‘The Valley of the Worm’ – Robert E. Howard (1934)

I came across this title while reading the latest update from ‘We Learn by Writing’, a blog that I have a lot of time for (Jim’s thoughts are always worth a read and you should follow him if you’re not following him already). I’m still trying to get a broader picture of the scope of Howard’s writing and figured that ‘The Valley of the Worm’ would be a good title to check out next. It took me a little while to track down but my decision to pick up a whole load of Robert E. Howard collections, over the last year or so, paid off. You can probably find ‘The Valley of the Worm’ in a number of places (Project Gutenberg for one) but I finally found it in ‘Skullcrusher: Selected Weird Fiction Volume 1’. And with that, lets have a little chat about it, shall we?

I will tell you of Niord and the Worm. You have heard the tale before in many guises wherein the hero was named Tyr, or Perseus, or Siegfried, or Beowulf, or Saint George. But it was Niord who met the loathly demoniac thing that crawled hideously up from hell, and from which meeting sprang the cycle of hero-tales that revolves down the ages until the very substance of the truth is lost and passes into the limbo of all forgotten legends. I know whereof I speak, for I was Niord.

James Allison lies on his deathbed but while most of us would only have the one life to look back, Allison looks back across hundreds of past lives stretching back into pre-history, and far beyond. Before he dies, Allison will tell us the story of Niord and the Worm, the story from which all other tales of dragon slaying have since sprung.

One thing I love about Robert E. Howard’s work (that I’ve read so far) is the sheer ambition that you can see in opening passages like that above. Howard’s not just after telling you a tale, he’s going to tell you the tale from which all other tales sprung. Now there’s a target to set yourself and I’d say that here, Howard hits that target; once through Niord’s epic confrontation with the worm but also by setting his tale so far back in our history (and hinting at worlds far older still, with a dash of Lovecraft that makes the journey of Niord’s tribe all the more precarious) that the reader has no option but to see that this is one of the oldest tales. Humanity is still spreading out and settling, survival is far more important than telling tales, at least for now. And there you have it again, it’s going to take something pretty special for people to protect that tale and make it grow. Niord provides his confidant, the Pict Grom, with that final ingredient for a tale to take root and grow. That’s the stuff of heroes, right there.

Talking of which, I’m officially a fan of Niord and his dedication to living the life of a hero, right up to it’s inevitable conclusion. You can’t be a hero if you don’t check out like a hero…
Niord is a hero with a strong arm but more importantly, the brain to direct it in the most effective way. What Niord does, in order to face the Worm with the best possible chance of success, would make for a story by itself, for lesser heroes, but with Niord, it’s just the precursor to the main event. Is Niord the ‘First Hero’ then? I think there’s a strong case to be made but either way, what we get here is a stirring tale of courage and heroism in the extreme, very much a tale that I couldn’t put down until I’d finished it.

I’ve got a hospital appointment in the morning so will round things off here. I’m very glad that I took the time and effort to find a copy of ‘The Valley of the Worm’. If you go looking for it, I can guarantee that your persistence will reward you.