Introduction
‘The Blood of Belshazzar’ is a story in the Cormac Fitzgeoffrey series about a knight fighting in the Crusades. Cormac Fitzgeoffrey only appears in two of these tales: Hawks of Outremer and The Blood of Belshazzar, both written in 1931. In the latter, Cormac seeks help in rescuing his leader from barbarians even more fierce and evil than those that hold his friend captive.
The story sold for $115 to Oriental Stories.
He refers to the story in a letter (#149) to his friend Tevis Clyde Smith, circa December 1930:
I’ve sold nothing recently except a tale to Oriental Stories and one to Weird Tales. The Oriental story I feel I sold merely on my reputation — if I can be said to have one. The title, “The Blood of Bel-Shazzer,” referring to a jewel, was the only interesting thing about it. The plot was hackneyed and sketchy, the action labored and artificial. Only once in the entire story did I evoke a slight spark of the fire that has smoldered out in me. But at least I sold it, for $115.
Howard also mentions the story in a letter (#169) to HPL in June 1931:
Yet I certainly show no trace of Oriental blood — thank God. Strangely enough, something like you mentioned, I feel a dim sense of a vast epoch lurking behind the East of the early ages — a sort of huge lurking night behind the dawn represented by Egypt and by Babylon — a dim sense of gigantic black cities from whose ruins the first Babylon rose, a last mirrored remnant of an age lost in the huge deep gulf of night. I have touched on this briefly in a story titled “The Blood of Belshazzer” which Mr. Wright accepted for Oriental Stories.
And again here’s an extract from a letter (#183) Howard wrote to Tevis Clyde Smith in November 1931:
I’m glad you liked the Oriental story; I take it you are referring to the Belshazzar tripe. Personally, I thought it was pretty rotten in spots, particularly towards the conclusion when I had to drag in so blasted much explanation.
Published in:
- ORIENTAL STORIES VOLUME 1 NUMBER 6, Popular Fiction Publishing Company, Fall 1931
- HAWKS OF OUTREMER, Grant, 1979
- CORMAC FITZGEOFFREY, NeO, November 1984 (French)
- DELIRIUM TREMENS Nº 1, Club Alpino Guadarrama, 1987 (Spanish)
- JASTRZEBIE OUTREMERU, Wydawnictwo Andor, 1991 (Polish)
- GATES OF EMPIRE AND OTHER TALES OF THE CRUSADES, Wildside Press, 1st, June 2004
- GATES OF EMPIRE AND OTHER TALES OF THE CRUSADES, Wildside Press, 2nd, 2004
- LORD OF SAMARCAND AND OTHER ADVENTURE TALES OF THE OLD ORIENT, Bison Books, April 2005
- PULP REPLICA: ORIENTAL STORIES VOLUME 1 NUMBER 6, Girasol Collectables, May 2006
- GATES OF EMPIRE AND OTHER TALES OF THE CRUSADES, Wildside Press, September 2006
- THE EXOTIC WRITINGS OF ROBERT E. HOWARD, Girasol Collectables, October 2006
- THE ROBERT E. HOWARD READER VOLUME 1, Wildshade Books, 2007
- THE COMPLETE ORIENTAL STORIES VOLUME 2, Girasol Collectables, November 2007
- THE BLOOD OF BELSHAZZAR, Dodo Press, February 2008
- LE SEIGNEUR DE SAMARCANDE, Bragelonne, July 2009 (French)
- THE SHADOW KINGDOM AND OTHER WORKS, Halcyon Press, Ltd., January 2010
- THE ROBERT E. HOWARD OMNIBUS: 99 COLLECTED STORIES, Halcyon Press, Ltd., May 2010
- THE CORMAC FITZGEOFFREY SERIES: THE BLOOD OF BELSHAZZAR, Paradox Entertainment Inc., July 2010
- SWORD WOMAN AND OTHER HISTORICAL ADVENTURES, Del Rey, January 2011
- 50 CLASSIC PULP FICTION WORKS VOLUME 1, Golgotha Press, February 2011
- DARK AGNES, DONNA DI SPADA, Elara, May 2011 (Italian)
- THE DEADLY SWORD OF CORMAC, Nuelow Games, August 2011
- THE CORMAC FITZGEOFFREY SERIES: THE BLOOD OF BELSHAZZAR, Paradox Entertainment Inc., November 2011
- PUNANE SONJA, Fantaasia, 2011 (Estonian)
- DAS BLUT BELSAZARS, Edition Phantasia, August 2012 (German)
- SOLOMON KANE AND OTHER STORIES, Jame-Books, August 2012
- ROBERT E. HOWARD’S COLLECTED WORKS, Jame-Books, February 2013
- LE SEIGNEUR DE SAMARCANDE. LES FAUCONS D’OUTREMER, Bragelonne, March 2013 (French)
- DAS BLUT BELSAZARS, Edition Dardariee, April 2013 (German)
- WEIRD TALES: 101 WEIRD, STRANGE, AND SUPERNATURAL STORIES VOLUME 9, Civitas Media, June 2013
- ORIENTAL STORIES, Createspace, December 2014
- LE SEIGNEUR DE SAMARCANDE, Le Livre de Poche, April 2020 (French)
Rewritten as a Conan story appearing in:
- CONAN THE BARBARIAN #27, Marvel, June 1973
Source: Howard Works.