)

Text taken from Howard’s typescript, provided by Glenn Lord. No changes have been made for this edition.





This wouldn’t have been posssible except for the support of my family. Julie, Levi, Ethan and Ellie, thanks for putting up with the long hours and struggle that went into making this. My parents, Mike and Robyn, and mother-in-law “Mrs. P” for helping out whenever I needed it. My grandfather for the place to work and the companionship. JD and Vance, entertaining me as always. Marcelo, I’m just lucky I wasn’t close by or I’m sure you’d have my head. Thanks for the chance to do this.

Justin Sweet


I would like to thank the usual suspects, Marcelo, Stuart, Rusty, Steve and Jim for their outstanding efforts; this one didn’t come easy. Special thanks to Glenn Lord for his continued support and to Jack and Barbara Baum for their support and dedication. Also to Joe Marek for his help and suggestions. And all my love to Sheila who had to patiently endure my extended forays into Valusian territories as it slowly dawned on me that Time and Space aren’t as relative in this world as they are in Valusia….

Patrice Louinet


Many thanks to Marcelo, for sharing with me the vision of the REH Library of Classics and allowing me aboard; to Jack and Barbara Baum, for sharing and promoting that vision and for many kindnesses to me and Shelly; to the entire Wandering Star gang but in particular this time to Stuart and Patrice (as well as Marcelo) for all their hard work under a tight deadline; to Steve Tompkins for his enthusiasm and a fine introductory essay; to Glenn Lord, Robert E. Howard’s greatest champion; and of course to Shelly, mi corazon, for her love, encouragement, and support. Ka nama kaa lajerama!

Rusty Burke


Thanks once again to Marcelo, Patrice and Rusty for making things easier with each passing book. Thanks also to Mandy and Emma for being patient with me, Fishburn Hedges for allowing me to use their design studio after hours and at weekends again for the last time–I’m buying a laptop for the next one–and, finally, to Chris Crump, Howard fan and illustrator of The Secret Valley, with whom I’ve exchanged Howard books and fanzines for many years. All the best with the sequel, Chris!

Stuart Williams


I’d like to thank everyone who has been involved and helped with this Robert E. Howard library of classics especially Stuart, Patrice and Rusty, without whom it may not have happened. And to Graziana, for your patience, love, and support. Thank you.

Marcelo Anciano


THE FULLY ILLUSTRATED ROBERT E. HOWARD LIBRARY


from Del Rey Books


The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian


The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane


The Bloody Crown of Conan


Bran Mak Morn: The Last King


The Conquering Sword of Conan


Kull: Exile of Atlantis


PRAISE FOR ROBERT E. HOWARD


“I adore these books. Howard had a gritty, vibrant style—broadsword writing that cut its way to the heart, with heroes who are truly larger than life. I heartily recommend them to anyone who loves fantasy.”


—DAVID GEMMELL,


author of Legend and White Wolf


“The voice of Robert E. Howard still resonates after decades with readers—equal parts ringing steel, thunderous horse hooves, and spattered blood. Far from being a stereotype, his creation of Conan is the high heroic adventurer. His raw muscle and sinews, boiling temper, and lusty laughs are the gauge by which all modern heroes must be measured.”


—ERIC NYLUND,


author of Halo: The Fall of Reach and Signal to Noise


“That teller of marvelous tales, Robert Howard, did indeed create a giant [Conan] in whose shadow other ‘hero tales’ must stand.”


—JOHN JAKES,


New York Times bestselling author of the North and South trilogy


“For stark, living fear…what other writer is even in the running with Robert E. Howard?”


—H. P. LOVECRAFT


“Howard…painted in the broadest strokes imaginable. A mass of glimmering black for the menace, an ice-blue cascade for the hero, between them a swath of crimson for battle, passion, blood.”


—FRITZ LIEBER


“Forget Schwarzenegger and the movies. This is pure pulp fiction from the 1930s, before political corrections and focus groups dictated the direction of our art. Swords spin, entrails spill, and women swoon.”


—Men’s Health


“Howard wrote pulp adventure stories of every kind, for every market he could find, but his real love was for supernatural adventure and he brought a brash, tough element to the epic fantasy which did as much to change the course of the American school away from precious writing and static imagery as Hammett, Chandler, and the Black Mask pulp writers were to change the course of American detective fiction.”


—MICHAEL MOORCOCK,


award-winning author of the Elric saga


“In this, I think, the art of Robert E. Howard was hard to surpass: vigor, speed, vividness. And always there is that furious, galloping narrative pace.”


—POUL ANDERSON


“Howard honestly believed the basic truth of the stories he was telling. It’s as if he’d said, ‘This is how life really was lived in those former savage times!’”


—DAVID DRAKE,


author of Grimmer Than Hell and Dogs of War


“For headlong, nonstop adventure and for vivid, even florid, scenery, no one even comes close to Howard.”


—HARRY TURTLEDOVE



Kull is a work of fiction. Names, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.


A Del Rey Trade Paperback Original


Copyright © 2006 by Kull Productions, LLC


Illustrations © 2006 by Justin Sweet


All rights reserved.


Published in the United States by Del Rey Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.


DEL REY is a registered trademark and the Del Rey colophon is a trademark of Random House, Inc.


Kull, Kull of Atlantis, King Kull, and related logos, names, characters, and distinctive likenesses thereof are trademarks of Kull Productions, LLC, unless otherwise noted.


All rights reserved.


This edition published by arrangement with Kull Productions, LLC.


eISBN-13: 978-0-345-49559-4

eISBN-10: 0-345-49559-4


www.delreybooks.com


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