Sword & Sorcery Favorites You Might Have Missed

After you’ve read the Howard Conans a hundred times, and the Michael Moorcocks are wearing thin, you might start to think Sword & Sorcery has not much left to offer. I beg to differ. There are any number of great S&S tales you may have missed simply because of bad timing. Anthologies come and go and stories become forgotten.

This list is going to try and do a little to help in that regard. Here are five stories I know I loved and I hope you will too– if you can find them. If you are like me you love a good used bookstore or haunt the auction sites hoping to grab a little treasure.

“The Scroll of Thoth” by Richard L. Tierney (Swords Against Darkness II, 1977) has Simon of Ghitta in Rome to steal the Scroll of Thoth from the emperor himself, Caligula. The emperor has been using the spells in the book to raise the dead. Simon, disguised as a slave finds the secret chamber where the scroll is kept and kills the guard. He burns the scroll then flees, but is unfortunately caught. He is about to meet his fate when the assassination of the emperor gives him time to escape.

Tierney’s use of historical facts is brilliantly done in this tale, explaining why Caligula would fight Neptune for a beach full of sea shells. Like the Vettius & Dama stories of David Drake, the historical detail is as much fun as the S&S. This story was a sequel to “The Ring of Set” in Swords Against Darkness #1. These stories were collected in Simon of Ghitta: Simon Magus and the Great Old Ones.

“Demonsong” by F. Paul Wilson (Heroic Fantasy, 1979) is the story of Glaeken, who comes to the city of Kashela and learns of a bounty offered by Prince Iolon, one which no one would consider. A region of evil magic exists in the land, and all who venture into it lose their energy and die. Glaeken accepts the bounty and heads for the Elder Cavern where the cause of the blight exists.

Before he goes he rescues a musician named Cragjaw and his instrument, the harmohorn, from a band of street rabble. Glaeken, astride his horse, Stroffal, heads into the land of evil and feels the drain on his vitality. He has to use a brand to rouse his steed, sending it back to safety.

He presses on and finds the Elder Cavern and the undead remains of the wizard, Rosalam. Glaeken demands the wizard’s Ring of Chaos, the supposed relic causing the problem. Rosalam laughs and explains the ring has done its job, created a vast auditorium and the Choir of Chaos, ten thousand demons shrieking in discord. At the center of the Ampitheater of Chaos grows a massive demonic form, Rosalam transformed into the Lord of Chaos. What can Glaeken do?

Wilson, who was not yet the bestselling F. Paul Wilson of Repairman Jack fame but was the SF writer of Wheels-Within-Wheels (1978) Wilson, sends up some tried-and-true S&S tropes: the wandering swordsman, the evil wizard, the quest. Despite the well-used nature of these items, Wilson finds something new in the S&S tale. As editors Gerald W. Page and Hank Reinhardt write in the intro: “‘Demonsong’ … is so well planned and so well written that it would be irresistible even if it didn’t have the additional extra of rethinking almost every convention it touches on…”

“The Rending Dark” by Emma Bull (Sword & Sorceress, 1984) tells of Kit the Songsmith and Marya the warrior (who has a mutant claw-hand) coming to a remote village. Something lurking outside the town is killing people at night. The duo encounter the monster, a black cloudy thing that absorbs heat. Digging further they find out that it is the mutant son of the innkeeper, Amali, once thought dead but back to feed upon the living. Marya saves the day but fears for her own future, since the mutant’s powers have awakened her own.

Bull does so many things right in this tale which reminds me more of Fafhrd & Grey Mouser than anything else. I wish she’d have written a whole series of tales about these two.

“Treason in Zagadar” by Adrian Cole originally appeared in The Anthology of Fantasy & the Supernatural (1994). Perhaps the only King Kull fiction pastiche ever written ( scholars prove me wrong) it tells of Ambellus, an arrogant but worthy ambassador of Kull’s, who comes to Zagadar and falls into a trap, getting himself and his men killed in the jungle outside of the city.

The king of the city is Gorvic the Axe, a distant cousin to King Borna, the man Kull slew for his throne. Gorvic plans to take back the empire with the help of the wizard Xaldeev, who can control the lizard-men. When Ambellus’ head is sent back to Kull, the army mounts up and comes to Zagadar. Gorvic and Xaldeev spring a complex trap, one that involves putting all the fighting men of Zagadar under a spell while the lizard-men are allowed into the city to kill Kull and his men.

While Kull and the Red Slayers are fighting a desperate battle on the walls of the city, Xaldeev has his own plans for revenge on everybody, releasing the Unborn One from another dimension. How will Kull save the world and himself?

Cole does a great job of telling this pastiche. Other than Lin Carter finishing some Kull stories there haven’t been a whole lot of Kull pastiches outside of the comic books. Cole has a nice mix of intrigue, monsters and Mythosian stuff. This is truly a descendant of “The Shadow Kingdom”.

I saved this one for last even though it appeared first, because of the unusual nature of its publication. John Jakes, before his success of the Kent Family Chronicles wrote a few comics for Marvel including the Brak comic “A Spell For a Dragon” (Chamber of Chills #2, January 1973). The unpublished third issue of The Haunt of Horror (October 1973) was to have featured a lengthy Sword & Sorcery tale, “The Running of Ladyhound”. Since that magazine folded the story had to wait almost two years before finally appearing in Savage Tales #10  (May 1975). The story was illustrated by Michael Whelan and Rick Bryant.

The plot of “Ladyhound” has a half-starved minstrel named Duncan Houndsglove fall into the hands of a besieged King named Lor. The tyrant shows little interest in Duncan, being busy conferring with his henchmen, the brutal warrior, Rol and the toadish wizard, Magid. Lor also has a pet greyhound called Ladyhound that Lor torments for fun.  Duncan has a fit, followed by a prophetic vision, one of the king being eaten from the inside out by a gigantic worm. Lor holds Duncan prisoner, allowing the minstrel time to interpret the meaning (which he can not do) so instead he gets to know his daughter, Mylinde.

King Lor invites Duncan on a “ride”. What this entails is releasing Ladyhound a distance from the castle, then unleashing Lor’s starved and vicious dogs after her. The king and his cronies sit on their horses and watch to see if she will make it. Their fun is interrupted when some skirmishers attack them in the woods. Duncan runs, finding the injured Ladyhound. He talks to her kindly as he ministers to her wounds. One of Lor’s hounds come and Duncan must kill it to allow Ladyhound to escape. Duncan takes a bad bite in the arm.

King Lor and his men show up, demanding to know where Ladyhound is. Duncan refuses to cooperate. They strip him and tie him up out in the cold. Magid comes to see him. Duncan is rude to the necromancer, telling him that he knows the secret behind ladyhound, that she is the queen transformed into a dog. Magid torments Duncan with a spell that makes it look, feel and sound like two large beetles are eating away at his wound.

It is Mylinde who rescues him. She dresses his wound but is not able to remove the spell. The two plan to escape when warriors set the tower on fire and begin killing Lor’s men. One of Lor’s guard’s comes upon them, killing Mylinde without realizing who she is. The man flees, leaving Duncan with a sword. Duncan must now face Rol and their fates be decided.

This story surprised me on some levels but not on others. It is better written than most Brak fare, with more characterization and more realistic interactions. What really made my eyes widen was how much it reminds me of Keith Taylor’s Bard stories. (The first to appear in Fantastic in October 1975.) I’m not claiming either author was aware of the other. Both have their own style and ideas but some of the incidents are similar. It is mostly just wonderful to find another story about a bard-like character, since the halls of S&S are crammed with brawny swordsmen.

Well, there you are. Go find them. Enjoy them. Share them with like-minded fans. These are the gold nuggets that pull Sword & Sorcery out of the garbage pile that so many poor direct-to-video movies have thrown it. And there is more out there: the Kardios tales of Manly Wade Wellman, the Ryre stories of Ramsey Campbell, the Bard tales of Keith Taylor, the stories of Janet Fox, Charles R. Saunders and P. E. Cunningham. Good luck!