Cimmeria
Written in Mission, Texas, February, 1932; suggested by the memory of the hill-country above Fredericksburg seen in a mist of winter rain.
Robert E. Howard
Cimmeria I remember
The dark woods, masking slopes of sombre hills;
The grey clouds’ leaden everlasting arch;
The dusky streams that flowed without a sound,
And the lone winds that whispered down the passes.
Vista on vista marching, hills on hills,
Slope beyond slope, each dark with sullen trees,
Our gaunt land lay. So when a man climbed up
A rugged peak and gazed, his shaded eye
Saw but the endless vista – hill on hill,
Slope beyond slope, each hooded like its brothers.
It was a gloomy land that seemed to hold
All winds and clouds and dreams that shun the sun,
With bare boughs rattling in the lonesome winds,
And the dark woodlands brooding over all,
Not even lightened by the rare dim sun
Which made squat shadows out of men; they called it
Cimmeria, land of Darkness and deep Night.
It was so long ago and far away
I have forgot the very name men called me.
The axe and flint-tipped spear are like a dream,
And hunts and wars are shadows. I recall
Only the stillness of that sombre land;
The clouds that piled forever on the hills,
The dimness of the everlasting woods.
Cimmeria, land of Darkness and the Night.
Oh, soul of mine, born out of shadowed hills,
To clouds and winds and ghosts that shun the sun,
How many deaths shall serve to break at last
This heritage which wraps me in the grey
Apparel of ghosts? I search my heart and find
Cimmeria, land of Darkness and the Night.
That was great. Where did you find it?
Ballantine books, "The Coming of Conan, the Cimmerian" PDF. Part one of the three volume complete and definitive R.E Howard Conan collection.
Here is the table of contents:
Introduction
Cimmeria
The Phoenix on the Sword
The Frost-Giant’s Daughter
The God in the Bowl
The Tower of the Elephant
The Scarlet Citadel
Queen of the Black Coast
Black Colossus
Iron Shadows in the Moon
Xuthal of the Dusk
The Pool of the Black One
Rogues in the House
The Vale of Lost Women
The Devil in Iron2
The Coming of Conan The Cimmerian
Miscellanea
The Phoenix on the Sword (first submitted draft)
Notes on Various Peoples of the Hyborian Age
The Hyborian Age
Untitled Synopsis
Untitled Synopsis (The Scarlet Citadel)
Untitled Synopsis (Black Colossus)
Untitled Fragment
Untitled Synopsis
Untitled Draft
Hyborian Names and Countries
Hyborian Age Maps
Appendices
Hyborian Genesis
Notes on the Conan Typescripts and the Chronology
Notes on the Original Howard Texts
"The Bloody Crown of Conan" is part two, and " The Conquering Sword of Conan" is part three. It is the best collection out there.
I will not say where I got the PDF.
