Bran Mak Morn - Stories

Stories

Most of Howard's Bran Mak Morn stories were first published in Weird Tales. A few stories didn't appear in print until after Howard's death.

Note: The order of publication does not correspond with the order in which the stories were written.

• "Kings of the Night" (first publication: Weird Tales, November 1930). The first story to feature Bran as a king and describes him as a direct descendant of another Howard character, Brule the Spear-Slayer, companion of the Atlantean King Kull.

• "The Dark Man" (Weird Tales, December 1931). Set centuries after Bran's death he appears as an idol worshipped by the surviving Picts in which his soul is said to be resident.

• "Worms of the Earth" (Weird Tales, November 1932). The last Bran story and the only story told through the Pict's point of view.

• "Men of the Shadows" (Bran Mak Morn, Dell, 1969). Originally a poem placed at the beginning of the Bran Mak Morn story (1926) of the same name. The poem was first published in 1957 in Always Comes Evening, a collection of Howard poems. The poem and the story, which features Bran as a chief and not a king, were first published together in the Dell novel. This was Howard's first Bran Mak Morn story.

• "Bran Mak Morn" (Bran Mak Morn: A Play & Others, Cryptic Publications, 1983). Also known as "Bran Mak Morn: A Play". Written in 1922/1923.

• "The Children of the Night". In this tale Bran does not appear directly but rather the story elaborates on his cult, which first appears in "The Dark Man". Events in the narrative correspond with the timeline and events noted in "Worms of the Earth".