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Cover of The Grey God Passes
Chapbooks
REH World editorial overlay

The Grey God Passes

Charles Miller

Material type

Publication date: October 1975

Introduction

"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 Turlogh Dubh O'Brien, a recurring character of Howard's who is an outcast from Brian Boru's clan.

Howard first wrote a version of this story called "Spears of Clontarf", but it was rejected by "Soldiers of Fortune" magazine. He then added fantasy elements to the story so as to be able to submit it to the Weird Tales magazine under the title The Grey God Passes, where it was also rejected by editor Farnsworth Wright in December, 1931. He then rewrote it a third time, as a horror story called The Cairn on the Headland, and that version was published in the January, 1933 issue of Strange Tales.

Howard's first version (as Spears of Clontarf) finally saw print in a chapbook in 1978, and his Grey God Passes version was also published posthumously in the anthology collection titled Dark Mind, Dark Heart in 1962.

Notes

Pamphlet has no catalog number, ISBN or cover price.
Price from verifier's records.
Produced for the first World Fantasy Convention.
"First Edition" so stated on copyright page.
Charles Miller estimates 2 or 3 thousand were printed.

 

 

Edition and production details

Format
Booklet / Chapbook
Publication date
October 1975
Pages
22
Publisher / imprint
Charles Miller
Cover art
None
Illustrations
Walter Simonson

1 linked Howard work

4 contents entries

  1. "The Grey God Passes"
  2. The Grey God Passes • interior artwork by Walter Simonson artwork
  3. |
  4. The Grey God Passes • [Turlogh O'Brien] • (1962) • novelette by Robert E. Howard 1 · novelette

Contributors

Not illustrated
Cover artist
Walter Simonson
Illustrator

Additional related terms

Preserved from the former REH World tagging system; these terms have not yet been assigned as contributors, characters or subjects.

Bibliographic and editorial layers

Howard Works source layer

Title
The Grey God Passes
Publisher
Charles Miller
Date
October 1975
Source file
greygodpasses.html

REH World editorial layer

Title
The Grey God Passes
Publisher
Charles Miller
Date
October 1975
Source provenance

This record combines the preserved Howard Works bibliography with a reviewed REH World editorial overlay. Editorial values are displayed when present; Howard Works remains the source and fallback.