The Hour of the Dragon
Encyclopedia
The Hour of the Dragon, also known as Conan the Conqueror, is a fantasy
novel written by Robert E. Howard
featuring his seminal sword and sorcery
hero Conan the Cimmerian
. It was first published in serial form in the pulp magazine
Weird Tales
in 1935 through 1936; and in book form in 1950 by Gnome Press
. It was the last Conan story published before Howard's suicide although not the last to be written.
", with which it shares an almost identical storyline. It takes place when Conan is about forty-five, during his reign as King of Aquilonia, and follows a plot by a group of conspirators to depose him in favor of Valerius, heir to Conan's predecessor Numedides, whom he had slain to gain the throne. To accomplish this they resort to necromancy, resurrecting Xaltotun
, an ancient sorcerer from the pre-Hyborian empire of Acheron. With his aid the Aquilonian army is defeated by that of the rival kingdom of Nemedia and occupied. Conan, captured, is slated for execution until the sympathetic slave girl Zenobia risks her life to free him.
Conan's quest to retrieve the Heart of Ahriman in order to defeat the wizard and regain his throne takes him through all the lands of Hyboria.
After his eventual triumph he vows to make Zenobia his queen.
.
The story was first published as a five part serial in Weird Tales
between the months of December 1935 to April 1936 (with chapter 20 being misprinted as chapter 21). It was first published in book form in hardcover by Gnome Press
in 1950 under the title Conan the Conqueror, a title retained by all later editions until 1977. The first paperback edition was published by Ace Books
in 1954. The novel has been reissued a number of times since by various publishers, notably Lancer Books
in 1967 and Berkley/Putnam
in 1977; the latter, reedited by Karl Edward Wagner
, was the first edition to restore the original magazine text and title, under which most subsequent editions have been issued. Donald M. Grant, Publisher, Inc. published an edition in 1989, with illustrations by Ezra Tucker, as volume XI of their deluxe Conan set. More recently the novel appeared in the collections The Essential Conan
(1998), Conan Chronicles Volume 2: The Hour of the Dragon
(2001) and Conan of Cimmeria: Volume Two (1934)
(Del Rey, 2005). It has also been translated into Japanese
, Italian
, Finnish
, French
, German
, Swedish
, Czech
, Russian
, Sinhalese and Spanish
.
edition of the Conan stories, Conan the Conqueror follows the short stories collected as King Conan
; in the paperback Lancer
/Ace
edition, it follows the short stories collected as Conan the Usurper
. In both editions it precedes the Björn Nyberg
/L. Sprague de Camp
novel The Return of Conan
(AKA Conan the Avenger
).
found the novel to have "real merit" considered as an imaginative work, but characterized Howard's writing as "only average [and] laden with bombast." L. Sprague de Camp
, acknowledging that Howard was "an almost-very-good writer . . . with limiting quirks," praised the novel as "a sanguinary combination of sorcery, skulduggery, and swordplay."
, Gil Kane
and John Buscema
in Marvel Comic's Giant-Size Conan #1-4 and Savage Sword of Conan #8, 10. The lead story in Giant-Size Conan #1 was a 25-page chapter from The Hour of the Dragon. The plan was to adapt the novel over the first six issues, but Giant-Size Conan #4 was the last full color chapter. The story was concluded in the black & white magazine Savage Sword of Conan #8 and #10.
The Hour of the Dragon is also currently being serialized as an audio-book (http://www.sffaudio.com/?p=3645) as part of SFFAudio's 2nd Audio Book Challenge.
The 1997 film Kull the Conqueror
is loosely based on The Hour of the Dragon, replacing Conan with Kull (another Howard character) but keeping the basic plot of a barbarian king being removed from his throne by the machinations of an undead sorcerer.
Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...
novel written by Robert E. Howard
Robert E. Howard
Robert Ervin Howard was an American author who wrote pulp fiction in a diverse range of genres. Best known for his character Conan the Barbarian, he is regarded as the father of the sword and sorcery subgenre....
featuring his seminal sword and sorcery
Sword and sorcery
Sword and sorcery is a sub-genre of fantasy and historical fantasy, generally characterized by sword-wielding heroes engaged in exciting and violent conflicts. An element of romance is often present, as is an element of magic and the supernatural...
hero Conan the Cimmerian
Conan the Barbarian
Conan the Barbarian is a fictional sword and sorcery hero that originated in pulp fiction magazines and has since been adapted to books, comics, several films , television programs, video games, roleplaying games and other media...
. It was first published in serial form in the pulp magazine
Pulp magazine
Pulp magazines , also collectively known as pulp fiction, refers to inexpensive fiction magazines published from 1896 through the 1950s. The typical pulp magazine was seven inches wide by ten inches high, half an inch thick, and 128 pages long...
Weird Tales
Weird Tales
Weird Tales is an American fantasy and horror fiction pulp magazine first published in March 1923. It ceased its original run in September 1954, after 279 issues, but has since been revived. The magazine was set up in Chicago by J. C. Henneberger, an ex-journalist with a taste for the macabre....
in 1935 through 1936; and in book form in 1950 by Gnome Press
Gnome Press
Gnome Press was an American small-press publishing company primarily known for publishing many science fiction classics.The company was founded in 1948 by Martin Greenberg and David A. Kyle. Many of Gnome's titles were reprinted in England by Boardman Books...
. It was the last Conan story published before Howard's suicide although not the last to be written.
Plot overview
The plot is a loosely based melange of motifs from previous Conan short stories, most notably "The Scarlet CitadelThe Scarlet Citadel
"The Scarlet Citadel" is one of the original short stories starring the fictional sword and sorcery hero Conan the Cimmerian, written by American author Robert E. Howard and first published in Weird Tales magazine circa January 1933...
", with which it shares an almost identical storyline. It takes place when Conan is about forty-five, during his reign as King of Aquilonia, and follows a plot by a group of conspirators to depose him in favor of Valerius, heir to Conan's predecessor Numedides, whom he had slain to gain the throne. To accomplish this they resort to necromancy, resurrecting Xaltotun
Xaltotun
Xaltotun is an evil wizard from Robert E. Howard's stories about Conan the Barbarian. He appears in The Hour of the Dragon as an ancient resurrected wizard, and serves as the main enemy to Conan...
, an ancient sorcerer from the pre-Hyborian empire of Acheron. With his aid the Aquilonian army is defeated by that of the rival kingdom of Nemedia and occupied. Conan, captured, is slated for execution until the sympathetic slave girl Zenobia risks her life to free him.
Conan's quest to retrieve the Heart of Ahriman in order to defeat the wizard and regain his throne takes him through all the lands of Hyboria.
After his eventual triumph he vows to make Zenobia his queen.
Publication history
It was Howard's only full length novel about Conan, and is considered by many to be one of his best works. It was originally written for British publisher Dennis Archer and was submitted to him in May 1934. Archer had turned down a collection of works in 1933 but made the suggestion of a novel. However, the publisher went bankrupt before the novel could be printed and it was held by the Official ReceiverOfficial Receiver
An officer of the Insolvency Service of the United Kingdom, the Official Receiver is an officer of the court to which he is attached. The OR is therefore answerable to the courts for carrying out the courts' orders and for fulfilling his duties under law...
.
The story was first published as a five part serial in Weird Tales
Weird Tales
Weird Tales is an American fantasy and horror fiction pulp magazine first published in March 1923. It ceased its original run in September 1954, after 279 issues, but has since been revived. The magazine was set up in Chicago by J. C. Henneberger, an ex-journalist with a taste for the macabre....
between the months of December 1935 to April 1936 (with chapter 20 being misprinted as chapter 21). It was first published in book form in hardcover by Gnome Press
Gnome Press
Gnome Press was an American small-press publishing company primarily known for publishing many science fiction classics.The company was founded in 1948 by Martin Greenberg and David A. Kyle. Many of Gnome's titles were reprinted in England by Boardman Books...
in 1950 under the title Conan the Conqueror, a title retained by all later editions until 1977. The first paperback edition was published by Ace Books
Ace Books
Ace Books is the oldest active specialty publisher of science fiction and fantasy books. The company was founded in New York City in 1952 by Aaron A. Wyn, and began as a genre publisher of mysteries and westerns...
in 1954. The novel has been reissued a number of times since by various publishers, notably Lancer Books
Lancer Books
Lancer Books was a series of paperback books published from 1961 through 1973 by Irwin Stein and Walter Zacharius. While it published stories of a number of genres, it was noted most for its science fiction and fantasy, particularly its series of Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian tales, the...
in 1967 and Berkley/Putnam
G. P. Putnam's Sons
G. P. Putnam's Sons was a major United States book publisher based in New York City, New York. Since 1996, it has been an imprint of the Penguin Group.-History:...
in 1977; the latter, reedited by Karl Edward Wagner
Karl Edward Wagner
Karl Edward Wagner was an American writer, editor and publisher of horror, science fiction, and heroic fantasy, who was born in Knoxville, Tennessee and originally trained as a psychiatrist. His disillusionment with the medical profession can be seen in the stories "The Fourth Seal" and "Into...
, was the first edition to restore the original magazine text and title, under which most subsequent editions have been issued. Donald M. Grant, Publisher, Inc. published an edition in 1989, with illustrations by Ezra Tucker, as volume XI of their deluxe Conan set. More recently the novel appeared in the collections The Essential Conan
The Essential Conan
The Essential Conan is a collection of fantasy short stories written by Robert E. Howard featuring his sword and sorcery hero Conan the Barbarian. The book was published in 1998 by the Science Fiction Book Club. It collects the editions of the Conan books, edited by Karl Edward Wagner and...
(1998), Conan Chronicles Volume 2: The Hour of the Dragon
The Conan Chronicles, 2
The Conan Chronicles: Volume 2: The Hour of the Dragon is a collection of fantasy short stories written by Robert E. Howard featuring his sword and sorcery hero Conan the Barbarian. The book was published in 2001 by Gollancz as sixteenth volume of their Fantasy Masterworks series. The book,...
(2001) and Conan of Cimmeria: Volume Two (1934)
Conan of Cimmeria: Volume Two (1934)
The Bloody Crown of Conan is the second of a three volume set collecting the Conan stories by author Robert E. Howard. It was originally published in 2003, first the United Kingdom by Wandering Star under the title Conan of Cimmeria: Volume Two in 2004, and in the United States by Del Rey under...
(Del Rey, 2005). It has also been translated into Japanese
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
, Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
, Finnish
Finnish language
Finnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland Primarily for use by restaurant menus and by ethnic Finns outside Finland. It is one of the two official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a...
, French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, Swedish
Swedish language
Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish...
, Czech
Czech language
Czech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers; it is the majority language in the Czech Republic and spoken by Czechs worldwide. The language was known as Bohemian in English until the late 19th century...
, Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
, Sinhalese and Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
.
Position in the Conan series
In the hardcover Gnome PressGnome Press
Gnome Press was an American small-press publishing company primarily known for publishing many science fiction classics.The company was founded in 1948 by Martin Greenberg and David A. Kyle. Many of Gnome's titles were reprinted in England by Boardman Books...
edition of the Conan stories, Conan the Conqueror follows the short stories collected as King Conan
King Conan
King Conan is a collection of five fantasy short stories written by Robert E. Howard featuring his seminal sword and sorcery hero Conan the Barbarian, first published in hardcover by Gnome Press in 1953. The stories originally appeared in the 1930s in the fantasy magazine Weird Tales...
; in the paperback Lancer
Lancer Books
Lancer Books was a series of paperback books published from 1961 through 1973 by Irwin Stein and Walter Zacharius. While it published stories of a number of genres, it was noted most for its science fiction and fantasy, particularly its series of Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian tales, the...
/Ace
Ace Books
Ace Books is the oldest active specialty publisher of science fiction and fantasy books. The company was founded in New York City in 1952 by Aaron A. Wyn, and began as a genre publisher of mysteries and westerns...
edition, it follows the short stories collected as Conan the Usurper
Conan the Usurper
Conan the Usurper is a 1967 collection of four fantasy short stories written by Robert E. Howard and L. Sprague de Camp featuring Howard's seminal sword and sorcery hero Conan the Barbarian. Most of the stories originally appeared in the fantasy magazine Weird Tales in the 1930s...
. In both editions it precedes the Björn Nyberg
Björn Nyberg
Björn Emil Oscar Nyberg, born September 11, 1929, is a Swedish fantasy author best known for his additions to the series of Conan stories begun by Robert E. Howard. His primary contribution to the series was The Return of Conan , which was revised for publication by L. Sprague de Camp. He lives in...
/L. Sprague de Camp
L. Sprague de Camp
Lyon Sprague de Camp was an American author of science fiction and fantasy books, non-fiction and biography. In a writing career spanning 60 years, he wrote over 100 books, including novels and notable works of non-fiction, including biographies of other important fantasy authors...
novel The Return of Conan
The Return of Conan
The Return of Conan is a 1957 fantasy novel written by Björn Nyberg and L. Sprague de Camp featuring Robert E. Howard's seminal sword and sorcery hero Conan the Barbarian...
(AKA Conan the Avenger
Conan the Avenger
Conan the Avenger is a 1968 collection of two fantasy works written by Björn Nyberg, Robert E. Howard and L. Sprague de Camp featuring Robert E. Howard's seminal sword and sorcery hero Conan the Barbarian. It was first published in paperback by Lancer Books, and has been reprinted a number of times...
).
Reception
Reviewing the Gnome Press edition, Groff ConklinGroff Conklin
Edward Groff Conklin was a leading science fiction anthologist. He edited 40 anthologies of science fiction, one of mystery stories , wrote books on home improvement and was a freelance writer on scientific subjects as well as a published poet...
found the novel to have "real merit" considered as an imaginative work, but characterized Howard's writing as "only average [and] laden with bombast." L. Sprague de Camp
L. Sprague de Camp
Lyon Sprague de Camp was an American author of science fiction and fantasy books, non-fiction and biography. In a writing career spanning 60 years, he wrote over 100 books, including novels and notable works of non-fiction, including biographies of other important fantasy authors...
, acknowledging that Howard was "an almost-very-good writer . . . with limiting quirks," praised the novel as "a sanguinary combination of sorcery, skulduggery, and swordplay."
Adaptation
In 1974, the story was adapted by Roy ThomasRoy Thomas
Roy William Thomas, Jr. is an American comic book writer and editor, and Stan Lee's first successor as editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics. He is possibly best known for introducing the pulp magazine hero Conan the Barbarian to American comics, with a series that added to the storyline of Robert E...
, Gil Kane
Gil Kane
Eli Katz who worked under the name Gil Kane and in one instance Scott Edward, was a comic book artist whose career spanned the 1940s to 1990s and every major comics company and character.Kane co-created the modern-day versions of the superheroes Green Lantern and the Atom for DC Comics, and...
and John Buscema
John Buscema
John Buscema, born Giovanni Natale Buscema , was an American comic-book artist and one of the mainstays of Marvel Comics during its 1960s and 1970s ascendancy into an industry leader and its subsequent expansion to a major pop culture conglomerate...
in Marvel Comic's Giant-Size Conan #1-4 and Savage Sword of Conan #8, 10. The lead story in Giant-Size Conan #1 was a 25-page chapter from The Hour of the Dragon. The plan was to adapt the novel over the first six issues, but Giant-Size Conan #4 was the last full color chapter. The story was concluded in the black & white magazine Savage Sword of Conan #8 and #10.
The Hour of the Dragon is also currently being serialized as an audio-book (http://www.sffaudio.com/?p=3645) as part of SFFAudio's 2nd Audio Book Challenge.
The 1997 film Kull the Conqueror
Kull the Conqueror
Kull the Conqueror is a 1997 fantasy film about the Robert E. Howard character Kull starring Kevin Sorbo. It is a movie adaptation of Howard's Conan novel The Hour of the Dragon, with the protagonist changed to the author's other barbarian hero Kull...
is loosely based on The Hour of the Dragon, replacing Conan with Kull (another Howard character) but keeping the basic plot of a barbarian king being removed from his throne by the machinations of an undead sorcerer.