The Hour of the Dragon
The capstone of the original Conan canon and a template for every usurped-king fantasy since.
Book Entry · Fantasy
The Phoenix on the Sword
by Robert E. Howard · 1932 · Conan the Cimmerian
What is The Phoenix on the Sword about?
The first published Conan story (a novella in Weird Tales, reworked from an unsold Kull tale) finds the Cimmerian already middle-aged and uneasily crowned king of Aquilonia, beset by conspirators within and a demonic horror summoned from without. Howard's masterstroke was starting at the end: Conan arrives complete, his legend implied rather than catalogued, brooding that the throne he seized is harder to hold than to win. The prose hits like weather — fast, vivid, doom-haunted — and an entire genre walked out of it.
Why it matters
The birth of sword and sorcery as a recognised form. 'Hither came Conan, the Cimmerian... ' remains the genre's founding incantation.
Where does it sit in the series?
Howard's tales of the barbarian adventurer who carves his way across the Hyborian Age from thief to king — the founding cycle of sword and sorcery.
In the Guide from Conan the Cimmerian:
- The Phoenix on the Sword (1932)
- The Hour of the Dragon (1935)
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