Three stories to go! This week, Robert E Howard Foundation multiple time award winner, Jeffrey Shanks, takes on “A Witch Shall Be Born.” That ain’t exactly an easy task. See what he’s got to say about this one.

Thou Shalt Not Suffer “A Witch Shall Be Born” — Or Maybe You Should?

“A Witch Shall Be Born” is not usually on anyone’s list of the top tier Conan stories – despite containing what could arguably be the most powerful and iconic scene in the entire series. The tepid reception to “Witch” is not entirely unfounded – the novella-length yarn is heavy on exposition, awkwardly constructed, poorly paced at times, and somewhat anticlimactic in its dénouement. And yet it has moments in which Howard’s powerful vision shines through the flaws. Howard Jones and Bill Ward noted in their recent REH Re-Read series that it feels a bit like a draft, and I tend to agree. The story was written hastily in just a few days as Patrice Louinet has noted, and feels a little like a piece of choice meat that is a bit undercooked – It could have used another minute on the grill, but it’s still pretty damn tasty.

“Witch” was published in Weird Tales in the December1934 issue. As with “Black Colossus, it is a Hyborian version of one of Howard’s blood and thunder, Harold Lamb-style “Oriental” tales, in the same vein as the Crusades yarns he had been writing a few years earlier. The small kingdom of Khauran in which much of the story is set is something of analog to the historical Crusader kingdom of Outremer, a Western (Hyborian) polity precariously set on the fringes of the Eastern steppes.

The story is somewhat experimental, as Howard has several sections with different protagonists and throughout much of the narrative, Conan is acting off-screen and his exploits are described by other characters. It is also heavily infused with New Testament symbolism and references. Howard was not a Christian, but had an interest in Biblical stories for their historical and literary interest.

The Biblical connection is made explicit with the main antagonist, the witch Salome, who secretly overthrows her twin sister, Queen Taramis, the ruler of Khauran. Howard makes it clear that this Salome is intended to be something of an ancestor to the Salome described in the New Testament (though the “Biblical” Salome is unnamed until the work of the historian Josephus), who demanded the head of John the Baptist from Herod Antipas.

In the most memorable scene in the story – perhaps even the most memorable scene of any Conan story – the Cimmerian becomes a stand in for Jesus of Nazareth when he is crucified, left for dead, but survives and is “resurrected” as the leader of a horde of desert nomads. He is somewhat less than Christ-like in dealing revenge on his enemies, however. This crucifixion scene, immortalized forever by John Milius, including the killing of a vulture with his bare teeth, borrows heavily from Tarzan the Untamed (in which the jungle lord also dispatches a vulture with his teeth), but it captures much of Howard’s view of life itself as a primal and constant struggle for survival. You are either predator or prey.

This idea is further explored in the conflict between Conan and the chieftain of the Zuagirs, Olgerd Vladislav. Olgerd frees Conan from the cross and allows him to join his band – if the Cimmerian survives. Conan does survive of course and over the following months rises in the ranks to become Olgerd’s lieutenant. No pack can survive long with two alphas vying the top spot, and soon it is Conan leading the Zuagirs, while Olgerd is left for the desert.

Howard is here exploring the primal animalistic nature of man, in which the strong thrive and the weak are culled. This conflict between Conan and Olgerd just happens to be the source of one of my favorite Conan illustrations, the painting by Gary Gianni depicting the two rivals sitting together in a tent glowering at each other, the unspoken tension between the two palpable in the air and written on their faces.

Biblical allusions aside, the basic plot of “Witch” with the twin sibling secretly usurping and replacing the rightful ruler was probably inspired by Alexandre Dumas’s musketeer tale The Man in the Iron Mask. This story in which the musketeer Aramis kidnaps the king of France, secretly imprisons him, and replaces him with his previously unknown twin brother Philippe, was the final section of the three-part novel The Vicomte of Bragelonne.

Howard was a fan of Dumas and was familiar with this last of the Musketeer novels as he refers to it satirically in one of his letters. He probably would have seen the film version The Iron Mask (1929) with Douglas Fairbanks as well. Aramis, the musketeer featured in the novel, may have also been the inspiration for the name of the Queen of Khauran: Taramis (alternatively it might have come from Queen Tamyris, ruler of the Massagetae)

One of the more jarring shifts in protagonist point of view in “Witch” comes with the third chapter. It is written in epistolary style, in the form of a letter from the Nemedian scholar Astreas traveling through Khauran to colleague of his back home. Astreas here functions as something of a Hyborian Age Herodotus, describing the kingdom of Khauran and its geopolitics as well as the narrating the events taking place in the story. If this sounds like a device for Howard to get away with a lot of exposition, well, that’s exactly what it is.

But that said it’s a fairly clever way of doing it, if it must be done. Once again, however, this is another example of a story that really should have been novel-length being compressed for the confines of the medium; and it contributes to the complaints that the story is awkwardly constructed.

The weird element in the story is the Lovecraftian, toad-like, tentacled horror known as Thaug. Thaug is a creature similar to Thog in “Xuthal of the Dusk” and the monster in “The Black Stone” – basically an avatar of Tsathoggua. This is, unfortunately, one of the weakest and most disappointing elements of the story. Thaug is not-well developed and appears shoehorned into the narrative, and then to add insult to injury is quickly displaced with a hail of arrows almost like an afterthought.

But despite its flaws there are great moments in “Witch,” particularly when Conan is “onscreen.” The Cimmerian’s powerful charisma and alpha male tenacity are on full display, not just in his survival from the cross, but even more so in his unapologetic take over the Zuagirs from Olgerd. This story captures what I think Howard truly envisioned Conan as: a primal man, with no time or patience for the weakness brought from civilized life. This alone makes “A Witch Shall Be Born” worthy of a second look and perhaps a bit more appreciation.

Bibliography

Howard, Robert E. “A Witch Shall Be Born.” Bloody Crown of Conan (New York: Del Rey), 2004, 255-304.

Louinet, Patrice. “Hyborian Genesis Part II.” Bloody Crown of Conan (New York: Del Rey), 2004, 347-359.

From the Dusty Scrolls (Editor comments)

L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter picked up this storyline, with Conan leading the Zuagirs in “Black Tears.” King Yezdigerd of Turan’s men ambush Conan’s band, but are defeated. Conan chases a traitor into the Land of Ghosts. His army leaves him and he pursues alone. It’s an okay story; it reads like a Dungeons and Dragons adventure to me, which is fine.

Dark Horse Comics adapted “A Witch Shall Be Born” in Conan the Avenger, from November 2015 to April 2016. It was covered in Savage Sword of Conan issue #5 in April, 1975.

Prior posts in the series: