| By This Axe I Rule! | |
|---|---|
| by Robert E. Howard | |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Kull |
| Genre(s) | Sword & Sorcery |
| Published in | King Kull |
| Publication type | Paperback |
| Publication date | 1967 |
"By This Axe I Rule!" is a fantasy short story by American writer Robert E. Howard, the last of his Kull stories, set in his fictional Thurian Age. It was first published in the Lancer Books paperback King Kull in 1967. [1]
This story was rejected by the pulp magazines Argosy and Adventure in 1929, [2] after which Howard rewrote it as the Conan story "The Phoenix on the Sword", substituting a new secondary plot and adding elements of supernatural horror. The main shared elements of the two stories are the conspiracy and the king's defeat of it. The Conan story was published in December 1932.
An alliance of jealous nobles and outlaws plan on assassinating King Kull, having sown dissent among the citizens before subverting an officer of the royal guard into removing his men so their assassins have access to the King's chamber. The king is aware of the discontent, though not of their specific conspiracy. Meanwhile, Kull laments on how the laws of Valusia hamper his rule, and never allow him to govern as he wants. A young nobleman visits him and ask to marry a slave girl, but Kull is advised that this is impossible under an ancient law, engraved on a tablet crafted by hallowed lawmakers many centuries ago. Saddened, the nobleman is sent away with regrets.
Later, Kull has an encounter with the man's love interest, crying in the woods, and tries in vain to console her. The girl is a slave owned by one of the conspirators seeking to murder Kull, and overheard her master mention his plan with one of the fellow conspirators - whereupon she hastens to tell her lover.
That night, the conspirators - four leaders and sixteen robbers - sneak into the palace and enter Kull's private chambers. However, Kull awakens, realizes something is wrong, and manages to arm himself. Seizing an antique battle axe, which had hung on the wall for decades, he fights furiously, one against many, killing a large portion of the attackers. Still, he is nearly killed by the conspirators' leader when needing to wipe blood from his eyes. In the nick of time, the young noble arrives with his retainers, killing the assassin and saving Kull's life.
Though severely wounded, Kull is determined to reward fittingly the young lovers who saved his life. There and then he smashes with his axe the Tablets of the Law, proclaiming "I am the law!", "I am king, state, and law!" and "By this ax I rule!", before allowing the couple to happily marry.
The first comic book appearance of King Kull was in "Kull the Conqueror" (1971) published by Marvel Comics. The first issue was in part an adaptation of "By This Axe I Rule!", and issue #11 (1973) was more specifically based on that story and had the same title. The 1997 movie Kull the Conqueror starring Kevin Sorbo was partly based on "By This Axe I Rule!".
Conan the Barbarian is a fictional sword and sorcery hero who originated in pulp magazines and has since been adapted to books, comics, films, television programs, video games, and role-playing games. Robert E. Howard created the character in 1932 for a series of fantasy stories published in Weird Tales magazine.
Robert Ervin Howard was an American writer. He wrote pulp fiction in a diverse range of genres. He is well known for his character Conan the Barbarian and is regarded as the father of the sword and sorcery subgenre.
Kull of Atlantis or Kull the Conqueror is a fictional character created by writer Robert E. Howard. The character was more introspective than Howard's subsequent creation, Conan the Barbarian, whose first appearance was in a re-write of a rejected Kull story.
Kull the Conqueror is a 1997 fantasy film about the Robert E. Howard character Kull starring Kevin Sorbo. It is a film adaptation of Howard's Conan novel The Hour of the Dragon, with the protagonist changed to the author's other barbarian hero Kull. The storyline also bears similarities to two other Howard stories, the Kull story "By This Axe I Rule!" and the Conan story "The Phoenix on the Sword", which was a rewritten version of "By This Axe I Rule!"
Bran Mak Morn is a hero of five pulp fiction short stories by Robert E. Howard. In the stories, most of which were first published in Weird Tales, Bran is the last king of Howard's romanticized version of the tribal race of Picts.
"The Phoenix on the Sword" is one of the original short stories about Conan the Cimmerian written by American author Robert E. Howard and first published in Weird Tales magazine in December 1932. The tale, in which Howard created the character of Conan, was a rewrite of the unpublished Kull story "By This Axe I Rule!", with long passages being identical. The Conan version of the story was republished in the collections King Conan and Conan the Usurper. It has most recently been republished in the collections The Conan Chronicles Volume 2: The Hour of the Dragon and Conan of Cimmeria: Volume One (1932-1933). It is set in the pseudo-historical Hyborian Age and details Conan foiling a plot to unseat him as king of Aquilonia.
The Hour of the Dragon, also known as Conan the Conqueror, is a fantasy novel by American writer Robert E. Howard featuring his sword and sorcery hero Conan the Cimmerian. It was one of the last Conan stories published before Howard's suicide, although not the last to be written. The novel was first published in serial form in the December 1935 through April 1936 issues of the pulp magazine Weird Tales. The first book edition was published by Gnome Press in hardcover in 1950. The Gnome Press edition retitled the story Conan the Conqueror, a title retained by all subsequent editions until 1977, when the original title was restored in an edition issued published by Berkley/Putnam in 1977. The Berkley edition also reverted the text to that of its original Weird Tales publication, discarding later edits. Later editions have generally followed Berkley and published under the original title.
"Red Nails" is the last of the stories featuring Conan the Cimmerian written by American author Robert E. Howard. A novella, it was originally serialized in Weird Tales magazine from July to October 1936, the months after Howard's suicide. It is set in the pseudo-historical Hyborian Age and concerns Conan entering a lost city whose degenerate inhabitants are entangled in a murderous blood feud. Due to its dark themes of decay and death, the story is considered a classic of Conan lore while also cited by Howard scholars as one of his best tales.
"The Hyborian Age" is an essay by Robert E. Howard pertaining to the Hyborian Age, the fictional setting of his stories about Conan the Cimmerian. It was written in the 1930s but not published during Howard's lifetime. Its purpose was to maintain consistency within his fictional setting.
Thulsa Doom is a fictional character created by American author Robert E. Howard, as an antagonist for the character Kull of Atlantis. Thulsa Doom debuted in the story "Delcardes' Cat". He has since appeared in comic books and film as the nemesis of Kull and, later, one of Howard's other creations, Conan the Barbarian.
"The Twilight of the Grey Gods", also known as "The Grey God Passes", is a short story by American writer Robert E. Howard that blends history and fantasy. Published posthumously in 1962, the first appearance of the story was in a collection titled Dark Mind, Dark Heart, edited by August Derleth. The tale is a fictionalized version of the Battle of Clontarf (1014) recast in Howard's views, with doomful visions and weird fantasy elements. While the historical facts of the battle are accurate, they are not the most important parts of the story. The protagonist is Conn the Thrall, who fights alongside Turlogh Dubh O'Brien, a recurring character of Howard's who is an outcast from Brian Boru's clan.
Conan the Usurper is a 1967 collection of four fantasy short stories by American writer Robert E. Howard and L. Sprague de Camp, featuring Howard's sword and sorcery hero Conan the Barbarian. Most of the stories originally appeared in the fantasy magazine Weird Tales in the 1930s. The book has been reprinted a number of times since by various publishers, and has also been translated into German, Spanish, Italian, Swedish and Dutch.
"The Shadow Kingdom" is a fantasy short story by American writer Robert E. Howard, the first of his Kull stories, set in his fictional Thurian Age. It was first published in the pulp magazine Weird Tales in August 1929.
Conan the Defender is a fantasy novel by American writer Robert Jordan, featuring Robert E. Howard's sword and sorcery hero Conan the Barbarian. It was first published in trade paperback by Tor Books in December 1982, followed by a regular paperback edition in December 1983. The book was reprinted by Tor in February 1991 and September 2009. The first British edition was published by Legend in September 1996. It was later gathered together with Conan the Invincible and Conan the Unconquered into the omnibus collection The Conan Chronicles.
Kull is a collection of Fantasy short stories by Robert E. Howard. It was first published in 1967 by Lancer Books under the title King Kull. This edition included three stories completed by Lin Carter from unfinished fragments and drafts by Howard. Later editions, retitled as Kull, replaced the stories with the uncompleted fragments. Two of the stories, and the poem, "The King and the Oak", originally appeared in the magazine Weird Tales.
"Exile of Atlantis" is a short story by Robert E. Howard and is the first story written by Howard to feature his creation Kull, set in his fictional Thurian Age.
Serpent Men are a fictional race created by Robert E. Howard for his King Kull tales. They first appeared in "The Shadow Kingdom", published in Weird Tales in August 1929.
"A Witch Shall Be Born" is one of the original sword and sorcery novellas by Robert E. Howard about Conan the Cimmerian. It was written in only a few days in spring of 1934 and first published in Weird Tales in December 1934. A book edition was published in 1975 by Donald M. Grant, Publisher with illustrations by Alicia Austin.
The distinctive literary styles and themes of Robert E. Howard rely on a combination of many factors. In his fiction, he used devices borrowed from classical and traditional works, as well as formal rhetoric. In his poetry, he used rhythm, stress, and intonation to achieve a sense of motion. Some of his fiction has been described as prose poetry. His works can be distinguished by his use of violence and hate as positive forces in his universe, which can be seen as a part of the American Myth. In keeping with the era in which he worked, a grim and hardboiled theme pervades. The continuing cycle of civilisation and barbarism is highlighted in several works. Although he died before it was formally defined, an existentialism subtext runs through his writing. He was an aesthete and had affinity for romanticism and neo-romanticism, although in this he was out of step with his era.
Akivasha is a female character appearing in the fictional universe of Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian.
