The unsold Conan story, The Frost Giant’s Daughter, appears to have been rewritten from God's of the North, a Howard story that seems to have predated his early Kull character, for the protagonist is named Am-Ra, who was a prototype for Kull, who was the prototype for Conan, who had a secondary name among the black tribes, Amra. The names of Am-Ra's companions are the same as those in the Conan version. A reading of each Gods of the North version are linked below, as well as a reading of The Frost Giant's Daughter. I have not been able to find the print version of this story in either draft. However, in the Del Rey Kull collection, from 2006, Howard authority, Patrice Louinet discusses the Am-Ra character in her Hyborian Genesis essay.

The reader of the first audio link below, Phil has a slight, neutral voice but an excellent poetic sense. I prefer his reading of this lyrical tale of racial strife and supernatural cruelty, to the second reading.

In my mind, Gods of the North is Howard’s call to man to challenge the cruel, uncaring universe. I believe this is my favorite story, period. I like it better than the adapted Conan version in the second audio-link below, which is titled Gods of the North on the YouTube link, but has the protagonist name himself Conan.

The third audio-link is of the Frost Giant's Daughter, which seems to be the final version of the story and which is the version upon which I will base my review for Well of Heroes.

The first paragraphs of the first reading of Gods of the North, and of The Frost Giant's Daughter comprise a masterful atmospheric sketch, with some of this gory scenery absent from the second reading.

I can't be certain, but I believe that the audio-links below are arranged in the order they were written. According to Louinet, the Am-Ra sketches [among which she does not mention this story] and poems were found among Howard's papers in 1966 and were among Howard's earlier works.

Whatever the facts of its composition, Howard failed to sell his story of a barbarian warrior's attempt to rape a goddess. For any readers on masculinity in our current emasculated age, I highly recommend this story in any of it's forms.

If any Howard readers have footnotes concerning this tale and its history and would be kind enough to remark via the comment function, I will be sure to credit the entry in the print version of Well of Heroes.