New York Times bestselling author of the North and South trilogy

"For stark, living fear . . . What other writer is even in the running with Robert E. Howard?"

-H. P. LOVECRAFT.

"Howard wrote pulp adventure stories of every kind, for every market he could find, but his real love was for supernatural adventure and he brought a brash, tough element to the epic fantasy which did as much to change the course of the American school away from precious writing and static imagery as Hammett, Chandler, and the Black Mask pulp writers were to change the course of American detective fiction."

-MICHAEL MOORc.o.c.k.

Award-winning author of the Elric saga

"In this, I think, the art of Robert E. Howard was hard to surpa.s.s: vigor, speed, vividness. And always there is that furious, galloping narrative pace."

426.

-POUL ANDERSON.

"Howard honestly believed the basic truth of the stories he was telling. It's as if he'd said, 'This is how life really was lived in those former savage times!' "

-DAVID DRAKE.

Author of Grimmer Than h.e.l.l and Dogs of War

"For headlong, nonstop adventure and for vivid, even florid, scenery, no one even comes close to Howard."

-HARRY TURTLEDOVE.

427.

The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian is a work of fiction. Names, places, and incidents either are products of the author's imagination or are used fict.i.tiously.

A Del ReyBook Published by The Random House Publishing GroupCopyright 2003 by Conan Properties International, LLC.

Conan is a registered trademark of Conan Properties International, LLC.

Editor: Patrice Louinet Series Editor: Rusty BurkeAll rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions.

Published in the United States by The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York. Previously published in Great Britain by Wandering Star, Ltd., in 2002.This edition published by arrangement with Wandering Star, Ltd.Del Rey is a registered trademark and the Del Rey colophon is a trademark of Random House, Inc.

www.delreydigital.com

Library of Congress Control Number: 2003095182

eISBN 0-345-46995-X

428.v1.0 Cimmeria

first published The Howard Collector, Winter 1965

The Phoenix on the Sword

first published Weird Tales, December 1932

The Frost-Giant's Daughter

Original version first published Rogues in the House, Donald M. Grant, 1976

The G.o.d in the Bowl

Original version first published The Tower of the Elephant, Donald M. Grant, 1975

The Tower of the Elephant

first published Weird Tales, March 1933

The Scarlet Citadel

first published Weird Tales, January 1933

Queen of the Black Coast

first published Weird Tales, May 1934

Black Colossus

429.

first published Weird Tales, June 1933

Iron Shadows in the Moon first published Weird Tales, April 1934 (as Shadows in the Moonlight ).Xuthal of the Dusk first published Weird Tales, September 1933 (as The Slithering Shadow ).The Pool of the Black One

first published Weird Tales, October 1933

Rogues in the House

first published Weird Tales, January 1934

The Vale of Lost Women

first published Magazine of Horror, Spring 1967

The Devil in Iron

first published Weird Tales, August 1934

430.