If you missed the last one…
Pastiche Pals
We have now moved away from the creatures originally created by Howard in the 1930s to those of his followers. Bjorn Nyberg was a Swedish fan who had his work brought into the fold by L. Sprague de Camp, who was looking to expand the Conan series for Lancer. Nyberg’s “fan fiction” got a once over by de Camp. “The People of the Summit” originally appeared in Hans Stefan Santessan’s The Mighty Swordsmen (1970). It later was collected in Conan the Swordsman (1978).
To Spider or Not to Spider
Nyberg offers us another giant spider-like monster, but this one isn’t really a natural spider grown large. It is a beast from the pre-dawn of time or from another dimension altogether. The Ancient One is the second spidery beast of the Hyborian Age. Howard gave us the tower spider in “The Tower of the Elephant” (Weird Tales, March 1933) and L. Sprague de Camp would later have a Spider-God in Conan and the Spider-God (1980).
Cut to the Fight!
The story takes place in the Misty Mountains near the Bhambar Pass. Conan, and another mercenary named Jamal, are trying to get across the mountains before the local Khozgari bandits kill them. They kidnap a chieftain’s daughter, Shanya, but fall foul of the People of the Summit, weird degenerates who terrorize the mountains. The People fall before the fury of the Cimmerian like wheat to the reaper. But the last of the People releases the Ancient One to kill Conan:
Conan’s hair rose on his nape as he glimpsed the hulking form within the cavernous chamber. Huge and many limbed was the body, and spiderlike, or like a walking egg. Its stalked eyeballs and gaping jaw exuded an almost tangible power of evil, for it was a thing conceived in the dark aeon before man ever walked the earth.
Impenetrable Fiend
Conan picks up Shanya and ties to run but the Ancient One is fast on its many legs. Conan turns to fight:
Conan met the first onrush of the monster with a savage cut at one of the grasping limbs, but his blade splintered against the impenetrable horny hide of the creature. Although it fell back for a moment, it came on again with its weaving gait.
As with all large opponents, Conan turns to the furniture for help. With the Tower Spider, it was a chest. Large groups of soldiers get a table rammed into their bellies. With giant slugs and other gigantic beasts, it is usually a pillar or masonry. This time, the Cimmerian uses boulders from the surrounding mounds.
Conan snatched up a second boulder and flung it; pushed out another, rolling it toward the thrashing monster; and hurled still another. Then the undermined pyramid of stones collapsed in a hurtling avalanche, which buried the many-limbed creature down into the abyss in a cloud of dust and shards.
Thus the Ancient One dies in a rumble of boulders, just another bug splattered on the windshield that is Conan.
Mighty Marvel Mix-Up
The story got a comic version fairly early on. Savage Sword of Conan #3, December 1974 was adapted by Roy Thomas as “Demons of the Summit”. It was reprinted in color in Conan the Barbarian #87, June 1978.
Tony deZuniga does a great job as usual but the “stalked eyeballs” have been replaced with large insectoid orbs. The image succeeds at the hardest task, to look like a spider but not like a spider. DeZungia does this with crablike pinchers and stalky legs that lack the lethal elegance of a true spider.
Conclusion
As we look at more and more of the monsters created by writers other than Robert E. Howard, we are going to notice who has “the knack” and who doesn’t. REH had it, that ability to create a truly satisfying beastie. (He succeeds more often than not.) Nyberg may not have it. The creature appears at the end of the story, rather conveniently, and isn’t anything new. We’ll see how Lin Carter and L. Sprague de Camp do in later posts.
Roy Thomas and John Jakes offered their own Spider monster in Conan the Barbarian #13, January 1972. That one is a true spider and as big as The Ancient One. I think Jakes, who came up with the plot, just wanted to do Conan versus Shelob. Who wouldn’t?
