Grey Maiden: The Story of a Sword Through the Ages, The Complete Saga

Time-Lost

by Arthur D. Howden Smith

The Grey Maiden is a sword of legend. Forged by the pharaohs of Egypt and carried by great warriors from ancient Greece to the Middle East, the man who wields the Grey Maiden can never die by the blade of another sword. But that doesn’t make him immortal.

First appearing as a series in the pages of Popular Publications’ Adventure Magazine, Arthur D. Howden Smith’s epic traces the story of the sword as it shapes the destiny of the world. Collected together here are all nine tales of the Grey Maiden.

Smith was an American journalist, novelist and historian who wrote a number of popular series and stories for the pulps ranging from swashbuckling tales of the sea to yarns set in the American frontier.

Genres: Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Pulp

340 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1929

About the author

Arthur Douglas Howden Smith

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

Though perhaps a bit old-fashioned in tone and execution compared to the countless sword-fantasies currently extant, this was an excellently conceived story of a sword through the ages. I believe that it still holds up well, and compares favorably to many of the subsequent novels it's influenced.

[Derek · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's much to read into the Grey Maiden itself: fickle, chaos-loving, physically beautiful in a way that elicits words like "curve" and "shape", and desired by all men who behold her. I mean "it".

Smith may not have been the first to personify objects or to tie stories together with an object or image (Robert W Chambers used the image of the "Black Priest" in several stories and an appearance of a play "The King in Yellow" in others) but there's something slightly different about Smith's offering.

The sword is essential to the stories--lust to possess drives many characters, and ownership appears to imbue with valor and/or foolhardiness--but the core is history, and Smith is rigorous about the language and politics and tactics. Some of it becomes "show my homework", as with "The Last Legion", and many times there is a slow burn of background material before the inevitable battle clash.

[Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

I might rate this a bit over 3 stars. It is a good book, although a bit slow for modern readers. It's really had an influence on the whole sword and sorcery genre, however, which makes it a worthwhile read.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been rereading Howden Smith's "Grey Maiden" for over 45 years. Even as a boy, I found the interconnected short stories compelling as individual stories, as glimpses into the history I was studying in school and on my own, but I also found those stories engaging as ways of telling, even as the Robert E. Howard Conan and Bran Man Morn stories were helping me to understand how form and style really matter.

There's a sense of mystery in the best Howden Smith stories, and maybe that's why I keep rereading "Grey Maiden."

[Trae Stratton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Light on the action. Heavy on the historical aspects.