Search Results for: worms of

Legion from the Shadows

Robert E. Howard created the character Bran Mak Morn. Karl Edward Wagner wrote this pastiche, continuing the adventures of the Pictish king, Bran Mak Morn. Called Legion from the Shadows (1976), it starts with the destruction of the Roman IX Legion in second century Caledonia under the blades of the savage Picts. 

Wagner’s novel is a direct sequel to Howard’s own Bran Mak Morn story, “Worms of the Earth.”. To avenge his tribesman, crucified at the behest of the sadistic Roman governor, Bran secures the aid of the titular Worms of the Earth, a monstrous race of degenerate subterranean semi-human creatures. It all ends in bloody death and horror, and Bran realizes some forces are too hideous to use even against one’s most hated enemy.

Bran Mak Morn: The Last King

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.

Also included are previously unpublished stories and fragments, reproductions of manuscripts bearing Howard’s handwritten revisions, and much, much more.

The texts for this edition were based on Howard’s original typescripts or the first published appearance if a typescript was unavailable.

Weird Tales 1932 November

Bran Mak Morn, King of the Picts, vows vengeance on Titus Sulla, a Roman governor, after witnessing the crucifixion of a fellow Pict. He seeks forbidden aid from the Worms of the Earth, a race of creatures who Bran Mak Morn’s ancestors banished from their kingdom centuries ago. They were once men, but millennia of living underground caused them to become monstrous and semi-reptilian.

Searching for a contact with these creatures, Bran Mak Morn encounters a witch who lives in a secluded hut, shunned by her neighbors, who was born from a sexual encounter between one of the “Worms” and a human woman. The witch’s price for helping him is “one night of love” which her human-half craves – as men in general are repelled by her reptilian traits. Bran Mak Morn, though also himself repelled, agrees to pay the price. In exchange, she tells him of a barrow where “The Black Stone”, a religious artifact of great importance to the “Worms”, is hidden.