L. Sprague de Camp found himself in the position of editor and collaborator on the Conan series after 1951, when he read Conan the Conqueror. He had to revise all the old stories as well as produce new ones. These new stories that had never appeared in Weird Tales in 1932 to 1936, were rewrites of non-Conan tales, many of them historical pieces originally intended for Adventure. De Camp did this by changing names of locales like Egypt becoming the Hyborian Stygia. He also had to add a supernatural element, usually featuring a monster of some kind. (Just to be fair, occasionally he did not add a monster as in “Hawks over Shem” (Fantastic Universe, October 1955). These new monsters were often not that new. Apish or demons of the air, De Camp did a good job of using monsters that Howard himself might have created.
The first of these rewrites has an unusual history. “The Black Stranger” was a Conan story that was rejected. Howard rewrote it as an adventure yarn featuring Terence Vulmea the pirate. De Camp found the original and revised it. The demon of Thoth-Amon may have been created by Howard. Future insertion would not. The final version of the story was retitled “The Treasure of Tranicos” in King Conan (1953) “The Black Stranger”, a version with four paragraphs (but no monsters) added by Lester Del Rey, the editor, appeared in Fantasy Magazine (March 1953).
“The blue mist had condensed into a monstrous black figure, dimly seen and not quite definite, which filled the hither end of the cave, blotting out the still, seated figures behind. There was an impression of shagginess, pointed ears, and close-set horns. Even as the great arms shot out like tentacles toward his throat, the Cimmerian, quick as a flash, struck at them with his Pictish ax. It was like chopping at a trunk of the ebony tree. The force of the blow broke the handle of the tomahawk and sent the copper head flying with a clank against the side of the tunnel; but, so far as the Cimmerian could tell, the blade had not bitten into the flesh of his foe at all. It took more than an ordinary edge to pierce a demon’s hide. And then the great fingers closed upon his throat, to break his neck as if it were a reed. Not since he had fought Baal-pteor hand to hand in the temple of Hanuman in Zamboula had Conan felt such a grip upon him. As the hairy fingers touched his skin, the barbarian tensed the thickly-corded muscles of his massive neck, drawing his head down between his shoulders to give his unnatural foe the least possible purchase. He dropped the knife and the broken hatchet handle, seized the huge black wrists, swung his legs upward and forward, and drove both bare heels with all his might against the chest of the thing, straightening out his long body.” (“The Treasure of Tranicos” by Robert E. Howard & L. Sprague de Camp)
The Ghouls of Yanaidar first appeared in “The Flame Knife” in Tales of Conan (1955) These creatures are the original holders of the city, returning to reclaim it from any humans who live there.
“From all sides, hordes of slinking gray shadows with unblinking, soulless eyes and misshapen, doglike jaws swarmed, to fasten upon any man they met, wherever a clawed but manlike hand could find a hold, and begin to tear him apart and devour him on the spot. Men struck at them with the strength of maniacal terror, but their corpselike skins seemed almost impervious to weapons…” (“The Flame Knife” by Robert E. Howard and L. Sprague de Camp)
“The Flame Knife” is a re-write of Howard’s The Three-Bladed Doom, a non-supernatural adventure story. The Yanaidar ghouls have dog-like heads the same as Lovecraftian ghouls. It was adapted in Savage Sword of Conan #31-32 (July-August 1978) but they were not portrayed as being dog-headed.
The Snow Ape as also appeared in “The Flame Knife”, a typical Howardian ape monster.
“It was like a ghoulish incarnation of a terrible legend, clad in flesh and bone; a giant ape, as tall on its gnarled legs as a gorilla. It was like the monstrous man-apes that hunted the mountains around the Vilayet Sea…but it was even larger; its hair was longer and shaggier, as of an arctic beast, and paler, as ashen grey that was almost white. Its feet and hands were more manlike than those of a gorilla, the great toes and thumbs being more like those of man than of the anthropoid. It was no tree-dweller but a beast bred on great plains and gaunt mountains. The face was apish in general appearance, though the nose-bridge was more pronounced, the jaw less bestial. But its manlike features merely increased the dreadfulness of its aspect, and the intelligence which gleamed from its small red eyes were wholly malignant.” (“The Flame Knife” by Robert E. Howard and L. Sprague de Camp)
“The Bloodstained God” by Robert E. Howard & L. Sprague de Camp (Tales of Conan, 1955) had a band of cutthroats (Conan included) going to retrieve an idol of gold and jewels. Unfortunately the thing is animated and has its own ideas. The Bloodstained God is housed in the temple in the Kezankian Mountains between the borders of Koth and Zamora. The idol is kept next to a large chasm into which it throws its sacrifices once animated. Conan destroyed it by knocking it into the chasm.
“They saw the god, a thing of gold crusted with flaming gems. The statue, a little bigger than life size, was in the form of a dwarfish man standing upright on great splay feet on a block of basalt. The statue faced the entrance, and on each side of it stood a great carven chair of dense black wood, inlaid with gems and mother-of-pearl in a style unlike that of any living nation.” (“The Bloodstained God” by Robert E. Howard & L. Sprague de Camp)
This story has a convoluted history. Howard wrote it as a Conan tale but couldn’t sell it so he re-wrote it as an adventure story set in Afghanistan. L. Sprague de Camp re-wrote it into a Conan story. It was adapted in comic form in Conan Super Special #9 (1978).
“The Road of Eagles” first appeared in Tales of Conan (1955) features another ghoul-like critter, the brylukas.
“They were of vaguely human form, but white and hairless, lean and stringy as if from a long fast. Their toes and fingers ended in great, hooked claws. They had large, staring eyes set in faces that looked more like those of bats than of human beings, with great, flaring ears, little snub noses, and wide mouths that opened to show needle-pointed fangs.”
“Drums of Tombalku” first appeared in Conan the Adventurer (1966). Actually a story written about another character, Amalric, Conan only appears around the edges. In the story there is a tower where sorcery dwells. it is guarded by the Red Tower Demon:
“With a roar like the gust of a black wind, the creature charged. Amalric sprang aside from the clutch of those hands, whose strength was more than that of a whirlwind. A single, taloned finger, spread wide and catching in his tunic, ripped the garment from him like a rotten rag as the monster plunged by. But Amalric, nerved to more than human quickness by the horror of the fight, wheeled and drove his sword through the thing’s back, so that the point stood out a foot from the broad breast.”
“Wolves Beyond the Border” first appeared in Conan the Usurper (1967) has another ape-like creature, known as a Chakan. This creature may be related to Thak from “Rogues in the House”.
“I awakened suddenly and sat up in bed. My window was open, both shutters and pane, for coolness, for it was an upstairs room, and there was no tree near by which a thief might gain access. But some noise had awakened me, and now as I stared at the window, I saw the star-lit sky blotted out by a bulky, misshapen figure. I swung my legs around off the bed, demanding to know who it was, and groping for my hatchet, but the thing was on me with frightful speed and before I could even rise something was around my neck, choking and strangling me. Thrust almost against my face there was a dim frightful visage, but all I could make out in the darkness was a pair of flaming red eyes, and a peaked head. My nostrils were filled with a bestial reek. I caught one of the thing’s wrists and it was hairy as an ape’s, and thick with iron muscles. But then I had found the haft of my hatchet and I lifted it and split that misshapen skull with one blow. It fell clear of me and I sprang up, gagging and gasping, and quivering in every limb. I found flint, steel and tinder, and struck a light and lit a candle, and glared wildly at the creature lying on the floor. In form it was like a man, gnarled and misshapen, covered with thick hair.
Its nails were long and black, like the talons of a beast, and its chinless, lowbrowed head was like that of an ape. The thing was a Chakan, one of those semi-human beings which dwell deep in the forests.
“The Hall of the Dead” first appeared in Fantasy & Science Fiction, February 1967 before being included in Conan (1967). It has two monsters. the first is gigantic slug that keeps people away from the temple where the hall is located. Slime trails criss-cross the grounds. The story was adapted in Conan the Barbarian #8 (August 1971) but the slug was changed to a giant gila monster.
“At last, around the next corner poured a huge, slimy mass, leprous grey in the moonlight. It glided into the street before him and swiftly advanced upon him, silent save for the sucking sound of its peculiar method of locomotion. From its front end rose a pair of hornlike projections, at least ten feet long, with a shorter pair below. The long horns bent this way and that, and Conan saw that they bore eyes on their ends. The creature was, in fact, a slug, like the harmless garden slug that leaves a trail of slime in its nightly wanderings. This slug, however, was fifty feet long and as thick through the middle as Conan was tall.”
Once inside the building you find treasure but you also find its guardians, very tall mummies that reanimate when the treasure is disturbed.
“Inside, they stared about them until their torches burned down to their hands and they had to light a new pair. Around the room, seven giant warriors, each at least seven feet tall, sprawled in chairs. Their heads lay against the chair backs and their mouths hung open. They wore the trappings of a bygone era; their plumed copper helmets and the copper scales on their corselets were green with age. Their skins were brown and waxy looking, like those of mummies, and grizzled beards hung down to their waists. Copper-bladed bills and pikes leaned against the wall beside them or lay on the floor.”
“The Snout in the Dark” first appeared in Conan of Cimmeria (1969) and features a demon that was probably inspired either by edward Lucas White’s “The Snout” or William Hope Hodgson’s swinefolk from The House on the Borderlands (1908). The plot of this story feels much like “Phoenix on the Sword”.
“Hanging in the centre of the room, a grey, coiling mist was taking shape and form. The seething fog had already partly condensed into a hulking, monstrous form with sloping, hairy shoulders and thick, bestial limbs. Conan glimpsed the creature’s misshapen head with its bristling, pig-like snout and tusked, champing jaws. The thing had solidified out of thin air, materializing by some demonic magic…At the same instant the monster, with supernatural quickness, whirled and launched itself at Conan in a gigantic bound. As Conan fell flat, the demon passed clear over his body and fetched up against the wall of the hall outside. The combatants were on their feet in an instant. As the monster sprang upon Conan anew, a flash of lightning outside gleamed upon its great chisel tusks. The Cimmerian thrust his left elbow up under its jaw, while he fumbled with his right hand for his dagger. The demon’s hairy arms encircled Conan’s body with crushing force; a smaller man’s back would have been broken. Conan heard his clothing rip as the blunt nails of its hands dug in, and a couple of links of his mail shirt snapped with sharp, metallic sounds. Although the weight of the demon was about the same as the Cimmerian’s, its strength was incredible. As he strained every muscle, Conan felt his left forearm being bent slowly back, so that the snouted jaws came closer and closer to his face.”
Some critics have no love for the de camp rewrites or the de Camp/Carter pastiches but I am more catholic about it all. Any stories that give me more Sword & Sorcery monsters are a good thing. Love them, hate them. That’s up to you, but the Hyborian bestiary has more entries for it.
