4 L Sprague de Camp by A Conan Compendium (v2)

Author:A Conan Compendium (v2)
Format: epub

Conan of the Khyber Rifles by Chuck Hansen & Norman Metcalf In reading over Robert E. Howard’s The People of the Black Circle*, one is struck by the similarities between this story and some of the stories by Talbot Mundy. In An Exegesis of Howard’s Hyborian Tales de Camp acknowledges Howard’s debt to Mundy. To find the sources from which Howard derived many of the names used in the Conan mythos, de Camp has gone back to ultimate sources; what we wish to suggest is that the immediate and intermediate source for many of Howard’s names was the stories of Mundy. (*Weird Tales, Sep. & Nov. 1934 “The Sword of Conan”, Gnome, 1952) In addition to using Mundy as a source of names, Howard seems to have, in The People of the Black Circle, echoes of the mood and even some of the incidents of Mundy’s work. In short, Howard was inspired by Mundy, just as many of our presently active authors are inspired by Howard’s stories. For an example: On page 5 of People. .. ., Bhunda Chand says, “Aid me! I am far from my mortal house! Wizards have drawn my soul through wind-blown darkness. They seek to sap the silver cord that binds me to my dying body.” In Chapter XII of Mundy’s “The Nine Unknown” (1923) we find: ‘ “I am dead, but the silver cord is not yet cut,” said the corpse.’ This may well be a common imagery in the Orient, but its use here suggests Mundy was Howard’s source. The seven captive Afghulis on page 16 of People. ... are apparently modeled after the prisoners from the hills in Chapter IV of “King of the Khyber Rifles” (1916). Both groups are used as bargaining points between the people of the plains and those of the hills. The method used to murder the guard on page 19 of People... . is modeled after the one used by the priests of Kali in “The Nine Unknown” (Chapter VIII and subsequent). “Khemsa flicked the spear aside with his left hand, as a man might flick a straw, and his right flashed out and back, seemingly gently to caress the warrior’s neck in passing. And the guard pitched on his face without a sound, his head lolling on a broken neck.” (PC, page 19) “There was a motion of the handkerchief, as quick as lightning but less visible, and Diomed fell unpicturesquely — dead —a heap of something

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