Worms of the Earth by Robert E. Howard ISBN 9781974608652, 1974608654 instant download

Worms of the Earth by Robert E. Howard ISBN 9781974608652, 1974608654 instant download

"Worms of the Earth" is a short story by American fantasy fiction writer Robert E. Howard. It was originally published in the magazine Weird Tales in November 1932, then again in 1975 in a collection of Howard's short stories, Worms of the Earth. The story features one of Howard's recurring protagonists, Bran Mak Morn, a fictional King of the Picts.Bran Mak Morn, King of the Picts, vows revenge on the Roman governor Titus Sulla after witnessing the crucifixion of a fellow Pict. He seeks forbidden aid from the Worms of the Earth, a race of creatures who Bran Mak Morn's pictish ancestors had banished from the earth. They were once men but millennia of living underground caused them to become monstrous and semi-reptilian.Searching for a contact with these people, Bran Mak Morn meets a witch who lives in a secluded hut, shunned by her neighbors, who was born of a sexual encounter between one of the "Worms" and a human women. The witch's price for helping him is "one night of love" which her human half craves - as men in general are repelled by her reptilian traits. Bran Mak Morn, though also himself repelled, agrees to pay this price. In exchange, she tells him of a barrow where "The Black Stone", a religious item of great importance to the "Worms" is hidden.