Hall of the Dead (aka The Nestor Synopsis)

[johnnypt]

Going over the writings for the podcast, it still astounds me how much use Howard got out of this single two page synopsis for a story never written.

Howard clearly intended on writing a story about Conan being a thief as a young man.  God in the Bowl didn't strike Farnsworth's fancy, so he tried again, coming up with this synopsis.  For some reason, it was never written (whether or not there were any draft pages is unknown but there's never been any evidence of any as far as I'm aware).  So Howard takes his Nemedian Chronicles opening from Phoenix for the idea of what life in Zamora is like, adds in the idea of Conan as a young thief there, then plugs in some of the material he wrote for the Hyborian Age and you have Tower of the Elephant.

Then a year or so later, whether consciously or not, Howard take the idea of a Gunderman mercenary who works as a thief with Conan from the synopsis.  He then concocts the end of this partnership for Rogues in the House.  You can read these three pieces one after the other (Tower/synopsis/Rogues) and it tells a coherent story.

But he wasn't done with it!  Before he used it for Rogues, he reuses the idea of statues coming to life for Iron Shadows in the Moon.  This is the definition of a Depression baby not letting anything go to waste!

[Von K]

Aye, so many ideas in those two synopses that he lifted out to be reused in other yarns in a more focussed and intensified form.

This topic could warrant a whole podcast dedicated to it.

[johnnypt]

I’ll probably touch on it when I do the larger Howard Universe episode, probably in February once the story of Conan is done. Steve Tompkins noted how much of a world builder he was, similar to Tolkien. This recycling helps tie things together even more than they already are.