A Marvelous Conan Chronology

This is a list I'm working on, having just finished Conan, the first volume of stories by Robert E. Howard, L. Sprague De Camp, and Lin Carter in their historic twelve volume series. I plan on integrating these stories with Conan novels I read, as well as issues from Marvel's Comics' Conan The Barbarian series, to see how later writers enhanced the character's history.

The first major battle in which Conan participates is the battle at Venarium. After the fall of the Aquilonian outpost, Conan returns to his native Cimmeria. Then he hires himself out as a mercenary to a group of Aesir raiders from Aesgaard.

Story: Marvel's Conan The Barbarian #1: "The Coming of Conan"
Author: Roy Thomas
It is summer, and Conan's party of Aesir battle a group of Vanir in Vanaheim. After Conan helps his leader Olav fight off three Vanir, the two pursue the fleeing survivors. The Vanir leader Volff and his friend Hothar are two members of a group that recently attacked Aesgaard. Rather than help their fellow Vanir escape their Aesir pursuers, Volff and Hothar sneak away from the others.

Amid their flight, Volff and Hothar find a cave. Inside, they see an old seer, a beautiful handmaiden, and a glowing stone that fell to Earth years ago. The seer offers them a deal: bring them Conan, and he will grant the Vanir victory. Shortly thereafter, a winged demon horde attack Olav's party, killing the leader and carrying off Conan.

Conan wakes in a cage inside the cave. He watches as the seer uses the starstone to peer into his future. Before the seer can complete the ceremony, Conan breaks free, and destroys the starstone, cutting short glimpses of the barbarian's future. Fire fills the cave, and Conan alone escapes, carrying the handmaiden who pitied him. But then, just when he believes he has saved her, she turns into one of the winged demons, and vanishes.
 
Story: Marvel's Conan The Barbarian #2: "Lair of the Beast-Men"
Author: Roy Thomas
Conan is captured by intelligent apes in the northern kingdom of Aesgaard. They take him in their underground city, and throw him in with their human slaves. When Conan refuses to work, and attacks his ape guards, he is cast into the arena to be slaughtered. His fight with a lion and the ape guards inspires Kiord, the Chief Thrall, to lead the other slave in a revolt against their masters. 

Story: Marvel's Conan The Barbarian #3: "Twilight of the Grim Grey God"
Adapted by Roy Thomas from the Robert E. Howard story "The Grey God Passes!"
After escaping the ape city, Conan is captured by Hyperborian slave traders. He escapes the pens, and meets an old man who tells him about a battle at the borders of Hyperborea and Brythunia. Conan sees twelve winged horses and their riders flying through the sky toward the battle. The next day, he joins a young Brythunian warrior and travels to their camp, where he enlists with them. He battles the Hyperboreans with the chains attached to his shackles, and kills a blond Hyperborean who whipped him in the slave pens. The battle ends poorly for both sides due to treachery, and the old man appears among the fallen, along with the winged riders.

Story: "The Thing in the Crypt" in Conan Volume 1.
Author: Lin Carter & L. Sprague de Camp
Conan's Age: 16
Synopsis:  only to be pursued by wolves. He hides in a cave, where he finds the decomposing body of a giant seated on a throne, with a sword across its thighs. While Conan desires the sword, its dead is not yet ready to relinquish it. Writer and director John Milius paid homage to this entertaining pastiche in the 1982 movie.

Story: "The Tower of the Elephant" in Conan Volume 1.
Author: Robert E. Howard
Synopsis: Conan arrives in Arenjun, the notorious Zamorian "City of Thieves". Conan scales the Elephant Tower, in the hopes of relieving Yara the high priest of his wealth. But first he must get past lions, and a giant spider. But he doesn't expect to find an elephant-like extraterrestrial inside. Roy Thomas' adaptation of the story, in Marvel's Conan The Barbarian #4: "Tower of the Elephant," simplifies the story for comics, white Barry Smith's art, as well as the coloring, make the bejeweled tower glow with beauty and power. 

Story: Marvel's Conan The Barbarian #5: "Zukala's Daughter"
Written by Roy Thomas. Inspired by the Robert E. Howard poem "Zukala's Hour"
Synopsis: After Conan defends a Zamoran village from a ghostly tiger, he learns the ethereal animal was Zephra, the daughter of the local wizard Zukala. Instead of paying the wizard their annual tribute, they offer Conan a sword and a hefty reward to kill the wizard. When he arrives at the tower, he learns Zephra held back in her attack, as she had fallen in love with him. And when her father orders her to change once more into an animal and attack Conan, she turns instead on another of her father's servants.
  
Story: Marvel's Conan The Barbarian #6: "Devil-Wings Over Shadizar" by Roy Thomas
Conan meets a girl named Jenna in a tavern in the Zamoran city of Shadizar. She takes him to a blacksmith who melts his gold coins into a heart. When red-robed priests abduct her, he storms the temple of the Night-God, where they are sacrificing Jenna to a giant bat. He grabs the high priestess, and leaps onto the Night-God as it carries Jenna away. After rescuing her, Jenna woos him asleep. He awakes to find her gone, along with the golden heart. 

Story: "The God in the Bowl" in Conan Volume 1.
Author: Robert E. Howard
Synopsis: Conan sneaks into a museum in the city of Numalia, in the country Nemedia. Before he can rob the museum, he is discovered by watchmen, and questioned in regard to a dead body found in the museum. In addition to the creature of the title, there's a nice tie-in with the first Conan story Howard wrote, "The Phoenix and the Sword," via a reference to the sorcerer Thoth-Amon. As "The Phoenix and the Sword" takes place much later in Conan's life, this story serves as a nice prequel. Also, the character names, and their society, remind me of ancient Roman society. As Howard loved writing historic fiction best of all, this story seems a nice mix of historic, mystery, and Fantasy genres. Sadly, it wasn't published during his lifetime. Roy Thomas adapted this story as "The Lurker Within!" in Marvel's Conan The Barbarian #7.

Story: "The Hall of the Dead" in Conan Volume 1.
Author: Robert E. Howard & L. Sprague de Camp
Synopsis: Conan explores the ruins of Larsha outside the Shadizar the Wicked, the capital city of Zamora. He and his partner Nestor defeat a giant slug guarding the ruins. Inside the ancient palace, they fight seven mummified guards, and emerge with riches. But when they return to Shadizar, they find their plunder not so easy to spend. Roy Thomas adapted this story as "The Keepers of the Crypt" in Marvel's Conan The Barbarian #8. Although L. Sprague de Camp placed it before "The God in the Bowl" in Conan, Roy Thomas transforms the story into a sequel to "The Lurker Within!" The action takes place the country of Corinthia. Due to a treaty with Nemedia, Corinthian soldiers pursue Conan. They intend on capturing and extraditing him to Numalia, as he stands accused of robbing the museum and killing its guardians. The Corinthian Captain, the lone survivor of Conan's attack on the squad (Nestor), is never named. While they explore the ancient ruins together, the men get separated while escaping, and Conan sees him no more. Conan wanders into a Corinthian village, and enters a tavern. There he discovers Jenna, who purchased the tavern with the golden heart. Events unfold largely as in de Camp's version, only this time Conan flees Corinthian guards with Jenna, and doesn't reunite with the unnamed guard Captain.

Story: Marvel's Conan The Barbarian #9: "Garden Of Fear" by Roy Thomas 
(Based on "The Garden of Fear" by Robert E. Howard)
Conan and Jenna hear the cries of condors as they ride through the mountains. A tribe of hill people attack them, but their leader Hialmar calls off the attack, and gives Conan a knife, a rope, and a flint (presumably to make up for the slaying of Conan's horse. Hialmar  invites them to share dinner at their camp. When a winged creature flies low and carries away Jenna, Conan pursues it. In a valley filled with carnivorous plants, a winged gargoyle-like creature lives atop a green tower. Conan must find a way to safely pass through the plants, climb the tower, and rescue Jenna before the creature feeds her to the plants.

Story: "Rogues in the House" in Conan Volume 1.
Author: Robert E. Howard
Synopsis: In a small city-state in Corinthia, Conan works as a thief in a district called the Maze. There a priest of Anu, in addition to his temple duties, acts as a double agent, fencing stolen goods while acting as an informer for the police. After a Gunderman thief is arrested and killed, Conan discovers the priest's treachery and kills him. He is in turn arrested, but freed shortly after by Murilo, a noble who asks him to kill Nabonidus, known as the Red Priest, and the king's chief advisor. Conan and Murilo sneak into Nabonidus' mansion, which is filled with inventive gadgets and deathtraps. When they are trapped inside, they find Nabonidus, now a prisoner in his own house. The three men agree to put their differences aside, if Nabonidus can steer them past all the deathtraps his semi-intelligent age servant Thak now controls. Nabonidus' inventions remind me of Michael Moorcock's Elric stories.  

In Marvel's Conan The Barbarian #10: "Beware the Wrath of Anu," Roy Thomas expands on the first portion of "Rogues in the House." Conan and Jenna enter the city, but Conan foils the guards' attempt to kill the Gunderman Burgun and his partner Igon. Jenna and Igon pair off, leaving Conan and Burgun to go thieving together. They are so successful that the guard captain threatens the priest to lay a trap for the two. Conan escapes the trap, and after Burgun dies, he sneaks into the temple. The priest summons the Bull Of Heaven to kill Conan, not realizing Conan has stolen the amulet that safeguard's him from the giant mystical creature. 

Also in Marvel's Conan The Barbarian #10: "Rogues in the House," Roy Thomas continues his adaptation. Jenna and her new lover Igon betray Conan to the city guard for a reward. The guard Athicus allows Lord Murilo into the prison, where the nobleman asks Conan to kill Nabonidus. They loosen his chains, give him food, and leave him until a time Athicus can safely lead him out of prison. But Athicus is arrested, and Conan waits until another guard comes into his cell to break out of prison. Murilo hears of Athicus' arrest, and figuring Conan cannot escape, rides off to storm Nabonidus' palace on his own. Meanwhile, Conan has his revenge on Igon and Jenna.

In Marvel's Conan The Barbarian #11: The Talons of Thak," Roy Thomas concludes "Rogues in the House" with Conan's assault on the palace of the red priest Nabonidus. He climbs the wall, discovers the corpse of Nabonidus' guard dog, and joins up with Murilo in the palace. There they discover that the intelligent ape Thak has knocked out his master. In return for his life, Nabonidus agrees to lead them out of the palace, which has become a trap overseen by Thak. The way Conan sneaks into the grounds is reminiscent of "The Tower of the Elephant," and Thak's presence harkens back to the intelligent ape civilization in Marvel's COB #2: "Lair of the Beast-Men." 

Story: Marvel's Conan The Barbarian #12: "Dweller in the Dark" by Roy Thomas
In Zahmahn, another town in Corinthia, Guards arrest Conan for killing Captain Yulek. They drag him before Queen Fatima, who makes him her new Guard Captain and her lover. But when Conan is tempted by her handmaid Yaila, Fatima condemns them to the dungeon. There they fight a monster that was once a man, but cursed by the gods. When Conan's attacks have little effect, he flees the beast, and returns to the throne room, where Fatima and Yaila meet the fate each deserve. 

Story: Marvel's Conan The Barbarian #13: "Web of the Spider-God" by Roy Thomas, plotted by John Jakes
Marauders, led by a man with a scarred face, beset Conan in the desert near the city of Yezud on the Zamorian border. They kill his horse, steal his sword, and leave him for dead. Conan wanders through the desert, suffers a vision of a giant spider, until old Thanix finds him, and brings him water. Conan rides with Thanix to Yezud, where the Priests of Omm have taken the old man's daughter. Once inside, they are taken to the prison, where they meet Thanix' daughter Lea and Tork, an engineer and spy for the Zamorian king. The guards haul Conan off to feed Omm, but not before Conan causes a disturbance, and Tork escapes. The Conan, Thanix, and Lea are taken to Omm, where Conan must confront the giant spider worshipped by the city.   

Story: Marvel's Conan The Barbarian #16: "The Frost Giant's Daughter" adapted from Robert E. Howard's story by Roy Thomas
Conan and Hymdul fight in the snow-covered mountains, two last fighters amid a field of corpses. After Conan kills the last Vanir, he collapses. Then a young blonde appears. He tells her he fought with the Aesir, and is waiting for Niord and his men to rejoin him. She leads him through mountains, ostensibly toward her village, but really to her two giant brothers. Conan slays them, and he chases her. When he has nearly caught her, she prays to her father Ymir, and disappears. Niord awakens him, and one of Niord's men, old Gorm, tells Conan the girl was Atali, the daughter of the Frost Giant Ymir. The other men think Gorm is mad, and Conan only dreamed. But Conan clutches a piece of her clothing in his hand.
 

 
Story: "The Hand of Nergal" in Conan Volume 1.
Author: Robert E. Howard & Lin Carter
Synopsis: Conan travels to the country of Turan, where he joins the army of King Yildiz. During a battle against a rebellious satrap, Munthassem Khan, the forces of King Yildiz are decimated by spectral, bat-winged creatures. Conan loses consciousness after battling this creature of black sorcery. When he awakens, he finds only one other person, the servant girl Hildico, alive. She tells him her master, the philosopher Atalis, sent her from his home in Yaralet, the city Munthassem Khan rules, to find Conan. Atalis promises Conan gold if he will come. As he has no reason to refuse her, and he is naturally protective of women, Conan sneaks her back into Yaralet and her master's house. There Conan learns that he owes his survival to the Heart of Tammuz, an amulet he recently found. He also learns that Munthassem Khan used to be a good and fair ruler, until he was corrupted by a Stygian artifact called the Hand of Nergal. Atalis offers to sneak Conan into the palace, where, aided by the Heart of Tammuz, Conan should be able to complete his mission, and slay the evil and twisted Khan. But Conan will discover that bearing a talisman, even aided by his mighty strength and indomitable will, is not sufficient to destroy this artifact of black sorcery that has transformed Munthassem Khan to a ruler who represses and torments his people, and has rebelled against the leadership of King Yildiz.

Story: "The City of Skulls" in Conan Volume 1.
Author: Lin Carter & L. Sprague de Camp
Synopsis: Still in the service of King Yildiz of Turan, Conan helps escort Yildiz' daughter Zosara to her wedding to Kujula, the Great Khan of the Kuigar nomads. As their party travels through the Talakma mountains of Hyrkania, they fall prey to attackers. The survivors--Conan, Zosara, and Juma, a giant Black from Kush--are taken to the lakeside city of Shamballah, in the verdant valley of Meru. The city is ruled by the god-king Jalung Thongpa. After an escape attempt, Conan and Juma are sold into slavery. They are chained to the oars of a galley, which plies the seven sacred cities of the Meru. Conan and Juma eventually escape the galley. They return to Shaballah in time to rescue her before she is forced to marry Jalung Thongpa.