The Phoenix on the Sword

by Robert E. Howard, edited by L. Sprague de Camp


Originally published in Weird Tales for December, by Robert E. Howard, Popular Fiction Publishing Co. (1932)

Reprinted in Skull-Face and Others, by Robert E. Howard, Arkham House, Sauk City, WI (1946)

Reprinted under its present title in King Conan, by Robert E. Howard, Gnome Press, Inc. (1953)

Current Source: Conan the Usurper, by Robert E. Howard and L. Sprague de Camp, Lancer Books, Inc., NY (1967)

From the Introduction
by L. Sprague de Camp

The two remaining stories, The Phoenix on the Sword and The Scarlet Citadel, are - save for a few minor editorial corrections - in the form in which Howard wrote them and Weird Tales published them in the 1930s.




 Storming the captial city and slaying King Numedides on the steps of his throne - which he promptly takes for his own - Conan, now in his early or mid-forties, finds himself the king of the greatest of the Hyborian nations.

A king's life, however, proves no bed of houris. Within a year, the minstrel Rinaldo is chanting defiant ballads in praise of the "martyred" Numedides. Ascalante, Count of Thune, is gathering a group of plotters to topple the barbarian from his throne. Conan finds that people have short memories, and that he, too, suffers from the uneasiness of head that goes with a crown.


Chapters:
  1. Chapter One
  2. Chapter Two
  3. Chapter Three
  4. Chapter Four
  5. Chapter Five


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Last Update: 2/4/99