Read Sword Woman and Other Historical Adventures Online
Authors: Robert E. Howard
Sword Woman and Other Historical Adventures
T
HE
F
ULLY
I
LLUSTRATED
R
OBERT
E. H
OWARD
L
IBRARY
from Del Rey Books
The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian
The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane
The Bloody Crown of Conan
Bran Mak Morn: The Last King
The Conquering Sword of Conan
Kull: Exile of Atlantis
The Best of Robert E. Howard Volume 1:
Crimson Shadows
The Best of Robert E. Howard Volume 2:
Grim Lands
The Horror Stories of Robert E. Howard
El Borak and Other Desert Adventures
Sword Woman and Other Historical Adventures
Sword Woman and Other Historical Adventures
is a work of fiction.
Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
A Del Rey Trade Paperback Original
Copyright © 2011 by Robert E. Howard Properties, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Del Rey, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
D
EL
R
EY
is a registered trademark and the Del Rey colophon is a trademark of Random House, Inc.
ROBERT E. HOWARD, DARK AGNES, and related names, logos, characters, and distinctive likenesses thereof are trademarks or registered trademarks of Robert E. Howard Properties, Inc., unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved.
Published by arrangement with Robert E. Howard Properties, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Howard, Robert E. (Robert Ervin), 1906–1936.
Sword woman and other historical adventures / Robert E. Howard ;
fully illustrated by John Watkiss.
p. cm.
eISBN: 978-0-345-52432-4
1. Adventure stories, American. 2. Historical fiction, American. I. Title.
PS3554.E43S96 2011
813′.54—dc22
2010039976
Cover design: Dreu Pennington-McNeil
Cover art: John Watkiss
Art Directors
Jim & Ruth Keegan
Editor
Rusty Burke
v3.1
Spears of Clontarf
first published in
Spears of Clontarf,
1978
Hawks Over Egypt
first published in
The Road of Azrael,
1979
The Outgoing of Sigurd the Jerusalem-Farer
first published in
Verses in Ebony,
1975
The Road of Azrael
first published in
Chacal,
1976
The Lion of Tiberias
first published in
The Magic Carpet Magazine,
July 1933
Gates of Empire
first published in
Golden Fleece,
January 1939
Hawks of Outremer
first published in
Oriental Stories,
Spring 1931
The Blood of Belshazzar
first published in
Oriental Stories,
Fall 1931
Red Blades of Black Cathay
first published in
Oriental Stories,
February–March 1931
The Sowers of the Thunder
first published in
Oriental Stories,
Winter 1932
The Skull in the Clouds
first published in
The Howard Collector,
Spring 1962
A Thousand Years Ago
first published in
Night Images,
1976
Lord of Samarcand
first published in
Oriental Stories,
Spring 1932
Timur-lang
first published in
The Howard Collector,
Summer 1964
Sword Woman
first published in
REH: Lone Star Fictioneer,
Summer 1975
Blades for France
first published in
Blades for France,
1975
The Shadow of the Vulture
first published in
The Magic Carpet Magazine,
January 1934
The Road of the Eagles
first published in
Lord of Samarcand and Other Adventure Tales of the Old Orient,
2005
Untitled Fragment (The Track of Bohemund)
first published in
The Road of Azrael,
1979
Untitled Synopsis (The Slave-Princess)
first published in
The Howard Reader,
2003
Untitled Fragment (The Slave-Princess)
first published in
The Howard Reader,
2003
Untitled Fragment (“He knew de Bracy …”)
first published in
Lord of Samarcand and Other Adventure Tales of the Old Orient,
2005
Untitled Fragment (“The wind from the Mediterranean …”)
first published in
Amra,
November 1959
Recap of Harold Lamb’s “The Wolf Chaser”
first published in
Lord of Samarcand and Other Adventure Tales of the Old Orient,
2005
Untitled Fragment (“The Persians had all fled …”)
first published in
Lord of Samarcand and Other Adventure Tales of the Old Orient,
2005
The Sign of the Sickle
first published in
A Rhyme of Salem Town and Other Poems,
2002
Mistress of Death
appears here for the first time
This book is dedicated to my deceased wife, Lorraine,
who I’m sure would have been pleased
that I finally got to illustrate a book by such a great writer.
—John Watkiss
Contents
The Outgoing of Sigurd the Jerusalem-Farer
Untitled Fragment (The Track of Bohemund)
Untitled Synopsis (The Slave-Princess)
Untitled Fragment (The Slave-Princess)
Untitled Fragment (“He knew de Bracy …”)
Untitled Fragment (“The wind from the Mediterranean …”)
Recap of Harold Lamb’s “The Wolf Chaser”
Untitled Fragment (“The Persians had all fled …”)
Notes on the Original Howard Texts
Illustrations
“Touch it not,” exclaimed Asmund
His mighty right hand held ready the stained sword
Cormac thundered his battle cry …
“They have crossed the Jordan!”
We fell to it, thrusting, slashing …
So I gave the horse the rein and rode at a reckless gallop
Artist’s Foreword
Robert E. Howard’s crowning glory in literature was Conan the Cimmerian. His epic tales written from a remote place in Texas were remarkable in character, landscape, and mood.
At the age of fourteen, I first came across his stories in paperback editions. At that time, as a young artist, I had been studying anatomy with regard to drawing the human figure. The exotic, mysterious, action-packed stories of the Conan saga were a perfect vehicle for inventive figure renditions and stagings.
At that time I could only dream about working on Howard’s stories. Now I have realized that dream, illustrating
Sword Woman and Other Historical Adventures.
I hope you enjoy Howard’s work as much as I enjoyed illustrating it.
—John Watkiss
2010
Introduction
Historical fiction has been a part of our literary heritage for almost as long as we have possessed the written word, since some forgotten scribe in the court of Rameses XI put pen to papyrus to create the “Report of Wenamon.” Over the centuries it became the province of skalds and poets; bards and playwrights plundered whole archives to find fodder for the ages, while historians and antiquarians used fictionalized history as a means of understanding long-vanished civilizations. Today, while its form and function as a genre has changed, the appeal of historical fiction remains undiminished. It is the literature of spectacle and pageantry; at its simplest it is pure entertainment wrapped in a veneer of respectability often denied to its close cousin, fantasy. In the hands of a master, however, historical fiction does more than entertain … it puts a distinctly human face on our collective past.