Language English Genre(s) Fantasy short story Media type Print (Hardcover) Originally published 1955 Country United States of America | Series Conan the Barbarian Published in Tales of Conan Publication date 1955 Publisher Gnome Press Publication type Anthology | |
Similar Works by Robert E Howard, L Sprague de Camp books, Other books | ||
The Blood-Stained God is a 1955 fantasy novella written by Robert E. Howard and L. Sprague de Camp featuring Howard's seminal sword and sorcery hero Conan the Barbarian. It was revised by de Camp from Howard's original story, a then-unpublished non-fantasy Oriental tale that featured Kirby O'Donnell titled "The Curse of the Crimson God" (vt "Trail of the Blood-Stained God"). De Camp changed the names of the characters, added the fantastic element, and recast the setting into Howard's Hyborian Age. The story was first published in the hardbound collection Tales of Conan (Gnome Press, 1955), and subsequently appeared in the paperback collection Conan of Cimmeria (Lancer Books, 1969), as part of which it has been translated into German, Japanese, Spanish, Dutch and Italian.
Contents
The Curse of the Crimson God
The third O'Donnell story, originally titled The Trail of the Bloodstained God, was not published within Howard's lifetime. The writer L. Sprague de Camp found it amongst Howard's papers and edited it into the Conan story The Blood-Stained God, which was first published in Tales of Conan in 1955. The O'Donnell version of the story first saw print much later in the paperback Swords of Shahrazar in 1976.
The story was returned by Thrilling Adventures on 8 October 1935. Howard sent a rewritten version to Kline on 31 January 1936. Kline sent this to several pulp magazines but all returned it - Dime Adventure (sent 4 February 1936, returned 2 March), Short Stories (3 March, returned 18 March), Adventure (19 March, returned 8 April) and Argosy (9 April, returned 22 April).
In this story, O'Donnell is in pursuit of thieves who have stolen from him a treasure map that points the way to the precious idol called The Bloodstained God.NOTES: The Bloodstained God is housed in the temple in the Kezankian Mountains between the borders of Koth and Zamora. The idol is kept next to a large chasm into which it throws its sacrifices once animated. Conan destroyed it by knocking it into the chasm.
HISTORY
This story has a convoluted history. Howard wrote it as a Conan tale but couldn't sell it so he re-wrote it as an adventure story set in Afghanistan. L. Sprague de Camp re-wrote it into a Conan story. It was adapted in comic form in Conan Super Special #9 (1978).
Records
Contents "The Bloodstained God" "The Curse of the Monolith" Notes "The Bloodstained God" script was adapted by Alan B. Goldstein from the original story by Robert E. Howard and L. Sprague de Camp. "The Curse of the Monolith" script was adapted by Alan B Goldstein from the original story by L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter. Music composed and performed by David Moss One pressing limited to 1500 copies. All narration and voices by L. Sprague de Camp with additional sound effects. The cover photograph of L. Sprague deCamp is by David Sygall.