Conan - The People of the Summit

Bjorn Nyberg (1929-2004) briefly associated himself with Conan lore beginning in the 1950s. The Swedish author collaborated with L. Sprague de Camp in 1957 to write the novel The Return of Conan, published by Gnome Press. Nyberg authored two short Conan stories, “The People of the Summit” and “The Star of Khorala”, and both are featured in the paperback collections published by Bantam and Ace. Lately, I've been reading early The Savage Sword of Conan magazines and stumbled up on a story titled “Demons of the Summit” in issue three. It was based on “The People of the Summit”, so I decided to check out Nyberg's story before reading the comic adaptation. 

“The People of the Summit” features a twenty-something Conan taking a job as a mercenary to serve King Yildiz of Turan. Conan is provided the role of makeshift sergeant and ordered to lead a small army of Turanians into the Khozgari Hills in hopes to bribe and threaten the restless tribesmen from raiding Turan's lowlands. Sounds easy enough, right?

The Khozgari are brutal barbarians and they ambush the Turanian force leaving only Conan and a fellow soldier named Jamal alive to escape. The two are spotted by the daughter of a Khozgari chief and Conan takes her hostage to secure a safe pass back to a Turanian city. But, to avoid any unnecessary engagement, Conan decides to take the trio across the Misty Mountains. The chief's daughter begins screaming at Conan's decision and swears they will all be killed by the mysterious people there. She describes it, “'Tis a land of terror and death! Do not go there!”. 

But they do and this is where the bulk of the story remains. Nyberg's action scenes were well-written, but I felt Conan's dialogue left something to be desired. Additionally, Conan's strategies were nothing short of awful – he led his men into an ambush and then foolishly took a shortcut that led to even more danger than the original Khozgari warriors. On top of that, the chief's daughter is captured. It's just a complete failure on Conan's part, but I suppose without that we don't have a story. Nyberg's descriptions of a tower existing in the foggy whiteness of the Misty Mountains was very effective and moody, leaving a supernatural atmosphere to blanket these characters and story. 

As I mentioned in my opening, “The People of the Summit” was adapted into “Demons of the Summit” by Roy Thomas and printed in Savage Sword of Conan #3. The story's original appearance was in The Mighty Swordsmen collection published by Lancer in 1970. Additionally the story was also edited and published in Conan the Swordsman by Bantam in 1978 and was also included in a collection titled Sagas of Conan by Tor in 2004. Get the Bantam paperback HERE.