Silken Swords: An Informal Guide to the Women in the Fiction of Robert E. Howard.

REH scholar Fred Blosser provides an A-Z encyclopedia of every female character in Robert E. Howard’s fiction, from Conan’s Belit, Valeria, and Yasmela, to dozens of hags, harlots, and hussies, as well as the occasional demure damsel and distaff destroyer.

Blosser assigns each woman to an archetype: elder, maiden, servant, supernatural being, temptress, warrior, witch. Taken together, these archetypes encompass the feminine gamut not just of REH fiction but of sword-and-sorcery in general, and are a useful tool for further scholarship.

These ladies don’t do the dishes.

Contents

• “Introduction: Women Wild and Wistful”
• “How to Use This Guide”
• “Part I: The Silken Swords of Rai, A-Z”
• “Part II: Women of Anonymity”
• “Part III: Women of the Sword”
• “Part IV: Women of Sorcery”
• “Part V: Women of Color”
• “Part VI: Women of Mystery”
• “Part VII: Women of Spice”
• “Part VIII: Women of Barharicm”
• Appendix A: Variant Names
• Appendix B: Characters by Type
• Appendix C: Characters by Series
• Appendix D: Where to Find the Stories
• About the Author

Notes

Edited by Bob McLain.
Print on demand.