Cinematic Doom’s snake imagery has led some to suggest a link to Thoth-Amon, but again, the similarities between the two are negligible: aside from his name, he is a mostly original creation of Stone & Milius. He only appeared in a single story, but is considered to be Kull’s nemesis nonetheless. The original Doom was very different from his cinematic namesake: he was a gaunt, skull-faced, undead horror with flaming orbs in place of eyes, and his magical powers included teleportation, supernatural strength, and horrific vitality. Thulsa Doom’s name was taken from that of another Howard character, the sorcerer who was thwarted by King Kull of Atlantis, in Howard’s unsold story “The Cat and the Skull” (later published as “Delcardes’ Cat,” which was the name of an earlier version that lacked the Doom character).
Well, what Howard stories have Thulsa Doom, Valeria, Conan’s family and Subotai ? Conan the Barbarian was almost entirely based on a story Oliver Stone and John Milius thought up themselves. I’d like to read Howard’s version of events: what story was Conan the Barbarian based on? The special sword of great power, antiquity or quality is central to the mythology of Conan the Barbarian, as well as in the live action and animated series, but it has no basis in the original stories. There was no such duality in the original Howard stories: there, swords and other weapons were tools to be used, not symbols to be venerated or scrutinized. Bring up Excalibur, and one immediately thinks of King Arthur a mention of Stormbringer conjures Elric Anduril recalls Aragorn, Hrunting evokes Beowulf. The idea of Conan being partnered to a particular weapon subtly ties Conan to other hero/sword combos in history, mythology and myth, to the point where the two are inseparable. In “The Tower of the Elephant,” it was a simple dagger in “Queen of the Black Coast” it was an Aquilonian broadsword in “The People of the Black Circle,” it was a tulwar in “Beyond the Black River,” it was an axe in The Hour of the Dragon, goes through a dozen weapons. Conan’s favourite weapon was the one in his hand in that story, and that varied from location to location.
Ok, then what was Conan’s favourite weapon in the Howard stories? Conan didn’t really have a favoured sword. So what’s the story with the Atlantean Sword?
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