Swords
Caesar don’t like ‘em. 3 out of 5
Continue reading about Beware the Snake – John Maddox Roberts
Jamaican style. 3 out of 5
Continue reading about Lord John And The Plague Of Zombies – Diana Gabaldon
Gordianus goes to Babylon for some lemur faking. 3.5 out of 5
Bide by the fluted iron walls Take ye a serving wench to wife; Drown in the pot the bugle’s calls, Trade your spear for a peddler’s knife. Turn to the vendor’s paltry strife, Gird ye round with doors and bars Safely snore in the lap of Life— I must follow the restless stars. Wait at [...]
There’s an isle far away on the breast of the sea, A gem that is set in the stars of the bay, And it lives in the hearts of the wanderers who stray, (And begob it’s too good for such spalpeens as ye!) Oh the sorrow on them that have sailed from its swards! On [...]
Continue reading about There’s An Isle Far Away On The Breast Of The Sea – Robert E. Howard
Heads! Heads! Heads! Bounce on the cobble stones. Glitter of scarlets and flame of reds Crimson the road that Freedom treads, We’re rearing a fane of bones. And bare feet Weave their beat Down the red reeking street. Hell holds sway. Slay! Slay! Hate goes bellowing through the land, Crimson-hued is my gleaming brand. Kill! [...]
Swords glimmered up the pass Fringing the grim dark mass. There was blood on the grass; Red blood But the flood Far below lumbered on to the east and the dawn— When all men are gone. Shall not they, Hill and stream, As today Gleam and dream, Forgetting forever in majesty still That men climbed [...]
Continue reading about Swords Glimmered Up The Pass… – Robert E. Howard
I will rise some day when the day is done And the stars begin to quiver; I will follow the road of the setting sun Till I come to a dreaming river. I am weary now of the world and vow Of the winds and the winter weather; I’ll reel through a few more years [...]
Wolf on the height Mocking the night; Slow comes the light Of a nation’s new dawn. Shadow hordes massed Out of the past. Fame that shall last Strides on and on. Over the vale Thunders the gale Bearing the tale Of a nation up-lifted. Flee, wolf and kite! Fame that is bright. 3.5 out of [...]
Wolf-brother, wolf-lover, Over the river the kites hover Where witch-light glimmers And tall grass shimmers― What dead things shall their eyes discover? What, when the sabers sing in the gloaming, What, when the gray wolves cease their roaming? Wolf-lover, wolf-brother, We are sworn to slay each other. Gray light glances Along our lances― Both of [...]
Continue reading about A Song of the Don Cossacks – Robert E. Howard
Scarlet and gold are the stars tonight, The river runs silver below the bridge— But the hour shall come when the dawn grows white Over the eastern ridge. Your face is a dim white flower of night, In your arms unheeded the hours fall— But the dawn makes hearts grow strange and light, And the [...]
Continue reading about Scarlet And Gold Are The Stars Tonight – Robert E. Howard
I am king of all the Ages I am ruler of the stars I am master of Time’s pages And I mock at chain and bars. Now, as when I sailed the world Ere the galley’s sails were furled And the barnacles had crusted on their spars. I am strife, I am Life, I am [...]
There is a strangeness in my soul A dark and brooding sea. Nor all the waves on Capri’s shoal Might stay the thirst of me. For men have come and men have gone For pleasure or for hire. Though they lay broken at the dawn They did not quench my fire. My pity is a [...]
Towers reel as they burst asunder, Streets run red in the butchered town; Standards fall and the lines go under, And the iron horsemen ride me down. Out of the strangling dusts that blind me Let me ride for my hour is nigh, From the walls that stifle, the hoofs that grind me, To the [...]
Continue reading about The Road of Azrael – Robert E. Howard
How is it that I am what I am How did I come to fall? Who was the man my soul to damn Black in the sight of all? Who was it came in my virgin hood And in some evil hour Turned all my life to bad from good Bruising the tender flower? I [...]
Now autumn comes and summer goes, And rises in my heart again, As witchfire glimmers through a pool, The mystic madness of the Dane. Blue thunder of a foaming sea Reverberating through my sleep, White billowing sails that fill and flee Across a wind-swept restless deep— They speak to me with subtle tongue Of blue-bright [...]
The strong winds whisper o’er the sea, Flinging the gray-gnarled ocean’s spate; The gray waves lash along the lea. The lone gulls wings are high and free, The great seal trumpets for his mate; The high winds drum, the wild winds dree. The gray shoals roar unceasingly, Where combers march in kingly state, The crest-crowned [...]
I have anchored my ship to a quiet port; A land that is holy and blest. But I gaze through my bars at the tempest’s sport And I long for the sea’s unrest. 3 out of 5 http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Nun
The day that towers, sapphire kissed, Reeled to a Mongol sword that hissed, And broke the silver sighing mist That parted doom from Nisapur. Or when in morning shadows grey The flying ghosts of Subotai came galloping from far Cathay To trample towers of Nisapur. Or when in midnight’s star-shah’d rule There came o’er sands [...]
Grass and the rains and snow, Trumpet and tribal drum; Across my crests the people go Over my peaks the people come. Girt with the pelts of lion and hare. Plodding with oxen wains, Climbing the steeps on a Spanish mare, Soaring in aeroplanes. Men with their hates and their ires, Men with their loves [...]
Continue reading about The Mountains of California – Robert E. Howard
These be kings of men, Lords of the Ultimate Night, Kings-of-the-desert and fen – Jackal, vulture, and kite. 3.5 out of 5 http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Monarchs
“Nay, have no fear. The man was blind,” said she. “How could he see ’twas we that took his gold? “The devil, man! I thought you were bold!” “This is a chancy business!” muttered he, “And we’ll be lucky if we get to sea. “The fellow deals with demons, I’ve been told.” “Let’s open the [...]
What was the wine in my blood? What raced through my veins like fire And beat at my brain like a flood? Bare is the desert’s dust, Deep is the emerald sea— Barer my deathless lust, Deeper the hunger of me. Goddess I sit and brood— They cringe to my Hell-lit eyes, The wretched women [...]
Hills of the North! Lavender hills. Blue hills, tipped with crystal Defying the ages. Hills, high peaks where eagles wheel, Where wild winds shout forever, Whirling the snow Like a mad dervish. 3 out of 5 http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Hills_of_the_North!_Lavender_hills…
Continue reading about Hills of the North! Lavender hills – Robert E. Howard
Bab-ilu’s women gazed upon our spears, And roses flung, and sang to see us ride. We built a glory for the marching years And starred our throne with silver nails of pride. Our horses’ hoofs were shod with brazen fears: We laved our hands in blood and iron tears, And laughed to hear how shackled [...]
Silver bridge in a broken sky, Golden fruit on a withered bough, Red-lipped slaves that the ancients buy— What are the dreams of Nineveh now? Ghostly hoofs in the brooding night Beat the bowl of the velvet stars. Shadows of spears when the moon is white Cross the sands with ebony bars. But not the [...]
I marched with Alfred when he thundered forth To break the crimson standards of the Dane; I saw the galleys looming in the north And heard the oar-locks and the sword’s refrain. And far across the pleasant Wessex downs The chanting of the spearmen broke the lyre, Till where the black thorn forest grimly frowns [...]
For I have seen the lizards crawl Through high Belshazzar’s marble halls When ghastly shadow petals fall In Babylon, dead Babylon. And many a golden girdled spire Like molten moonlight veined with fire, That fell before the ages ‘ire In Babylon, far Babylon. Have watched the star-dark, misty shades Come down the lonely colonnades When [...]
The Rose – Harold Lambhttp://pulpgen.com/pulp/downloads/getpdf.php?id=3 A courtesan becomes involved in the conflict between Shirzad Mir and Jani Beg. 3 out of 5
Sing of my ancestors! Sing of them with pride! Sing of fair America, Green prairies and blue tide! One was born in County Cork! Hail the shamrock green! (One was named Abraham Simeon Levine.) One held rule in Dundee, Friend of the Montrose. (One sold nuts and apples Where the river Tiber flows.) One drank [...]
Dusk on the sea; the fading twilight shifts’ The night wind bears the ocean’s whisper dim— Wind, on your bosom many a phantom drifts— A silver star climbs up the blue world rim. Wind, make the green leaves dance above me here And idly swing my silken hammock—so; Now, on that glimmering molten silver mere [...]
I’m not that big of fan of historical fiction, but some of these are good and very good – and the Sword Woman stories are better than that. And some of the fragments look like the stories would be very good from those, too. I did find the introduction talking about Howard’s sources and inspiration [...]
Continue reading about Sword Woman and Other Historical Adventures – Robert E. Howard
I am the spur That rides men’s souls, The glittering lure That leads around the world. 3.5 out of 5 http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Adventure_(Howard)
Flashing sickle and falling grain Witness the glory of Tamerlane. The nations stood up, ripe and tall; He was the sickle that reaped them all. Red the reaping and sharp the blows, Deserts stretched where the cities rose. The sands lay bare to the night wind’s croon, For the Sign of the Sickle hung over [...]
Continue reading about Sign of the Sickle – Robert E. Howard
The Black Prince scowled above his lance, and wrath in his hot eyes lay, “I would rather you rode with the spears of France and not at my side today. “A man may parry an open blow, but I know not where to fend; “I would that you were an open foe, instead of a [...]
Continue reading about The Skull In the Clouds – Robert E. Howard
My ruthless hands still clutch at life– Still like a shoreless sea My soul beats on in rage and strife. You may not shackle me. My leopard eyes are still untamed, They hold a darksome light– A fierce and brooding gleam unnamed That pierced primeval night. Rear mighty temples to your god– I lurk where [...]
Continue reading about A Word From the Outer Dark – Robert E. Howard
Cormac Fitzgeoffrey finds a princess masquerading as a slave girl and decides to broker a deal. 4 out of 5
Continue reading about Untitled Fragment The Slave-Princess – Robert E. Howard
Lots of dead Tatar leaders in this battle. 3.5 out of 5
Continue reading about Untitled Fragment The Persians Had All Fled – Robert E. Howard
You have built a world of paper and wood, Culture and cult and lies; Has the cobra altered beneath his hood, Or the fire in the tiger’s eyes? You have turned from valley and hill and flood, You have set yourselves apart, Forgetting the earth that feeds the blood And the talon that finds the [...]
Continue reading about Untitled You Have Built A World Of Paper And Wood – Robert E. Howard
A slave market. 3.5 out of 5
Continue reading about Untitled Fragment The Wind From The Mediterranean – Robert E. Howard
A Highlander good with his weapons. 3.5 out of 5
Continue reading about Untitled Fragment He Knew De Bracy – Robert E. Howard
The warm wind blows through the waving grain – Where are the glories of Tamerlane? The nations stood up, ripe and tall – He was the sickle that reaped them all. But the sickle shatters and leaves no trace – And the grain grows green on the desert’s face. 3.5 out of 5
Thus in my mood I love you In the drum of my heart’s fast beat, In the lure of the skies above you And the earth beneath your feet. Now I can lift and crown you With the moon’s white empery, Now I can crush and drown you In my passion’s misty sea. I can [...]
A knight discovers a plot after killing an oddly out of place Crusader. 3.5 out of 5
Continue reading about Untitled Fragment The Track Of Bohemund – Robert E. Howard
You lolled in gardens where breezes fanned The blossom’s shivering shard; But we were bred in a naked land Where life was bitter hard. You raped the grapes of their purple soul For your wine cups brimming high; We stooped to the dregs of the muddy hole That was bitter with alkali. And you grew [...]
Continue reading about A Song of the Naked Lands – Robert E. Howard
The Song of the Last Briton The sea is grey in the death of day; Behind me lifts the night. I’ll flee no more from the ancient shore Where first I saw the light. The Saxons come and the Saxons go, With the ebb and surge of the tide; Their galleys loom, millipedes of doom, [...]
Continue reading about The Song of the Last Briton – Robert E. Howard
Nial of Ulster, welcome home! What saw you on the road to Rome?― Legions thronging the fertile plains? Shouting hordes of the country folks With the harvest heaped in their groaning wains? Shepherd piping under the oak? Laurel chaplet and purple cloak? Smokes of the feasting coiled on high? Meadows and fields of the rich, [...]
Continue reading about Shadows on the Road – Robert E. Howard
The fires roared in the skalli-hall, And a woman begged me stay – But the bitter night was falling And the cold wind calling Across the moaning spray. How could I stay in the feasting-hall When the wild wind walked the sea? The feet of the winds drew out my soul To the grey waves [...]
Continue reading about The Outgoing Of Sigurd The Jerusalem-farer – Robert E. Howard
I think when I am old a furtive shape Will sit beside me at my fireless hearth, Dabbled with blood from stumps of severed wrists, And flacked with blackened bits of mouldy earth. My blood ran fire when the deed was done; Now it runs colder than the moon that shone On shattered fields where [...]
Continue reading about One Who Comes At Eventide – Robert E. Howard
The little poets sing of little things: Hope, cheer, and faith, small queens and puppet kings; Lovers who kissed and then were made as one, And modest flowers waving in the sun. The mighty poets write in blood and tears And agony that, flame-like, bites and sears. They reach their mad blind hands into the [...]
he men of the East are decked in steel, They march with a trumpet’s din, They glitter with silks and golden scales, And high kings boast their kin– We of the West wear the hides of wolves, But our hearts are steel within. They of the East ride gallant steeds, Their spears are long and [...]
Continue reading about The Marching Song of Connacht – Robert E. Howard
I leave to paltry poets The tabor and the lute; I sing in drums and tom-toms The black abysmal brute – My voice is of the people, That giant wild and mute. (With blood of all the ages His broken nails are black, The whole world weights and burdens His hairy bestial back; He shambles [...]
Continue reading about Echoes From An Anvil – Robert E. Howard
There’s a bell that hangs in a hidden cave Under the heathered hills That knew the tramp of the Roman feet And the clash of the Pictish bills. It has not rung for a thousand years, To waken the sleeping trolls, But God defend the sons of men When the bell of the Morni tolls. [...]
Continue reading about Bran Mak Morn Poem – Robert E. Howard
Let Saxons sing of Saxon kings, Red faced swine with a greasy beard – Through my songs the Gaelic broadsword sings, The pibrock skirls and the sporran swings, For mine is the blood of the Irish kings That Saxon monarchs feared. The heather bends to a marching tread, The echoes shake to a marching tune [...]
Continue reading about Black Harps In the Hills – Robert E. Howard
The riders of Babylon clatter forth Like the hawk-winged scourgers of Azrael To the meadow-lands of the South and North And the strong-walled cities of Israel. They harry the men of the caravans, They bring rare plunder across the sands To deck the throne of the great god Baal. But Babylon’s king is a broken [...]
Continue reading about The Riders of Babylon – Robert E. Howard
I heard the harp of Alfred As I went o’er the downs, When thorn-trees stood at even Like monks in dusky gowns; I heard the music Guthrum heard Beside the wasted towns: When Alfred, like a peasant, Came harping down the hill, And the drunken danes made merry With the man they sought to kill, [...]
Continue reading about The Harp Of Alfred – Robert E. Howard
The green waves wash above us Who slumber in the bay As washed the tide of ages That swept our race away. Our cities – dusty ruins; Our galleys – deep sea slime; Our very ghosts, forgotten, Bow to the sweep of Time. Our land lies stark before it As we to alien spears, But, [...]
Trumpets triumph in red disaster, White skulls litter the broken sod, And we who rode for the one Black Master Howl at the iron gates of God, Temples rock and singers falter, Lights go out in the rushing gloom― Slay the priest on this blackened altar, Rip the babe from the women’s womb! Black be [...]
Continue reading about Black Chant Imperial – Robert E. Howard
Now is the lyre of Homer flecked with rust, And yellow leaves are blown across the world, And naked trees that shake at every gust Stand gaunt against the clouds autumnal-curled. Now from the hollow moaning of the sea, The dreary birds against the sunset fly, And drifting down the sad wind’s ghostly dree A [...]
Out of the somber night the poets come, A moment brief to fan their lambent flame; Then, like the dimming whisper of a drum, Fades back into the night from whence it came. The gray fog, swirling cloak of cynic Time, Meshes achievement in the ages’ gloom, A moment’s mirth, a breath of lilting rime, [...]
The night primeval breaks in scarlet mist; The shadows gray, and pales each silent star, The eastern sky that rose-lipped dawn has kissed Glows crimson o’er the hills of Kandahar. A trumpet song re-echoes from afar; Across the crags the golden glory grows To drive the shades, renewing ancient war; Now bursts full bloom the [...]
Continue reading about The Hills of Kandahar – Robert E. Howard
Now is a summer come out of the sea, And the hills that were bare are green. They shower the petals and the bee On the valleys that laze between. So it was in the dreaming past, And life is a shifting maze, Summer on summer fading fast, In a mist of yesterdays. Out of [...]
Continue reading about But the Hills Were Ancient Then – Robert E. Howard
The conflict between corsairs and Cossack raiders gets complex as a captive prince becomes involved, with other twists and identity turns to follow. 3.5 out of 5
Continue reading about The Road Of The Eagles – Robert E. Howard
Where a knight and a Chagatai warrior rescue the former lover’s sold as part of a deal between Western and Eastern lords. The madness over this slip of a girl consumes many lives – including those of a band of Vikings wrecked on the coast with their king in exile. 3.5 out of 5
Continue reading about The Road of Azrael – Robert E. Howard
A Castilian soldier seeks revenge on a general in Cairo over the ambushing and death of his fellow knights. He ends up helping along some political destabilisation that benefits Spain. 4 out of 5
High stakes seduction. 3 out of 5
Until they say no. 3.5 out of 5
Continue reading about The Eagle And The Rabbit – Steven Saylor
Conn row. 3 out of 5
The Irish and allies (including Turlough Dubh) vs The Danes and similar in a pitched battle to break the power of the Viking raiders forever. 3.5 out of 5
Continue reading about Spears of Clontarf – Robert E. Howard
One missing grain mouse to find, one snake to fight. 4 out of 5 https://comics.comixology.com/#/view/12286/Mouse-Guard-Fall-1152-1-of-6-
Continue reading about Mouse Guard: Fall 1152 – 01 Belly of the Beast
New one, all Gael and smoking. 3.5 out of 5 http://www.tor.com/stories/2011/05/the-iron-shirts
“The young man, Cadwaladr, the last of the Pendragons, fixed his eyes on those of the woman sitting beside the King. She was Alcfrith, Cadfael’s wife, taken as bride after the death of Cadwaladr’s father. Rhiann couldn’t see her face, but from the back, the tension was a rod up her spine and her shoulders [...]
One Scotsman, one dead magician, fewer city watch now that we skewered some, but maybe still one magician too many. 4 out of 5
Tristan dead. Me now. 3 out of 5 http://dailysciencefiction.com/story/the-two-of-us-after
About an old fashioned Pict smashing bloke. 3.5 out of 5 http://imago1.livejournal.com/77466.html
“On the far side of Palatine Hill, a mile from the House of Vestals, the urban mob squirmed on stone benches at the Circus Maximus. The chariot races had ended and clouds of grit settled on the arena, coating the spectators. Women poured out of the gates leaving men to watch the afternoon’s more gruesome [...]
Yep. Inspired by the Starz show it says, but American comic, which of course means no nudity. 3 out of 5 http://chrome.graphicly.com/comics/76
With video from the excellent use it was put to in the movie Excalibur. 5 out of 5
They fought with expert timing. 5 out of 5
Fight or get my axe in the head fatboy. 3.5 out of 5 http://www.newsarama.com/php/multimedia/album_view.php?gid=2780
A collection of stories of the swords, guns and Khans variety. Amoral adventurers, spies, and Americans pretending to not be. The appendix has an in depth discussion of the characters, which is very interesting. El Borak and Other Desert Adventures : Swords of the Hills – Robert E. Howard El Borak and Other Desert Adventures [...]
Continue reading about El Borak and Other Desert Adventures – Robert E. Howard
Or that dog Kirby O’Donnell is in danger of having nasty things done to his toenails and other bits. 3.5 out of 5
Continue reading about Untitled Fragment Feel the Edge – Robert E. Howard
This is the novella version of the earlier El Borak novel, with a shopped off ending – it isn’t as good. 3.5 out of 5
Continue reading about Three-Bladed Doom novella – Robert E. Howard
Kirby O’Donnell and fellow adventurers find out who is least principled in the quest for a fabulous idol. 3.5 out of 5
Continue reading about The Trail Of The Blood-stained God – Robert E. Howard
Kirby O’Donnell and his men are trapped between a covetous outlaw and a spy mission. 3.5 out of 5
Continue reading about Swords of Shahrazar – Robert E. Howard
“The demon let out a blood-curdling shriek. Even though his mask muffled his voice, the cry was so sudden, so shocking, that Haakon felt like he had been struck by lightning. His muscles jumped and he couldn’t think straight enough to react to the flickering steel lunging toward his face. Instinctively Haakon took a passing [...]
That Morgaine Le Fay. Pretty much always trouble with a capital Femme Fatale Incestuous Witchypoo. Although this is a little bit more old school Arthurian than hardboiled Pufnstuff though. The novel take two minor characters in a knight and a woman and has them become ensnared in the plotting and battling surrounding this pile of [...]
Cromlech rescue. 2.5 out of 5 http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/2/6/8/32686/32686-h/32686-h.htm
Page 8, this one. 4 out of 5 http://www.comicbookresources.com/assets/images/preview/17a429fi5035/prv5035_pg8.jpg http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=preview&id=5035&disp=table
Continue reading about Robert E. Howard’s Hawks of Outremer 1
Girl, you lot, gone, good. 2.5 out of 5 http://steampunksalon.com/
El Borak gets a hand, and gets a bit tied up on a courier mission. 3 out of 5 http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Lost_V…
Continue reading about Swords of the HIlls – Robert E. Howard
Birthday seppuku scare. 3.5 out of 5
Continue reading about The Japanese Sword – Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Iraq power knife. 3 out of 5
No hoard joy, kid. 3 out of 5
Continue reading about Wolf In Holy Places – Nina Kiriki Hoffman
Lady of the Well drink monkey duel. 3.5 out of 5
Sword and spear Rhiannon. 3.5 out of 5
Bad hunting idea cold rebirth. 3.5 out of 5
Weapon scare dream. 3 out of 5
Continue reading about Controlling the Sword – Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Off with my finger then, Sassenach. 3.5 out of 5
Element Queens story. 3 out of 5
Continue reading about Prayer Of The Knight Of The Sword – Nancy Holder
