December 2020/January 2021 - The Cairn on the Headland

[Jason Aiken]

First appeared in the January 1933 issue of Strange Tales of Mystery and Terror.


Read in The Horror Stories of Robert E. Howard: amzn.to/37aKxYd

Etext: gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0601721h.html

Full reading by David Drage of Dial P for Pulp fame:

[charleshelm]

I got busy with family things and haven't re-read this one yet (I have read it several times in the past) but I will repair this omission and post my thoughts soon.

[keith]

"The Cairn on the Headland" is a great read, and I find I like it best back to back with "The Grey God Passes." The narrator of "Cairn" really makes you feel his murderous hatred for the blood-sucking extortioner who has made his life hell and drained his earnings for years. No wonder he's determined to kill Ortali when they're alone by night and to hell with consequences. Blackmail is among the most rotten, contemptible crimes, and besides being cold-blooded, besides inflicting a lot of anguish and dread with the financial loss, it's cowardly. As Holmes said in one of his rare passionate moments, there's no comparison between "the ruffian who in hot blood bludgeons his mate," and the extortioner who "methodically and at his leisure tortures the soul and wrings the nerves." ("The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton.")
Well, satisfyingly, both Milverton and Ortali got what was coming to them.

[Jason Aiken]

Every time I listen to this story I enjoy it more and more and is easily in my top 5 favorite REH tales. This is easily a "modern day" s&s tale. I can't really find any fault in it. The way REH sets up the conflict between the main character and his blackmailer, the lurking threat of Odin beneath the cairn, and the fantastic flashback sequence during the Battle of Clontarf all vividly painted with REH's master prose, this is what pulp is all about.

During the Dark Horse Presents and REH's Savage Sword days I wished that this were adapted into graphic novel form, and I hope it still will be one day because it's an REH tale that is sorely overlooked IMO.

[Jason Aiken]

Jan 5, 2021 3:19:52 GMT -5 keith said:

"The Cairn on the Headland" is a great read, and I find I like it best back to back with "The Grey God Passes." The narrator of "Cairn" really makes you feel his murderous hatred for the blood-sucking extortioner who has made his life hell and drained his earnings for years. No wonder he's determined to kill Ortali when they're alone by night and to hell with consequences. Blackmail is among the most rotten, contemptible crimes, and besides being cold-blooded, besides inflicting a lot of anguish and dread with the financial loss, it's cowardly. As Holmes said in one of his rare passionate moments, there's no comparison between "the ruffian who in hot blood bludgeons his mate," and the extortioner who "methodically and at his leisure tortures the soul and wrings the nerves." ("The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton.")
Well, satisfyingly, both Milverton and Ortali got what was coming to them.

Agreed, you could really feel the corner the narrator was painted in to by Ortali.

That's interesting about "The Grey God Passes," I'll have to read that while "Cairn on the Headland" is still fresh in my mind. The flashback scene to the Battle of Clontarf was really excellent, so I'm very interested in seeing a tale set during the battle.

[bartonamra]

I read it for the second time for Howard’s 115th anniversary. I enjoyed it more than the first time. I think when we, as readers, know more about Howard’s obsession with Celts and the context that made this tale happen, it gets more interesting.

I read the introduction to Swords of the North, by Rusty Burke, before diving into the tale. It seems this story, along with Dermod’s Bane, a great ghost story, were the first in Howard’s Celtic phase.

It made me think how Howard wrote so many great ghost stories. And they all have something that sets them appart. Of course most of them can be found in The Horrors Stories, the Del Rey book. But they are mixed up with so many other tales that it’s kind of hard to compare them and appreciate how he could reinvente the ghost story everytime. I think a collection of all of his ghost stories would be great.

Cairn is very good. It’s varied, with it’s modern setting, apparition of Meve, flashback à la James Allison and confrontation with the ghost/god at the end. And by the way, I cannot think of another story by Howard with such Christian imagery.

I wouldn’t say it’s in my best of Howard, but it’s a great read and I will surely revisite it.

[bartonamra]

A mistake on my part : it was “The Ghost in the Doorway” which, along with “Dermod’s Bane”, started his Celtic phase. “The Cairn on the Headland” written after “The Grey God Passes”, came later, around the end of 1931.

[Jason Aiken]

Jan 23, 2021 0:37:34 GMT -5 bartonamra said:

I read it for the second time for Howard’s 115th anniversary. I enjoyed it more than the first time. I think when we, as readers, know more about Howard’s obsession with Celts and the context that made this tale happen, it gets more interesting.

Indeed, REH's Gaelic pride is on full display here.

It made me think how Howard wrote so many great ghost stories. And they all have something that sets them appart. Of course most of them can be found in The Horrors Stories, the Del Rey book. But they are mixed up with so many other tales that it’s kind of hard to compare them and appreciate how he could reinvente the ghost story everytime. I think a collection of all of his ghost stories would be great.

Good point, the aspect of a ghost/spectre in this story is often something I overlook with Meve. This is a short story that really has something for everyone in it.

Cairn is very good. It’s varied, with it’s modern setting, apparition of Meve, flashback à la James Allison and confrontation with the ghost/god at the end. And by the way, I cannot think of another story by Howard with such Christian imagery.

I wouldn’t say it’s in my best of Howard, but it’s a great read and I will surely revisite it.

Yeah this had a lot more Christian elements than I'm used to in an REH tale. I don't believe I've read any of his crusader yarns proper, but I imagine there's a good bit of Christianity in those, but I could be wrong.

[bartonamra]

There isn’t much religion in his crusader tales. The protagonist is almost always on his own, a renegade, traveling in this war zone. Their motivations are more personnal, when they do have any. You should read them. In my opinion, they are the best he ever wrote. I recommend “The Sowers of the Thunder”, “The Lion of Tiberias” and “Lord of Samarcand”.

[charleshelm]

Personally, I thought the blackmail setup was too contrived and find it difficult to believe it would go on that long. I thought the ending was a bit to abrupt, and the use of the cross would have made more sense if it had put Odin back under the cairn. The battle of Clontarf clearly intrigued Howard and this particular tale inspired by it is not my favorite.

But as a wise man once told me, that's whey they make chocolate and vanilla.

[Jason Aiken]

Jan 24, 2021 22:06:14 GMT -5 bartonamra said:

There isn’t much religion in his crusader tales. The protagonist is almost always on his own, a renegade, traveling in this war zone. Their motivations are more personnal, when they do have any. You should read them. In my opinion, they are the best he ever wrote. I recommend “The Sowers of the Thunder”, “The Lion of Tiberias” and “Lord of Samarcand”.

Cool, I'll have to check those out. I believe I have most, if not all of them in the Swordswoman Del Rey collection.

Jan 25, 2021 22:01:41 GMT -5 charleshelm said:

Personally, I thought the blackmail setup was too contrived and find it difficult to believe it would go on that long. I thought the ending was a bit to abrupt, and the use of the cross would have made more sense if it had put Odin back under the cairn. The battle of Clontarf clearly intrigued Howard and this particular tale inspired by it is not my favorite.

But as a wise man once told me, that's whey they make chocolate and vanilla.

The blackmail thing I could buy given the time period, this was late 1920's or early 1930's and that bastard's testimony would have been enough to put the main character away for the murder. It was a terrible situation he was in.

Yeah it would have been cool to see "Odin" trapped again, but it's also cool knowing he was still out there somewhere, finally free again. I'm really looking forward to seeing how the Grey God Passes compares to this.

[freelance]

At first I was unimpressed with the tale, but it grows on one, especially the narrator's diatribe against "polite Latin and Latinized writers and historians". It was the fruit of the dutiful research REH had done in preparation for the unsold "Spears of Clontarf" molded into a past life remembrance tale, which in my opinion are his best.

[charleshelm]

I just thought that if Maeve was going to climb out of the grave to give him the cross it should be for something more than saving his life.

And I think he would have done away with Ortali long before.