Reading from pages 131-140 of the DelRey edition

The illustration of the scowling Conan sweating on a bench, holding a bucket-sized drinking mug and giving a surly ear to the wiry and tall wise woman hunched on her stool with her great wolf yawning behind at her side, forms a stark picture of many an Arуan hero depicted throughout epic poetry, from Enkidu to Odysseus.

The Rending of the Veil reveals Howard’s conception of folk magic as very similar to that of J. R. R. Tolkien, with a practitioner of dark sorcery using ravens to track the fugitive Conan and a homegrown, rustic witch employing a great wolf and a mighty eagle to foil the dark occult powers of civilization as Conan seeks the succor of the wild lands.

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