The Lost Valley of Iskander

"The Lost Valley of Iskander" is an El Borak short story by Robert E. Howard. It was not published within Howard's lifetime, the first publication was in the FAX Collector's Editions hardback The Lost Valley of Iskander in 1974. Its original title was "Swords of the Hills".

Contents

• Various Edition
• Plot
• References

This was one of two Berkley collections of Robert E. Howard's El Borak stories, and the first time the story "The Lost Valley of Iskander" appeared in print. Five of his El Borak stories were sold during his lifetime, although two only came out after his death. According to the introduction to this collection, among Howard's papers was found another El Borak story, plus an unfinished one—the completed one, "Swords of the Hills", appearing in this volume as "The Lost Valley of Iskander."Three-Bladed Doom", except L. Sprague de Camp gives a complete history for that story in an essay found in The Sword of Conan. He indicates that "Three-Bladed Doom" was a complete, but unpublished manuscript."The Lost Valley of Iskander" has El Borak racing to deliver papers detailing plans to "send howling hordes of fanatics across the Indian border", while pursued by Gustav Hunyadi, the author of those plans. El Borak happens upon a lost city, left over from the invasion of Alexander the Great, and gets on the wrong side of the city's king, Ptolemy.

In this story, El Borak discovers a legendary valley in which live Greek descendants of Alexander the Great invading army. Meanwhile, the vital package he carries must be carried to British India before the Hungarian, Hunyadi, can stop him or thousands will die. "The Daughter of Erlik Khan" has El Borak (aka Francis Xavier Gordon) fighting to rescue Yasmeena, one time rich brat, now pretend "goddess" to the people of the all-but-forbidden city of Yolgan. A former Rajah husband has offered a reward to any man who will bring her home so she can be beaten to death with a slipper (!), and two evil Englishmen, Ormond and Pembroke, have decided to take him up on it. One weakness with the El Borak stories is a dearth of women, so this story ranks a little higher in my estimation than some. Yasmeena herself is another one of those interesting strong-but-vulnerable female characters which REH did so well. For a woman with a death-sentence hanging over her head, she shows remarkable pluck. Then too, any woman who, bored with life, would chuck everything and run off to become a goddess.