"The Shadow Kingdom"
(July 14, 2004)
From the August 1929 issue of WEIRD TALES, this is an early story from Robert E. Howard that is just amazingly intense, packed with creative details and written with the enthusiasm of a young man just aching to tell his tales. "The Shadow Kingdom" is for most of its length essentially a horror story, with a feeling of genuine paranoia and hidden menace all around; then, instead of having the protagonist swoon or go mad from what he has seen (as he might well do in a H.P. Lovecraft or Frank Belknap Long version of this premise), Howard's hero whips out his sword and goes to town. The effect is really satisfying, getting the reader all anxious and uncertain and then settling things in a blast of pure carnage.
"The Shadow Kingdom" was part of a dozen stories Howard pounded out about King Kull, a barbarian from Atlantis who usurped the throne of the decadent nation of Valusia. WEIRD TALES only purchased two of these yarns (Kull did make a guest shot in the Bran Mak Morn tale, "Kings of the Night"), so the young author from Texas reworked a Kull story to feature a more earthy, less philosophical barbarian in a similar situation. This was the first appearance of Conan the Cimmerian, who immediately took over Howard's typewriter and refused to let him write any more stories of Kull, Solomon Kane, Bran Mak Morn or Francis X. Gordon (too bad).
The story is obsessed with masks and deception. Even before Kull learns about the creatures infiltrating his kingdom, he sits brooding on his throne and reflects "Strange to him were the intrigues of court and palace, army and people. All was like a masquerade, where men and women hid their real thoughts with a smooth mask." He has no idea how true this is. An ambassador from the savage nation of Pictdom reveals the dire truth by leading the new King on a stealthy midnight stroll through his own palace, to find that the eighteen elite guards protecting him lie seemingly dead in a hidden chamber and eighteen identical imposters have taken their place. This is just the beginning of the nightmare.
It turns out that all the kingdoms of that age were trapped in a secret war with the ultimate conspiracy. Forget about the Illuminati, or the Si-Fan or THRUSH... those guys were only humans with human greed and ambitions. What we are dealing with here are the Serpent Men, murderous creatures who can disguise themselves with a mask of illusion to resemble exactly any human. Plotting and scheming, pitting nations against each other, the snake men are so evil and influential that it is taboo to even mention them. ("No man trusts his fellow and the true statesmen dare not speak to each other what is in the minds of all.")
These creatures are the only survivors of all the assorted grotesque monsters which were wiped out by humans long before history began, and which are only vaguely remembered in myths and legends. This was a theme Howard returned to often, most effectively in his story "Wings In the Night" where Solomon Kane tackles a nest of Harpies deep inside Africa.
And yet, you would think knowledge of these Serpent People would get out quickly, because they revert to their true forms when killed. ("... the features mingled and merged in a seemingly impossible manner. Then, like a fading mask of fog, the face suddenly vanished and in its stead gaped and leered a monstrous serpent's head!") Something like that happening in public would be kinda hard to overlook.
There is a way to tell a true human from one of the Serpent People, fortunately. This is to demand they speak the phrase "Ka nama kaa lajerama", a dead giveaway. Only real humans can manage those words, "for none but a real man of men may speak them, whose jaws and mouth are shaped different from any other creature. Their meaning has been forgotten, but not the words themselves." Howard may have swiped this concept from that incident in the Old Testament where the password was "Shibboleth" (or, actually, since the time of Kull was thousands of years before the Biblical era, it might have been the other way around, I suppose). It's a strangely haunting concept. Ka Nama Kaa Lajerama. Stencil those words on a T shirt or put them on a bumper sticker and see if you start being shadowed by suspicious looking characters.
Kull just about gives in to a complete paranoid seizure. For all he knows, EVERYONE in his court is one of the Snake People, spying on his every move and waiting for the right moment to assassinate him and put an imposter on the throne. In fact, at a crucial moment when he is supposed to have been killed, Kull peeks into the throne room and sees what looks exactly like him making a speech. You or I might have a stroke, but the Atlantean king is already going for his sword...
Not putting Conan down, but frankly I prefer many of Robert E. Howard's other heroes. Where the Cimmerian is concerned with bluntly satisfying his appetites and getting some loot, Kull keeps tackling existential problems. He seeks wisdom and understanding, wrestles with concepts like death, time and space, reality and illusion. Of course, he is perfectly capable of picking up an axe or sword and cutting a dozen attackers to pieces all over the room. He is a barbarian warrior, after all, but he also has curiosity. This gives his stories a little extra depth.
I have reservations about this Atlantean berserker business, though, where the warriors concentrate only on slaying and give no thought to defending themselves. If not for his Pict friend helping out and warding off some blows, Kull would be quickly killed in the big showdown. This berserker stuff might sound impressive and "Extreme!" but in practice, it would be self-defeating and mean a real short career.
This story features Brule, the Spear-Slayer, who will become Kull's Tonto. Brule is a noble savage who could easily star in his own series. It's stupefying to realize that the Picts of Kull's time are still Stone Age savages fifty thousand years later in the time of Turlogh O'Brien. Talk about hopeless cases. Brule's people are dark, handsome athletic types sort of like the typical Iroquois brave. By the time of Bran Mak Morn, they have really let themselves go to pot and are stunted apelike goons (Bran himself still remains like Brule through careful breeding). Despite the fact that most of Howard's heroes were tall blue-eyed Celtic types, he was fascinated by these grim swarthy little buggers. In a story set in modern times, he even mentions the Cult of Bran, which worships a stone statue containing the chieftain's spirit. Yep, the Picts will rise again!
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