Formerly published as 'The Dark Heart of the Tale,’ revised for this edition

2003, Ballantine Books, NY, The Bloody Crown of Conan, pages xiii-xvi

In the introduction to this ultra-violent volume Burke uses quotes from the author explaining his process in letters to fellow authors.

Here is what Howard has to say about writing civilized’ characters, “I find their ways and thoughts and ambitions perfectly alien and baffling.”

It seems that Howard literally could not fathom materialism and hierarchies based on material accumulation enough to be able to write convincingly from the complaisant, civilized perspective that is the bread and butter viewpoint of such authors as King. In my estimation, Howard came closest to achieving this mainstream writing goal when he wrote sympathetic realism from the perspective of female victims of abduction, most notably in the Conan series. He did gather a closer appreciation for manipulation of the masses by masterminds and portrayed them intensely in his fiction.

In this essay, G.K. Chesterton, whose Ballad of the White Horse was a poem that inspired Howard deeply, and Howard himself are quoted on the means by which an author like Howard used fantasy to preserve the tradition and essence of the historical past.

Chesterton: “It is the chief value of legend to mix up the centuries while preserving the sentiment; to see all ages in a sort of splendid foreshortening. That is the use of tradition: it telescopes history.”

Howard: “Every urge in me is to write realism.”

Burke quotes from an essay on Conan by Charles Hoffman [which I would dearly like to read] who argued for ‘Conan the Existentialist,' who ‘can be hired but not bought,’ who feels no loyalty to rules imposed by authority or tradition, choosing to live by rules that help him ‘maintain order in a world tilting toward insanity.’

A similar argument is made in Modern Fantasy: The Hundred Best Novels, by David Pringle, in which Howard’s Hour of the Dragon [under the title Conan the Conqueror] was ranked #8. The author of the foreword, science-fiction writer and editor, Brian W. Aldis, described the goal of fantasy as the presentation of a spiritually true alternative reality where, "...success is not calculated in monetary terms once you escape from the Lands of Almighty Dolour...the banks have turned into palaces; that's not Wall Street but Gormanghast; Conan clobbered Mammon."

Burke combines his own analysis of Howard’s best know creation to present Conan as an archetypical American character such as Eastwood’s ‘Man with No Name,’ a character archetype quickly losing ground in our time, but surviving in Howard’s ever more highly regarded short prose.

His conclusion addresses the popularity of Howard’s characters among artist and writers:

“…Conan’s appeal. Our destiny, he says, does not lie in the stars, or in our noble blood, but in our willingness to create ourselves…Conan is confronted with choices and makes his decisions not on the basis of some ‘noble destiny’ to be fulfilled but in what seems, to him, the right course of action at the time.”

Rusty Burke closes with a parting sketch of Conan as his own man, with a sense of right and wrong, a regular guy with off-center beliefs, a strict internal code of behavior, and an extraordinary ability to act unilaterally.

Conan is, in essence, the fantasy of every man who smarts under injustice.