Xuthal of the Dusk
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"The Slithering Shadow" is one of the original short stories starring the fictional
sword and sorcery Sword and sorcery (S&S) is a subgenre of fantasy characterized by sword-wielding heroes engaged in exciting and violent adventures. Elements of romance, magic, and the supernatural are also often present. Unlike works of high fantasy, the tale ...
hero Conan the Cimmerian, written by American author
Robert E. Howard Robert Ervin Howard (January 22, 1906June 11, 1936) was an American writer. He wrote pulp fiction in a diverse range of genres. He is well known for his character Conan the Barbarian and is regarded as the father of the sword and sorcery subge ...
and first published in the September 1933 issue of '' Weird Tales'' magazine. "The Slithering Shadow" is the original title, but the story is also known as "Xuthal of the Dusk" in further publications. It is set in the pseudo-historical
Hyborian Age The Hyborian Age is a fictional period of Earth's history within the artificial mythology created by Robert E. Howard, serving as the setting for the sword and sorcery tales of Conan the Barbarian. The word "Hyborian" is derived from the l ...
, and concerns Conan discovering a lost city in a remote desert while encountering a Lovecraftian demon known as Thog. The story was republished in the collections ''
The Sword of Conan ''The Sword of Conan'' is a collection of four fantasy short stories by American writer Robert E. Howard featuring his sword and sorcery hero Conan the Barbarian, first published in hardcover by Gnome Press in 1952. The stories originally appear ...
'' ( Gnome Press, 1952) and '' Conan the Adventurer'' ( Lancer Books, 1966). It has more recently been published in the collections '' The Conan Chronicles Volume 1: The People of the Black Circle'' ( Gollancz, 2000) as "The Slithering Shadow" and in '' Conan of Cimmeria: Volume One (1932-1933)'' (Wandering Star, 2002) and ''
The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian ''The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian'' is the first of a three-volume set collecting the Conan stories by author Robert E. Howard. It was originally published in 2002, first in the United Kingdom by Wandering Star Books under the title ''Conan of ...
'' (Del Rey, 2003) as "Xuthal of the Dusk."


Plot summary

Conan and his ally, Natala the Brythunian, are the sole survivors of Prince Almuric's army which swept through the Lands of Shem and the wilderness of Stygia. With a Stygian host on their heels, Almuric's soldiers had cut their way across the kingdom of Kush, only to be annihilated near the edge of Stygia's southern desert. In the resulting conflict, when the Stygians and Kushites surrounded the trapped remnants, Conan sliced his way through the Stygian militia and fled on a camel, with Natala, into the southern desert. For days, the two pushed on, seeking water, until their camel died. Then, they continued on foot. When their canteen is empty, Conan prepares to slay Natala in an act of
mercy-killing Euthanasia (from el, εὐθανασία 'good death': εὖ, ''eu'' 'well, good' + θάνατος, ''thanatos'' 'death') is the practice of intentionally ending life to eliminate pain and suffering. Different countries have different eutha ...
. However, they spy the distant city of Xuthal. Eventually, Conan and Natala enter Xuthal while pursued by an entrance guard. They soon encounter Thalis, a beautiful Stygian mage, who reveals the history of her fabled city and the existence of Thog. Thog is a monstrous demon from the city-states of ancient
Valusia ''Valusia'' is the fourth EP by American singer-songwriter Zola Jesus. It was released on October 15, 2010 on Sacred Bones Records Sacred Bones Records is an American independent record label founded in 2007 and based in Brooklyn, New York. ...
, his current form summoned by the sorcerers of Xuthal from the darkness between the stars. For an ageless time, Thog has haunted the depths of Xuthal in search of living flesh to assuage the continuing manifestation of his body on the physical plane. Thalis falls in love with Conan and, to eliminate her rival, kidnaps Natala in the hopes of sacrificing her to Thog. However, Thalis pauses to strip Natala of her tunic and, with a jewel-handled whip,
flagellates A flagellate is a cell or organism with one or more whip-like appendages called flagella. The word ''flagellate'' also describes a particular construction (or level of organization) characteristic of many prokaryotes and eukaryotes and their ...
the Brythunian. In the middle of this bizarre act, Thog suddenly appears, snatches Thalis, and devours her. The demon returns for Natala, but Conan intervenes and saves her. Conan fights Thog with all his might, but is scarcely harming the demon's supernatural form, while receiving hideous wounds in the coils of its pseudopods and tentacles. However, Conan manages to pierce what he perceives as the "head" of the monster from below and precipitates it down a well. Conan frees Natala, who sets forth to help him, but he's rapidly dying (this is the closest Conan ever gets to death in all of his saga). Fortunately, the Brythunian girl soon brings him a jade goblet full of golden wine, retrieved from a room with a dreaming woman of Xuthal in it. The beverage proves to be a life-giving elixir briefly mentioned by Thalis in a previous conversation, which miraculously heals all of Conan's wounds. Finally, the couple retrieve enough food and water to cross the rest of the desert with. The two depart toward the horizon while Natala jokingly blames Conan for having aroused Thalis' lustful nature and him retorting playfully about women's jealousy.


Reception

Fritz Leiber Fritz Reuter Leiber Jr. ( ; December 24, 1910 – September 5, 1992) was an American writer of fantasy, horror, and science fiction. He was also a poet, actor in theater and films, playwright, and chess expert. With writers such as Robert ...
rated it as one of three of the worst Conan stories, which he said were "repetitious and childish, a self-vitiating brew of pseudo-science, stage illusions, and the 'genuine' supernatural."Fritz Leiber, "Fantasy Books", ''
Fantastic The fantastic (french: le fantastique) is a subgenre of literary works characterized by the ambiguous presentation of seemingly supernatural forces. Bulgarian-French structuralist literary critic Tzvetan Todorov originated the concept, characte ...
'', May 1968, p.143


Adaptation

The story was adapted by
Roy Thomas Roy William Thomas Jr."Roy Thomas Checklist" ''Alter Ego'' vol. 3, #50 (July 2005) p. 16 (born November 22, 1940) is an American comic book writer and editor, who was Stan Lee's first successor as editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics. He is possibl ...
,
John Buscema John Buscema (; ; born Giovanni Natale Buscema, December 11, 1927 – January 10, 2002)Social Se ...
and
Alfredo Alcala Alfredo P. Alcala (August 23, 1925 – April 4, 2000) was a Filipino comics artist, born in Talisay, Negros Occidental in the Philippines. Alcala was an established illustrator whose works appeared in the ''Alcala Komix Magazine''. His 1963 cre ...
in ''Savage Sword of Conan'' #20, then by Fred Van Lente and Guiu Vilanova in ''Conan the Avenger'' #13-15 (2015).


References


External links


The Slithering Shadow at Project Gutenberg Australia

Conan the Barbarian at AmratheLion.com

Conan.com: The Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Slithering Shadow, The 1933 short stories Fantasy short stories Conan the Barbarian stories by Robert E. Howard Pulp stories Cthulhu Mythos short stories Works originally published in Weird Tales