Text written by Robert E. Howard in 1932, first published in 1976, in Rogues in the House. Previously reviewed as ‘A Wisp of Gossamer,’ and ‘You Cannot Escape Me!’ From text and audio book, revised with Danica Lorincz.
The crux of this icily magnetic tale is found in the following dialog:
“My village is further than you can walk, Conan of Cimmeria,” she laughed.
Spreading her arms wide, she swayed before him, her golden head lolling sensuously, her scintillant eyes half shadowed beneath her long silken lashes. “Am I not beautiful, oh man?”
“Like Dawn running naked on the snows,” he muttered, his eyes burning like those of a wolf.
“Then why do you not rise and follow me? Who is the strong warrior who falls down before me?” she chanted in maddening mockery. “Lie down and die in the snow with the other fools, Conan of the black hair. You cannot follow where I would lead.”
This is the favorite Conan story of a number of people, and I place it in my top five where it has remained since I first read it as a boy.
The Frost Giant’s Daughter was not sold in Howard’s life, and even Weird Tales did not have the stomach to publish such a brutally misogynistic tale. In Howard's day, women were arguably more respected by men than at any time in human history, thus he was certainly not striking out in fiction at women, based on his empathetic treatment of women in subsequent stories. Conan, as an interloper, finds himself as a lone survivor in a land ruled by the jealous gods of an alien folk.
This is the most vividly atmospheric story set out of doors that Howard wrote of Conan’s pursuit of the daughter of a god who seductively entices him with ill intentions and then brazenly taunts him:
“Who are you to swear by Ymir?” she mocked. “What know you of the gods of ice and snow, you have come up from the south to adventure among an alien people?”
“‘By the dark gods of my own race!’ he cried in anger.”
This is the cry of the interloper, with Conan justifying his involvement in the feud of two alien peoples, purely on the basis of his value as a warrior and the risks that he has taken. Conan’s profane behavior points to the universalist aspect of the tribal mind which is utterly misunderstood by modern tribalism advocates. Recently, a masculinity advocate wrote of his belief that there is no morality outside of the tribe, and that it is, for instance, acceptable to rape women from another tribe, because they are outside of the morality of the ingroup. The call that Conan sends out here, when faced with divine disapproval of his alliance, is that commitment to a cause based on binding words and oaths reflects a higher morality than the tribe, a morality to which warriors often attach their tribal identity.
On numerous occasions, during the conquests of North America from the native inhabitants—the history of which Howard was familiar with—natives allied with the white men often stood and died as the white ally ran away. These instances were a simple reflection of the fact that tribal societies were oral societies, where the bond of a man’s word meant more than any contract or written treaty would to a white man. Hence, our modern notion that there’s a separate morality for the ingroup and the outgroup is the reflection of an emasculated society where universal masculine ethics are no longer recognized. A modern aspect of such a masculine commitment is the numerous SS combatants who were not German but Spanish, French, Finnish, and even an African, who fought with great distinction on the Russian Front, because they made a commitment to fight Bolshevism, a commitment to which they attached their sense of tribal honor, as they did fight in national units.
The racial and misogynistic subtext of this tale, read from our current feminized social construct, very much invokes the spurning of the goddess Ishtar by Gilgamesh. In terms of Conan’s Gaelic alliance with one Nordic group against another Nordic group, we again come back to the bond between men that’s initiated with words and cemented with action, exemplified by the bond of Gilgamesh with Enkidu, which stood unbreakable, even in the face of Ishtar’s scorn, after they had fought the Demon Humbaba together. And such a warrior commitment is not dependent upon civilized ethics: Gilgamesh and Enkidu destroyed the great cedar forest when they killed its guardian, Native Americans allied with the white men were complicit in the destruction of their own sacred space, and we might be able to locate a few modern humans who would regard duty as an SS trooper an evil occupation. But a warrior’s word and his bond in war transcends such concerns.
The Frost Giant’s Daughter is one man’s beautiful rant against the civilized world, where the most desirable women attach themselves to the richest men—who owe their social status to the accumulation of material, often acquired through dishonorable dealings—as opposed to men of action, whom Howard once referred to in the person of the Conan character as, “a direct actionist.” This probably explains Howard’s obsession with boxing, as a way for an ‘able man’ to attempt an end-run on the ‘rich man’ in competition for female attention. This heroic tension can be traced back through epic poetry in which Beowulf, the ultimate man of action, is subverted by the cowardly son of the king, whom Beowulf has come to protect against the monster that threatens the kingdom. This theme of status derived from [kingly] honor earned by others trumping intrinsic [heroic]honor is most notably played out between Achilles and Agamemnon in the Iliad.
In this tale, I see Howard projecting his antipathy as a mystic for the society which he saw as fundamentally at odds with his heritage—a tale of heresy and miscegenation, with Conan communing with a goddess of an enemy people and attempting to rape her; a theme of universal masculinity in which Conan 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.
DL’s Note: Our society originally considered a rape the woman’s fault as something she must have invited in her dress or comportment. Now, her possible role could even be denied after consensual sex, to which she cried rape, blamed on date rape drugs or intoxication, particularly when there may be financial gain. Also, in this story, there is a relationship sparked by an ill-intentioned seduction which inflames an ill-intentioned response. In light of the about face in our view of rape from Howard’s time to present day, from assumed female blame to assumed male guilt, what is your impression of Howard’s use of the theme?
James’ Response: The character of the goddess represents the gravity of society which is going to entrap the man, with her brothers representing the consequences of pursuing the temptation that she represents. Recently, a Baltimore City gangster, a member of a primitive tribe in its own right, was lured into a Baltimore City park where he was killed by the two young women who enticed him there. Your note about traditional societies blaming the woman could have its origin in such cases of intertribal entrapment. In Howard’s Black Canaan, the hero, Kirby Buckner, is lured into the forest by a seductress whose male accomplices are waiting to kill him. This is an ancient theme, often involving supernatural seductresses.
