Zenobia

nice thread I have nothing to add regarding the poetry REH himself wrote, but I've always seen this piece by G.K.Chesterton as perfectly in accord with Conan characteristics:

The Last Hero
by G.K.Chesterton

    The wind blew out from Bergen from the dawning to the day,
    There was a wreck of trees and fall of towers a score of miles away,
    And drifted like a livid leaf I go before its tide,
    Spewed out of house and stable, beggared of flag and bride.
    The heavens are bowed about my head, shouting like seraph wars,
    With rains that might put out the sun and clean the sky of stars,
    Rains like the fall of ruined seas from secret worlds above,
    The roaring of the rains of God none but the lonely love.
    Feast in my hall, O foemen, and eat and drink and drain,
    You never loved the sun in heaven as I have loved the rain.

    The chance of battle changes -- so may all battle be;
    I stole my lady bride from them, they stole her back from me.
    I rent her from her red-roofed hall, I rode and saw arise,
    More lovely than the living flowers the hatred in her eyes.
    She never loved me, never bent, never was less divine;
    The sunset never loved me, the wind was never mine.
    Was it all nothing that she stood imperial in duresse?
    Silence itself made softer with the sweeping of her dress.
    O you who drain the cup of life, O you who wear the crown,
    You never loved a woman's smile as I have loved her frown.

    The wind blew out from Bergen to the dawning of the day,
    They ride and run with fifty spears to break and bar my way,
    I shall not die alone, alone, but kin to all the powers,
    As merry as the ancient sun and fighting like the flowers.
    How white their steel, how bright their eyes! I love each laughing knave,
    Cry high and bid him welcome to the banquet of the brave.
    Yea, I will bless them as they bend and love them where they lie,
    When on their skulls the sword I swing falls shattering from the sky.
    The hour when death is like a light and blood is like a rose, --
    You never loved your friends, my friends, as I shall love my foes.

    Know you what earth shall lose to-night, what rich uncounted loans,
    What heavy gold of tales untold you bury with my bones?
    My loves in deep dim meadows, my ships that rode at ease,
    Ruffling the purple plumage of strange and secret seas.
    To see this fair earth as it is to me alone was given,
    The blow that breaks my brow to-night shall break the dome of heaven.
    The skies I saw, the trees I saw after no eyes shall see,
    To-night I die the death of God; the stars shall die with me;
    One sound shall sunder all the spears and break the trumpet's breath:
    You never laughed in all your life as I shall laugh in death.

(Written in 1901)

hope it's not too offtopic

Al was probably too modest to mention it, but he posted an excellent series of blogs on The Cimmerian covering all the aspects of Howard's Khitai. Here's a link to the one dealing with the different peoples of that jungled land:
http://www.thecimmerian.com/?p=5186

Well that was interesting! Al did a great job. Thanks for the link, deuce.

I can only repeat RR's words...!

The "exiles from your kingdom" reference suggests that the four men were not from Khitai proper. I guess they're referred to as "Khitans" in the story because that's where Valerius found them, and because that's as much information as the narrator intends to give us (or because khitai is so vast that calling someone a Khitan is akin to calling them "far easterner").

Yes, that's a good point, although the "exiles from your kingdom" might perhaps also suggest that there are several kingdoms all considered under the wider notion of "Khitai" in the same sense as when REH speaks of Devi Yasmina of Vendhya that "rulers of the plains beyond the Himelians were considered almost short of divine, and she was the Devi of Vendhya!" to me this would imply that there are many/several kingdoms down there in the plains, but only Vendhya is mentioned by name and in the maps. there might be something similar in the situation with Khitai...?

Anyway - correct me, if I'm wrong -, the excerpt above is almost making me believe Conan only traveled to Khitai after the THotD's events...

Hmmm, there were Khitan priests in Salome's entourage (Zang in the least) in AWSBB and during his stay in the Himelians he might have met some Khitans, beside having quite a number of comments on the "black lotus of the jungle-lost temples of Khitai" in other stories... so he might have been familiar with Khitans before THotD's events. but that's more of my guesswork.

I've just finished the first four of your SPQR series and, being a history major with a wish to earn a doctorate in Antiquity studies, I can just say how much I appreciate that you've gone to lengths in doing research for your books... enough authors don't do that your Rome is alive

besides, the "Caesar's wife must be above suspicion" senate scene sent me on the floor with laughter I've always imagined it something like that