| "The Shadow Kingdom" | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Short story by Robert E. Howard | |||
 | |||
| Country | United States | ||
| Language | English | ||
| Genre(s) | Sword and sorcery | ||
| Publication | |||
| Published in | Weird Tales | ||
| Publication date | August 1929 | ||
| Chronology | |||
| Series | Kull | ||
| |||
"The Shadow Kingdom" is a fantasy novelette by American writer Robert E. Howard, the first of his Kull stories, set in his fictional Thurian Age. It was first published in the pulp magazine Weird Tales in August 1929.
The story introduces Kull himself, the setting of Valusia, Brule the Spear-Slayer (a supporting character), and the Serpent Men (who don't appear in any other work by Howard, but were adopted by later authors for derivative works and inclusion in the Cthulhu Mythos).
"The Shadow Kingdom" has been described as the first true "sword and sorcery" story, because of its barbarian hero, its mix of horror and adventure, and because the story is set in an imaginary world.[1][2][3]
- ^ Holmes, Morgan T. "Gothic to Cosmic: Sword and Sorcery in Weird Tales" in Everett, Justin and Shanks, Jeffrey H. (Editors). The Unique Legacy of Weird Tales : the Evolution of Modern Fantasy and Horror. Rowman and Littlefield, Lanham, Maryland, 2015 ISBN 9781442256224 (p.65)
- ^ Murphy, Brian. Flame and Crimson : a history of sword-and-sorcery. Pulp Hero Press, Pismo Beach, CA, 2019. ISBN 9781683902447 (pg. 55-6, 63).
- ^ Shanks, Jeffrey. "History, Horror, and Heroic Fantasy: Robert E. Howard and the Creation of the Sword-and-Sorcery Subgenre" in Hoppenstand, Gary. Pulp Fiction of the 1920s and 1930s Salem Press, Ipswich, Massachusetts, 2013 ISBN 9781429838436 (pgs. 6-7).