Worms of the Earth
core short fiction 1932 Conan / Kull / Bran Mak Morn
Record
| First published | 1932 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | short fiction |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 4.01 (696 ratings, collected 2026-09-13) |
| Page count | 188 |
| First-edition ISBN | 9781406572780 |
| Internal chronology | 5 |
Synopsis
Described as the only Bran Mak Morn story told through the Pictish king's own point of view rather than from the perspective of a later era's descendants or outside observers, this tale represents Bran's final and most personal adventure in Robert E. Howard's cycle. It draws directly on the wider mythological framework running through much of Howard's fiction, incorporating references to ancient, cosmic entities that connect the story to the broader Cthulhu Mythos-adjacent underpinnings of his invented world. Facing enemies and horrors that test him far beyond the ordinary Roman conflicts of the earlier tales, Bran is pushed to confront forces that operate on a scale closer to myth than to history, bringing the Pictish king's own arc, and Howard's cycle centered on him, to its darkest and most intimate conclusion.
Where it sits
- Universe: Conan / Kull / Bran Mak Morn
- Series: Bran Mak Morn (lifetime-published stories) core; position 5 of 5 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Robert E. Howard
Notes
- From the series record (Bran Mak Morn (lifetime-published stories)): The 5 Bran Mak Morn stories Howard sold and saw published in his own lifetime (all Weird Tales, 1927-1932), per a dedicated Howard-scholarship bibliography (reh.world). 'The Lost Race' (Bran mentioned only as legend; the protagonist is a Gael, Cororuc) and 'The Children of the Night'/'The Dark Man' (in-story framing device narrators, not Bran himself) are included per that same scholarship source's own classification of the Bran Mak Morn cycle -- Worms of the Earth and Kings of the Night are the only 2 with Bran as the story's own on-page protagonist. 'Kings of the Night' (Weird Tales, November 1930) is a crossover: Kull of Atlantis (admitted separately this same run) is summoned via time-travel magic as a guest character to help Bran fight the Romans.
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings and are never conflated: a book's place in one says nothing about its place in the other.
- Publication order, within the series Bran Mak Morn (lifetime-published stories): position 5 of 5: previous The Dark Man (1931)
- Internal chronology, within Conan / Kull / Bran Mak Morn: position 7 of 7: previous The Dark Man (1931)
Sources
- The World of Robert E. Howard: Bran Mak Morn
- Wikisource: Weird Tales, Volume 9, Issue 1 -- The Lost Race
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bran_Mak_Morn
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