The Spell of Conan


The Spell of Conan is a 1980 collection of essays, poems and fiction edited by L. Sprague de Camp, published in paperback by Ace Books. The material was originally published as articles in George H. Scithers' fanzine Amra. The book is a companion to Ace's earlier volume of material from Amra, The Blade of Conan. Most of the material in the two volumes, together with some additional material, was reprinted from three previous books issued in hardcover by Mirage Press; de Camp's collection The Conan Reader, and the de Camp and Scithers-edited anthologies The Conan Swordbook. and The Conan Grimoire.

Summary

The book consists of thirty-seven pieces, mostly essays on fantasy writer Robert E. Howard and his seminal sword and sorcery hero Conan the Barbarian, Howard's sources and literary successors, and other fantasy authors such as Edgar [Rice Burroughs], E. R. Eddison, Lord Dunsany, Jack Vance, Fletcher Pratt, Leslie Barringer, Fritz Leiber, Sax Rohmer and Talbot Mundy. Some original material by Howard, a number of fantasy poems and a few fictional pieces are also included.

Contents

  • “Swordsmen and Sorcerers at Play”
  • “Skald in the Post Oaks”
  • “Howard’s Style”
  • “The Ghost of Camp Colorado”
  • “Conan’s Ghost”
  • “Untitled Fragment”
  • “The Trail of Tranicos”
  • “Balthus of Cross Plains”
  • “Something About Eve”
  • “The Testament of Snefru”
  • “The Lion’s Bridge”
  • “When Set Fled”
  • “Eddison’s Zimiamvian Trilogy”
  • “Conan’s Great-Grandfather”
  • “The Dying Earth”
  • “Pratt’s Parallel Worlds”
  • “Of Worms and Unicorns”
  • “Knights and Knaves in Neustria”
  • “Fafhrd and Me”
  • “Conan’s Imitators”
  • “The Thong of Thor”
  • “Woe is Me”
  • “Transposition”
  • “Thoth-Amon’s Complaint”
  • “The Gray Mouser 1”
  • “The Gray Mouser 2”
  • “Precursors and Prototypes: 1. Pirettes”
  • “Precursors and Prototypes: 2. The Insidious Doctor Conan”
  • “Precursors and Prototypes: 3. The Conans of Albion”
  • “Who Were the AEsir?”
  • “Howard and the Celts”
  • “Who Was Crom?”
  • “Conan and Matho”
  • “John Carter: Sword of Theosophy”
  • “Conan and Pizarro”
  • “Lord of the Black Throne”
  • “The Heroic Barbarian”