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Everything you have been told about Conan is probably wrong #4: The Frost-Giant's daughter.
This story is used by activists to suggest Howard promotes r@pe-culture.
Many of Howard's stories paint a very different portrait of Conan's and civilization's attitude toward women...
This story is used by activists to suggest Howard promotes r@pe-culture.
Many of Howard's stories paint a very different portrait of Conan's and civilization's attitude toward women...
...but that doesn't fit their narrative, so they ignore them; in reality, Howard expressed 2nd wave feminist sentiments 25 years before they were popular.
But back to this story.
The oversimplified version is: Conan pursues a female for sex who appears to consent but then...
But back to this story.
The oversimplified version is: Conan pursues a female for sex who appears to consent but then...
...changes her mind.
Small wonder Amazon's newly minted female studio-head passed on a Conan series with this tale as the 1st episode.
Except it's clear to any engaged reader that there is far more going on in this story.
The Frost-Giant's Daughter is 1 of 3 Conan stories...
Small wonder Amazon's newly minted female studio-head passed on a Conan series with this tale as the 1st episode.
Except it's clear to any engaged reader that there is far more going on in this story.
The Frost-Giant's Daughter is 1 of 3 Conan stories...
...by Howard submitted to Weird Tales in 1932. Only Phoenix On The Sword was accepted; the other two, God In The Bowl and The Frost-Giant's Daughter (TFGD) were not published until after his death.
TGFD takes place not long after Conan fought at Venarium; it is the earliest...
TGFD takes place not long after Conan fought at Venarium; it is the earliest...
...tale of Conan's life written by Howard.
SPOILERS
Wearing chainmail on many parts of his body, likely looted from victims at Venarium, Conan adventures with the Aesir against the Vanir, two groups who traditionally wore scale armour to war.
He would be about 16 years old...
SPOILERS
Wearing chainmail on many parts of his body, likely looted from victims at Venarium, Conan adventures with the Aesir against the Vanir, two groups who traditionally wore scale armour to war.
He would be about 16 years old...
...suffering from a terrible blow to the head received from the final enemy in a battle, nearly unconscious, struck blind, fallen to his hands and knees in a snowbank, Conan is coaxed back to awareness, of a sort, by the laughter of a woman...
"A silvery laugh cut through his dizziness, and his sight cleared slowly. He looked up; there was a strangeness about all the landscape that he could not place or define – an unfamiliar tinge to earth and sky. But he did not think long of this."
...but the reader should...
...but the reader should...
...Howard was a voracious, if poor, reader, devouring stacks of magazines and whatever books he could obtain.
His father was also a doctor and would have been interested in the medical literature of the day.
Sigmund Freud published his work on the Id, Ego and Superego in 1923.
His father was also a doctor and would have been interested in the medical literature of the day.
Sigmund Freud published his work on the Id, Ego and Superego in 1923.
Written in 1932, most of TFGD occurs in a supernatural realm different from the mundane where Conan is consumed with savage emotions out of character even for him.
I would be unsurprised if Howard used a basic understanding of Freud's theory to craft TFGD.
In the story...
I would be unsurprised if Howard used a basic understanding of Freud's theory to craft TFGD.
In the story...
...Conan is enticed by a pale maiden, through insults and innuendo, to pursue her through a strange, unfamiliar and fantastic landscape; a maiden whose aspect is as perfect as a god and whose feet barely touch the snow.
Conan is portrayed as an utter savage in this pursuit,...
Conan is portrayed as an utter savage in this pursuit,...
...madness sweeping through him, roaring black curses, drooling, gnashing his teeth, the veins on his "temples" swelling and throbbing.
"He did not wonder at the strangeness of it all, not even when two gigantic figures rose up to bar his way."
The maiden lures him into a trap.
"He did not wonder at the strangeness of it all, not even when two gigantic figures rose up to bar his way."
The maiden lures him into a trap.
...so, at the start of the tale, Conan's unable to stand, nearly killed by a Vanir warrior. But, still bleeding, he somehow finds endurance to run endlessly after a maiden and then easily dispatches two Frost Giants?
He then manages to pursue her again when she flees, until...
He then manages to pursue her again when she flees, until...
..., after another long pursuit:
"In his untamed soul leaped up the fires of hell she had fanned so well. With an inhuman roar he closed in on her, just as she wheeled with a haunting cry and flung out her arms to fend him off."
Conan gapples her attempting to kiss the woman...
"In his untamed soul leaped up the fires of hell she had fanned so well. With an inhuman roar he closed in on her, just as she wheeled with a haunting cry and flung out her arms to fend him off."
Conan gapples her attempting to kiss the woman...
...who feels cold as "flaming ice"
She breaks away and calls to her father, Ymir, King of the Frost-Giants to save her, which he does. The fantastic landscape reels drunkenly and Conan loses consciousness.
When Conan wakes he wonders if he is in another realm...
She breaks away and calls to her father, Ymir, King of the Frost-Giants to save her, which he does. The fantastic landscape reels drunkenly and Conan loses consciousness.
When Conan wakes he wonders if he is in another realm...
He says, "I was dizzy and faint. The land lay like a dream before me. Only now do all things seem natural and familiar."
A tale of dead giants and a disappearing woman is dismissed by his Aesir comrades as fancy until they find the woman's unearthly dress still in Conan's fist.
A tale of dead giants and a disappearing woman is dismissed by his Aesir comrades as fancy until they find the woman's unearthly dress still in Conan's fist.
It is perfectly clear in the tale that Conan was in an unnatural state, moving in an unfamiliar realm that only the near-dead can perceive or interact with; his head-injury parting the veil to a supernatural plane.
Dale Ripkke suggests the supernatural world is a place of raw...
Dale Ripkke suggests the supernatural world is a place of raw...
emotion and Atali uses her supernatural beauty and insults to anchor Conan there; inflaming his lust and rage to distract him from rational thoughts about the fate of his comrades in the mundane world.
Suppressing Conan's rational mind allows her to keep her prey in her world.
Suppressing Conan's rational mind allows her to keep her prey in her world.
Rage and lust are prime examples of the Id in Freud's theory. Rational thought is Ego. Morality is Superego.
With a dominant Id and suppressed Ego/Superego, a person would be a slavering, raging beast; just as Conan is portrayed in this story...
With a dominant Id and suppressed Ego/Superego, a person would be a slavering, raging beast; just as Conan is portrayed in this story...
But only this story.
Conan is no angel in Howard's tales but he never pursues any woman in another tale with such savage, monstrous intentions.
In Cimmeria, and the Aesir were no different, women fought alongside men in war; so it's hard to imagine Conan believing he could...
Conan is no angel in Howard's tales but he never pursues any woman in another tale with such savage, monstrous intentions.
In Cimmeria, and the Aesir were no different, women fought alongside men in war; so it's hard to imagine Conan believing he could...
...commit sexual violence on a woman without severe consequences or death.
So why is it an element in this tale but never again in the 25 other Conan stories?
Conan may be the damndest bastard you ever met, but he has a moral code and a quick wit. Civilized people call...
So why is it an element in this tale but never again in the 25 other Conan stories?
Conan may be the damndest bastard you ever met, but he has a moral code and a quick wit. Civilized people call...
...him barbarian but his morals and wit prove superior to those of civilized men in many Howard tales.
The Frost Giant's Daughter shows, without his morals or mind, that Conan is capable of just as much evil as any civilized man; that even the greatest heroes are capable of ...
The Frost Giant's Daughter shows, without his morals or mind, that Conan is capable of just as much evil as any civilized man; that even the greatest heroes are capable of ...
...great evil when stripped of honour and integrity.
By deconstructing his hero, Howard gives Conan important lessons for future tales; not only about the sinister power of the supernatural but, more importantly, about himself and the depraved depths of which he is capable.
By deconstructing his hero, Howard gives Conan important lessons for future tales; not only about the sinister power of the supernatural but, more importantly, about himself and the depraved depths of which he is capable.
It is the abyss looking back at him.
And at us.
It undoubtedly cemented Conan's youthful moral attitudes towards women, a strong double-standard we see portrayed in so many subsequent Conan stories.
The Frost Giant's Daughter is more than just a great swords & sorcery tale...
And at us.
It undoubtedly cemented Conan's youthful moral attitudes towards women, a strong double-standard we see portrayed in so many subsequent Conan stories.
The Frost Giant's Daughter is more than just a great swords & sorcery tale...
...about a character with an iron will & superhuman stamina.
It is also a weird-tale about the horror of unchecked lust and rage.
And it took an incredible amount of courage for Howard to write it.
Few authors have the courage to deconstruct their characters so thoroughly.
It is also a weird-tale about the horror of unchecked lust and rage.
And it took an incredible amount of courage for Howard to write it.
Few authors have the courage to deconstruct their characters so thoroughly.
Do we have the courage to look into the abyss? To understand that our own capacity for depravity is no less than Conan's if we reject morals & common sense?
Or will we cling desperately to our crumbling social contract, hoping never to have to?
Gignatic melancholies indeed.
Or will we cling desperately to our crumbling social contract, hoping never to have to?
Gignatic melancholies indeed.
