Through the branches moaned an eerie night-wind. Dark trees shut in this grim scene, lit by a single torch. The Druids of his own isle of Erin had strange dark rites of worship, but nothing like this. He eyed the proceedings with little favor.Īnd, in truth, Cormac of Connacht was little at ease. Nearly a head taller, though his hair was black as theirs, his skin was comparatively light and he was gray- eyed. The fourth man had little in common with the rest.

His face denoted intelligence and implacable will theirs merely a beast-like ferocity. But where he was lithe, they were stocky and misshapen, with knotted limbs, and tangled hair falling over sloping brows. Of the others, two were dark like the first. One was of medium height, lithely built, scantily clad, whose black hair was confined by a narrow iron band in the center of which gleamed a single red jewel. Under matted white brows, sharp eyes gleamed with a ferocious intensity.īesides the slayer, four men stood about the crude pile of stones that formed the altar of the God of Shadows. The jagged flint edge sawed at the crimsoned breast, and thin bony fingers, ghastly dyed, tore out the still- twitching heart. The form on the rough altar twitched convulsively an lay still. Special Bonus: a newly discovered adventure by Howard, presented here for the very first time.A CONRAD AND KIROWAN STORY LINKED TO BRAN MAK MORN KINGS OF THE NIGHT CHAPTER 1

Lavishly illustrated by award-winning artist Gary Gianni, this collection gathers together all of Howard’s published stories and poems featuring Bran Mak Morn–including the eerie masterpiece “Worms of the Earth” and “Kings of the Night,” in which sorcery summons Kull the conqueror from out of the depths of time to stand with Bran against the Roman invaders.Īlso included are previously unpublished stories and fragments, reproductions of manuscripts bearing Howard’s handwritten revisions, and much, much more. Threatened by the Celts and the Romans, the Pictish tribes rally under his banner to fight for their very survival, while Bran fights to restore the glory of his race. all save one, Bran Mak Morn, whose bloodline remains unbroken. But the descendants of those proud conquerors have sunk into barbarism. In ages past, the Picts ruled all of Europe. But of all Howard’s characters, none embodied his creator’s brooding temperament more than Bran Mak Morn, the last king of a doomed race. Howard’s fertile imagination sprang some of fiction’s greatest heroes, including Conan the Cimmerian, King Kull, and Solomon Kane.

Bran Mak Morn by Robert E. Howard