By Crom... This made me smile!

Question:  What is best in life?
CONAN: To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their women.

Glorious as it is, it's not really a CONAN quote.
Apparently it's attributed to Genghis Khan.

Back Soon...

I'm taking a little break from the blog.

I've just finished my first pass through the complete works quoting as I went and found a lot of really cool stuff.

There's a lot left that I'd like to cover and explore here, but I don't want to try do to much to quickly, so I'm going to take a step back, review and then move on again.

I'll be ploughing through it all again in a couple of months and hopefully bringing a little more structure to what's here and really trying to create an online study guide and reference tool for anyone studying the CONAN stories.

Back soon,

Rob

Artwork displayed with the kind permission of the artist, Nikonov Aleksandr .
Please check out his web page HERE for more of his work.

CONAN helps an alien die

CONAN meets YAG, last of ancient race of aliens while raiding an ancient tower. Yag is a powerful cosmic being who has been enslaved by an evil wizard, Yara, and made to pass on his secrets. As he says, "No more was I a god to kindly jungle folk- I was a slave to a devil in human form."(Page 97)
Yag asks CONAN to kill him and use his blood to release the magic in a mystical gem, so he can be free and his tormentor can be defeated,

"Take your sword, man, and cut out my heart; then squeeze it so that the blood will flow over the red stone. Then go down the stairs and enter the ebony chamber where Yara sits wrapped in lotus-dreams of evil. Speak his name and he will awaken. Then lay this gem before him, and say, "Yag-kosha gives you a last gift and a last enchantment". Then get from the tower quickly; fear not, your way shall be made clear. The life of man is not the life of Yag, nor is human death the death of Yag. Let me be free of this cage of broken blind flesh, and I will once more be Yogah of Yag, morning-crowned  and shining, with wings to fly, and feet to dance, and eyes to see and hands to break"

From "The Tower of the Elephant"
Page 98. "The Complete Chronicles of CONAN"

Artwork displayed with the kind permission of the artist, Memed .
Please check out his web page HERE for more of his work.

CONAN kills a man with a beef joint

CONAN sits at a feast discussing as chief of the Bamulas a raid on a nearby town with King Bajujh of Bakalah. CONAN has agreed with Livia, a woman held captive by Bajujh that he will kill him and free her in exchange for her bedding him.

The Cimmerian was gnawing a great beef-bone, and as she watched, she saw him cast a glance across his shoulder. As if it were a signal for which they had been waiting, the Bamulas all turned their gaze toward their chief. CONAN rose, still smiling, as if to reach into a near-by cooking pot; then quick as a cat he struck Aja a terrible blow with the heavy bone. The Bakalah war-chief slumped over, his skull crushed in, and instantly a frightful yell rent the skies as the Bamulas went into action like blood-mad panthers.

From, "The Vale of Lost Women"
Page 855 "The Complete Chronicles of CONAN"

Did you deem yourself strong, because you were able to twist the heads off civilized folk

CONAN fights with Baal-pteor, the huge man who kills the sacrificial victims in the temple. He brags of his prowess and he and CONAN try and strangle each other.

"You fool!" he all but whispered. "I think you never saw a man from the west before. Did you deem yourself strong, because you were able to twist the heads off civilized folk, poor weaklings with muscles like rotten string? Hell! Break the neck of a wild Cimmerian bull before you call yourself strong. I did that, before I was a full-grown man- like this!"

From, "Shadows in Zamboula"
Page 496 "The Complete Chronicles of CONAN"

Introducing... Zabibi/Nafertari

CONAN finds a noble lady Nafertari being kidnapped by a band of cannibals. He rescues her, but she tells him that she is Zabibi, a dancer.

She was white, though very definitely brunette, obviously one of Zamboula's many mixed breeds. She was tall, with a slender, supple form, as he was in a good position to observe. Admiration burned in his fierce eyes as he looked down on her splendid bosom and her lithe limbs, which still quivered from fright and exertion. He passed an arm around her flexible waist and said, "Stop shaking, wench; you're safe enough."

From, "Shadows in Zamboula"
Page 486 "The Complete Chronicles of CONAN"

A young CONAN on his way to steal a jewel.

A young CONAN roams the city streets on his way to raid The Tower of the Elephant after a brawl in a tavern.

The lurid lights and drunken revelry fell away behind the Cimmerian. He had discarded his torn tunic, and walked through the night naked except for a loin-cloth and his high-strapped sandals. He moved with the supple ease of a great tiger, his steely muscles rippling under his brown skin.

From "The Tower of the Elephant"

Page 83. "The Complete Chronicles of CONAN"

Artwork displayed with the kind permission of the artist, Loopydave .
Please check out his web page HERE for more of his work.

King CONAN is captured by a sorcerer.

The sorcerer Tsotha approaches King CONAN after a battle.

The black armoured figure loomed in terrible menace over the lean, silk-robed shape, the notched, dripping sword hovering on high.
"I offer you life, CONAN," said Tsotha, a cruel mirth bubbling at the back of his voice.
"I give you death wizard," snarled the king, and backed by the iron muscles and ferocious hate the great sword swung in a stroke meant to shear Tsotha's lean torso in half. But even as the host cried out, the wizard stepped in, too quick for the eye to follow, and apparently merely laid an open hand on CONAN's left forearm, from the rigid muscles of which the mail had been hacked away. The whistling blade veered from its arc and the mailed giant crashed heavily to earth, to lie motionless. Tsotha laughed silently.
"Take him up and fear him not; the lion's fangs are drawn."

From "The Scarlet Citadel"
Page 46. "The Complete Chronicles of CONAN"