"Thunder in the Dawn" by Henry Kuttner

Henry Kuttner, often writing in collaboration with his wife, C. L. Moore, produced a large body of work in many different sub genres, from gruesome horror tales to murder mystery novels, from joke science fiction stories about wacky robots and drunken inventors to serious science fiction stories that speculate about the effects of technology on society.  Today, as part of our sacred quest to explore 1930s issues of Farnsworth Wright's influential magazine of the bizarre and unusual, Weird Tales, we are reading one of Kuttner's sword and sorcery tales, the first Elak story, "Thunder in the Dawn," a novella serialized over the May and June 1938 issues of WT.  "Thunder in the Dawn" has been reprinted in numerous anthologies of sword and sorcery tales and in a bunch of Kuttner collections, but we will be reading it in scans of the original 1938 issues of Weird Tales in which it debuted. 

(We've already read Robert E. Howard's contribution to the May ish, the classic "Pigeons from Hell," and Edmond Hamilton's, the well received "Isle of the Sleeper."  As for the June '38 number, we didn't just spend all our time staring at the cover, one of Margaret Brundage's finest productions--we also read a story from it, "Slave of the Flames" by Robert Bloch.)  

Anthologies featuring translations of "Thunder in the Dawn"
Left: German, 1984   Right: Finnish, 1993

Atlantis is a large continent of multiple kingdoms, and in the first two chapters of "Thunder in the Dawn" we learn that its northernmost kingdom, Cyrena, is in turmoil.  Some years ago, the ruler of Cyrena was killed in a fight with the elder of his two step-sons; this older son, Zeulas, left the kingdom to wander Atlantis, while his younger brother, Orander, ascended to the throne of Cyrena.  Recently, Vikings have been raiding Cyrena from the sea, and an evil warlock named Elf, whose diabolical practices Orander has been inhibiting, has joined forces with these Northmen to overthrow Orander.

In Chapter 1, Lycon, short and overweight comedy sidekick, and Elak, tall master swordsman, end up in a fight in a bar in southern Atlantis with a Viking in disguise, and when the Viking unleashes some magic supplied to him by Elf, a Druid leaps to the boys' aid.  In Chapter 2, the Druid explains that he is on a mission from Cyrena, to get the help of Zeulas, and reveals to Lycon that his friend "Elak" is in actual fact Zeulas, legitimate king of Cyrena.  The brother he abdicated to give the crown to, Orander, is held captive by Elf, and in the absence of a leader the Cyrenan aristocracy can't work together to resist the Viking invasion.  Elak agrees to come north to Cyrena to save the day, but first he has to visit the married noblewoman he is having an affair with.  What about "bros before hos," Elak?

In Chapter 3, Elak is caught making time with beautiful Velia by her ugly husband, Duke Granicor, whom Kuttner repeatedly describes as "ape-like," and a fight ensues.  Elak and Velia escape Granicor's palace after injuring the Duke (Velia biting him, Elak throwing him off a balcony) and join Lycon and the Druid.  The four evade pursuit in a forest and march to the big southern lake of Atlantis, where they board the Druid's galley and head north on the river that will take them to Cyrena.   

Duke Granicor has a galley of his own, and Elf's wizardry slows Dalan's vessel and speeds the Duke's, so that the Duke catches up in an inland sea and a battle results.  Chapter 4 relates the fight, featuring a boarding action, the Druid's fire magic and wind magic from afar cast by Elf.  Elak is thrown overboard, and wakes up in Chapter 5 the captive of the Pikhts, the short, hairless, dark-skinned aboriginal inhabitants of Atlantis who thousands of years ago were driven off mainland Atlantis by white-skinned invaders (the ancestors of Elak, Lycon, Granicor, Velia and the rest) and have long been relegated to this little island in this inland sea.  In the Pikht's dungeon Elak meets other white captives, and learns that the Pikhts are in league with Elf.  The Pikhts plan to sacrifice Elak to their alien god, but luckily the Druid's galley has been separated from Duke Granicor's by a storm and washed up on this very island, and through adroit use of his crystal ball the Druid has figured out where Elak is.  Lycon and Velia lead a party into the dungeon, exploiting their height privilege to overwhelm the dwarfish marginalized community of Pihkts, but they find Elak's cell empty.

In Chapter 6 we learn that Elak has done the kind of thing C. L. Moore's character Jirel of Joiry does on the regular--travelled through a tunnel to a surreal alien dimension.  In this "land in which men had not been intended to exist" of "vague shadow-patterns" and "colorless shadows" and "obscure color-patterns," Elak is menaced by a life-force-devouring Shadow, but in Chapter 7 he is rescued by a girl somewhat like a satyr or faun--she is beautifully human from the waist up, but like a deer below the waist.  This creature is the native of another dimension, an immortal being exiled to this shadow world inhabited by dead gods by Elf when Elf invaded her world.  The Druid can see Elak's predicament through his crystal ball, and summons the eight-fingered hand of his god, "Mider," to pull Elak out of the world of death.  Elf's sorcery inhibits the hand and it looks like the Shadow will get our guy, but after kissing Elak the satyr-girl sacrifices her eternal soul to rescue the Elak, throwing herself into the  Shadow, allowing it to absorb her life force and distract it long enough for Elak to escape.

Chapter 8 is the first chapter in the second of "Thunder in the Dawn"'s two installments.  The Druid's galley leaves the island of the (now extinct) Pikhts and proceeds north to Cyrena, where Elak and company disembark and march through the forest towards a rendezvous with the Cyrenan aristocracy.  Duke Granicor catches up to them again, and while his and Elak's forces are fighting an army of Vikings arrives on the scene and both Elak and Granicor are captured.  In Chapter 9 the Northmen crucify Granicor, but before they can do the same spike and mallet work on Elak, the Druid returns and wipes out the Vikings with a lightning bolt.  In an act of mercy, Elak lowers the dying Granicor from the tree to which he has been spiked, then he, the Druid, Lycon and Velia, the only survivors of those who sailed here on the Druid's galley, head off to meet the Cyrenan high nobility.

Chapter 9 covers negotiations between Elak and the nobles of Cyrena, many of whom are skeptical of Elak and the wisdom of fighting against the Vikings and Elf.  The Druid handles these negotiations the way he seems to handle every obstacle on this mission, with his Druidical sorcery.  When the most recalcitrant noble storms off, the Druid animates a tree and it kills this guy, which inspires all the other local chiefs to swear allegiance to Elak.

Chapter 10 covers a field battle between the Vikings and Elak's Cyrenan army.  The Vikings are defeated and Elak and the Druid rush to Elf's fortress.  In Chapter 11 we learn that Granicor, kept alive by his hatred of the Vikings who crucified him, has also made his way to the castle of Elf.  As Elak and the Druid explore the castle, encountering magic phenomena and the Druid himself using magic to overcome roadblocks, Granicor creeps after them.  The leader of the Vikings and a group of his men, survivors of the battle, arrive at the castle.  They are ambushed by Granicor, who kills all the soldiers and then carries their leader with him over a cliff to death far below.

In Chapter 12, Elak and the Druid find Orander, acting king of Cyrena and Elak's younger brother.  Orander is staring, hypnotized, into a yellow jewel, his face slack and empty.  The Druid explains that this jewel is a portal to another world, and to rescue the king, Elak and the Druid have to enter the jewel and join Orander in that other world.  So, for the second time this story, Elak enters a surreal alien world, and we are subjected to more surreal descriptions.  "Great vistas of flashing light, orange, scarlet, yellow, glittering with amazing beauty, down which fled cyclopean shadows."  I find dream sequences and surreal sequences tiresome, and wish Kuttner had spent more time on Elak's relationship with his brother and father or his girlfriend or something like that.

Anyway, Elf is also in this dream dimension.  Elf in this dimension created virtual worlds over which Orander rules as a god, distracting him from doing his duty as king; perhaps this is Kuttner's allegory of wasting your life on booze or drugs or reading escapist fiction instead of working a serious job and creating a family (these kind of allegories pop up in Kuttner and Moore's science fiction, like Fury and "Two-Handed Engine" in which people get distracted from real life excessive leisure time and by dream machines.)  Elf tries to convince Elak to take the throne himself, but the Druid is there to help Elak instead conduct an intervention and get Orander to snap out of his stupor.  Elf attacks Elak, but Elak has a sacrificial dagger given him by the Druid, the one weapon that can slay Elf, and he uses it to great effect.  Orander shatters the yellow jewel, and the fantasy worlds collapse and Elak and the Druid are back in the real world of Atlantis. 

The last half page of the story makes clear that Orander and the Druid now have Cyrena under control, so Elak, Velia and comic relief side kick Lycon are free to wander around Atlantis and have more adventures.

"Thunder in the Dawn" is an OK filler piece.  The fights and monsters and wizards aren't bad, but they aren't as good as similar elements you find in Robert E. Howard and Fritz Leiber sword and sorcery stories, and Kuttner doesn't develop the sort of tone or atmosphere or spirit that Howard and Leiber do in their better work.  Howard and Leiber also offer memorable characters, while Elak, ostensibly the lead, is underdeveloped, and seems to leave most of the decisions and opportunities to resolve plot obstacles to the Druid.  The Druid and the satyr-girl, and even Lycon, are more interesting than bland Elak is, while the most interesting character is Duke Granicor, who exhibits more passion and drive and performs more amazing feats than the main villain or any of the good guys.  Love interest Velia is like a macguffin--Kuttner tries to make her interesting by having her fight alongside Elak and Lycon in various battles, but she only figures in the plot as a reason for Granicor to chase Elak north to Cyrena and his doom.  Most remarkable about the story are the overuse of surreal alien worlds, and the high volume of blood and gore.

Kuttner published two more Elak stories in 1938, and a final one in 1941; Adrian Cole took up the saga of Elak in our own 21st century.  Expect to hear about the second and third Elak stories, and other Henry Kuttner material, here at MPorcius Fiction Log soon.