Bran Mak Morn: The Last King (40 page)

H.P. Lovecraft, memorializing his friend, said, �t is hard to describe precisely what made Mr. Howard� stories stand out so sharply; but the real secret is that he himself is in every one of them....�The best of Howard� tales are centered squarely on the viewpoint character. This is why Worms of the Earth is by far the best of the Bran Mak Morn stories: it is the only one in which Bran is not seen through the eyes of another character. Howard himself recognized this, writing to Lovecraft shortly after this story was accepted:

�y interest in the Picts was always mixed with a bit of fantasy �that is, I never felt the realistic placement with them that I did with the Irish and Highland Scotch. Not that it was the less vivid; but when I came to write of them, it was still through alien eyes - thus in my first Bran Mak Morn story �which was rightfully rejected �I told the story through the person of a Gothic mercenary in the Roman army; in a long narrative rhyme which I never completed, and in which I first put Bran on paper, I told it through a Roman centurion on the Wall; in �he Lost Race�the central figure was a Briton; and in �ings of the Night�it was a Gaelic prince. Only in my last Bran story, �he Worms of the Earth�which Mr. Wright accepted, did I look through Pictish eyes, and speak with a Pictish tongue!�

This would also prove to be the last Bran Mak Morn story Howard would write. In the same letter (dated March 10, 1932) in which Weird Tales editor Wright told Howard, � want to schedule WORMS OF THE EARTH soon, for that is an unusually fine story, I think,�he had returned two other stories, asking for revisions to one: these were The Frost-Giant� Daughter and The Phoenix on the Sword, the first tales of a Cimmerian adventurer named Conan who would dominate Howard� fiction for the next three years. The Picts were, of course, present in Conan� prehistoric �yborian Age� they were the hereditary enemies of the Cimmerians, who were themselves descendants of the pre-Cataclysmic Atlanteans of Kull. The Pictish wilderness stretched from the western borders of Aquilonia to the sea, and it is on that border that one of Howard� finest Conan tales, Beyond the Black River, is set. Pictish characters also play supporting roles in two of the James Allison stories, Marchers of Valhalla and The Valley of the Worm. But Bran, having made his foul bargain with the Worms of the Earth, is never heard from again.

It is tempting to see in Bran Mak Morn an autobiographical representation of Robert E. Howard. More so than any other of his characters, Bran feels the heavy weight of personal responsibility for his people, much as one suspects Howard must have felt toward his aging parents, especially his sickly mother. Bran knows that he is the last of his line, as perhaps Howard, an only child, may have felt he was the last of his. And Howard seems to explicitly suggest this connection when he insists upon his undying fascination with the Picts, and says �ad I grown into the sort of a man, which in childhood I wished to become, I would have been short, stocky, with thick, gnarled limbs, beady black eyes, a low retreating forehead, heavy jaw, and straight, course black hair �my conception of a typical Pict.�Of course, Howard is at some pains to show us that Bran Mak Morn differs from the �ypical Pict,�though sharing the characteristics of being small and dark-complected, with dark hair and eyes. This was not, as Howard says, his own type (� was blond and rather above medium size than below�, making it all the more noteworthy that so many of his earliest characters share these features. Howard explicitly states, for instance, that Bran �hysically...bore a striking resemblance to El Borak,�the first character he created, some two years before Bran. His alter-ego in the fictionalized autobiographical novel, Post Oaks and Sand Roughs, is described as a �lack Celt,��pare and gaunt,�a �ark youth.�And he related to H.P. Lovecraft a dream he had had as a child, in which the characters match this description:

� dreamed that I slept and awoke, and when I awoke a boy and a girl about my age were playing near me. They were small and trimly shaped, with very dark skin and dark eyes. Their garments were scanty, and strange to me, now that I remember them, but at the time they were not strange, for I too was clad like them, and I too was small, and delicately fashioned and dark ... Now, as I woke in my dream, this scene was fully familiar to me, and I knew that the boy and the girl were my brother and sister; it was not as if I had merely wakened from a sleep, returning to my natural, work-a-day world. And suddenly in my dream, I began to laugh and to narrate to my brother and my sister the strange dream I had had. And I told them of what �if there was any truth at all in reality �constituted my actual waking life... I told them that my dream had seemed so vivid while dreaming it, that I had actually thought it to be real, and believed myself to be a stocky blond child living a waking life, without knowledge of any other....�(Howard to H.P. Lovecraft, ca. December 1930, in Robert E. Howard: Selected Letters 1923�930, p. 77).

Many of Howard� Pictish characters share another interesting feature: they have names that share either a b/r or g/r consonant pattern. All the chieftains of the Picts have the b/r pattern: Bran, Brule (in the Kull stories), Berula (The Lost Race), Dulborn (The Ballad of King Geraint), Brogar (The Dark Man and Tigers of the Sea), and Brulla (The Night of the Wolf), while more �rimitive�Picts generally have names with a g/r pattern, such as Grom, Gonar, Grok, and Grulk, or names that fit neither pattern. However, the b/r pattern is not reserved to Picts alone: such characters as El Borak, Turlogh O�rien, Iron Mike Brennon, and Steve Bender also fit the b/r pattern and are short, dark-featured, or both. All, like the Picts, are from early in Howard� writing career. El Borak, as we have said, actually predates Bran.

What this suggests is that the b/r naming pattern, and even more so the seeming identification with small, dark-featured characters, may have had roots in strong and lasting unconscious patterns, and that Howard� admiration for the Picts, leading him to adopt them �s a medium of connection with ancient times,�may have stemmed from something prior to his discovery of the Pictish race and creation of Bran, possibly predating even El Borak. But while he created many characters who shared these features, he rarely adopted them as his viewpoint characters (even the earliest El Borak stories are generally told through his associates), until he was able to ally his strong emotional connection and storytelling skills in Worms of the Earth, following which he wrote no further tales of Bran.

Interestingly, then, after Worms of the Earth no Pictish character fits the b/r pattern: we have Teyanoga (Wolves Beyond the Border; in the first draft his name was �arogh� and Zogar Sag (Beyond the Black River) in the Conan series, and in these stories (and The Black Stranger) the Picts are primarily howling savages; and in the James Allison tales we find a Kelka (Marchers of Valhalla) and Grom (The Valley of the Worm), both blood brothers to the AEsir heroes, during an era when the Picts seem to be jungle-dwellers. Even the great chieftain of �he Hyborian Age,�who, five hundred years after Conan, leads the Picts in overthrowing the Hyborian kingdoms and establishing an empire, while dark-skinned, dark-haired, and dark-eyed, is named �orm.�In other words, Worms of the Earth seems to be the last story in which Howard felt a really personal connection with the Picts, the first and last time he would �ook through Pictish eyes, and speak with a Pictish tongue!�

NOTES ON THE ORIGINAL HOWARD TEXTS

The texts for this edition of Bran Mak Morn: The Last King were prepared by Rusty Burke and David Gentzel, with the assistance of Glenn Lord. The stories have been checked either against Howard� original manuscripts and typescripts, copies of which were provided by Lord, or the first published appearance if a manuscript or typescript was unavailable. Every effort has been made to present the work of Robert E. Howard as faithfully as possible.

Deviations from the original sources are detailed in these textual notes. In the following notes, page, line and word numbers are given as follows: 11.20.2, indicating page 11, twentieth line, second word. Story titles, chapter numbers and titles, and breaks before and after chapter headings, titles, and illustrations are not counted; in poems, only text lines are counted. The page/line number will be followed by the reading in the original source, or a statement indicating the type of change made. Punctuation changes are indicated by giving the immediately preceding word followed by the original punctuation.

We have standardized chapter numbering and titling: Howard� own practices varied, as did those of the publications in which these stories appeared. We have not noted those changes here.

Men of the Shadows

Text taken from Howard� typescript, provided by Glenn Lord. In the typescript, the poem that opens the story is not divided into stanzas. 3.15.3: no apostrophe after �ges� 3.18.6: no apostrophe after �ons� 4.14.5: no comma after �elmets� 5.1.6: thrusts, ; 5.11.9: dissappeared; 5.16.9: men, ; 6.5.9: breat-plate; 6.7.8: up slashing; 6.18.5: in the typescript, it appears that several words have been erased between �nd�and �he� with a comma following the erased words; 6.25.13: together, ; 6.35.6: least, ; 6.36.8: hilt, ; 7.5.3: sky towering; 7.10.4: weilded; 7.35.2: lieing; 8.6.10: semicolon after �and� 8.34.8: acoutrements; 8.35.8: exhultation; 8.35.9: period after �hrilled� 11.11.9: past; 11.19.2: them, ; 11.20.11: war-fare; 12.3.3: posses; 12.10.7: war-locks; 12.18.1: Twas; 12.18.8: war-fare; 12.25.3: appears to be �imw�with �j�typed over the �� 12.34.5: no comma after �houlder� 13.9.14: no comma after �avagely� 13.21.1: no comma after �houlders� 13.23.7: breat; 13.23.12: some one; 13.24.12: chief, ; 13.31.11: features,; 13.32.1: Picts, ; 13.35.4: you. ; 13.35.10: mazed, ; 14.8.4: no comma after �hen� 14.8.5: spen (typed to right edge of paper); 15.4.7: spirit; 15.12.2: frought; 15.12.5: no apostrophe after �ges� 15.13.1: no apostrophe after �ges� 15.22.1: Romans. ; 15.22.3: he, ; 15.27.1: proudly, ; 15.33.4: fools. ; 15.33.6: he, ; 16.7.6: was.; 16.7.8: replied, ; 16.10.10: curiously, ; 16.12.6: his; 16.13.2: glitter, ; 16.14.8: wasteplaces; 16.21.1: chiefs (the word appears to have been originally misspelled and overstruck); 16.25.3: Norseman. ; 16.25.5: said, ; 16.27.3: no punctuation after �im� 16.30.1: horrizon; 16.36.8: tatooed; 16.38.1: snakes; 16.38.4: sparce; 17.4.8: wind. ; 17.5.6: voice, ; 17.7.5: wizard. ; 17.9.7: chief. ; 17.9.10: answered, ; 18.1.6: harsh, ; 18.4.2: �he valley�was inserted between �arkness of�and �bysmal,�the �f�after �alley�not in ts.; 18.6.8: no comma after �lit� 18.8.6: savage. ; 18.8.11: whisper, ; 18.15.3: Picts. ; 18.16.1: tone, ; 19.2.5: chiefs; 19.4.2: disaproving (originally �isaapoving� ��typed over second �� ��typed over ��; 19.8.12: mid-night; 19.15.10: dust; 19.20.7: wizards; 19.23.7: phrase; 19.23.12: war-fare; 19.36.3: gasped, ; 20.1.13: it, ; 20.4.7: swift. ; 20.4.10: wizard, ; 20.19.4: oceans; 20.35.3: councils; 21.8.2: no apostrophe after �ea-snakes� 21.9.5: sea-gulls; 21.10.1: in beginning a new page, ts. has quotation mark before �ow� 21.18.4: up ward; 21.29.3: more, ; 21.29.9: no comma after �t)� 21.37.9: wizards; 22.13.3: no comma after �lit� 22.19.9: them. ; 22.22.8: discourse, ; 22.33.11: Atlantic, ; 23.3.9: the asterisk for the footnote is not at this point in the typescript, but after �unny sea�at 23.29.13; 23.8.6: sky-ward; 23.13.10: devide; 23.20.4: no punctuation after �avage� 23.29.13: asterisk for footnote is at this point in ts.; 23.30.10: thousans; 23 footnote: Note-Sea of Silent Waters-the Pacific Ocean; 24.1.6: �he�not in ts.; 24.8.2: horrizons; 24.10.7: skillfull; 24.16.10: new formed; 24.30.2: the asterisk for the footnote is not at this point in the ts., but at 25.16.2; 24 footnote: Note-Neandertals; 25.5.5: it; 25.11.1: no period in ts. (typed to right edge of paper); 25.15.10: war-fare; 25.16.2: asterisk for footnote is at this point in ts.; 25 footnote: Note-Cro-Magnons; 26.18.9: Alpan; 26.22.9: sword; 26.37.10: war-fare; 27.7.2: wizards; 27.26.2: �ircle (�he�typed above); 27.26.4: beginning. ; 27.26.7: wizard, ; 28.2.1: semicolon after �how� 28.5.5: One; 28.20.3: ints; 28.23.7: no period after �egenerate�(typed to right edge of paper); 29.1.4: holacaust; 29.3.5: wizards; 29.3.7: exhultant; 29.4.3: silence, ; 29.5.6: Appian; 29.10.1: war-fare; 29.15.1: no quotation mark; 29.18.3: nations; 29.28.4: no quotation mark; 29.35.1: ts. is torn, the ��in �or�is missing; 30.3.8: intself

Kings of the Night

Originally appeared in Weird Tales, November 1930. 33.1.2: C�sar; 33.5.1: dash before �he� 38.4.6: C�sar; 38.25.6: C�sar; 38.29.5: C�sar; 39.23.3: C�sar; 40.11.7: stedfast; 45.32.1: �Poe. ; 46.9.12: �ill-power�hyphenated at line break; 46.11.1: �ion-like�hyphenated at line break; 57.7.1: �Chesterton. ; 60.15.3: �alf-way�hyphenated at line break; 64.10.11-64.11.1: way possible; 66.38.5: �ide-long�hyphenated at line break

A Song of the Race

The original typescript could not be located in time for this publication. The text is taken from the first appearance, in Bran Mak Morn (New York: Dell Publishing Co., 1969). Glenn Lord recalls that in the original, the poem was not broken into quatrains. 80.8.9: quotation mark after �lame� 80.20.7: quotation mark after �une� 80.24.9: quotation mark after �hyme� 80.28.8: quotation mark after �low�

Worms of the Earth

Originally appeared in Weird Tales, November 1932. In a letter to H.P. Lovecraft, circa December 1932, Howard noted several errors in the magazine appearance: �oncerning �orms of the Earth��I must have been unusually careless when I wrote that, considering the errors �such as �er�for �is� �im�for �imself� �oathsome�for �oathing� etc.. I� at a loss to say why I spelled Eboracum as Ebbracum. I must investigate the matter. I know I saw it spelled that way, somewhere; it� not likely I would make such a mistake entirely of my own volition, though I do frequently make errors. Somehow, in my mind, I have a vague idea that it� connected some way with the Gaelic �broch��York.�85.8.10: Ebbracum; 89.29.8: him; 90.14.6: Ebbracum; 95.25.8: Ebbracum; 95.28.1: Ebbracum; 97.25.11: Ebbracum; 101.25.2: Ebbracum; 101.33.1: Ebbracum; 104.20.3: laugh; 104.29.9: her; 104.30.5: loathsome; 105.7.1: there is a dash rather than a hyphen in �ight-things� 111.2.5: cast, ; 115.29.4: Ebbracum; 124.2.11: Ebbracum�; 124.6.8: C�sar