Code of the wolfStory by Charles Dixon
Art by Gary Kwapisz and Pat Redding
If last issue was noticeable for its great art, this one is for its great story. Not that the art looks bad, quite the contrary: Redding beautifully renders Kwapisz’s pencils and the wild woods setting is perfectly suited to the penciler’s strengths.
But yeah, it’s the story that makes this issue. It is definitely one of my favourites among the non-Thomas tales. Its theme, its pacing and its execution are all excellent and would make a
great adventure movie; maybe not a Conan one, because the tale incorporate just a few of the elements usually associated with the Cimmerian, but a great movie nonetheless because of how it depicts human nature.
In
Code of the wolf, Conan will be torn between his two natures: first that of a wild man, close to nature, one who enjoys freedom and detests walls and borders; second, that of a pragmatic professional sell-sword. I find the clash convincing here, psychologically very interesting, and one that proves to be the source of a grand operatic atmosphere. Just how far will Conan go against his own nature to honour a contract?
The frontier story is not set on the western border of Aquilonia as most such tales usually are. A caption talks of a “land of independent fiefdoms called the Border Kingdom along the western border of mighty Aquilonia”, but this cannot be. The western part of Aquilonia, south of Cimmeria, is formed of the Bossonian marches and the Westermarck, where the population is facing either the Cimmerians or the Picts. The wild opponents we meet in this story are neither Cimmerian nor Pict. Furthermore, there
is a Border Kingdom near Aquilonia, but it is
east of the country, and it is appropriately described in the
Marvel Conan stories as a collection of independent states. My own guess is therefore that we are somewhere east of Aquilonia, maybe in a disputed corner between that country, Cimmeria and the Border Kingdom. The wild men native to the place, blue eyed and black haired, might be some distant cousins of the Cimmerians; they are said to have been driven from their northern homelands centuries before. In any case, the civilized settlers in this part come from Aquilonia and depend on its“imperial legions” to protect them. (Aquilonia is not an empire in Howard’s work, but it is in Dixon’s).
The land itself is still young and pristine, just the kind of place that Conan enjoys and that Kwapisz excels at drawing.
As in many tales of this nature, the settlers we encounter are encroaching on lands belonging to wild forest-dwelling tribes who oppose this occupation and whose resistance inspire dread in the heart of the farmers. Conan works as a scout for the invaders, as he would do on other occasions. Returning from a foray in the forest, Conan warns several homesteads of an impending onslaught by the natives. The farmers gather their belongings and make for a fort held by the XXII legion. The settlers are depicted as sturdy folks, but they’re still softer and more civilized than Conan and the natives; welcoming the Cimmerian's assistance, they still view him as an outsider.
The fort’s commander, Bentorus, trusts Conan’s advice when it comes to the wild men: the Cimmerian, being himself a barbarian, understands them better than any Aquilonian could. Conan is a loyal soldier but it is clear that his heart is with the savages: “You tear down their forests and dam their streams. You despoil their ancestral lands and wonder at their rage”.
One Aquilonian in particular plays the role of “that guy we love to hate”. He is the despicable and cowardly Crollus, lazy, cowardly, and a bully to boot. Conan makes clear that he thinks little of the man.
Such dislike is fully justified: Crollus and a few of his friends try to desert the fort during the night, murdering commander Bentorus when he tries to stop them. Conan witnesses the event, but ever the pragmatist he lets them live because he knows that when the wild men attack the fort, he will have need of every able-bodied soldier he can find… even if they are filthy deserters and murderers.
Left leaderless, the people at the fort accept Conan’s leadership as a matter of course… after all, he is clearly the only man present who seems to know what he’s talking about, even if he does not sweeten the pill when telling people how things are.
Several spectacular attacks of the fort then succeed each other, sometimes supported by crudely-deviced siege machines like a battering ram or a giant crossbow. Great action in that part of the tale.
The fort is surely doomed, even if the soldiers give a good account of themselves and are helped by war dogs.
The only hope of the defenders is the eventual arrival of a relief legion, but nobody knows when it will show up. Meanwhile, the fort is enduring more and more damage and part of its wall even collapses. Only Conan’s manic defense manages to keep the wild men at bay, and their leader Rejvald understands that removing the Cimmerian from the game is key to breaking the Aquilonian’s spirit. Knowing that his men must bring this siege to a quick end before the Aquilonians legions show up, Rejvald challenges Conan to a single combat. His terms are as follows: should he win, only the men in the fort will be killed; the women and children will be allowed to escape unharmed. If he should fall, his people will withdraw from these lands and never come back.
Conan knows that the fort cannot hope to survive another attack and he accepts the challenge. He and Rejvald face off. Both opponents show great respect for the other.
As they clash, Rejvald argues that Conan fights on the wrong side; he is closer to the savages than to the civilized interlopers. The Cimmerian does not disagree but replies that when he sells his sword, it stays sold. Rejvald is disappointed, calling Conan a willing slave; a wolf who chooses to run with the dogs instead of claiming its freedom. Conan's reply, fatalistic as susual, comes after he kills Rejvald; “You cannot stand against time. Even a wolf must know that”.
The wild men honor their part of the deal and withdraw. The Aquilonians in the fort are overjoyed, but when they want to abuse Rejvald’s corpse Conan pushes them back and takes the man to the woods to give him a proper funeral, promising to meet him again as a brother in the next world.
Conan departs the fort after a few days, after the relief legion has finally arrived. He insists that the new commander honour his deal with the wild men: he can kill the ones who fomented the attack but should leave the others alone. The commander agrees, but as soon as the Cimmerian is out of earshot he orders to put every native man, woman and child to the sword, that their fields be salted and that their wells be poisoned. And who is to see this order through? The hated Crollus, unpunished for his evil deeds and even promoted.
Conan rides away, as a wold howls in the hills.
A truly bitter end to a great, great story.
Notes:
- Before the fight, the two leaders exchange gifts. Rejvald gives Conan a sacred stick, symbol of his family. Conan reciprocates by giving him his three-piece medallion, the one that Kwapisz had been drawing for years and that looks like the original one given the character by Barry Smith. It is said here to have been given to the Cimmerian by his own mother before he left his homeland, and to be worth more than gold to him. This is a nice touch in the context of the story but it is hard to reconcile with the comic-book’s continuity… Conan
did have that kind of medallion when he left Cimmeria in Conan the barbarian #1, but he gave that one to a girl he met in CtB #23 in exchange for unspecified favours. Furthermore, the man we see in today’s tale look way more mature than the untrained youth from CtB #23, making it unlikely that this issue is set before CtB#23.
Conan recovered his medallion after Rejvald died, but he returned the stick and put it on the man’s funeral pyre.
