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The Pool of the Black One

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"The Pool of the Black One" is a novelette by Robert E. Howard first published in Weird Tales 22 4 (October 1933).

“ "Conan glared frozen with repulsion and shaken with nausea. Himself as cleanly elemental as a timber wolf, he was yet not ignorant of the perverse secrets of rotting civilizations. He had roamed the cities of Zamora, and known the women of Shadizar the Wicked. But he sensed here a cosmic vileness transcending mere human degeneracy--a perverse branch on the tree of Life, developed along lines outside human comprehension..." ”

— Robert E. Howard, "The Pool of the Black One"

"The Pool of the Black One," which appeared in Weird Tales magazine the month after "The Slithering Shadow," is a piratical adventure story and occurs in the Western Sea of the Hyborian Age. The story begins with Conan the Cimmerian, adrift at sea near the Barachan Isles, clambering aboard a pirate ship christened The Wastrel. After a terse conversation with the captain and a brawl with a Zingaran bully, Conan is begrudgingly accepted as a lowly member of the crew and is allowed to remain onboard.

The ship then sails to a mysterious island where the captain hopes to find a legendary treasure and, perhaps, much more. All hands go ashore, including the tyrannical captain and his mistress Sancha. While on the island, Conan confronts the captain alone in the jungle and slays him in a grim duel. However, the mysterious kidnapping of Sancha and the disappearance of several crew members compels Conan to plunge deeper into the jungle.

The island is revealed to be inhabited by strange tall black creatures that captured the crew, and dunk some of them in the titular pool that transforms them into shrunken figures. Conan rescues the remaining captives, including Sancha. After a bloody fight, Conan somehow triggers a self-destruct device in the pool, and barely escapes with the others in time.

Upon returning to their anchored ship, Conan reasserts his authority as captain and claims Sancha as his prize. The story concludes with the Cimmerian dreaming of raiding seaports and of the future plunder he will acquire.

Contents

[edit] Characters

  • Conan
  • Sancha
  • Zaporavo
  • We don't have a complete list of characters for The Pool of the Black One. You can help Conan Wiki by adding to this list.

[edit] Creatures

[edit] Locations

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[edit] Publishing history

Believed complete --Ant 21:18, 28 May 2006 (UTC)


"The Pool of the Black One" (novelette) • Robert E. Howard


"The Pool of the Black One" (novelette) • Robert E. Howard • edited by L. Sprague de Camp

[edit] References

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