“Dermod’s Bane”
The Horror Stories of Robert E. Howard
Del Rey
Paper $20.00
Ebook $7.99
This is a minor story, apparently written early in Howard’s career, but not published in his lifetime. It was first published in Magazine of Horror, Fall 1967.
As usual, there will be spoilers. In this case, it will be hard to avoid them, the story is so short.
The narrator is a man named Kirowan, no first name given, so it’s not clear if this is the John KIrowan who figures prominently in some of Howard’s other horror stories. Whether he is the same man or not, this Kirowan is grieving the death of his twin sister. Upon the advice of his grandmother, he returns to his ancestral land of Ireland.
There he wanders the countryside seeking solace. Kirowan meets shepherd who tells him the story of his ancestor Michael Kirowan and Dermod O’Connor. Narrator Kirowan recalls hearing the story from his grandmother when he was a wee lad.
Dermod had killed a member of the Kirowan clan, and of course the clan tracked him down. Michael got to him ahead of the rest. Both men were dying when the rest of the Kirowans showed up, but they didn’t let that stop them from hanging him from a tree on a high cliff overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. As he died, promised vengeance on the Kirowans. The shepherd points to a tree, tells Kirowan that’s the very tree from which Dermod was hung and that his ghost still stalks the moor.
A few nights later, Kirowan can’t sleep, so he leaves his hotel and wanders until he sees his sister waving to him, beckoning to him to follow her. He does, and just as he is about to fall over a cliff to the rocks below, two things happen. First the image of his sister changes to a visage of an angry man. The second is someone grabs his wrist and pulls him back.
Realizing Dermod appeared to him as his sister, while his sister manifested enough to grab him by the wrist and pull him back, Kirowan falls to the grass and weeps. When the sun rises, he rises with it, having exhausted his grief.
Not one of Howard’s best, but this was probably an early work. Everything can’t be “Worms of the Earth” or “Pigeons From Hell”.
Glad to see you doing these REH reviews, Keith!
An atmospheric little tale. One of the few that REH–a Hibernophile–actually set in Ireland. Interestingly, he set more of his yarns in England.
Some people consider this part of this “Conrad & Kirowan” series, but the Kirowan here is MICHAEL Kirowan. Probably a fairly close cousin of John Kirowan. REH liked the Kirowan name. He also had a ghost tale that featured a 17th century Kirowan, as I recall. I met a Kirwan–by marriage–in Cashel a month ago. “Kirwan” is the more common spelling. REH liked his fairly obscure Irish names.
“Not one of Howard’s best, but this was probably an early work.”
Are we sure it’s THAT early? My rough reckoning would be 1929-31.
Thanks. I’m going to try to do between one to three a week for the rest of the month, depending on time constraints. My plan is to finish with “Pigeons From Hell” on or shortly before Halloween.
I’m considering anything not written in the last five years of Howard’s life to be early, so this story would fall into that category. That’s just my rule of thumb, though.