“The Gods of the North” originally appeared in The Fantasy Fan, March 1934, a fanzine published by Charles Hornig. The story was rejected by Farnsworth Wright at Weird Tales. Since WT was Howard’s only real market for Fantasy, he deemed the story unsalable and gave it away. The tale had featured Conan, but since Wright had that franchise, Howard changed it to Amra of Akbitana. The editor probably rejected it because of the lack of traditional weird elements, not so much for the sexual politics of the tale. The story is in essence a strange Northern.
The plot is simple enough. After a battle on some snowy mountain, Amra is the lone survivor. He sees Atali, an enchantingly beautiful woman. He pursues her with less than wholesome intentions. She laughs at him and leads him into a trap. Her two brothers, the frost giants, attack him. Amra kills them, pursues her again, only managing to tear away part of her clothing. When Amra’s allies find him, he tells the tale. It seems like a dream but the evidence of Atali’s strand of cloth in his clutched hand says otherwise. The tale was inspired by Bulfinch’s Mythology, the Greek myths of Atalanta and Daphne and Apollo. In the second tale Cupid shoots Apollo with a love arrow. Howard’s motive for Amra/Conan are less divinely inspired.
Amra’s tale would become Conan’s tale again in 1953, when L. Sprague de Camp edited it for The Coming of Conan, a Gnome Press hard cover. De Camp retitled it “The Frost-Giant’s Daughter”. Later in 1969, the title would lose the hyphen in Conan of Cimmeria, the Lancer paperback. De Camp’s edits obviously changed all the names back to Hyborian ones but he also reworked the story to make it more similar to the other edits he was doing.
The tale, the unchanged version, was reprinted in Fantastic Universe, December 1956. The editorial note at the bottom credits Sam Moskowitz with presenting the tale to them for re-publishing. The note points out The Fantasy Fan had a small circulation and many readers had never read it before. This tale was part of a run of Howard stories, most of which were reworked by L. Sprague de Camp, to appear in that magazine. He and Lin Carter were also creating pastiches to continue the series.
“The Frost Giant’s Daughter” edited by L. Sprague de Camp has become the standard version though the original has appeared in other anthologies. Despite this, the first adaptation was not the Marvel Comics ones in the 1970s. The first adaptation is of the Amra version in the obscure Star-Studded Comics, a fannish level publication that gave George R. R. Martin his first break and inspired his later Wild Cards series. This comic was part of a late 1960s surge in Sword & Sorcery comics largely hidden in fan publications and horror comics.
“The Gods of the North” (Star-Studded Comics #14, December 1968) was adapted by Larry Herndon, with art by Steve Kelez and Alan Hutchison.
Marvel finally got around to the story for their big experiment in Black & White Sword & Sorcery, Savage Tales #1 (May 1971). This time Roy Thomas adapted the Conan version with art by Barry Windsor-Smith.
The Savage Tales version was reprinted but added a splash page for Conan the Barbarian #16 (July 1972) along with color.
Savage Sword of Conan #1 (August 1974) reprinted the full version (with splash) again in Black & White. This final version was reprinted often when editors needed filler. It has appeared in Conan Saga and all the Conan collections since.
Black Horse Comics did a version for Conan #2 (March 2004). The adaptation was done by Kurt Busiek with art by Cary Nord. The story was reprinted in the Frazetta Cover Series in 2007. These comics were part of a renaissance in Sword & Sorcery comics that came after the dismal 1990s.
Glenat/Ablaze Comics did a more adult version in December 2020-January 2021 with adaptation and art by Robin Recht.
“Gods of the North” left and returned to Conan’s saga. The iconic Frank Frazetta image of Conan fighting the frost giants is such a part of my own journey through Sword & Sorcery (how many vans did I see that painted on?) that I can’t separate it from my enjoyment of the sub-genre. I can see how problematic the entire rape motivation is today but failed to perceive that decades ago. (I was an innocent twelve or so at the time.) The softening of that in the Marvel Comics may also have played apart in that. Sometimes we forget, especially when Conan is off fighting with superheroes, that the character was considered a “bad boy” back in the day. It is only as the character endures for decade after decade that we require him to become something else.
I did a similar write up of this tale not too long ago. I forgot about the George R. R. Martin connection! As I’m sure you are aware, Karl Edward Wagner published both the Conan and Amra versions side by side in the 2nd volume of his Echoes of Valor anthology series. The Amra version was edited a bit and arguably less poetic. Maybe WT editor Farnsworth Wright said something about the fanciful language and hence REH toned it down a bit in the rewrite. Dunno, but there are some changes in the two versions. Enjoyed your article.
I will check out your take in it.
Very cool site. Read it here: https://spraguedecampfan.wordpress.com/2021/12/17/the-lancer-conan-series-the-frost-giants-daughter/
One of my favorite two or three Conan stories.
I’ve always enjoyed this story. No apologies for his hedonistic behavior. In his untamed youth he was always a ‘bad boy’/ anti-hero. REH just had fate slip in to put him upon the right side of things often enough to be heroic rather than evil. How many times did he start out to rob or plunder and end up killing some evil wizard or horrible monster? All through his youth he could’ve been nick-named ‘the accidental hero.’ It was only after becoming a mercenary that he actually began to tone down and aim toward being a reasonable leader or trying to save kingdoms and damsels on purpose. I’ve always felt Gods of the North/ The Frost Giant’s Daughter was a more powerful piece for its raw honesty about his motivations (whether mystically inspired or just out of an overabundance of testosterone and unchained lust.) There was no ‘civilized mask’ or dignity cast over it. He was just acting upon animal instinct. He was being an uncivilized barbarian.