Robert E. Howard's Crusader/Crusades Stories

[El Borak]

blog-sototh.blogspot.com/2016/09/godric-and-genghis-kahn.html

Robert E. Howard’s “Red Blades of Black Cathay” (1931) was the first of six historical adventures he published in Oriental Stories, a pulp magazine later renamed as The Magic Carpet Magazine. The magazine, an offshoot of Weird Tales, was also edited by Farnsworth Wright and featured several of the same authors, among them Clark Ashton Smith, Otis Adelbert Kline, and E. Hoffmann Price. Readers may recall that Price collaborated with H.P. Lovecraft on the oddball 1934 story “Through the Gates of the Silver Key”, which depicts the eventual fate of Randolph Carter—a story that is similar in some respects to much of the content of Oriental Stories. Edmond Hamilton, Hugh B. Cave, and Seabury Quinn also appeared in the magazine from time to time.

[El Borak]

One volume that collects the most stories in this category is Lord of Samarcand from Bison Books. 

howardworks.com/lordofsamarcand.html

Lord of Samarcand and Other Adventure Tales of the Old Orient
University of Nebraska Press - Bison Books
Year : April 2005
Book No. :
ISBN-10: 080327355X (Trade paperback)
Book No. :
ISBN-10: 0803224222 (Hard cover)
Edition : 1st
Format : Trade paperback
Format :
Hard cover with dust jacket
Pages : 462
Cover art : Sindy Bell
Illustrations : None
Lord of Samarcand and Other Adventure Tales of the Old Orient - Bison

Contents
"Introduction" by Patrice Louinet
"Red Blades of Black Cathay"(with Tevis Clyde Smith)
"Hawks of Outremer"
"The Blood of Belshazzar"
"The Sowers of the Thunder"
"Lord of Samarcand"
"Timur-lang" (poem)
"The Lion of Tiberias"
"The Shadow of the Vulture"
"Gates of Empire"
"The Road of the Eagles"
"Hawks Over Egypt"
"The Road of Azrael"
Miscellanea
"The Slave-Princess" (synopsis)
"The Slave-Princess" (unfinished draft)
"Two Against Tyre" (unfinished draft)
"The Track of Bohemund" (unfinished draft)
"The Shadow of the Hun" (unfinished draft)
Untitled fragment ("He knew de Bracy...")
Untitled fragment
("The wind from the Mediterranean...")
Recap of Howard Lamb's "The Wolf Chaser"
Untitled draft ("The Persians Had All Fled")
Source Acknowledgements
Notes
Edited by Rusty Burke
The print run on the hard cover edition ran around 470-530.

[El Borak]

Sword Woman and Other Historical Adventures has overlap and non-overlap with the previous listing above.

howardindex.com/collection/in-print/sword-woman-historical-adventures/

Sword Woman and Other Historical Adventures
Del Rey, 2011. Illustrated by John Watkiss.

Stories
Blades for France
The Blood of Belshazzar
Gates of Empire
Hawks of Outremer
Hawks Over Egypt
The Lion of Tiberias
Lord of Samarcand
Red Blades of Black Cathay
The Road of Azrael
The Road of the Eagles
The Shadow of the Vulture
The Skull in the Clouds
The Sowers of the Thunder
Spears of Clontarf
Sword Woman
Poems
A Thousand Years Ago
The Outgoing of Sigurd the Jerusalem-Farer
The Sign of the Sickle
Timur-lang
Miscellanea
Mistress of Death (uncompleted draft)
Recap of Harold Lamb’s “The Wolf Chaser”
The Slave-Princess (fragment)
The Track of Bohemund (unfinished draft)
Untitled fragment (“He knew de Bracy…”)
Untitled fragment (“The Persians had all fled…”)
Untitled fragment (“The wind from the Mediterranean…”)

[El Borak]

The fight between Godric and Subotai in Red Blades of Black Cathay.

Subotai vs Godric from 'Red Blades of Black Cathay'

Godric took in the height of the man, the mighty sweep of chest and shoulder, and the massive arms which wielded the sword that had more than once, during the fight, sheared clear through the torso of a mailed Jahaduran.

"Back!" roared Subotai, his fierce eyes alight—those eyes were blue, Godric noted, and the Mongol's hair red; surely somewhere in that frozen land of tundras a wandering Aryan strain had mingled with the Turanian blood of Subotai's tribe -" Back, and give us room! None shall slay this chief but Subotai!"

Somewhere down the deep defile there sounded a rally of kettledrums and the tramp of many hoofs, but Godric was hardly aware he heard. He saw the Mongols fall back, leaving a space clear. He heard Chepe Noyon, still slightly groggy, and with a new helmet, shouting orders at the men who surged about the wall. Fighting ceased altogether and all eyes turned on the chiefs, who swung up their blades and rushed together like two maddened bulls.

Godric knew that his armor would never stand against the full sweep of the great sword Subotai was swinging in his right hand. The Norman leaped and struck as a tiger strikes, throwing every ounce of his body behind the blow and nerving himself to superhuman quickness. His heavy, straight blade sheared through the lacquered buckler Subotai flung above his head, and crashing full on the peaked helmet, bit through to the scalp beneath. Subotai staggered, a jet of blood trickling down his dark face, but almost instantly swung a decapitating stroke that whistled harmlessly through the air as Godric bent his knees quickly.

The Frank thrust viciously but Subotai evaded the lunging point with a twist of his huge frame and hacked in savagely. Godric sprang away but could not entirely avoid the blow. The great blade struck under his armpit, crunched through the mail and bit deep into his ribs. The impact numbed his whole left side, and in an instant his hauberk was full of blood.

Stung to renewed madness, Godric sprang in, parrying the scimitar, then dropped his sword and grappled Subotai. The Mongol returned the fierce embrace, drawing a dagger. Close-locked they wrestled and strained, staggering on hard-braced legs, each seeking to break the other's spine or to drive home his own blade. Both weapons were reddened in an instant as they girded through the crevices in the armor or were driven straight through solid mail, but neither could free his hand enough to drive in a death thrust.

Godric was gasping for breath; he felt that the pressure of the Mongol's huge arms was crushing him. But Subotai was in no better way. The Norman saw sweat thickly beading the Mongol's brow, heard his breath coming in heavy pants, and a savage joy shook him.

Subotai lifted his foe bodily to dash him headlong, but Godric's grip held them together so firmly this was impossible. With both feet braced on the blood-soaked earth again, Godric suddenly ceased trying to free his dirk wrist from Subotai's iron grip, and releasing the Mongol's dagger arm, drove his left fist into Subotai's face.

With the full power of mighty arm and broad shoulders behind it, the blow was like that of a club. Blood spattered and Subotai's head snapped back as if on hinges—but at that instant he drove his dagger deep in Godric's breast muscles.

The Norman gasped, staggered, and then in a last burst of strength he flung the Mongol from him. Subotai fell his full length and rose slowly, dazedly, like a man who has fought out the last red ounce of his endurance. His mighty frame sagged back on the arms of the ringing warriors and he shook his head like a bull, striving to nerve himself again for the combat.

Godric recovered the sword he had dropped and now he faced his foes, feet braced wide against his sick dizziness. He groped a moment for support and felt firm stones at his back. The fight had carried them almost to the last barricades. There he faced the Mongols like a wounded lion at bay, head lowered on his mighty, mailed breast, terrible eyes glittering through the bars of his vizor, both hands gripping his red sword.

"Come on," he challenged as he felt his life waning in thick red surges. "Mayhap I die—but I will slay seven of you before I die. Come in and make an ending, you pagan swine!"

[El Borak]

Possible influences are Harold Lamb's Genghis Khan: Emperor of All Men or 

[El Borak]

www.rehtwogunraconteur.com/the-nere-do-well-hero-of-gates-of-empire/

[El Borak]

www.sfsite.com/09a/ls207.htm

[El Borak]

The Sowers of Thunder

The Sowers of the Thunder

Donald M. Grant
Year :
1973
Book No. : None
Edition : 1st
Format : Hardcover with dust jacket (7.5 x 10.75 inches)
Pages : 285
Cover art : Roy G. Krenkel
Illustrations : Roy G. Krenkel
The Sowers of the Thunder

Contents
"Introduction" by Roy G. Krenkel
"The Lion of Tiberias"
"The Sowers of the Thunder"
"Lord of Samarcand"
"The Shadow of the Vulture"

Notes
Four full page black and white illustrations.
Frontispiece - Full page color illustration.
Numerous black and white spot illustrations throughout the book.
Illustrated front and back endpapers.
There was a second printing in 1976.
The second printing's dust jacket does not quite fit due to thicker pages.
The 1st edition had 2,509 copies printed.
The 2nd edition had 1250 copies printed.

[El Borak]

The Road of Azrael

The Road of Azrael
Donald M. Grant
Year :
1979
Book No. : None
Edition : 1st
Format : Hardcover with dust jacket
(6.25 x 9.5 inches)
Pages : 230
Cover art : Roy G. Krenkel
Illustrations : Roy G. Krenkel
The Road of Azrael

Contents
"The Road of Azrael"
"The Track of Bohemund"
"The Way of the Swords"
"Hawks Over Egypt"
"Gates of Empire"
Notes
Six full page color illustrations.
Illustrated front and back endpapers.
Also published in a signed limited edition of 310 copies.
The book was signed by the artist, Roy G. Krenkel.``

[El Borak]

Krenkel's : Mikhal Oglu from Shadow of the Vulture

[El Borak]

Patrice Louinet's intro to Bison's Lord of Samarcand...

“There is no literary work, to me, half as zestful as rewriting history in the guise of fiction. I wish I was able to devote the rest of my life to that kind of work. I could write a hundred years and still there would be stories clamoring to be written, by the scores. Every page of history teems with dramas that should be put on paper. A single paragraph may be packed with action and drama enough to fill a whole volume of fiction work,” explained Robert E. Howard in 1933. He immediately added that he “could never make a living writing such things, though; the markets are too scanty, with requirements too narrow, and it takes me so long to complete one.” Indeed, by 1933 Howard’s historical fiction was behind him; between 1930 and 1933 he had completed only eleven Oriental tales. Several of these, however, are regularly mentioned on lists of his best fiction. It is no coincidence that those four years also correspond to the dates of publication of the Farnsworth Wright-edited pulp magazine Oriental Stories.

[El Borak]

[El Borak]

[El Borak]

Robert E. Howard’s Crusades

[Admin Pete]

Man, I wish I could afford to buy all of these collections.

[The Editor]

Apr 13, 2021 13:29:10 GMT -5 El Borak said:

Possible influences are Harold Lamb's Genghis Khan: Emperor of All Men or 

I have never read either of these books, but I would like to. I will have to look for them. Genghis Khan is derided by so many, but I think he is to be greatly admired for quite a few things.

[El Borak]

Apr 26, 2021 0:38:01 GMT -5 The Editor said:

Apr 13, 2021 13:29:10 GMT -5 El Borak said:

Possible influences are Harold Lamb's Genghis Khan: Emperor of All Men or 

I have never read either of these books, but I would like to. I will have to look for them. Genghis Khan is derided by so many, but I think he is to be greatly admired for quite a few things.

In a lot of ways Genghis Khan was the real world Conan. Certainly on a moral level he was a saint compared to Alexander the Great who is widely admired for some reason.