"The Frost-Giant's Daughter" is one of the original fantasy
short stories
A short story is a piece of prose fiction. It can typically be read in a single sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the old ...
about
Conan the Cimmerian, written by
American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, p ...
author
Robert E. Howard
Robert Ervin Howard (January 22, 1906 – June 11, 1936) was an American writer who wrote pulp magazine, pulp fiction in a diverse range of genres. He created the character Conan the Barbarian and is regarded as the father of the sword and sor ...
.
The story 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 (narrative), setting for the sword and sorcery tales of Conan the Barbarian.
The word "Hyborian" is ...
and details Conan pursuing a spectral nymph across the frozen tundra of Nordheim. Rejected as a Conan story by ''
Weird Tales
''Weird Tales'' is an American fantasy and horror fiction pulp magazine founded by J. C. Henneberger and J. M. Lansinger in late 1922. The first issue, dated March 1923, appeared on newsstands February 18. The first editor, Edwin Baird, printe ...
'' magazine editor
Farnsworth Wright
Farnsworth Wright (July 29, 1888 – June 12, 1940) was the editor of the pulp magazine ''Weird Tales'' during the magazine's heyday, editing 179 issues from November 1924 to March 1940. Jack Williamson called Wright "the first great fantasy ...
, Howard changed the main character's name to "Amra of Akbitana" and retitled the piece as "The Gods of the North", in which it was published in the March 1934 issue of ''
The Fantasy Fan
''The Fantasy Fan'' was the first fan magazine in the weird fiction field and therefore holds an important place in the history of the American fantasy and horror fiction pulp magazine. Issued monthly, it was first published in September 1933, a ...
''. It was not published in its original form in Howard's lifetime.
Plot summary
"The Frost-Giant's Daughter" is the earliest
chronological
Chronology (from Latin , from Ancient Greek , , ; and , ''wikt:-logia, -logia'') is the science of arranging events in their order of occurrence in time. Consider, for example, the use of a timeline or sequence of events. It is also "the deter ...
story by Robert E. Howard in terms of Conan's life. The brief tale is set somewhere in frozen
Nordheim, geographically situated north of Conan's homeland,
Cimmeria. Conan is depicted by Howard as an young warrior, traveling among the golden-haired
Aesir in a war party. Shortly before the story begins, a hand-to-hand battle has occurred on an icy plain. Eighty men ("four score") have perished in bloody combat, and Conan alone survives the battlefield where Wulfhere's
Aesir "reavers" faced the
Vanir
In Norse mythology, the Vanir (; Old Norse:, singular Vanr) are a group of gods associated with fertility, wisdom, and the ability to see the future. The Vanir are one of two groups of gods (the other being the Æsir) and are the namesake of the ...
"wolves" of Bragi, a Vanir chieftain. Thus, the story opens.
Following his fierce battle against the red-haired
Vanir
In Norse mythology, the Vanir (; Old Norse:, singular Vanr) are a group of gods associated with fertility, wisdom, and the ability to see the future. The Vanir are one of two groups of gods (the other being the Æsir) and are the namesake of the ...
,
Conan
Conan may refer to:
People
* Saint Conan (died 684), bishop of the Isle of Man
* Conan of Cornwall (c. 930 – c. 950), bishop of Cornwall
* Conan I of Rennes (died 992), duke of Brythonic Brittany
* Conan II, Duke of Brittany (died 1066), duke ...
, lying exhausted on a corpse-ridden battlefield, is visited by a beautiful and partially-nude woman identifying herself as "Atali". Upon her bodice, she wears a transparent veil: a wisp of gossamer that wasn't spun by human origin. The mere sight of her strange beauty awakens Conan's lust and, when she repeatedly taunts him, he insanely chases Atali for miles across the snow-covered region while attempting to capture her.
Mocking him with each step, Atali lures Conan into an ambush. Undaunted by the snare, Conan slays her hulking twin brothers, two Frost Giants, and captures Atali in his arms. However, Atali calls upon her father,
Ymir
In Norse mythology, Ymir (), also called Aurgelmir, Brimir, or Bláinn, is the ancestor of all jötnar. Ymir is attested in the ''Poetic Edda'', compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional material, in the ''Prose Edda'', writte ...
, to save her. Before Conan is able to ravish her, Atali disappears in a stroke of lightning which seemingly transforms the landscape and renders him unconscious.
Later, when his Aesir comrades arrive, Conan believes he simply dreamed the bizarre encounter. Suddenly, Conan realizes he's still gripping onto a translucent veil which served as the sole garment of the Frost-Giant's daughter.
The utilization of poetic descriptions throughout this tale is quite strong, and on par with Howard's "
Queen of the Black Coast
"Queen of the Black Coast" is one of the original short story, short stories about Conan the Barbarian, Conan the Cimmerian, written by American author Robert E. Howard and first published in ''Weird Tales'' magazine c. May 1934. Set during th ...
". However, the narrative is often criticized by Howard scholars for not having the more detailed plotting of his superior Conan stories such as "
The Black Stranger". Largely, this is because Howard was aiming for a mythological feel, something to which the story is eminently suited.
This is the only Conan story in which other characters refer to him as "a southerner". In all the rest of his wanderings, Conan is invariably "a barbarian from the cold north", but for the Aesir and Vanir, Cimmeria is a southern land, a bit less cold than theirs.
Inspiration
While
Robert E. Howard
Robert Ervin Howard (January 22, 1906 – June 11, 1936) was an American writer who wrote pulp magazine, pulp fiction in a diverse range of genres. He created the character Conan the Barbarian and is regarded as the father of the sword and sor ...
had already written many fantasy stories featuring northern
Viking
Vikings were seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden),
who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9� ...
-like characters, the names and plot structure for "The Frost-Giant's Daughter" was derived in its entirety from
Thomas Bulfinch
Thomas Bulfinch (July 15, 1796 – May 27, 1867) was an American author born in Newton, Massachusetts, known best for '' Bulfinch's Mythology'', a posthumous combination of his three volumes of mythologies.
Life
Bulfinch belonged to a well-educa ...
's ''
The Outline of Mythology'' (1913). Howard combined the legend of
Atalanta
Atalanta (; ) is a heroine in Greek mythology.
There are two versions of the huntress Atalanta: one from Arcadia (region), Arcadia, whose parents were Iasus and Clymene (mythology), Clymene and who is primarily known from the tales of the Caly ...
with another reworked Bulfinch legend, that of
Daphne
Daphne (; ; , , ), a figure in Greek mythology, is a naiad, a variety of female nymph associated with fountains, wells, springs, streams, brooks and other bodies of freshwater.
There are several versions of the myth in which she appears, but t ...
and
Apollo
Apollo is one of the Twelve Olympians, Olympian deities in Ancient Greek religion, ancient Greek and Ancient Roman religion, Roman religion and Greek mythology, Greek and Roman mythology. Apollo has been recognized as a god of archery, mu ...
, but he reversed the roles. Whereas Apollo was a god and Daphne a mortal, Howard made Atali a goddess and Conan a mortal. In the original,
Cupid
In classical mythology, Cupid ( , meaning "passionate desire") is the god of desire, erotic love, attraction and affection. He is often portrayed as the son of the love goddess Venus and the god of war Mars. He is also known as Amor (Latin: ...
had struck Apollo with an arrow to excite love for Daphne, but struck her with an arrow to cause her to find love repellent. Howard kept the idea of the love-maddened Apollo (rather a lust-maddened Conan) pursuing the girl until she invokes aid from her divine father.
Publication history
The earlier version of the story was published in the collections ''
The Coming of Conan
''The Coming of Conan'' is a collection of eight fantasy short stories by American writer Robert E. Howard, featuring his sword and sorcery heroes Kull of Atlantis, Kull and Conan the Barbarian, together with the first part of his pseudo-histor ...
'' (
Gnome Press
Gnome Press was an American small-press publishing company active 1948 – 1962 and primarily known for fantasy and science fiction, many later regarded as classics.
Gnome was one of the most eminent of the fan publishers of SF, producing 86 ...
, 1953) and ''
Conan of Cimmeria
''Conan of Cimmeria'' is a collection of eight fantasy short stories written by Robert E. Howard, L. Sprague de Camp, and Lin Carter and featuring Howard's sword and sorcery hero Conan the Barbarian. Most of the stories were originally publishe ...
'' (
Lancer Books
Lancer Books was a publisher of paperback books founded by Irwin Stein and Walter Zacharius that operated from 1961 through 1973. While it published stories of a number of genres, it was noted most for its science fiction and fantasy, particula ...
, 1969). The last version, as left by Howard before his death, was first published in 1976 by
Donald M. Grant in an edition of the Conan story ''
Rogues in the House
"Rogues in the House" is one of the original short stories starring the fictional sword and sorcery hero Conan the Cimmerian, written by American author Robert E. Howard and first published in ''Weird Tales'' magazine in January 1934. It is s ...
''. This version of the tale has most recently been republished in the collections ''
The Conan Chronicles Volume 1: The People of the Black Circle'' (
Gollancz, 2000) 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 ...
'' (
Del Rey, 2004).
Adaptations
The story has been adapted into comics:
* ''
Savage Tales
''Savage Tales'' is the title of three American comics series. Two were black-and-white comics-magazine anthologies published by Marvel Comics, and the other a color comic book anthology published by Dynamite Entertainment.
Publication history M ...
'' #1 (Marvel Comics, May 1971)
* ''
Conan the Barbarian
Conan the Barbarian (also known as Conan the Cimmerian) is a fictional sword and sorcery hero created by American author Robert E. Howard (1906–1936) and who debuted in 1932 and went on to appear in a series of fantasy stories published in ''We ...
'' #16 (Marvel Comics, July 1972), a censored reprint of the ''Savage Tales'' story with a new opening page.
* ''
Savage Sword of Conan
''The Savage Sword of Conan'' is a black-and-white magazine-format comic book series published beginning in 1974 by Curtis Magazines, an imprint of American company Marvel Comics, and then later by Marvel itself. ''Savage Sword of Conan'' starred ...
'' #1 (Marvel Comics, Aug 1974), a reprint of the Savage Tales story with the opening page from ''Conan the Barbarian''.
* ''
Conan
Conan may refer to:
People
* Saint Conan (died 684), bishop of the Isle of Man
* Conan of Cornwall (c. 930 – c. 950), bishop of Cornwall
* Conan I of Rennes (died 992), duke of Brythonic Brittany
* Conan II, Duke of Brittany (died 1066), duke ...
'' #2 (
Dark Horse Comics
Dark Horse Comics is an American comic book, graphic novel, manga and Artist's book, art book publisher founded in Milwaukie, Oregon, by Mike Richardson in 1986. The company was created using funds earned from Richardson's chain of Portland, O ...
, Mar 2004), and reprinted as ''Robert E Howard's The Frost-Giant's Daughter''.
*The story was adapted into the prologue to the unproduced sequel ''King Conan: Crown of Iron'' written by screenwriter/director
John Milius
John Frederick Milius (; born April 11, 1944) is an American screenwriter and film director. He is considered a member of the New Hollywood generation of filmmakers.
He rose to prominence in the early 1970s for writing the scripts for ''The L ...
. In the screenplay, Conan encounters the Frost-Giant's Daughter and defeats her brothers, as in the original. However, in Milius' adaptation, he is not interrupted by Ymir and impregnates Atali, who then disappears in apparent fear of "The Ice Worm". She bears him a son, named Kon, whose parentage takes on much significance over the course of the story.
* ''The Cimmerian: The Frost-Giant's Daughter'' by Ablaze Comics, 2020. A three-issue miniseries focusing on Atali, and featuring a reprint of Howard's story in the back pages.
* ''
Conan the Barbarian
Conan the Barbarian (also known as Conan the Cimmerian) is a fictional sword and sorcery hero created by American author Robert E. Howard (1906–1936) and who debuted in 1932 and went on to appear in a series of fantasy stories published in ''We ...
'' #15 (Titan Comics, October 2024), is a new comics adaptation by
Jim Zub
Jim Zubkavich, known professionally as Jim Zub, is a Canadian comic book writer, artist, and art instructor best known for creating comics ''Skullkickers'' (2010), '' Wayward'' (2014), and ''Glitterbomb'' (2016) for Image Comics, writing on the ...
, with issues #13, 14 and 16 serving as prequels and sequel, respectively, to the original story.
References
External links
Conan the Barbarian at AmratheLion.comConan.com: The official website* A link to an upcoming indie film production of the work
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Frost-Giants Daughter, The
1932 short stories
Conan the Barbarian stories by Robert E. Howard
Pulp stories
Fantasy short stories
Horror short stories
Works originally published in Weird Tales
Short stories published posthumously