This is the last thing I’m posting today to celebrate Robert E. Howard’s birthday (which was actually yesterday) with some extra Conan-themed posts.
Beyond the Black River is widely regarded as one of the best Conan stories, at least in part because it’s also one of the most intelligent. While Robert E. Howard was pragmatic enough to churn out salacious, formulaic stories he knew would sell, he did use Conan to make philosophical points. In brief, Beyond the Black River is a pretty cynical look at colonialism and even civilisation in general.
Basically, barbarism is inevitable and any attempt to civilise Man will be a temporary success at best.
The Black River was, I think, the first song by The Sword I ever listened, and I didn’t clue into the Conan connection at first. While they do explicitly namedrop “the Black River”, the lyrics are broadly applicable enough that they could be using “black” as an adjective rather than a proper name and making the song about any quest-drive Fantasy story:
“Great peril awaits us beyond the Black River
Summoned by the beating of drums
Our number is few, our errand is dire
We do what must be doneAt the bidding of the high priest
The tribes gather for war
Evil sorcery is unleashed
Upon the opposite shore”Lyrics via Genius.
It took me a couple listens of one particular line for me to go “Ooooh. That Black River!” Honestly, it’s a pretty obvious giveaway that I’m a little embarrassed not to have picked up right away. But, uh, spoilers for 90-year-old story and all:
“Make your stand with the great hound
The frontier is lost
Black waters lie before you
Together you cross”Lyrics via Genius
That’s a reference to one of the story’s most famous scenes: Balthus and Slasher (the great hound in question) making their last stand to hold back the rampaging Picts — notably, while the real Picts were the ancestors of present-day Scots, Howard used them as obviously analogues for the Native Americans in Pulp stories about the Frontier in the Old West, and Beyond the Black River is basically a Western where everyone happens to be using swords instead of six-shooters.
Fittingly, Howard’s most popular stories in his own lifetime were actually his actual cowboy stories…
The Black River is probably one of my top five or even three Syoword songs — off the top of my head: Cloak of Feathers, Tears of Fire, and maybe either of Tears Like Diamonds or The Dreamthieves.
Overall, High Country (that’s almost certainly a pun…) is probably my favourite album, because it has the most unique sound. It doesn’t entirely abandon the band’s previous Fantasy-y identity, but does have songs with more mundane (but still pretty clever) lyrics and overall feels more Southern Rock and even Country.
But, of course, The Black River has the Conan angle:
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