Bran Mak Morn: The Last King [Paperback]

The Roman Empire has stretched in Britain. One race of people fights Caesar at every turn, the Picts, led by their king, Bran Mak Morn. But the Picts, rulers of a vast empire themselves in the days of Atlantis, have long since degenerated into brutish barbarism. Bran knows that his battle against Rome and his own people's extinction is a lost cause, and fights on, nonetheless.

I was unfamiliar with Bran Mak Morn before Wandering Star and Del Rey began reprinting Robert E. Howard's work. Since I had enjoyed the Conan and Solomon Kane volumes, I added "Bran Mak Morn: The Last King" to my library eagerly. However, after reading the volume, I must admit that this isn't my favorite example of Howard's work. I was surprised, as most scholars consider Bran Howard's most personal character. Bran arose from Howard's interest in his own Scots-Irish ancestry. Bran also represents Howard's own ideas about the nature of humanity, the ever-present barbarian struggling against the hypocrisy of civilization. Unlike many of his other stories, however, Howard's Bran stories place substantial emphasis on mood more so than on action.

Bran's people, the Picts, are a common fixture in Howard's writings. They appeared frequently to plague Conan years after Howard had left Bran behind. Howard's version of these people is a romanticized one, with an elaborate, mythical history of their spectacular empire built in the long-forgotten past. But he also presents them as a disintegrating people, who long ago forgot most of the basic skills necessary to maintain and build a civilization. Howard is also able to examine some of his own racialist points of view, as Bran is an exception, maintaining the majestic Aryan qualities that had marked the Picts in the ancient days.

Howard only completed six stories about Bran. Howard experimented with techniques with Bran more than he did with his other characters. The first story "Men of the Shadows" is a first person narrative of a Roman soldier and his capture by the Picts, and his meeting with Bran, who is simply referred to as a chief. The most important aspect of this story is that it sets the stage for who and what the Picts are. It was not published until after Howard's death.

The second story, "Kings of the Night" is one of the two truly stand-out stories in this collection and certainly one of Howard's best stories generally. Bran is attempting to build an alliance with various tribes against an impending Roman assault. One tribe refuses to fight unless led by a king. A wizard summons forth Howard's own King Kull from the past. This story is interesting as it explicitly connects Howard's various series of fiction. Bran is the descendent of Kull's ally Brule the Spear-Slayer and Kull himself plays an important role. The action of the battle is gleeful and ferocious, and the atmosphere is chilly and foreboding.

In "Worms of the Earth", which is certainly one of Howard's most intense and creepy tale, and the other real stand-out story. The only story told from Bran's point-of-view sees the monarch make an unholy bargain with another race the Picts forced underground generations past. The bargain: vengeance against the Roman procurator. The imagery of sub-human creatures skittering around in the dark waiting to drag unsuspecting souls to their deaths is delicious in its horror.

The last two stories are interesting in that Bran isn't physically in either story. In "The Dark Man", Turlogh Dubh, an outcast Celt, pursues a young princess of his clan and her Viking captors. On his journey, he discovers a large wooden statue, and carries it with him on his pursuit. The statue is an image of Bran Mak Morn, long dead, but still thirsting for battle. "The Dark Man" is an entertaining yarn, as the statue plays a pivotal and magical role in Turlogh's quest. I also found it fascinating that Howard had allowed one of his characters to have definitive end.

The other story "The Lost Race" finds another Celt, Cororuc, in a battle for his life when he is captured by the last remnants of the Picts, long driven underground. It's an interesting story providing a coda to the Bran saga, but at the same time going back over the Picts history and their tragedy without providing anything new or insightful. Bran has long been dead, and no trace of him appears, only his magical descendent.

"Bran Mak Morn: The Last King" is probably my least favorite collection of Howard's work thus far. While I liked the character, there is so little complete Bran material that I never felt connected to the character. The bonus materials are fascinating, but at the same time, they feel like padding. A small part of me wondered if perhaps, instead of the various unfinished drafts and the like, the Bran stories might have been better served in a more general collection of Howard's work. That having been said, Howard's storytelling skills are in top form in these stories, and anyone who has enjoyed Conan does owe it to themselves to read Bran Mak Morn.

One thing I notitced is that a lot of the works were finished by other writers. Not true of this collection! Not only could they not capture the true spirit of Howard's writing but they should have been left as so...unfinished. This volume leaves the stories as they should be. I was glad to see the type written unfinished story at the end of the book.

I have to wonder why Bran Mac Morn never shared the popularity of Conan. Perhaps it was the poetry that turned off some readers. It was an unexpected departure from the Conan character we all know. We can only speculate as to what Howard might have created had he lived past age 30. Not only does Howard transend the art of pulp fiction, he should be up there with Tolkien as one of the great fantasy creators of all time.

If you've never read anything by Robert E Howard, you should know that he wrote for "pulp" magazines of the 20's and 30's like Weird Tales and with characters like Conan the Cimmerian and Bran Mak Morn, invented what we term "swords and sorcery" today.

This collection focuses on the people he termed Picts and their king, Bran Mak Morn who is the last of his race with an unbroken bloodline. The Picts were the first of the Stone Age tribes to build a society, strive for art and explore the world, but time has displaced them, wars with the Celts drove them from conquered lands and as a result of intermingling bloodlines has thrust them into primative shadows of former glory. The setting for most of these stories takes place in the historical period of the Roman conquest of Briton and focuses on Bran Mak Morn's hatred of the Roman invaders and his drive to restore his race to civilization. Most of the stories are short, but the longest,"Worms of the Earth" is considered one of Howards best, and the all fit firmly in the mythos of Conan, Solomon Kane, King Kull and others. Also included is the Lovecraftian "Children Of Darkness", poems that tell the history and prophcies of the Picts, fragments and first drafts.

This is an excellent collection that is at times moving, chilling and all ways entertaining. If you've never read REH and want to start, here is a good place to begin. If you like historical warfare with a supernatural flair or threories of pre-cataclysmic Ice Age societies you can do no better than this.

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