Legend is from a letter to Tevis Clyde Smith, ca. October 1927. The letter starts with “Are you the young man to whom this letter is addressed?”. The letter contains several short stories/snippets primarily written humorously.
LEGEND
“Molded in the likeness of deity,” sang the priests, “lit by the fire of immortality, given power over all! Man is and shall be and shall endure forever!”
The lutes sounded and the drums spoke and the golden gods looked from their great topaz eyes and the censers sent up long spirals of blue haze of incense.
“Man is mighty, man is everlasting!” chanted the priests. “From the battlements of the gods came the winged soul, eyes of the mighty, thoughts of the high ones; man is soul-winged. Aye, man shall hold dominion forever.”
Where are the shrines and the gods of yesterday? The breeze from the desert stirs the dust through the silent ruins. They are vanished, they are forgotten — only the ancient breeze seems to bring the echo, lost to the ages, “Man is and shall be and shall endure forever.”
Published in:
- THE COLLECTED LETTERS OF REH VOL. 1: 1923-1929, Robert E. Howard Foundation Press, June 2007
- THE LAST OF THE TRUNK OCH BREV I URVAL, Paradox Entertainment, March 2007
- SENTIMENT: AN OLIO OF RARER WORKS, REH Foundation Press, December 2009
- THE COLLECTED LETTERS OF REH VOL. 1: 1923-1929 ultimate edition, Robert E. Howard Foundation Press, June 2021
