'A Tocsin of Alarm'
James LaFond's Impressions of Conan Loses His Axe by Robert E. Howard
© 2019 James LaFond
JAN/4/19
Reading from Beyond the Black River, pages 45-53 of The Conquering Sword of Conan by Del Rey, 2005
Beyond the Black River has often been cited, by myself and others, as a “leather-stocking tale” as a Conan story, indicating the cycle of Natty Bumpo or Hawkeye stories about the fictional white Indian’s adventures in the time of the French and Indian wars in New England and New York. However, Howard’s history was clearly vested in his reading of his own family history, which, in the U.S. occurred mostly in the trans-Appalachian forests of the Tennessee, Cumberland and Mississippi watersheds. I have written, I think convincingly, that the campaigns of Nathan Bedford Forrest in this region, which involved some of Howard’s blood relatives, inspired his heroic vision most memorably imbedded in the Conan character...
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barbarism versus civilization
thriving in bad places
cracker-boy
dark, distant futures
ranger?
time & cosmos
wife—
blue eyed daughter of zeus
when you're food
the fighting edge
taboo you
america the brutal
son of a lesser god
sons of aryas
the lesser angels of our nature
let the world fend for itself
the sunset saga complete
by the wine dark sea
orphan nation
triumph
fanatic
hate
your trojan whorse
z-pill forever
the greatest lie ever sold
the first boxers
honor among men
the year the world took the z-pill
within leviathan’s craw
sorcerer!
all-power-fighting
the gods of boxing
fiction anthology one
logic of force
advent america
masculine axis
beasts of aryas
winter of a fighting life
logic of steel
songs of aryas
broken dance
menthol rampage
the combat space
into leviathan’s maw
the greatest boxer
under the god of things
night city
on combat
solo boxing
book of nightmares
song of the secret gardener
predation
fate
uncle satan
on the overton railroad
This has always been my favorite Conan tale.
It's my favorite every time I read it.