Sword Woman and Other Historical Adventures

by Robert E. Howard, John Watkiss (Illustrator)

 The immortal legacy of Robert E. Howard, creator of Conan the Cimmerian, continues with this latest compendium of Howard’s fiction and poetry. These adventures, set in medieval-era Europe and the Near East, are among the most gripping Howard ever wrote, full of pageantry, romance, and battle scenes worthy of Tolstoy himself. Most of all, they feature some of Howard’s most unusual and memorable characters, including Cormac FitzGeoffrey, a half-Irish, half-Norman man of war who follows Richard the Lion-hearted to twelfth-century Palestine—or, as it was known to the Crusaders, Outremer; Diego de Guzman, a Spaniard who visits Cairo in the guise of a Muslim on a mission of revenge; and the legendary sword woman Dark Agnès, who, faced with an arranged marriage to a brutal husband in sixteenth-century France, cuts the ceremony short with a dagger thrust and flees to forge a new identity on the battlefield.

Lavishly illustrated by award-winning artist John Watkiss and featuring miscellanea, informative essays, and a fascinating introduction by acclaimed historical author Scott Oden, Sword Woman and Other Historical Adventures is a must-have for every fan of Robert E. Howard, who, in a career spanning just twelve years, won a place in the pantheon of great American writers.

Genres: Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Short Stories, Fiction, Pulp, Adventure, Classics

576 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

Robert Ervin Howard was an American pulp writer of fantasy, horror, historical adventure, boxing, western, and detective fiction. Howard wrote "over three-hundred stories and seven-hundred poems of raw power and unbridled emotion" and is especially noted for his memorable depictions of "a sombre universe of swashbuckling adventure and darkling horror."

He is well known for having created—in the pages of the legendary Depression-era pulp magazine Weird Tales—the character Conan the Cimmerian, a.k.a. Conan the Barbarian, a literary icon whose pop-culture imprint can only be compared to such icons as Tarzan of the Apes, Count Dracula, Sherlock Holmes, and James Bond.

—Wikipedia

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Mohammed Abdikhader Firdhiye · Rating 5 out of 5]

The historical fiction stories was written later in Howard's short career maybe thats why i find it to be among his best,mature writing. This collection has all the historical stories in Lord of Samarcand collection plus the 2 Dark Agnes stories,Spears of Clontarf story about The Battle of Clontarf. He made a great epic story of that battle and his gaelic blood made the historical heroes of that battle shine.


Sword Woman,Blades for France are the two completed stories for Dark Agnes de Chastillon and they were was an eye opener for me. Great but believable action for Agnes unlike his male heroes. Interesting how the stories wasnt published in his life time. Some critics calls Howard's writing misogynist because how Conan stories have feeble females who cling to Conan,work only as eye candy. You have to remember the fantasy pulp readers demanded that kind of sex like some other genre readers do today..

Agnes story starts as a young peasant girl fighting to flee an arranged marriege,a way of life that would break her body,spirit to become a free woman dreaming of glory,adventure. No wonder it didnt sell to editors in historical pulps that was male hero dominated. You can believe she was written for feminist reasons and not by a pulp writer known for macho fanatasy,adventure. They were not ready for female warrior in historical fiction genre then. There were female fantasy heroines but there couldnt be heroines in the real world...

If she was published in his times maybe Agnes would have got her fair due and not be so underrated among his many character series. In 2011 atleast she is a wonderful character, a hardcore swordswoman who in the hands of a master adventure writer puts most female action heroines to shame.

[Joseph · Rating 4 out of 5]

First-rate adventure stories by Howard. As per the title, these are straight historicals -- no monsters or wizards or elephant-headed demons holding court in the ruins of fabulous pre-human cities; instead, we get an assortment (a most compelling assortment) of rough men (and women!), mostly bashing around the middle and near east, mostly during the time of the Crusades.

As always with Howard the action can only be described as breakneck, and the stories move with the speed and momentum of a runaway locomotive.

The astonishing thing (well, to me, at least) was that a young man in his 20s, living in small-town Texas in the 1920s, could amass such an astonishing wealth of historical detail -- I can't say how accurate the stories were, but whether set in Ireland or the Holy Land or the steppes of Asia, they never seemed to lack verisimilitude.

[Luana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bit of a case of semi-false advertising: while this does contain the story "Sword Woman", its sequel "Blades for France", and the never-finished "Mistress of Death", it is actually the "Other Historical Adventures" part of the collection's title that is most salient here.

The bulk of the stories concern themselves with crusade adventures of varying degrees of discomfort to the modern reader. If you know Howard only from his most famous creation Conan, you'll find lots to like here - Cormac Fitzgeoffrey is so clearly a blueprint for the Cimmerian, you might excuse de Camp and Carter* for turning "Hawks over Egypt" into "Hawks over Shem".

As an amateur sword & sorcery/adventure writer, it's actually very edifying to see how nakedly plot points and character archetypes got recycled or given the thinnest lick of paint before being redeployed into another story.

Despite having read quite a bit of Howard, spending so much time with material that didn't make it to print, in some cases not even to final draft, does feel like a more intimate experience than just mainlining the Hyborian Age - you're seeing this guy's brainworms on the page before any editor (not bereft of brainworms themselves, of course) got to em.

The glimpses of beauty and fellowship in an unending tide of shit and blood, rapine and plunder, make you really feel sad for a guy who had some pretty rancid beliefs. There was joy in him! I wish he'd been able to sell "Sword Woman" and its sequels, maybe that joy could have come out a little more!


*i will never

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

So the Robert E. Howard historical adventures you keep hearing about are HERE, and not so much in the El Borak volume.

And before you start thinking that historical fiction is boring and you hate it, you won’t hate this. All that action you love in a Howard story burst from the pages in this collection. The historical context is fascinating and you will learn plenty of things you didn’t know, but it never bogs the stories down.

In some ways, that’s a drawback if you are looking for epic historical fiction. All these stories are relatively short, and Howard chooses to lean into the action-adventure much more than telling an untold chapter in history.

Sword Woman does not refer to Red Sonja; that character was created in the 1970s in the Conan comic books.

This is the Howard book to get after you’re read Conan, Bran Mak Morn, and Solomon Kane (and the horror collection).

[Deborah Sheldon · Rating 4 out of 5]

To be clear, I love Robert E. Howard. Maybe I was tired while reading this collection, but his novelettes were so dense with plot twists and various armies and scores of characters with similar names that I constantly got lost. No matter; his sentences can be glorious. I'd just relax and let his prose flow over me. Occasionally, I'd stop and reread a paragraph two or three times in admiration.
One of my favourites: "Without a cry or word John Norwald watched, while the heart in his breast shrivelled and froze and turned to ice that naught could touch or thaw or break. Something died in his soul and in its place rose an elemental spirit unquenchable as frozen fire and bitter as hoar-frost."
WOW. That para gives me chills.

[Little Timmy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic collection of Robert E. Howard's historical fiction. These unedited and unabridged stories appear just as Howard wrote them back in the pulp era. Fast paced action is always a mark of a Howard story, and these are no exception. Highly recommended

[Austin Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

My ratings for each of the stories in this collection:

Spears of Clontarf - 3⭐

Hawks Over Egypt - 2.5⭐

The Road of Azrael - 2.75⭐

The Lion of Tiberias - 3⭐

Gates of Empire - 3⭐

Hawks of Outremer - 3⭐

The Blood of Belshazzar - 3.25⭐

Red Blades of Black Cathay - 2.75⭐

The Sowers of the Thunder - 3.25⭐

Lord of Samarcand - 2.5⭐

Sword Woman - 3.75⭐

Blades For France - 3.25⭐

The Shadow of the Vulture - 3.5⭐

The Road of the Eagles - 3⭐

Overall, I don't think this is one of Howard's best books, or even close, for that matter. I did greatly enjoy the title story, Sword Woman, and Shadow of the Vulture, however.
I think the biggest weakness of this volume is that most of these stories lack memorable characters, and the best 2 stories do have fantastic and well written protagonists, which is what sets them apart.

[Joshua Simon · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 out of 5 stars.

It pains me to give any Howard work such a low rating as I'm a huge fan of his and his work has had a big impact on my writing and reading experiences. However, this just isn't a strong collection. Many of the stories I had to drudge my way through or honestly skip all together.

Howard's description/prose is as top notch as ever but most of the plots make little sense and there isn't much tension to pull the reader into the story. Worst of all, the characterization that makes Howard's other works so popular/great is severely lacking in most of the stories. In the cases where the narrative stayed mostly or solely with one character, Howard's talent shined again. That's why the two Dark Agnes tales are by far the best of this collection and honestly might be some of the best stuff Howard ever wrote. I also liked the Cormac FitzGeoffrey stories though the character has all the skill/bravado of Conan without any of the substance. There are maybe a couple of other decent tales, but for the most part the Agnes and Cormac tales are what stopped me from giving up completley on the collection.

This is probably only for a diehard Howard fan but even then it pales in comparison to Conan, Solomon Kane, Kull, and Bran Mak Morn.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Immersing myself in this collection of Robert E. Howard’s writing, my first foray into reading his work, I discovered some of the most direct and explosive tales of action and adventure I’ve ever read. I’ve frequently been attracted to historical fiction, but nothing I’ve read has sparked my imagination as well as Howard’s bold writing style. Beyond the stories in this collection are some unfinished fragments left behind by the author, remembered for decades as creator of famous characters, Conan, Kull, and Solomon Kane, to name but a few. Even these fragments contain the seeds of solid story telling, had they been fleshed out properly. Every tale leaves you hungry for more.

Howard’s writing throws you into the action, vividly sketching scenes showing the color of dawn or darkness, the sharp scent of fresh-spilt blood, the grit of dust flying in each battle. Each tale may follow hero and villain in turns, brave knight and errant knave, driven by promise of glory or riches or fame. Most tales herein are set during the various waves of Crusades into the exotic sands and coastlines of the eastern Mediterranean.

Characters loom larger than life and take action almost before you’ve properly met them, or their enemies, and part of the fun is to discover their true motivations. One such grim fighting soul is Cormac FitzGeoffrey in The Blood of Belshazzar and other tales:

“The giant Norman-Celt was an opportunist. He knew that such chance as had led him into the heart of his foe’s stronghold was not likely to favor him again. Life was uncertain in Outremer; if he waited another opportunity to strike at Nureddin and Kosru Malik, that opportunity might not come. This was his best opportunity for the vengeance for which his barbaric soul lusted.” - excerpt from Hawks of Outremer

Robert E. Howard wrote prolifically to meet market demand for his work, diving into his stories, possessed by the need to craft them. I recently watched the film “The Whole Wide World” based on the journals kept by his very close friend Novalyne Price Ellis, and this touching and profound film showcases the passions that drove Howard. Even through the dark days of the Depression and the shrinking of spare income, Howard’s stories sold, and the magazines selling such thrilling tales of adventure and romance and thrilling mystery abounded, publishing as often as three times per month.

“‘Such eyes had Editha,’ said he softly. ‘Aye, child, your face bears me back half a century. You shall not fall into the hands of the heathen while the last Saxon king can lift a sword. I have drawn my blade in many a less worthy brawl on the red roads I have walked. I will draw it again, little one.’” - The Road of Azrael

Howard could have brought so much wonderful storytelling into the world, had he lived beyond the tender age of 30. Had he seen what came later in so many genres: mystery, fantasy, horror, and beyond. He not only wrote prolifically, he loved the research involved in his craft. Fascinating would have been Howard’s approach, as he might have explored and applied his prodigious talent and writing skill.

In the Appendices of this volume, Howard Andrew Jones wrote a helpful study about REH’s writings, entitled “Howard’s Journey: Historical Influences to Historical Triumphs” and it tidily sums up the world, attitudes and time in which these stories were created, explaining the pulp market and the battle of popularity each genre suffered over the years. I found this a helpful way to wrap up the reading of this exciting book.

The two stories and one fragment about Dark Agnes, the Sword Woman herself, never saw publication during Howard’s life, possibly due to the greater demand for male protagonists and the more typical plots of sword and sorcery, adventure and mystery tales. Set in France in the mid-1500s, she was born Agnes de le Fere and her bold spirit flares in contrast to the conventional thinking about women in similar swashbuckling tales:

“‘Ever the man in men!’ I said between my teeth. ‘Let a woman know her proper place: let her milk and spin and sew and bake and bear children, nor look beyond her threshold or the command of her lord and master! Bah! I spit on you all! There is no man alive who can face me with weapons and live, and before I die, I’ll prove it to the world. Women! Cows! Slaves! Whimpering, cringing serfs, crouching to blows, revenging themselves by — taking their own lives, as my sister urged me to do. Ha! You deny me a place among men? By God, I’ll live as I please and die as God wills, but if I’m not fit to be a man’s comrade, at least I’ll be no man’s mistress. So go ye to hell, Guiscard de Clisson, and may the devil tear your heart!’” - Sword Woman

[Benjamin Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a collection of 18 of Howard's short stories/novellas, most of which were published in the early 1930's although several of them not until after his untimely death. Unlike most of his better known works such as Conan, Kull, Solomon Kane, etc., these stories are all historically based adventure stories. Lots of swashbuckling adventure here but no magic or supernatural elements. They were largely written towards the end of Howard's career and so we are treated to more refined writing than we tend to see with his earlier stories.

This volume includes several unpublished fragments and synopsis for other stories Howard had abandoned for one reason or another.

There is also a nice afterward written by Howard Andrew Jones that really puts these stories in context. Apparently, the market for this type of historical fiction was slim at that time; if that were not so we would probably have many more of them as it seems Howard really enjoyed writing them.

Several great heroes are introduced in these stories, among them Cormac FitzGeoffrey, Cahal and Haroun, Sir Miles, Giles the Rogue, and the titular sword woman, Dark Agnes. One story here also marks the first appearance ever of Red Sonya. Technically "Red Sonja" was a creation of comics writer Roy Thomas, adapting this medieval-era character of REH’s named “Red Sonya,” whose story appears in the story "Lord Of Samarcand". She is written in a realistic historical context, not at all the chain-mail bikini heroine of the comic books that she would soon become. Indeed, one can't help but wonder if Howard had lived a normal lifespan, just how many of these characters would have become as successful and iconic as Conan.

A must-read for Robert E. Howard fans and highly recommended for pulp-era historical fiction enthusiasts as well.

[Stuart Dean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Historical adventures from mostly Crusader times in the Middle East, with some Western Europe thrown in. Real figures such as Tamerlane, Saladin, Genghis Khan, and Baibars are present along with such historical events as the Siege of Vienna and the Siege of Constantinople and the Sack of Jerusalem. Practically all feature some hard-bitten European exile fighting with or against Arab/Turkish/Mongol armies.

The stories are formulaic, virtually every one starting either with a battle or in a tavern. For some reason a Crusader knight is separated from his people and ends up throwing in with or running from some great Muslim leader. As always there is a wealth of bloodshed and beheadings and swords cleaving skulls right down to the teeth.

Very entertaining stuff, and included are the few tales REH wrote featuring strong women, those being Dark Agnes and Red Sonya. Black Turlough and Cormac Fitzgerald also have stories. Most were printed during the short four year reign of "Oriental Stories", sister magazine to "Weird Tales", later known as "Magic Carpet Magazine". REH wasn't above making minor changes to stories that didn't sell to Oriental and sending them to "Weird Tales". Change a Crusader to a Cimmerian and move Egypt to Kush and you've got a money making Conan yarn. A man's gotta eat.

[Tim Deforest · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perhaps my favorite REH anthology, "Sword Woman" contains a superb selection of short stories and novelas set in either medieval Europe or the Middle East during the Crusades. Full of violent action with often epic-level battle scenes that pull you into each tale, these stories also have strong characters and deal with themes such as loyalty, revenge, endurance, and the ephemeral nature of glory. Several of my all-time favorite Howard stories are here,. This includes "The Sowers of the Thunder," which I enjoy so much I re-read it at least once a year, and "The Shadow of the Vulture," which introduced the character of Red Sonya (who was originally a 16th Century Cossack before Marvel Comics re-invented her as a contemporary of Conan the Barbarian. The descriptions of the 1529 siege of Vienna in this latter story is among the most vivid prose ever put on paper.

Other notable stories include "The Road to Azrael," in which a Muslim warrior teams up with a Crusader and later fights alongside some Vikings, and "The Gates of Empire," in which Howard shows that he's capable of inserting laugh-aloud humor into his stories.

[Althea Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Recommended for Howard completists.
This is an interesting book, but there's a reason Howard was more known for his fantasy than his historical adventures. Well, not that these stories aren't really fantasy - they're all about Howard's personal fantasy of manly warriors doing military things. But magic & monsters really jazz up his work.
The title story here is by far the best, followed by the other bits where the female warrior Dark Agnes makes an appearance. Too many of the other stories, while not bad, just weren't really gripping. This became my 'breakfast reading' because I didn't really mind leaving the story where ever I happened to be and coming back to it later.
I did like the 'untitled fragments' included near the end, however, because I felt they gave some interesting insights into Howard's writing process.

[Eamonn Murphy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This Del Rey trade paperback original collection, ‘Sword Woman And Other Historical Adventures’, consists of number of stories and a few poems and fragments along with interesting essays on where the works first appeared and who influenced Robert E. Howard’s historical tales. The stories are a stylish precursor to the sword and sorcery stories, Conan et al, Howard was to write later. It is worth noting, in each case, the historical accuracy as it is this which distinguishes the yarns from the pure fantasy of made-up worlds. They were mostly published in ‘Oriental Stories’, a magazine put out by Farnsworth Wright, editor of ‘Weird Tales’. Sadly, mainly for Robert E. Howard, the magazine only lasted four years and some of these tales remained unpublished in his lifetime. In a brief survey of this 550 page tome, I shall pick out the highlights, of which there are many.

The book opens with an interesting introduction by Scott Oden, well worth reading, but the first story is ‘Spears Of Clontarf’, a tale of mighty Irishmen. Brian Boru, king of the Gaels, is moving against King Sitric of Dublin, a Viking, and Sitric’s seafaring allies are gathering for the slaughter. Conn, our hero, fell out with Brian Boru a while back and is now in thrall to a Norseman but the coming battle is too big to miss. He kills his master and makes his way back to Ireland to fight at Brian’s side. History and Wikkipedia tell us that King Brian confronted his enemies at Clontarf, near Dublin, on Good Friday in 1014, so the background is broadly true. Howard conveys the slaughter with his usual style.

This Gaelic malarkey is followed by a number of stories about the crusades. ‘Hawks Over Egypt’ is set in Cairo in 1021 AD and features assorted Moors, Turks, Franks and others all trying to kill, kidnap, loot or double cross each other in various ways. We sometimes think our modern cosmopolitanism is a new thing and forget that many an ancient metropolis was just as much a melting pot as New York. Trade, slavery and war led to a mingling of different types in the great cities of the past.

‘

The Road Of Azrael’ is another tale of the orient, as Howard called it. Eric de Cogran is a knight who at the sacking of Jerusalem, spared the life of a boy called Kosru Malik, merely because he was sick of slaughter. They meet later in different circumstances but Malik has not forgotten the good deed. ‘The Road Of Azrael’ is a story of intrigue which gets very complicated so you might lose the plot. I think I did. According to the Howard Andrew Jones, who contributes an excellent essay at the end of the book, Howard learned many techniques for his historical fiction from the great Harold Lamb, who published regularly in the pulps of the time and is still well regarded today. In these stories, there are often three or four characters with different interests, all trying to betray one another while making loose alliances as circumstances alter. A sneaky lot.

In the ‘The Lion Of Tiberius’, it is John Norwald, a northern Englishman with the blood of Danes in his veins, who was spared by a kindly enemy. This time it was the Muslim who was merciful, one Ahmet, the son of an emir. Zenghi esh Shami is the lion of the title, famous for his deeds at the siege of that city. Zenghi is not nice. In truth, this was one of the most bloodthirsty of a pretty gory collection of tales. You could get away with a lot in the pulp fiction of the 1930s it seems, as with the other arts. Censorship came in later decades.

In ‘Hawks Of Outremer’, the hero is Cormac Fitzgeoffrey, a Norman-Gael with a mane of black hair, steely blue eyes and a low brow. Cormac disdains to use weapons on a foul man who has been torturing a lithe, scantily-clad wench in a dungeon. When the weed attacks him with a dagger, he simply squeezes the villain’s wrist so tight that the bones are crushed blood comes out of his fingertips. Then he squeezes the villain’s throat, ‘grinding flesh and vertebrae to a crimson pulp.’ Cormac is stronger than Conan, it seems. He may be stronger than the Hulk (Incredible not Hogan). Saladin features in this as a noble gentleman. Howard is often accused of racism but in the historical fiction, his Moslems are frequently depicted as decent chaps and his Franks are sometimes treacherous. He was fair, overall.

Cormac features again in ‘The Blood Of Belshazzar’, joining the outlaw band of Skol Abdhur, the butcher, and he’s not called that because he knows how to joint a chicken. Oh no. He rips the eyeball out of a slow slave before dinner. Skol owns the blood of Belshazzar, a ruby beyond price that has a terrible history. Is it cursed? You decide. Like many other Howard yarns this was turned into a ‘Conan’ story by Roy Thomas at Marvel Comics.

‘Red Blades Of Black Cathay’ has Godric de Villehard on a mission to the far east to find the kingdom of Prester John. He rescues a princess from bandits and she takes him back to Black Cathay, a portion of the slightly dismembered Chinese empire currently under threat from Genghis Khan. Like Saladin and Tamerlane in the next story, Genghis gets quite favourable treatment from the author. Slaughtering was par for the course at the time and Robert Ervin Howard is happy to give you a favourable write up as long as you were good at it. I think if his fantasies had not had an outlet in adventure fiction, he might have gone round lopping the heads off his fellow Texans with a mighty broadsword, laughing all the while.

In ‘Lord of Samarcand’, we meet Donald MacDeesa, a Scottish warrior who is so mean and grumpy he makes Conan look like a joyous optimist. When the Franks fall before the Muslims in the Battle of Nicopolis, he escapes and is recruited by a Mongol warrior, impressed by his strength, and taken to Samarcand to serve the great Emperor Tamerlane. Donald MacDeesa lacked even the slight redeeming features that make Howard heroes a little bit likeable and I didn’t much care for him but the story was of the usual high quality.

‘Sword Woman’ is the piece after which the book is named, perhaps to pull in female readers. In life, Howard did not have much to do with the ladies and his mighty men do not usually treat them with great respect. Yet he had a knack for creating strong female characters now and then, tough wenches who can outfight most men and are glad to do so. They generally regard men as comrades rather than lovers and are not so gentle as women are traditionally meant to be. Agnès de Chastillon is one such. Her father beats her regularly and on the day she is due to marry a fat pig of a man, her elder sister slips her a dagger with which to commit suicide. Instead, she stabs the husband-to-be and runs away. She then falls in with various rogues and mercenaries and finds she has a talent for fighting. The future beckons.

‘Blades for France’ is the future for Agnès de Chastillon and the particular rogue she fell in with at the end of ‘Sword Woman.’ The events take place just a few days after the preceding yarn and it’s another tale of treachery, heroism and gory swordsmanship or rather swordswomanship, which my spellchecker – programmed no doubt by a man – won’t accept. Agnès was good fun to read about but she’s not the sort you would take home to meet mother.

‘The Shadow Of The Vulture’ features another female warrior and a German hero, Gottfried von Kalmbach. Gottfried is targeted by Suleiman the Magnificent as one who dealt the mighty emperor a wounding blow at the Battle of Mohacz. Suleiman wants the German’s head and his loyal servant, the Grand Vizier, duly dispatches Mikhal Oglu, known as the Vulture, to get it. Gottfried flees to Vienna and takes part in the defence of that city against Suleiman’s huge army in 1529. He is aided in this by a fierce scarlet-haired swordswoman named Red Sonya, who claims to be sister to Roxelana, a former harem girl who is now the mighty emperor’s queen. This is a great story and full, too, of real life historical characters and action to give it greater depth. It, too, was made into a ‘Conan’ story by Roy Thomas.

‘The Road Of The Eagles’ is a convoluted tale of assorted outlaws trying to capture the brother of a sultan. Usually, when a sultan died, the one who inherited the title killed all his brothers and their entire families so there would be no future contest for the throne. This was a bit brutal but did avoid civil wars. Sometimes a merciful sultan might put a popular brother in jail instead or send him away west as a hostage. Prince Orkhan is the brother of a sultan and is exiled in a mountain fortress. Corsairs, Cossacks and Turkomans fight among themselves to capture him. It was well told, as usual, but lacked focus as the reader’s sympathies are not directed to any particular protagonist. Not that Howard’s heroes usually deserve or would want sympathy.

If, like me, you did not cover this period of world history very well at school, it’s not a bad idea to research some of this on the Internet to enrich your appreciation of the story. According to the essay by Howard Andrew Jones that concludes the book, Howard (Robert E.) did his best to learn the relevant history before embarking on this side of his career but was hampered by the lack of resources in rural Texas. He learned a lot from reading Lamb but also wrote to the editors of ‘Adventure’ magazine, which published Lamb’s stories, to ask questions about the background facts. Robert would probably have given his right arm for the Internet.

The illustrations are of oddly mixed quality. Some are excellent and some look pretty crude but they are all by the same chap, John Watkiss. I imagine he varied his style to suit the tale. A not inconsiderable number look like they could be panels from ‘The Savage Sword Of Conan’, but I suppose this is inevitable. Overall, this is a very good quality presentation from Del Rey of some excellent adventurous historical fiction. Like many anthologies, it is best taken in small bites, else your head will spin like a dervish as you struggle with the many strange names. But they are delicious bites, mostly.

[Dimitrios · Rating 4 out of 5]

Βιβλιοέναυσμα #62: Sword Woman and Other Historical Adventures
(Ολόκληρο το άρθρο και στο ιστολόγιό μου, Κοιλάδα της Γνώσης: https://www.koiladatisgnosis.gr/logot...)

Πιστός στην δέσμευσή μου να γράφω για κάθε ιστορία τού Robert E. Howard (δημιουργού τού Κόναν του Βάρβαρου) που διαβάζω, σας παρουσιάζω σε αυτό το άρθρο την συλλογή ιστορικών περιπετειών Sword Woman and Other Historical Adventures!

Οι εκδόσεις Del Rey έχουν μαζέψει στις 547 σελίδες τού εν λόγω τόμου όλες τις περιπέτειες τού Howard με ιστορική διάσταση (εκτός τις του El Borak και όσες έχουν ισχυρό φανταστικό στοιχείο), ταξινομημένες λίγο-πολύ με χρονολογική σειρά. Οι περισσότερες ιστορίες διαδραματίζονται στο πλαίσιο των Σταυροφοριών, αρκετές τριγύρω από τους Μογγόλους, και λίγες στην Γαλλία τού 16ου αιώνα. Δεν μπορώ να πω ότι πρόκειται για τις καλύτερες ιστορίες τού Howard. Αντιθέτως, συγκρινόμενες με τις ιστορίες τού Κόναν, αφήνουν μία αίσθηση προχειρότητας και ατέλειας, χωρίς όμως να στερούν την απόλαυση από την αναγνώστη. Ο πρωταγωνιστής είναι συνήθως ένα κυνηγημένος/παρεξηγημένος/τυχοδιώκτης Φράγκος/Ιρλανδός, που θυμίζει υπερβολικά πολύ τον… Κόναν (ο Χάουαρντ είχε πάθος με την ιρλανδική ιστορία), που – πάλι συνήθως – ενώνει τις δυνάμεις του με κάποιον ανατολίτη. Ισχυρές θεματικές είναι η σωτηρία μίας κορασίδας εν κινδύνω (αγγλιστί, damsel in distress) και η εκδίκηση. Πολλές ιστορίες δημοσιεύτηκαν στο περιοδικό Oriental Stories. Η εικονογράφηση ήταν καλή, όχι όμως τού επιπέδου τού αντίστοιχου τόμου με τον Solomon Kane.

Παρακάτω, λέω δύο λόγια για κάθε ιστορία (παραλείπω τα ποιήματα και τις μισοτελειωμένες ιστορίες):

- Spears of Clontarf (32 σ., Spears of Clontarf, 1978): εξιστόρηση τής περίφημης μάχης του Clontarf, μεταξύ Ιρλανδών και Βίκινγκ το 1014 μ.Χ. κοντά στο Δουβλίνο. Πρωταγωνιστής είναι ο Conn, ένας γιγάντιος Ιρλανδός που σκοτώνει τον Νορβηγό αφέντη του ώστε να πολεμήσει στην επικείμενη μάχη. Ωραίο το ελάχιστο στοιχείο φανταστικού με τις μαντείες, κάπου το έχασε η ιστορία προσπαθώντας να ακουλουθήσει πολλούς χαρακτήρες.

- Hawks Over Egypt (35 σ., The Road of Azreal, 1979): στο Κάιρο τού 1021, ο Ισπανός Diego de Guzman επιχειρεί να κλείσει παλιούς λογαριασμούς. Σύντομα όμως ανακαλύπτει πως ο μεγαλύτερος κίνδυνος για την χώρα του είναι ο Φατιμίδης Χαλίφης Al Hakim και τα σχέδιά του για παγκόσμια κυριαρχία… Εξαιρετικά καλογραμμένη ιστορία, με ενδιαφέροντες χαρακτήρες (εκτός του Guzman, έχουμε τον Τούρκο μισθοφόρο Al Afdhal, τον εχθρό του Guzman Zahir el Ghazi, την βενετσιάνα Zaida, και την Zulaikha) και πολλές υποπλοκές που δένουν θαυμάσια για το κλιμακωτό τέλος. Από τις καλύτερες τής συλλογής και με εξαιρετική απεικόνιση τού Καΐρου τής εποχής. Την ξανάγραψε ο L. Sprague de Camp στην Υβορειανή Εποχή και με τον Κόναν στον ρόλο τού Guzman, με τίτλο Hawsk over Shem, και την δημοσίευσε στην συλλογή Tales of Conan (1955).

- The Road of Azrael (35 σ., Chacal, 1976): ένας Τούρκος μισθοφόρος, ο Kosru Malik, συναντάει τυχαία (βρε βρε, κάτι συμπτώσεις) τον Sir Eric de Cogan, ο οποίος του είχε χαρίσει την ζωή προ δεκαετίας στην πτώση της Ιερουαλήμ το 1099. Οι δυο του ενώνουν τις δυνάμεις τους για να σώσουν την Ettaire, που ο θείος της William de Brose την έχει στείλει ως δώρο στον σουλτάνο Muhammad Kham. Η παρουσία Αράβων επιδρομέων θα περιπλέξει τα πράγματα, ενώ από τα καλύτερα στοιχεία τής ιστορίας είναι η deux-ex-machina εμφάνιση ενός υποτιθέμενα νεκρού Σάξονα βασιλέα…

- The Lion of Tiberias (27 σ., The Magic Carpet Magazine, 1933): ο Φράγκος John Norwald στέλνεται στις γαλέρες από τον πανίσχυρο Τούρκο ηγέτη Imad al-Din Zengi. Η ιστορία αναλίσκεται στο πώς ο Zengi τρομοκρατεί τους εχθρούς τους τις πρώτες δεκαετίες τού 12ου αιώνα, ενώ ο Sir Miles du Courcey προσπαθεί να γλιτώσει την Ellen de Tremont από το χαρέμι τού Zengi. Και μην ξεχνάμε πως ο Norwald έχει ορκιστεί εκδίκηση…

- Gates of Empire (33 σ., Golden Freece, 1939): ο Giles Hobson δραπετεύει στην Μέση Ανατολή από το εγγλέζικο κάστο τού Godfrey de Courtenay, καθώς πάνω στο μεθύσι του σκάρωσε μια φάρσα που παραλίγο να στοιχίσει την ζωή τού Godfrey. Το καράβι του δέχεται επίθεση από πειρατές και καταλήγει στο Κάιρο, μέσα στις δολοπλοκίες των εκεί φατριών και του σταυροφορικού Βασιλείου της Ιερουσαλήμ… Καλούτσικη.

- Hawks of Outremer (27 σ., Oriental Stories, 1931): κατατρεγμένος από τους Ιρλανδούς, ο Cormac FitzGeoffrey εγκαταλείπει για πολλοστή φορά το νησί του για τους Αγίους Τόπους. Όταν μαθαίνει ότι ο παλιός του αρχηγός Sieur Gerard de Gissclin δολοφονήθηκε, αποφασίζει να πάρει εκδίκηση… Πολύ καλή ιστορία, ήταν ο κύριος λόγος που ήθελα να διαβάσω την συλλογή καθώς την είχα πετύχει και σε graphic novel (το οποίο επίσης θέλω να διαβάσω).

- The Blood of Belshazzar (27 σ., Oriental Stories, 1931): πάλι με τον Cormac FitzGeoffrey, τώρα σε ένα κάστρο με πολλές φατρίες και ένα πετράδι που το εποφθαλμιούν όλοι. Είχε λίγο αστυνομικό στοιχείο όπως η ιστορία με Κόναν Ο Θεός της Σαρκοφάγου (δείτε τι έγραψα για αυτό εδώ: https://www.koiladatisgnosis.gr/logot...) και ισχυρή διάσταση λαβκραφτικού τρόμου. Ω ναι..

- Red Blades of Black Cathay (27 σ., Oriental Stories, 1931): ο Godric de Villehard στέλνεται ανατολικά (πολύ ανατολικά) σε αναζήτηση τού περίφημου βασιλείου τού Πρεσβύτερου Ιωάννη και καταλήγει να υπερασπίζεται ένα κινέζικο βασίλειο από τις μογγολικές ορδές. Μέτρια.

- The Sowers of the Thunder (37 σ., Oriental Stories, 1932): μία δυνατή ιστορία στον 13ο αιώνα, με τον Ιρλανδό Cahal Ruadh O’Donnell να αντιμάχεται στην πάροδο των χρόνων τον πανίσχυρο σουλτάνο Baibars…

- Lord of Samarcand (33 σ., Oriental Stories, 1932): ο Σκοτσέζος Donald Mac Deesa, επιζών τής σφαγής των σταυροφόρων στην Μάχη της Νικοπόλεως το 1396, καταφεύγει στην αυλή τού Ταμερλάνου για να πάρει εκδίκηση από τον Βαγιαζήτ…

- Sword Woman (33 σ., REH: Lone Star Fictioneer, 1975): η πρώτη ιστορία τής σκληρής Agnes de Chastillon, μιας φοβερής ηρωίδας τού Howard! Στην Γαλλία τού 16ου αιώνα, η Agnes σκοτώνει (!!) τον μέλλοντα σύζυγό της για να αποφύγει τον γάμο, και καθώς τρέχει να γλιτώσει μπλέκει στα πόδια κάποιων πολύ επικίνδυνων ανθρώπων…

- Blades for France (31 σ., Blades for France, 1975): πάλι με την Agnes, η οποία ανακαλύπτει μία συνωμοσία σκοτεινών αντρών με μάσκες και έχει να αντιμετωπίσει και έναν παλιό εχθρό…

- The Shadow of the Vulture (35 σ., The Magic Carpet Magazine, 1934): η πολιορκία τής Βιέννης από τον Σουλεϊμάν το 1529, και στο βάθος η κόντρα τού Σουλεϊμάν με τον Γερμανό Gottfried von Kalmbach και την… Red Sonya! Ναι, καλά διαβάσετε, Red Soya, μόνο που δεν έχει καμία σχέση με την ταινία τού 1985!

- The Road of the Eagles (35 σ., Lord of Samarcand and Other Adventure Tales of the Old Orient, 2005): Κοζάκοι, αλγερινοί πειρατές, αιχμάλωτος Τούρκος σουλτάνος, και εκδίκηση. Τι άλλο να πει κανείς…

Εν κατακλείδι, το Sword Woman and Other Historical Adventures είναι μία ευχάριστη συλλογή περιπετειών σε μεσαιωνικό πλαίσιο, αν κι όχι από τις καλύτερες του Howard. Μείνετε συντονισμένοι για περισσότερα άρθρα μου για τον Howard και διαβάστε τα ήδη υπάρχοντα για τα βιβλία Almuric (https://www.koiladatisgnosis.gr/logot...) και Κόναν: Η Βασίλισσα της Μαύρης Ακτής & Άλλα Διηγήματα (https://www.koiladatisgnosis.gr/logot...), καθώς για όλες τις ιστορίες με τον Bran Mak Morn (https://www.koiladatisgnosis.gr/logot...) και με τον Solomon Kane (https://www.koiladatisgnosis.gr/logot...).

[Raymond · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's safe to say this collection contains some of Howard's best work. While the quality isn't entirely even, the better stories more than make up for the rest.

I'd like to mention Gates of Empire in particular, which is an unusual story from Howard's pen in that it features a main character that's less brawny barbarian and more bumbling rogue and reads more like something Jack Vance could've written. Other stories, such as the ones featuring Cormac FitzGeoffrey, show clear antecedents for the Conan the Barbarian stories and are interesting for that reason alone.

I also like to point out how impressive it is for a man who barely left Texas and had limited access to source material to portray medieval European, Middle Eastern and Central Asian settings this vividly. There is the odd inaccuracy and several instances of orientalist stereotyping, but when the stories come together well as a whole it's easily forgiven.

[J.W. Wright · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've always found author Robert E. Howard to be a classic author that never fails in bringing blood and thunder high adventure in his works. From Conan the Cimmerian to Kull of Valusia. From Cormac Mac Art to Bran Mak Morn to Solomon Kane, virtually all of his works and heroes have a strength that have been unrivaled to this day. The collection of his historical adventures entitled "Sword Woman" is certainly no exception.
This volume collects all Howard's historical adventure stories and poems that he penned for various pulp magazines such as Magic Carpet and Oriental Stories, and then some that were never published. The stories take place within the time frames of the 8th and 16th Centuries, and the reader is taken to such locales as Medieval Europe, Arabia, Cathay, and Asia.
The battle scenes are epic, bloody, and gritty, and the atmosphere is dark and realistic as well as mystical, even though there are no supernatural elements to really be seen, the tone is really magnificent and majestic in places. There is swashbuckling and adventure galore, as well as iron-thewed heroes and dastardly villains. Yet no one in these tales is truly good or evil, just many shades of gray; characters trying to survive during the dark time of the Crusades.
Included are the adventures of such heroes as Cormac FitzGeoffrey, Dark Agnes, Diego de Guzman, and Red Sonya, among many others.
The forces of Christendom and Islam clash in thunderous battle within the pages of this volume, and the result is glorious, grim, and engrossing. Robert E. Howard had a pen of gold. It was such a pity he was called home so early in his life.
I give "The Sword Woman and Other Historical Adventures" by Robert E. Howard a 5 out of 5.

[Silvere · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Sword Woman and Other Historical Adventures" was a really enjoyable read. Numerous historical eras and different cultures are covered in this tome. Each character is very life-like, their incredible strengths also saddled with flaws. Robert E. Howard makes the reader care about each character, even when the amount of historical background information may seem overwhelming. I really enjoyed the Crusade-Era stories, I never learnt about that era in school and those stories entertained while enlightening. The Sword Woman stories and The Shadow of the Vulture are probably my favorite short stories. I will probably try more historical fiction because of this book.

[James T · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love REH. The historical stuff felt like my favorite meal missing a crucial ingredient. Without the supernatural elements Howard feels like a great entree without seasoning. There’s just something missing. There is some great stuff in here. The Cormac stories are a stand out. Moments of brilliance can be found but it just doesn’t hit the same heights as Conan and Kull.

[Matt Finatelli · Rating 5 out of 5]

Howard's Historical Fiction is proof that his legacy extends beyond the realm of Sword and Sorcery. These stories are extremely gripping from start to finish, filled with fierce battles and unforgettable characters like: Cormac Fitzgeoffrey; Agnès de Chastillon; Gottfried von Kalmbach and so many others. Among these memorable tales, my personal favorite is The Shadow of the Vulture.

[ColinJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding collection based around one of my favourite Howard tales, SWORD WOMAN.

The two 'Dark Agnes' tales Howard completed prove that he had a real talent for writing heroic female characters. Sadly the market at the time wasn't really interested in them, which is why he wrote so few.

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yet another solid omnibus. I hadn't read many of these before, so it was a good read.

[Jesse · Rating 4 out of 5]

Robert E. Howard is mostly known for his sword and sorcery characters, like Solomon Kane, King Kull, and Conan the Barbarian. When he was hitting his stride as an author, however, he was making bank off of writing historical fiction that was largely centered around the time of the Crusades. Enter Sword Woman and Other Historical Adventures, a collection that gathers together these and other period pieces that are generally devoid of sorcery.

Sword Woman is a great collection of adventures that are more or less grounded in history. The earliest of these stories is set around the disappearance of al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah in 1021 A.D. while the latest is set at the very end of the Ottomon reign of Murad III, in 1595. It's filled with Howard's characteristically thrilling action but also includes historical asides that detail the personalities and circumstances of the real-life figures he utilizes. It's semi-educational! If you decide to take up this volume, however, I'd highly recommend backing it up with reading up on the events and personages that Howard depicts, perhaps via a little Wikipedia browsing.

There's no shortage of tragic protagonists as well as badass action heroes to follow as they carve their way through history. Dark Agnes is found toward the back of the book but she is the title character of the collection, featured in a swashbuckling tale where she rejects the shackles placed upon women by the patriarchy, followed afterward by a kidnapping plot involving the French royal consort, Francois de Foix. Agnes is followed in good company by Red Sonja of Rogatino, the basis for sword and sorcery sex symbol Red Sonya. Rogatino's Sonja is a female mercenary and instrumental defender during the Siege of Vienna in 1529.

Many of the male characters are knights in the crusader kingdoms (Outremer) of various nationalities. As befits Howard's hyperfixation, his Irish and to a lesser extent Scottish knights are either gloomed (like walking cartoon Cormac Fitzgeoffrey, who's Conan in everything but name) or doomed (the deposed Red Cahal, once-King of Ireland). Donald MacDeesa is a little bit of both, but his narrative is not nearly as compelling as Cormac's grimdark antics or Cahal's tragic trajectory. If you're looking for a little bit of romance, might I suggest "Red Blades of Black Cathay", where Godric de Villehard fights the army of Ghengis Khan to a standstill for the love of the Chinese princess, Yulita? Or, if you're in the mood for more of a farce, how about "Gates of Empire", where Giles de Hobson bounces around Outremer in a desperate attempt to avoid the wrath of his foe for life, the result of a very naughty prank back in France?

Of course, it's Howard, so you can expect some Aryan-centric plot twists that leave these stories feeling more like noir climaxes. "The Lion of Tiberias" has one of these, with Englishman John Norwald of suggestively Norse descent appearing at the beginning of the tale so that he can return at its end, avenging himself on its main villain. Howard actually references the slave who the Islamic tradition claims assassinated Zenghi--here he's a portly eunuch named Yaruktash rather than Yaranktash--so read into that what you will. "The Road of the Eagles" has an even crazier finale, with the opposed characters--the Cossack leader, Ivan Sablianka, and the Algerian corsair, Osman Pasha--discovering that they are previously acquainted English sailors who for different reasons lost themselves in the east.

Because of the setting of the stories--the time of the Crusades--there is a preponderance of ethnic peoples from the Middle East. I don't feel qualified to speak as to the accuracy of the plethora of Muslim characters, but Howard already had a hand at writing various main characters of middle-eastern descent, chronicled in The Early Adventures of El Borak. And, while most of the main characters of these stories are white Europeans, there are positive depictions of Muslims. The narrator of "The Road of Azrael" is a Chatagai warrior, Kosru Malik, who the white lead once saved from slaughtering Crusaders during one of the sacks of Jerusalem. "Gates of Empire" and "Hawks of Outremer" depict Saladin, who is portrayed as noble, wise, and charismatic. There are no shortage of Muslim characters who adhere to codes of honor, helping out their allies, including Christian knights, in times of need, bit parts though they may be.

Of course, with a predominantly middle-Eastern cast, that means that most of the villains are inevitably Muslim as well. Sometimes, as with "The Lion of Tiberias", the depictions are multi-faceted. Our first glance at Zenghi has him brutally mutilating the son of a rival. He's a brutal military leader, and has kept the wife of the MC in his harem which invokes sexual violence as well, but he's also portrayed as devoted to his more or less adopted son, Saladin, and in a moment of reflection voices his regret at the horrid execution seen at the beginning of the story. Baybars in "The Sowers of the Thunder" is a complex character who strikes up a friendly rivalry with the main character, Cahal, before meeting him in mortal combat as their ambitions are diametrically opposed.

The least satisfying villains of this set are unflattering, monotone tyrants. Tamarlane of "Lord of Samarcand" is wooden, a perfect match for the Howardian Donald MacDeesa. Muhammad Khan of "Road of Azrael" is reduced to abject lust over the French Ettaire and thus founders his entire empire. In "The Shadow of the Vulture", Howard gives us an oblivious Ottoman sultan in Suleiman the Magnificent, who pulls the ultimate heel move in hosting a victory part at home after he surrenders the siege of Vienna. His main man, Mikhal Oglu, is a scary Terminator-boogeyman hybrid that spends most of his time elsewhere in the story committing war crimes and not engaging our heroes.

Of all the depictions of Muslims that Howard has in this volume, the weirdest by far is in "The Road of the Eagles". The MacGuffin of this piece is an exiled prince, Orkhan. In a sentiment that comes completely out of left field if you've been reading the reams of Muslim characters that populate this collection, Howard posits that there is a sort of "Oriental fatalism" that dogs people of the Middle East:

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ "Allah wills it"--the phrase embraces a whole Turanian philosophy, is at once excuse and consolation for failure.

But the aggressive Ayesha, Iranian slave girl, stokes the fire of the conqueror in Orkhan because

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ hot in Ayesha's veins ran the fierce blood of the yellow-haired kings who trod down Ninevah and Babylon in their road to empire, and recognized no power higher than their own desires.

Looking at the spectrum of stories that precedes "The Road of the Eagles", Howard was obviously fascinated with the character of these peoples as warriors and conquerors. His engineered disdain of Orkhan, who is portrayed as succumbing to decadence as a victim of political machinations that are meant to defang him, reflects the shifting focus of these tales away from men who lead armies to men who dictate them. This would appear to be a reaction to the period of the Ottoman Sultanate of Women that began with Roxelana, who was the real-life figure that Howard poised as the sister of his fictitious Red Sonya.

The focus is made more explicit during the historical aside of "Eagles". Howard draws on the true details of the reign of Murad III, the real-life Sultan and brother of the manufactured Orkhan. Murad III was notably influenced by first his mother and then his favorite harem girl, Safia. Orkhan's mother, Nurbanu, isn't mentioned in Howard's text, but Nurbanu was a concubine as well, and both women were either posited or proven to be ethnically Venetian, i.e. Not Arabic. Now, I wasn't aware of this, but historically speaking, EVERY heir of Ottoman Sultans was born to concubines. And, as Howard appears to have taken note of, the favored women in these specific anecdotes were foreigners.

Indeed, these crusader-era stories are littered with instances of Howard depicting Middle-Eastern people with a passion for the debasement of "white" women. This is not an invention of Howard's; as I mentioned in The Early Adventures of El Borak, this was part of the cultural conscience at the time and continues to be so, particularly after the release of E.M. Hull's now infamous romance novel, The Sheik, published in 1919. It's notable as a major plot point in "The Road of Azrael" as well as its narrator, Kosru Malik, admonishes both his life-debt partner as well as the main villain, Muhammad Khan, for risking their lives (and, in Khan's case, a kingdom) for the story's French damsel.

You can almost see the cogs turning in Howard's galaxy-brained morass of white supremacy and sexism. On the one hand, you have Islamic men having no true ambition, allowing themselves to be steered by the not-Arab women in their lives, the latter of whom have some non-zero quantity of "Aryan" blood. But, like, the Sultans are descended from these same women. Don't they have the same "fierce blood of the yellow-haired kings"? Wouldn't the concubine policy and the preponderance of foreign women result in concentrating, uh, conqueror-genes in these Ottoman rulers?

The true villain is, of course, civilization. All of these women, from the Venetian Zaida of "Hawks Over Egypt" to history's Safia, were conquered into Islam. The Sultans themselves were born into it. As Howard traces the Sultanates through the years he encounters the Sultanate of Women and correlates their rise in power to the advancing Ottoman civilization. These Sultans are conquered by their love, ceasing to become conquerors themselves, and are thus "unmanned" as its Howard's Orkhan in his decadent confinement. When Ayesha arranges for his escape in the middle of a frantic tumult, he declares "'I will not forget this day! Again I am a man!'" and, shortly afterward, Ayesha echoes this: "'In good truth, you are a man again, and shall be Padishah of all the Osmanli!'"

Civilization wins out, of course. Orkhan is down to fight, but he encounters a moment when his resurgence as a power seems impossible and just...gives up, a decision that wildly popular with Ayesha. Islam is where Howard points his finger for the princes' tragic end, who rouses his battle spirits with "Inshallah!" only to quench them with Howard's seemingly-conjured fatalism naught but a couple of pages later. Orkhan is not surrendering to what he believes is his death, however; he is resigning himself to the recent memory of his posh, painless imprisonment.

I assume that Howard was drawing on whatever Western sources on Islam he was familiar with for this sudden religious portraiture. Christianity has had its own struggles reasoning with divine omnipotence and predestination. For the Islamic faith, the concept is Qadar, but the Turkish word that Howard uses multiple times within the text itself is kismet. Howard's writing often betrays a skepticism of the benevolence of any deity, let alone wither their aid can be relied upon. Now, Conan's Aquilonians had Mitra, a sort of Zoroastrian deity who intervened on behalf of civilization in several stories ("The Phoenix on the Sword", "Black Colossus"), but Mitra is the exception rather than the rule. In fact, in the very first Conan story in which Mitra is mentioned, "he" is contrasted--almost reflexively--against Conan's own Cimmerian deity, Crom.

Crom appears to be patterned after Howard's idealized barbarism: the only things given to you are your inborn abilities, which you must make use of if you wish to survive. Divine providence cannot be counted on; indeed, it would be perceived by Crom as a fatal weakness. As described in this story, Prince Orkhan had potential. He was to make use of his god-given powers, but the scheming of his civilization (most notably his brother's concubine) defanged him. Ironically, he is temporarily reinvigorated by his own more-or-less concubine Ayesha's plotting and planning. Her plot fails because, as the course of this collection demonstrates, Howard was conceptually opposed to women controlling men.

Controlling... but not killing. This collection of course features Howard's most notable female protagonists, Dark Agnes and Red Sonja. Dark Agnes's depiction in "Sword Woman" is a maelstrom of fear, anger, and violence at the men who would control her destiny, chiefly as it pertains to her sexuality. Her physically abusive father betroths her to a wealthy merchant so that he no longer has to work; she is visited by her sister, who has been ground down by her peasant wife's life, and who urges Agnes take her own before she is married, giving her a dagger to do so; and Agnes decides instead to murder the groom at the altar and then run off to live life as an outlaw.

Agnes is not a well-developed character (not that Howard has many) but she is a leading lady from an author who wrote precious few of them. She is directly opposed to whatever Howard imagined was a peasant woman's lot in 16th century France. She cuts her hair short; wears men's clothes; has no romance to speak of, apart from a lesbian-baiting kiss in "Blades For France"; and she is a hardy fighter with sword and pistol. Howard's description of the naturalness with which she picks up the martial as opposed to marital arts seems to suggest that Agnes has the soul of a reincarnated warrior. She isn't just a woman who's written like a man, though. She is motivated by very real fears that are founded upon her sexual biology.

Where Agnes's narrative gets murky is in her big melodramatic speech to her future (albeit brief) mentor:

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ "Ever the man in men!" I said between my teeth. "Let a woman know her proper place: let her milk and spin and sew and bake and bear children, nor look beyond the threshold or the command of her lord and master! Bah! I spit on you all! There is no man alive who can face me with a weapon and live, and before I die, I'll prove it to the world. Women! Cows! Slaves! Whimpering, cringing serfs, crouching to blows, revenging themselves by--taking their own lives, as my sister urged me to do. Ha! You deny me a place among men? By God, I'll live as I please and die as God wills, but if I'm not fit to be a man's comrade, at least I'll be no man's mistress. So go ye to hell, Guiscard de Clisson, and may the devil tear your heart!"

Within the story, Agnes conflates the imposed roles for women with the women themselves. One does not expect a deft unpacking of motherhood for a medieval French peasant in an adventure yarn (I can imagine Howard drawing on his own mother's declining health when picturing Agnes's sister Ysabel), but the lack of compassion in her monologue is a bit galling for modern readers, let alone the fact that Agnes can only fight back against the patriarchal system because of the martial prowess that Howard has written her as having.

Red Sonya is a similar character. To some extent, she is a logical progression of Agnes's situation. "Sword Woman" portrays Agnes's struggles to be accepted into men's spaces. Sonya in "The Shadow of the Vulture" is already a successful mercenary who is respected by her peers. Her hair isn't cut short, like Agnes, but she runs around during the Siege of Vienna in her banded mail, drinks copious amounts of alcohol, foils the Turks, and repeatedly bails out her luckless and lovesick co-star, Gottfried von Kalmbach. Sonya, like Agnes, is her own master and no one else's. As mentioned earlier, she is also the fictitious sister of the very real and very influential Roxelana, concubine of Sulemain the Magnificent, who began Turkey's Sultanate of Women. Sonya's existence here--accentuated by her defaming Roxelana as "my sister, the slut!"--is a counterpoint that undermines the legitimacy of women using what little bargaining power they are allowed to have to create agency in patriarchal power structures.

If you want a signpost as to the ultimate direction of this collection, then look no farther than the first story, "Spears of Clontarf", and its Eevin of Craglea, the Pict lover of the Irish Dunlang O'Hartigan. O'Hartigan is to fight against the Norse/Irish combine under the banner of King Brian, but Eevin knows that he will die if he fights. She pleads with him, attempting to get him to run away. When that fails, she gives him armor, something that Howard notes goes against Irish cultural values at the time. O'Hartigan consents to wear the armor, but eventually--in the heat of battle--he rejects it. While he dies as Eevin predicts, he dies--unlike Prince Orkhan--by Howard's standards as a Man.

I don't believe that Howard was a misogynist by the standards of the 1930s. thskullsinthestars documents Howard's complicated sentiments toward women, featuring a reproduction of one of his letters. At one point in December of 1928, his friends Tevis Clyde Smith and Harold Preece conspired to provoke Howard, with Smith getting Preece to author a clearly misogynistic letter in a pen and paper version of trolling. Howard's impassion response defended the achievements of women, naming various historical figures as well as women from Greek antiquity.

The end of the letter, however, walks back some of this defense in an attempt at macho posturing. I say "posturing" because, as outlined in my review of Kull: Exile of Atlantis, Howard grappled with being human and having sexual desires while also holding that an increasing emphasis on sexuality was symptomatic of a decadent civilization. REH cynically opines that quibbling over the intellectual merits of women was worthless, deferring instead to their youth and beauty. I see a young man who has spent a great deal of time in his own head and found it futile, resenting what he clearly perceives as a woman-shaped hole in his existence: "'Sex has its part in life--it is Life itself and satisfaction of the body should go hand in hand with satisfaction of the soul. ... I begin to believe a man is a sluggard and a fool who wastes his time making marks on paper. Hell.'"

Howard acknowledged that women have had a role in shaping civilization: "Men have sat at the feet of women down the ages and our civilization, bad or good, we owe to the influence of women." Gathered together as a collection, however, the stories found in Sword Woman and Other Historical Adventures paint a jaundiced view on gender relations, reflective of women not just as pulp props and victims but also suspicious of their influence on men of power. His women of valor--Dark Agnes and Red Sonja--possess few stereotypically feminine traits, beyond what Agnes refers to as "the woman in me...that can not bear to hear a helpless thing beg for life." There is something in Agnes's explosive anger and violence, however, that speaks to Howard's perception of the imbalance of power and oppression inherent in patriarchal civilizations. He may have afforded her talents that are equal to or, really, greater than the male characters found within her stories, but in doing so he acknowledges how different society would be if women did not have to rely on the generosity of men or the legal systems that they have shaped.

[Duarte · Rating 5 out of 5]

[…] À luz dos fogaréus e braseiros, em meio aos gritos e canções dos bêbados, acompanhados pelo ocasional rugido de um canhão tocando uma sinistra nota fora do tom, Von Kalmbach afundou o capacete em um barril e o trouxe à tona cheio e gotejante. Mergulhando os bigodes no líquido, fez uma pausa enquanto os olhos nublados, por cima da borda do elmo, pousaram em uma figura empertigada do outro lado do tonel. Ressentimento tingiu a expressão em seu rosto. Sonya já tinha visitado mais do que um barril. A borguinhota estava virada de lado por sobre as tranças rebeldes, com bravatas ainda mais selvagens e olhos ainda mais zombeteiros.[…]

Dark Agnes é uma boa companhia para Sonja e Valéria, mais uma mulher cheia de garra e valentia.
Desconhecia esta personagem, mas foi graças a ela que cheguei a este compêndio de tirar o fôlego. A barbárie está presente desde o início até ao último ponto final. Fiquei surpreendido por, neste seu mundo fantástico de espada e feitiçaria, aparecer o nome de Lisboa (o erro está no facto de dizer que foi capturado pelos espanhóis em Lisboa). De qualquer modo, o mérito está lá. Há muitas passagens e destaques na maioria das histórias, mas a que mais gostei foi "O Senhor de Samarcanda".
Achei esta história espetacular, pela beleza e riqueza dos pormenores da escrita. Acho que o Robert estava aqui no seu melhor.

[…] Timur estava envelhecendo; havia jogado com o mundo como um homem joga com um tabuleiro de xadrez, usando reis e exércitos como peões. Quando era um jovem chefe sem riqueza ou poder, havia derrubado seus mestres mongóis e os dominara. Arrasara tribo após tribo, raça após raça, reino após reino, transformando-os em seu crescente império, que se estendia do Gobi até o Mediterrâneo, de Moscou a Deli; o império mais poderoso já visto pelo mundo. Havia aberto as portas do sul e do leste, por onde afluíam as riquezas da terra. Havia salvado a Europa de uma invasão asiática quando conteve a maré de conquistas dos turcos; um fato que desconhecia e com o qual não se importava. Havia construído cidades e destruído cidades. Havia feito o deserto florescer tal qual um jardim e transformado terras floridas em desertos. Ao seu comando, pirâmides de crânios haviam sido erguidas e vidas haviam escorrido como rios. Seus senhores da guerra, envergando os capacetes, eram exaltados pelas multidões, e nações gritavam em vão sob sua esmagadora bota, como o choro de mulheres perdidas nas montanhas à noite.[…]

Logo na introdução, temos uma descrição cronológica das várias histórias desta compilação, com os respetivos nomes e datas de publicação. Marco acrescenta também pormenores que enriquecem e aguçam a curiosidade sobre o que esperar de cada história. Vejam só o título da introdução: "Dark Agnes e as mulheres guerreiras de Robert E. Howard", da autoria de Marco Antônio Correa Collares Membro do Fórum Conan, o Bárbaro, pesquisador da vida e obra de Robert E. Howard, roteirista de Crônicas Hiborianas e editor-chefe da Fantastic Hub.
Aqui, o autor afirma:

[…] Se Agnès de La Fère é a chama que arde em rebeldia contra a opressão de um mundo masculino, Sonya de Rogatino é o relâmpago que brilha no campo de batalha do século XVI. Criada para um único conto, a guerreira ruiva não faz parte da Era Hiboriana de Conan, mas de uma trama histórica marcada pela luta contra o império turco-otomano. Com sua pistola, sabre e coragem, a ucraniana se une ao germânico Gottfried von Kalmbach em façanhas que misturam o realismo historiográfico com a aventura épica. […]

[Phil Syphe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although I rate Robert E. Howard as my all-time greatest short story writer, I don’t rate the majority of tales in this collection as being very good.

My main issue is this kind of thing:

>His lords thronged about him – Kai Kedra, the Seljuk, Abdullah Bey, Mirza Khan, Dost Said, Mechmet Atabeg, Ahmed El Ghor, himself an Arab, and Yar Akbar, a hairy giant of a renegade Afghan, accounted the strongest man in Kizilshehr.<

Maybe it’s just me, but to be bombarded with all those characters is too overwhelming. More to the point, these names (including place names) are very unfamiliar to an English boy – or to this one, at least – which makes it harder to absorb such a sudden introduction to multiple characters. To make matters more confusing, most characters are referred to by more than one name, or by their nationality, so I often got lost regarding who was speaking or being referred to.

This happens a lot in most stories. Often, like in the above quote, some characters aren’t further developed, nor are most – if not all – mentioned again, unless it’s to acknowledge they’ve been killed off.

Characters really should be kept to a minimum in short stories, whereas in most tales in this collection feature an excessive cast list. Few characters are fully developed enough to become engaging or evoke sympathy. This is again owing to the large ensemble.

Another aspect that lets the collection down for me is that many times the reader is faced with extensive paragraphs that do nothing more than relay information. This information does little – if anything – to move the story forward. It slows the narrative down, which in turns loses its grip of the reader – or this one, anyway.

Most of the stories, therefore, didn’t appeal to me; however, four particularly good ones made me rate the collection three stars instead of two.

One of the four that appealed to me was among the unfinished titles included in the Miscellanea section, namely “The Slave-Princess”. This has a stronger plot, plus fewer characters, which all makes for a more engaging read.

The other three titles that I really liked all feature Dark Agnes, which includes this collection’s title story. What’s particularly interesting about these tales is that is a first-person account narrated by the lead female character. I’ve read a vast amount of short stories by Howard, but these are the first I’ve come across written from a female perspective. It’s a rarity, but more important, it’s a complete success.

Another general plus point is that whenever the author injects humour into a scene, it improves immensely. “Gates of Empire” has uplifting moments because of its intermittent comedy. I consider Howard as the best humour writer of all time. Comedy isn’t something he’s renowned for. Fantasy is his claim to fame, but for me, his humorous stories are far and away his best contributions to literature.

[John Reis · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars!

This volume contains the following stories:
Spears of Clontarf – Also published as The Grey God Passes. Brian Boru leads the Irish against their occupiers.
Hawks over Egypt - In Egypt in 1023 A.D. Diego De Guzman is on a mission of revenge.
The Road of Azrael - Sir Eric de Cogan is on a quest to rescue his love, Ettaire, with the aid of Kosru Malik. Good.
The Lion of Tiberias - The bloody career of Zhengi.
Gates of Empire - The misadventures of Giles Hobson, a drunkard. Good.
Hawks of Outremer – a Cormac FitzGeoffrey story. ok
The Blood of Belshazzar – a Cormac FitzGeoffrey story. Ok.
Red Blades of Black Cathay – A Norman Frank fights in Jahadur. Great story.
The Sowers of the Thunder - Cahal Ruadh, the betrayed King of Ireland, journeys to warn cities and outposts of the approaching Mongol hordes. Very good.
Lord of Samarkand - Daniel MacDeesa works for Tamerlane and seeks revenge on Bayazid.
Sword Woman – Agnes refuses to marry. She runs away and meets Etienne Villiers. Ok.
Blades for France – Agnes and Etienne help a young lady save a man. Ok.
The Shadow of the Vulture - In 1529, the Muslims lay siege to Vienna. Gottfried von Kalmbach and Red Sonya fight on the walls. Very good.
The Road of the Eagles – Also known as “The Way of the Swords. After a battle on the Black Sea, Ivan Sablianka and his Cossacks seek retribution for the murder of their leader Skol Ostap by Osman Pasha.

This is a good collection of stories. My favorites are Red Blades of Black Cathay, Gates of Empire, Shadows of the Vultures and Sowers of the Thunder. I do not like the cover art and illustrations.

[Rubén Lorenzo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Esta fantástica colección de relatos de ambientación histórica es de obligada lectura para los amantes del género. Están ambientados en el este y muestran los enfrentamientos entre los árabes, los turcos y los cristianos, eso es lo único a lo que alcanza mi limitado conocimiento.

Sin embargo, lo que de verdad importa es el dramatismo, las esplendidas descripciones, la frenética aventura, los giros y sobre todo esos personajes más grandes que la vida, ninguno héroe y casi ninguno completamente villano. Los odios pueden tornar en alianzas, las mujeres pueden ser tristes esclavas o poderosas guerreras, los reyes que parecen invencibles pueden caer por una mano inesperada, los imperios pueden surgir o desvanecerse en un pestañeo... Hay en estas historias un sinfín de escenas que te hacen vibrar o suspirar, es algo maravilloso.

Ya las había leído en castellano, pero en el idioma original son todavía más poderosas, el sonido y el ritmo son perfectos, como si de poesía se tratase. Curiosamente, la primera historia no me ha convencido, pero a partir de ahí varían entre muy buenas historias y obras maestras.

En resumen, un imprescindible, como otros libros del autor.

[Mark Hartman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great collection of Howard’s stories. There are multiple characters like Cormac besides the sword woman. It’s just amazing in 12 years the amount of stories Howard produced. I’m not a big fan of the artwork chosen for the front of the book, it’s just dark and gray and not as good as the other artwork on the other covers. I like the Conan stories better but these are still worth a read.

[Jeff J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A compilation of historical fiction from the creator of Conan. I particularly enjoyed the stories of Dark Agnes. It is clear the writer had a story arc in mind for the character that he was unable to complete.

[Michael Jewell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Typical Howard writing, I loved it but then again the incomplete stories left me hanging and wishing for more I don’t know why they’re included in these works. I almost wish they hadn’t included them.