Re: [rehfans] The Frost Giant Head Wound concept

[Fred and Donna]

I'm unfamiliar with the source, hence unable to comment on his 
reasoning, but Howard's denouement is a stock device in fantasy.  The 
protagonist undergoes a supernatural experience that only he witnessed 
or was a part of.  He returns to the everyday world, and because he has 
suffered a blow to the head, or was drugged or suffered psychological 
trauma, or otherwise appears not to be in his right mind, no one else 
believes his story -- until he produces tangible evidence.  The urban 
myth of the phantom hitchhiker, which formed the basis for Dickie Lee's 
so-bad-it's-good '60s pop ballad "Laurie (Strange Things Happen in This 
World)," is another example.

I don't think this situation has much to do with "forever alter[ing] 
Conan's mind."  Other people besides Conan see the monsters in other 
Conan stories.  The supernatural (or trans-cosmic) is simply part of the 
setting.

Fred B.

jesse white wrote:

 Would anyone out there illuminate the theory
Benjamin Hussein has concerning the final head blow
Heimdul of Vanaheim savages on Conan in the Frost
Giant's Daughter.  As far as I understand, the concept
is that the blow was concussive, and that it somehow
altered Conan's mind from that point on...?
  My reaction is this: it seems to me that if Howard
believed that the blow forever altered Conan's
perceptions such that he was now able to "see" new
things, he must have written this story very near to
the beginning of his Conan arc in order to justify the
through-concept.  I don't know in which order Howard
wrote the stories, but I'm sure the information is
readily available...  
 Does anyone have some information on this?

Cheers, Jesse

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