‘Slowly through the corpses they come,’ and ‘Dawn running naked through the snows,’ were my second and third picks for the title to this icily magnetic tale.

The Frost Giant’s Daughter was not sold in Howard’s life, with even Weird Tales not having the stomach to publish such a brutally misogynistic tale. This is the most vividly atmospheric story set out of doors that Howard wrote.

When one considers the subtext of this tale from our current feminized social construct the rape of a goddess by a mortal has its specific appeal, very much invoking the spurning of Ishtar by Gilgamesh. In Howard's day women were arguably more respected by men than at any time in human history. He was certainly not striking out in fiction at a woman. The Conan character in this tale, an interloper as usual, finds himself as a lone survivor in a land ruled by the jealous gods of an alien folk. I see Howard, in this tale, projecting his antipathy as a mystic for the society that he saw as fundamentally at odds with his heritage. Conon comes off as more enraged than in any other tale in the series.

The Frost Giant’s Daughter is ideal for this dramatized format. I liked this story immensely as a boy. But after dating a few ice princesses myself, I particularly relish Conan’s passionate disrespect of female kind.