[CONAN] A Witch Shall Be Born

[Supplement Four]

I just finished reading this superb Conan tale for the first time. Loved it. And, what really caught my fancy was the way it was written. I like how Howard used different techniques to convey his grand story--as with the character Astreas writing a letter to his fellow philosopher in Nemedia, conveying news and almanac-like events that he's seen through his travels.

That character, alone, should have his own story.

I also like how Conan was the "star" of the piece on every page. Howard made room for other characters to bloom, like Valerius. In some parts of the story, we see Conan through other characters' eyes or by their recollection of past events instead of living through those events as an unseen narrator.

Epic battles. Heroes and villians. Demons and Zuagir hordes. Good stuff.



For those that are interested, there are two sequels to A Witch Shall Be Born in Savage Sword of Conan. In SSoC 1 (and, I'm talking about the Dark Horse reprint collections, not the original mag), the story that immediately follows AWSBB, called The Sleeper Beneath The Sands is a direct sequel to AWSBB.

Then, skip ahead to SSoC 5, page 459, for another sequel, called Mirror of the Manticore.

I understand that the Howard/de Camp story, The Flame Knife, is also a sequel to AWSBB, and the Mirror story is an attempt to bridge AWSBB with The Flame Knife.

Also, if you read Conan The Mercenary, by Andrew Offutt, you'll see mentioned some characters of AWSBB when they were children.

Check out SSoC 3 for The Flame Knife.

Some of Offutt's trilogy that bridges Conan The Mercenary is presented in SSoC 5.

 

[Spectator]

I absolutely Loved AWSBB except for the ending.
If this is Thaug is such a bad-ass, I soubt thais his avatar (or he) should be banished by a hailstorm of shemitish mercenary arrows.

I just thought when I read that... "for real, c'mon!"

Other than that it was a bang-up story!

 

[Supplement Four]

I absolutely Loved AWSBB except for the ending.

I just finished AWSBB in Savage Sword of Conan. It was interesting because the story was pretty faithful except for the end. Valerius became "Marcios"--why the name change, I'm not sure. And, Conan was move involved in the action in the end doing some of the things done by Valerius in the story.

I really liked AWSBB because it was like hearing about an actual event from different perspectives. Conan's part in the event wasn't that big a role, as far as a dramatic story goes. He comes in late to the short story, and you hear about him, third person, as Captain of the guard and do not live with him as he breaks out of the court yard and is captured by Constantius.

Then, we don't see what he's doing with the Zuaigir until we catch up with him much later in the story. And, at the end, he's basically a general on teh battlefield without first-hand knowledge of what he's doing. We hear that Conan slew Khumbanigash. We don't witness it.

A lot of that kind of thing happens in this story where we hear about it after the fact.

I wouldn't like all Conan stories to be like that, but it was a fresh change of pace.

If this is Thaug is such a bad-ass, I soubt thais his avatar (or he) should be banished by a hailstorm of shemitish mercenary arrows.

It was three volleys of arrows. In the game, that could probably take it down, unless the thing was immune to arrows--that's a lot of damage.

But, yes, what you're referring to is that there was no epic fight. Again--something different about this story. It's as if Howard set out to write a Conan story and do everything opposite from the way normal heroic fantasy stories are written.

 

[Supplement Four]

I just finished the first sequel in Savage Sword to AWSBB, called The Sleeper Beneath the Sands. If I didn't know that it was an original story, I'd swear it was an adapatation of a Howard story. It's quite good and "feels" like something Howard would write.

 

[kintire]

I understand that the Howard/de Camp story, The Flame Knife, is also a sequel to AWSBB

I wouldn't quite say that: it ties up one plot strand of AWSBB (the struggle between Olgerd and Conan) but it doesn't have much to do with the rest of it.

But, yes, what you're referring to is that there was no epic fight. Again--something different about this story. It's as if Howard set out to write a Conan story and do everything opposite from the way normal heroic fantasy stories are written.

I think its a good finish actually. Conan monsters are subject to being killed by physical damage. The real epic battle is against Salome, and I think having another against the monsters would have weakened the impact. Salome's the bad-ass: The monster is really only a tool of hers. She's the title character after all!

 

[Supplement Four]

The real epic battle is against Salome, and I think having another against the monsters would have weakened the impact. Salome's the bad-ass: The monster is really only a tool of hers. She's the title character after all!

Agreed. I don't even think Thaug needed to exist in the story. Salome could have just as easily been taking subjects to the temple to sacrifice them without Thaug being around. She is a witch of the dark arts, after all.

Thaug really had no place in the story since he basically appeared and then died. No drama there, unless Howard was going for the, "Oh, how is Conan going to deal with THAT" type of anticipation.

The golden rule of writing is: If you take a character (and in this case, Thaug is a minion of Salome) out, and he is not missed, then leave him out of the story.

Maybe Howard was a little short on word count and added Thaug. Who knows.