Yildiz — In SM, HN, CM, &c, the king of Turan, the predecessor of Yezdigerd. From yildiz, Turkish for "star," used in Turkey as a woman's name (but never as a man's), and also commercially: Yildiz Construction Co. &c. Howard probably got the name from the Yıdız Palace in Istanbul. (The Turkish letter ı stands for a vowel between those of "pit" and "put.")
Yimsha — In PC, CA, the mountain stronghold of the Black Circle. Possibly from Yashma, in Soviet Azerbaijan.
Yin Allal — In CA, a Zuagir chief. A pseudo-Arabic name, suggested by "Allah."
Yizil — In PC, a god or demon. Probably from the Turkish kizil, "red," which appears in many geographical names.
Ymir — In FD, PS, SC, a supernatural giant. In Norse mythology, a primeval giant.
Yo La-Gu — In CA, a. Khitan soldier. A pseudo-Chinese name.
Yog — In DI, a Zamboulan god.
Yogah — See Yag-Kosha. — In Howard's novel Almuric, Yogh is the name of a river.
Yota-Pong — In JG, a place in Kosala referred to.
Yothga — In SC, a magical plant.
Yuetshi — In DI, RE, a primitive tribe living around the southern end of the Sea of Vilayet. From the Ytie-Chi or Kushana, a Turko-Tatar people that conquered an Indian empire in +I.
Yukkub — In CA, a Turanian city. Possibly from hub, Swedish for "cube."
Yun — In TE, a Khitan god
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Zabhela — A coastal place mentioned in RN. Possibly from the same source as Zargheba (q.v.).
Zahak — In FK, a Hyrkanian captain in Yanaidar. A demon in Persian mythology, also Zohak and Dahaka.
Zaheemi — In BC, a clan living near the Pass of Shamla.
Zal — In BG, a Zamorian. In Persian legend, Rustam's father.
Zamboula — In SZ, SK, TT, a city in the southeastern deserts. From Stamboul, a French spelling of Istanbul, the former Constantinople or Byzantium.
Zamora — In TE, QC, SM, &c, an ancient kingdom east of the Hyborian lands. A town and a province in Spain, also used as a Spanish surname.
Zang — In WB, a priest.
Zapayo Da Kova — In DT, the commander of the mercenary force that invades Stygia. "Zapayo" is pseudo-Spanish; "Da Kova" is possibly from Reginald De Koven, an American composer (Robin Hood, 1900). Zaporavo, Zaporoska Respectively a Zingaran pirate captain in PO and a Hyrkanian river in WB, CA. From "Zaporogian," which comes from the Russian zaporozhets, "beyond the rapids," used in +XVI and +XVII to designate the Dniepr Cossacks.
Zarallo — In RN, the chief of a band of mercenaries in Stygian service. Possibly from the Spanish surname Zordla.
Zaramba — In IG, the chief priest of Punt
Zargheba, Zarkheba — Respectively a Shemitish adventurer in JG, IG, and a southern river in QC. Possibly from Zariba, Arabia.
Zarono — In CB, TT, CI, a Zingaran buccaneer captain. A pseudo-Spanish name.
Zebah — In CA, a name assumed by the leader of a band of Zuagir raiders. From Sheba or Sabaea in southern Arabia.
Zelata — In CC, an Aquilonian wise woman. Possibly from the Spanish surname Zelaya (cf. Yelaya).
Zeltran — In CB, the first officer of Conan's Wastrel. From the Franco-Spanish surname Beltran.
Zelvar Af — In CA, a Himelian hunter. From Halvar, a common Scandinavian name, and Af, a made-up syllable.
Zembabwei, Zimbabwe — In JG, WM, RZ, &c, a black kingdom. (The first spelling is used in JG;.the second in "The Hyborian Age.") From Zimbabwe, a ruined fortified town in Rhodesia, first budt about 1,300 years ago and used in +XVIII and early +XIX as the capital of the Monomotapa Empire. The name was used again by Howard in the form "Zambabwei" in a story, "The Grisly Horror," in Weird Tales for Feb. 1935. Although this tale was laid in the United States, it alluded to Zambabwei as a place in Africa where people were sacrificed to a man-eating ape.
Zenobia — In CC, WM, BN, &c, a Nemedian girl wedded by Conan. The Greek version of the name of Septimia Bath-Zabbai or Bat-Sabdai, queen of Palmyra in +III.
Zeriti — In HS, the witch-mistress of King Akhirom. A pseudo-Egyptian name.
Zhaibar — In PC, CA, a pass northwest of Vendhya into the Himelian Mts. From the Khaibar (Khyber) Pass in Pakistan. Howard's description closely follows Talbot Mundy's account of the Khyber Pass in King of the Khyber Rifles.
Zhemri — In "The Hyborian Age," HD, a people surviving from Adantean times to become the Zamorians.
Zhurazi Archipelago — In CA, a group of islands in the Vdayet Sea.
Zikamba River — In CB, a stream in Kush. A pseudo-Bantu name.
Zillah — In BT, the daughter of Enosh of Akhlat. A biblical name (Gen. 4:19).
Zingara — In QC, WB, BR, &c, a southwestern maritime kingdom. Italian for "Gypsy," (Cf. Gitara.) The name is probably also connected with Zalgara, a hill region mentioned in the Kull stories.
Zingelito — In TT, a Zingaran. A pseudo-Spanish name.
Zingg — In "The Hyborian Age," the valley in which the nation of Zingara (q.v.) arose. A remote possibility is a connection with the Zing or Zinj, a Sudanese people mentioned by the medieval Muslim writer Masudi.
Zlanath — In RN, a man of Xuchotl.
Zogar Sag — In BR, MB, a Pictish wizard.
Zorathus — In CC, a Kothic merchant. Probably from Zaratas, a Greek form of Zoroaster (Old Persian Zara-thushtra, modern Zardusht).
Zosara — In CS, CM, the daughter of King Yddiz of Turan. The Greek spelling of Zeresh, wife of Haman in the Book of Esther.
Zuagirs — In WB, SZ, RN, &c, Shemitish nomads dwelling in the eastern deserts. Probably from the Shagia (Shaigiya, Shaikiyeh), a tribe of Egyptian Arabs, and the Zouia or Zuia, a tribe of Libyan Arabs.
Zuagros — In first draft of SZ, Conan's destination at the end of the story; discarded. From the same source as Zuagirs (q.v.) + the Zagros Mts. of western Iran.
Zugites — In BC, an ancient and degraded Stygian cult.
Zuru — In CB, a Ghanata slaver. A chief of the Ngoni of East Africa in +XIX.
Zurvan — In CB, a deity of the. Mitran pantheon. From. Zarvan or Zarwan, in Zoroastrianism a personification of time.
Zyras — In BG, a Corinthian. A pseudo-Greek name.
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ABOUT THE AUTHORS
L. Sprague de Camp is well known for his fantasies, science popularizations and historical novels as well as his work in the science fiction world. His work appeared in many of the science fiction magazines of the 1930s, including Astounding and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. De Camp has also worked on unfinished manuscripts of Robert E. Howard and, with Lin Carter, created new Conan stories. He is the author of The Science Fiction Handbook, a guide for writers on how to plot, write and sell science fiction.
Lin Carter is a writer and editor of fantasy. Bom in 1930, he became a regular contributor to the fan magazines before taking up writing as a career. He completed a number of Howard's unfinished drafts and has collaborated with L. Sprague de Camp in producing new Conan stories. He has compiled several fantasy anthologies and is the creator of the Thongor series.
Bjorn Nyberg is a business executive who lives in France. He began collaborating with L. Sprague de Camp on Conan stories in the mid-1950s.
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Book information
THE WINGED DEMON
Swooping like a striking hawk, the winged devil plunged toward the beach and slew a bowman as he nocked an arrow. Conan, with a roar of rage, rushed to meet it, his cutlass flashing in the morning sun. He aimed a blow that should have cloven the creature's skull in twain. The blade snapped near the hilt, and only a small cut gaped in the creature's flesh. Then. Conan knew that he had struck no ordinary skull, but one of strange and sinister destiny ...
The grinning monster, ignoring Conan's hammerlike blows, closed in. Down came the taloned feet toward Conan's chest. With superhuman strength, the winged demon ripped the Cimmerian's leather jerkin, gashed his arms and tore an opening in his scalp, streaking his face with crim
son. Half-blinded by his blood, Conan fought on ...
CONAN
THE SWORDSMAN
CONAN
THE SWORDSMAN
BY L. SPRAGUE DE CAMP,
LIN CARTER, AND BJORN NYBERG
Illustrated by Tim Kirk
CONAN THE SWORSDMAN
A Bantam Book/August 1978
All rights reserved.
Copyright © 1978 by Conan Properties, Inc.
This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by mimeograph or any other means, without permission. For information address: Bantam Books, Inc.
ISBN 0-553-12018-2
Published simultaneously in the United States and Canada
Bantam Books are published by Bantam Books, Inc. Its trademark, consisting of the words "Bantam Books" and the portrayal of a bantam, is registered in the United States Patent Office and in other countries. Marca Registrada. Bantam Books, Inc., 666 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10019.
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The story "People of the Summit" is a rewritten version of a story of the same title, by Bjorn Nyberg, in The Mighty Swordsmen (N.Y.: Lancer Books, 1970), copyright © 1970 by Hans Stefan Santesson.
The article "Hyborian Names" is expanded from the following articles by L. Sprague de Camp: "An Exegesis of Howard's Hyborian Tales" in Amra, II, 4, 5, & 6, copyright © 1959 by L. Sprague de Camp; "Addenda to the Exegesis" in Amra, II, 6, copyright © 1959 by George H. Scithers; "Exegetical Addenda" in Amra, II, 9, copyright © 1960 by G. H. Scithers; "Addenda to the Exegesis" in Amra, II, 40, copyright © 1966 by the Terminus, Owls-wick, & Ft Mudge Electrick Street Railway Gazette; "Superaddendum to the Exegesis" in Amra, II, 45, copyright © 1967 by L. Sprague de Camp; "An Exegesis of Howard's Hyborian Tales" in The Conan Reader (Baltimore: Mirage Press, 1968), copyright © 1968 by L. Sprague de Camp; and "An Exegesis of Names Discarded by REH" in Amra, II, 51, copyright © 1969 by L. Sprague de Camp.
All the other materials in this volume are published here for the first time.
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Back cover
Imagine a world of gods and demons, where men are warriors, women are beautiful, life is a fantastic adventure—and the fate of kingdoms balances on the bloody blade of a fabulous hero. Conan of the iron thews, Conan, the blue-eyed barbarian giant, towering above the Hyborian world. Conan, the magnificent, rogue, pirate, general, king, who engages demons, evil sorcerers—and lives by the rude code of chivalry: spare no coward, and let the strong survive!
Conan the Swordsman Page 28
