Three-Bladed Doom

Introduction

THREE-BLADED DOOM is an El Borak story. It had a short (24.000 words) and a long (42.000 words) version. The 24.000-word version was received at Kline Agency on November 6, 1934. It seems also to have been received again on May 27, 1935. It was sent to Adventure, by Kline, on December 31, 1935. On January 15, 1936, Adventure returned it (the short version). It was then sent to Dime Adventure on January 17. Unfortunately, they returned it to Kline on February 6, 1936. The very next day Kline sent it to Thrilling Adventures. They returned it on March 9, 1936. Kline then sent it to Thrilling Adventure the next day (March 10th). They also rejected it and Kline sent it to Complete Stories which returned it on March 31. Kline then sent it to New Mystery Adventures on April 1. On April 28 it was returned (the short version) from New Mystery Adventures to Kline.

Records from the Kline Agency also say there is a 12-page version of this story, much shorter than the known two versions. Unfortunately, if a 12-page version does exist it is either lost or it could be an incomplete version of one of the six known drafts for the story.

The first printing of the short version was heavily edited by the editor (Byron Roark) and those changes were copied by The New Howard Reader #7 when it reprinted the story in Spring 2000.

The first clean version of the story was in El Borak and Other Desert Adventures. The short version was offered by Otis Adelbert Kline to Top-Notch, Adventure, Complete Stories, Dime Adventure, Thrilling Adventure, and New Mystery Adventures. There were no takers.

The long version was offered to Argosy, Blue Book, Short Stories, Sun and Adventure Novels. Again, there were no takers. Kline and later agents retained both of the original typescripts and they were eventually donated to Cross Plains Library.

Published in:

L. Sprague de Camp changed the story into a Conan tale based on the long version of THREE-BLADED DOOM and called it THE FLAME KNIFE. It appears in the following places: