Worms of the Earth

This article is about the short story by Robert E. Howard. For the collection, see Worms of the Earth (collection).

"Worms of the Earth"
Author	Robert E. Howard
Country	United States
Language	English
Series	Bran Mak Morn
Genre(s)	Sword and sorcery
Published in	Weird Tales
Media type	Pulp magazine
Publication date	November 1932

"Worms of the Earth" is a short story by American fantasy fiction writer Robert E. Howard. It was originally published in the magazine Weird Tales in November 1932, then again in 1975 in a collection of Howard's short stories, Worms of the Earth.^[1] The story features one of Howard's recurring protagonists, Bran Mak Morn, a fictional King of the Picts.

Plot

Bran Mak Morn, King of the Picts, vows revenge on the Roman governor Titus Sulla after witnessing the crucifixion of a fellow Pict. He seeks forbidden aid from the Worms of the Earth, a race of creatures who Bran Mak Morn's pictish ancestors had banished from the earth. They were once men but millennia of living underground caused them to become monstrous and semi-reptilian.

Searching for a contact with these people, Bran Mak Morn meets a witch who lives in a secluded hut, shunned by her neighbors, who was born of a sexual encounter between one of the "Worms" and a human women. The witch's price for helping him is "one night of love" which her human half craves - as men in general are repelled by her reptilian traits. Bran Mak Morn, though also himself repelled, agrees to pay this price. In exchange, she tells him of a barrow where "The Black Stone", a religious item of great importance to the "Worms" is hidden,

Stealing the Black Stone is a highly risky enterprise - if caught by the "Worms", Bran Mak Morn would die in torment "as no man had died for a thousand years". However, the barrow is unguarded and he manages to carry out the theft and hide the Stone at the bottom of a lake. To get it back, the "Worms" agree to deliver Sulla to him. This they proceed to do, undermining and destroying the strong Roman fortress known as "Trajan's Tower" and snatching the Roman governor into their underground tunnels. Mak Morn intended, once Sulla was delivered, to challenge him to a duel to the death. However, Sulla's mind is broken from his contact with the horrific Worms of the Earth and Bran Mak Morn slays him in mercy rather than vengeance, realizing that some weapons are too foul to use, even against Rome.

Adaptation

A two-part and thirty-seven page comic strip adaptation in black and white, adapted by Roy Thomas and penciled by Tim Conrad and Barry Windsor-Smith, was published by Marvel Comics' Curtis Magazines brand in December 1976 and February 1977, in issues #16 and #17 of The Savage Sword of Conan. A trade paperback version in full color was published by Cross Plains Comics/Wandering Star in October 2000.

Notes

Twice in Worms of the Earth Howard mentions the "black gods" of R'lyeh, a fictional city created by his friend and correspondent H. P. Lovecraft. Also mentioned is a water monster "Dagon", which is a historical Philistine god mentioned in a fictional context in several stories by Lovecraft. Howard had previously dealt with beings similar to the titular Worms of the Earth in an earlier short story, "The Children of the Night", set in Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos.

References

Howard, Robert E. Worms of the Earth, Ace Books. 1987 edition, ISBN 0-441-91771-2
Howard, Robert E. "Worms of the Earth", Bran Mak Morn: The Last King, Del Rey Books, June 2005

↑ fantasticfiction.co.uk

External links

Worms of the Earth title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
Works of Robert E. Howard - Publication history for Worms of the Earth
Robert E. Howard bibliography, Fantasticfiction.co.uk

Works by Robert E. Howard

Adventure

El Borak	"Blood of the Gods" "The Coming of El Borak" "The Country of the Knife" "The Daughter of Erlik Khan" "Hawk of the Hills" "The Lost Valley of Iskander" "North of Khyber" "Son of the White Wolf" "Three-Bladed Doom"

Fantasy

Conan	"Beyond the Black River" "Black Colossus" "The Black Stranger" "Cimmeria" "The Devil in Iron" "Drums of Tombalku" "The Frost Giant's Daughter" "The God in the Bowl" "The Hall of the Dead" "The Hand of Nergal" "The Hour of the Dragon" "Iron Shadows in the Moon" "Jewels of Gwahlur" "The People of the Black Circle" "The Phoenix on the Sword" "The Pool of the Black One" "Queen of the Black Coast" "Red Nails" "Rogues in the House" "The Scarlet Citadel" "Shadows in Zamboula" "The Snout in the Dark" "The Tower of the Elephant" "The Vale of Lost Women" "A Witch Shall be Born" "Wolves Beyond the Border" "Xuthal of the Dusk"

Solomon Kane	"The Right Hand of Doom"

Kull	"By This Axe, I Rule" "Exile of Atlantis" "The Mirrors of Tuzun Thune"

Bran Mak Morn	"The Children of the Night" "Worms of the Earth"

Comedy

Sailor Steve Costigan	"Alleys of Peril" "Blow the Chinks Down!" "Breed of Battle" "The Bull Dog Breed" "Champ of the Forecastle" "Circus Fists" "Dark Shanghai" "Fist and Fang" "General Ironfist" "Night of Battle" "The Pit of the Serpent" "Sailor's Grudge" "The Sign of the Snake" "The Slugger's Game" "Sluggers on the Beach" "Texas Fists" "The TNT Punch" "Vikings of the Gloves" "Waterfront Fists" "Winner Take All"

Breckinridge Elkins	"A Gent from Bear Creek"

Horror

John Kirowan	"The Children of the Night" "The Haunter of the Ring" "The Black Stone"

Other

Other stories	"Almuric" "Black Canaan" "Pigeons from Hell" "Post Oaks & Sand Roughs" "The Shadow of the Vulture" "Skull-Face" "The Sowers of the Thunder" "The Twilight of the Grey Gods"

Other characters	Cormac Fitzgeoffrey James Allison Red Sonya Dark Agnes de Chastillon Steve Harrison Turlogh Dubh O'Brien Kirby O'Donnell The Sonora Kid

Poetry	Echoes from an Iron Harp (1972)

See also	List of works by Robert E. Howard List of poems by Robert E. Howard "The Hyborian Age"

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Worms of the Earth

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