Howard originally wrote this story in 1929 as The Blue Flame of Vengeance, with Solomon Kane as the protagonist. He did not sell the story. In 1932 he rewrote and shortened it, replacing Kane with Malachi Grim and retitling the revision Blades of the Brotherhood. No record is known of any magazine submissions for the revised story.

An earlier draft of the Solomon Kane story was titled The Blue Flame of Death. John Pocsik later rewrote Howard’s Kane story to add a weird element; that version was published as The Blue Flame of Vengeance. Later publications of Howard’s own Kane text have also used the title Blades of the Brotherhood, a title Howard originally used for the Malachi Grim revision.