Reading from pages 83-254 of The Bloody Crown of Conan, 2003, Del Rey, NY, illustrated by Gary Gianni, whose work will also be considered, as the book is being examined as a cultural-mythic artifact.

This work was unusual for Howard in that it was a commissioned novel, his only one and was supported by an extensive untitled synopsis, reproduced on pages 335-7, and also extensive day-by-day notes on events in the novel reproduced on pages 339-42, with the latter only concerned with the second chapter of the novel and the former the first half of the novel. Howard wrote the work from chapter three on by the seat of his pants and completed the bulk of it with a bare shadow of an outline...