| "By This Axe I Rule!" | |
|---|---|
| Short story by Robert E. Howard | |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Sword & Sorcery |
| Publication | |
| Published in | King Kull |
| Publication type | Paperback |
| Publication date | 1967 |
| Series | Kull |
"By This Axe I Rule!" is a fantasy short story by American writer Robert E. Howard, the last of his Kull stories, set in his fictional Thurian Age. It was first published in the Lancer Books paperback King Kull in 1967.[1]
This story was rejected by the pulp magazines Argosy and Adventure in 1929,[2] after which Howard rewrote it as the Conan story "The Phoenix on the Sword", substituting a new secondary plot and adding elements of supernatural horror. The main shared elements of the two stories are the conspiracy and the king's defeat of it. The Conan story was published in December 1932.