Heaven and hell

[Faraer]

In writing an article on the soul in Howard's work, I'm considering life after death. Most Hyborian Age peoples believe that dead souls stay in a paradise or hell. But we know that some souls are reincarnated into new bodies, and some sources (e.g. "The Valley of the Worm", "The Man on the Ground") indicate that the Nemedian skeptics are right that only blackness follows death. But in "The House of Arabu" we visit such an otherworld, which leaves the question open. Whether or not such places are real, the mode of the Conan stories does not include visits to them. Still, it's interesting to consider what, for instance, David Gemmell does with hell and so on, and how that could work in the Hyborian Age.

There are also the dreamlands of "Xuthal of the Dusk" and "The Door to the World" (and "The Silver Key" and "Through the Gates of the Silver Key")...

Are there references to 'heaven' in the Conan stories outside that one in The Hour of the Dragon?

 

[Orkin]

First, you're probably wise to separate the REH canonical works from the later pastiches, as I assume you are doing.

Second, you probably want to define the term "heaven". Some folk have pre-conceived notions that would tend to color your research.

Look to Queen of the Black Coast. "There is no hope of hereafter in the cult of my people..." But, seeing as you have cited the Nemedian skeptics, you've probably done some mining already...

 

[Faraer]

In the stories, people talk far more often of hell than of a 'good' afterlife. But there are several conceptions of the latter: Crom's misty realm, Valhalla, the paradise Bêlit speaks of. 'Paradise' seems a good general term for these conceptions, more culturally neutral than 'heaven' which is only spoken of once or twice and seems a Mitran idea (I'm not defining it, just referring to the term 'heaven' in the sources). (Kull speaks of paradise and hell, also.) Hell is consistently seen as a place of fiery pits inhabited by damned souls and devils.

I don't have a firm idea of the reality of these places yet. They seem overall too hopeful for Howard, whose world certainly includes what the CRPG defaults to calling the Outer Dark. This Lovecraftian Outside is not entirely distinct from 'hell'; demons are said to come from both, for instance. Then there's Shuala in "The House of Arabu", and other references I've not come across yet.