Forgotten Stories
of
Fantastic Sword-fighters:
Heny Kuttner's Elak of Atlantis

by Andy Beau

I was in my mid-college years in the late 1960s, right during the big fantasy and sword and sorcery boom. I was hooked almost from the moment I saw that terrific Frank Frazetta cover on Conan The Usurper. I've been reading in related fields ever since--lost races, supernatural thrillers, other fantasy books--but my first love remains sword and sorcery.

What I’d like to do with this column is provide others with information about some of the s&s stories that were reprinted or written in the 1960s through 1980s and have pretty much vanished from sight. When I was looking for these kinds of stories, it would have been helpful to have someone point them out to me--so I'm going to point them out to you.

For this first column, I’d like to provide you with some information about the Elak Of Atlantis cycle penned by Henry Kuttner (1914-58). He was born in Los Angeles and eventually married famed science fiction and sword and sorcery writer, C. (Catherine) L. Moore (creator of Jirel of Joiry and Northwest Smith).

Starting in the late 1930s Kuttner wrote four stories about Elak of Atlantis, a self-exiled adventurer who is also the heir to the throne of a city-state on the ancient island continent of Atlantis. Kuttner was one of the first writers to be influenced by Robert E. Howard. Elak is described as a tall, lean, wolfish-faced rogue and swashbuckler, whose weapon of choice is a rapier--though not the sort wielded by the three musketeers, but an earlier, thicker weapon. A much larger sword, like a broadsword, would be too heavy for his quick sword play. His partner in adventurer is a short, fat, sword fighter who's always either craving a flagon of ale or is already half-drunk. When the fighting starts, however, Elak's sidekick quickly sobers up and becomes an expert swordfighter himself, despite his shortness and weight.

Kuttner's Atlantis has little to do with the realm of super-science popular in other writings of the lost continent and more closely resembles a country from Conan's world. Interestingly, three of these stories start out with a brawl in a tavern.

In the first tale, "Thunder In The Dawn," Elak meets the druid Dalan (at the tavern, naturally). Dalan possesses magical powers that come to Elak’s rescue at various times in this and the fourth story. Dalan tells Elak that Vikings are invading his northern homeland, now ruled by his brother. The Vikings are actually in league with an evil, otherworldly being who is set on conquering the whole of Atlantis. Traveling from the south of Atlantis to the north, Elak rescues Velia, who later becomes a swordfighter in her own right; battles some Pikhts; travels to the netherworld of the dead gods and others; has ship battles on an inland sea; has a large, very descriptive, action-packed land battle with the Vikings; and eventually battles the evil entity.

Here's a peek at Kuttner writing a battle scene:

Then there was nothing but a red maelstrom of hewing and cutting, ax and sword and strongly driven spear; screaming of horses that galloped by with riders clinging with one hand and warring with the other; horses plunging and dying in a welter of thunderous crimson ruin-- giant men fighting and falling and slaying as they fell.

Whew, I’m winded just reading that one exciting sentence! This is the longest tale in the series, coming in at 61 pages.

The second tale is "The Spawn Of Dagon." As the title implies, this one has a definite Lovecraftian connection instead of the mystical magic of the previous story. Elak ends up battling Lovecraftian-type creatures from the sea, intent on nothing less than the sinking of the continent of Atlantis, as they did other ancient lands:

Their faces were hideous staring masks, fish-like in contour, with parrot-like beaks and great staring eyes covered with a filmy glaze. Their bodies were amorphous things, half solid and half gelatinous ooze, like the iridescent slime of jellyfish; writhing tentacles sprouted irregularly from the ghastly bodies of the things...they came in a blasphemous hissing rush across the room.

The third story is "Beyond The Phoenix," and centers around an attempted takeover of a city-state by an evil duo composed of a wizard possessed by a demonic god and a ruler of a lost underground race from whom the kings of the city-state are descended. It had more of a Merrittesque flavor to it than the others in the cycle. For example:

There was a flashing, swift movement, and abruptly the barge was surrounded by a transparent, circular wall that seemed to be rising from the waters all around…It drew together above the barge, forming a dome…Imperceptibly, the water beneath the barge had drained away till the craft rested on a shell of crystal.

But it still contained s&s horrors as in:

The blackness coalesced into a tenebrous cloud. Out of it rose a head, malefic and terrible, with serpent eyes of ancient evil. A flattened head that swayed and rose on shimmering scaled coils--The head of Baal-Yagoth!

The fourth and last of Elak's adventures is titled "Dragon Moon." Elak again teams up with the druid Dalan to save his homeland after his brother, the king, is killed by an unearthly being. He meets the daughter of Poseidon, who has a hand in this war. A grand battle, with the body of a slain hero being carried back into the fight (as in the 1960s movie El Cid), and travels to other, unearthly planes are all part of the story.

If you’re like me and need an s&s fix every now and then, this mini-saga would satisfy your needs. It’s not at the level of Howard’s Conan and you may need to overlook some flaws, but this it's an enjoyable series from the Golden Age of pulp magazines. Kuttner was a gifted writer with a great sense of pacing and an impressive talent for crafting grand scenes. Each of his Elak stories is richly filling and reads like a mini-epic.

Finding the Fiction

Unfortunately, the Elak stories have never been collected in a professional format. Ideally someday they'll be packaged with Kuttner's other, shorter sword and sorcery series and a handful of "science fantasy" he penned with C.L. Moore. For now, though, anyone interested in reading Elak will have to turn to the sword and sorcery anthologies printed in the late 1960s and 1970s. Internet book search services should help you find them.

The first tale, "Thunder In The Dawn," is a two-parter from the May and June 1938 issues of Weird Tales. My copy is in the paperback anthology edited by L. Sprague De Camp, Warlocks And Warriors, 1971, which also contains a map of Atlantis. This book also contains a Jirel of Joiry story by Kuttner’s wife, C. L. Moore.

The second tale, "The Spawn Of Dagon," was originally published in Weird Tales in July 1938. My copy is in the paperback anthology edited by Lin Carter titled The Magic Of Atlantis, 1970.

The third story, "Beyond The Phoenix," was originally published in Weird Tales in October 1938. My copy is in the hardcover anthology edited by Peter Haining; Weird Tales, A Selection In Facsimile; 1990. It is also in his Weird Tales, Volume 1, which is cheaper on Abebooks.com than his facsimile mentioned above.

The fourth and last tale, "Dragon Moon," was originally published in Weird Tales, January 1941. My copy is in both paperback anthologies: The Fantastic Swordsmen, edited by L. Sprague De Camp, 1967, which also contains a map of Atlantis; and The Mighty Barbarians, edited by Hans Stefan Santesson, 1969.

Some of these stories were also published in other anthologies in the last decade or so. One good source of finding the names of some of these is in the Locus Index www.locusmag.com/index/0start.html#TOC. However, (with the exception of the Haining Weird Tales collections) the anthologies I mention here are strictly sword and sorcery collections. Some of the more recent anthologies may contain other, non-s&s works, such as other types of fantasy tales about Atlantis. One anthology, Elak Of Atlantis, Gryphon Pubns (March, 1985), contains all four Elak stories, and sells on Amazon.com for over $56! Be warned, though, it's a poor edition, badly typeset. Copies of the anthologies I have sell for a few bucks each on Abebooks.com and, in addition, contain 6-9 other sword and sorcery tales.

About the Author

Andy Beau has lived in San Diego, CA since he was 16. There were no computer degrees in the 1960s, so he graduated with a degree in math and worked in the computer programming field from 1969 until 2003, when he retired early at 57. Prior to these articles all of his writing has been technical--the composition of user manuals--and there wasn't much call for analysis of plot and character development in that. Andy's been a fan of sword and sorcery tales since college in 1966. This has lead him to other fantasy adventure genres: lost race, supernatural thrillers, Lovecraftian horror, and more. He shares his long-term love for and knowledge of sword and sorcery with his readers in these columns. SwordAndSorcery.org is proud to have him.