Robert E. Howard
Sword Woman and Other Historical Adventures
This book is dedicated to my deceased wife, Lorraine, who I’m sure would have been pleased that I finally got to illustrate a book by such a great writer.
“Touch it not,” exclaimed Asmund
His mighty right hand held ready the stained sword
Cormac thundered his battle cry …
“They have crossed the Jordan!”
We fell to it, thrusting, slashing …
So I gave the horse the rein and rode at a reckless gallop
Artist’s Foreword
Robert E. Howard’s crowning glory in literature was Conan the Cimmerian. His epic tales written from a remote place in Texas were remarkable in character, landscape, and mood.
At the age of fourteen, I first came across his stories in paperback editions. At that time, as a young artist, I had been studying anatomy with regard to drawing the human figure. The exotic, mysterious, action-packed stories of the Conan saga were a perfect vehicle for inventive figure renditions and stagings.
At that time I could only dream about working on Howard’s stories. Now I have realized that dream, illustrating Sword Woman and Other Historical Adventures.
I hope you enjoy Howard’s work as much as I enjoyed illustrating it.
Introduction
Historical fiction has been a part of our literary heritage for almost as long as we have possessed the written word, since some forgotten scribe in the court of Rameses XI put pen to papyrus to create the “Report of Wenamon.” Over the centuries it became the province of skalds and poets; bards and playwrights plundered whole archives to find fodder for the ages, while historians and antiquarians used fictionalized history as a means of understanding long-vanished civilizations.