Thursday, May 21, 2009

Brood of the Witch Queen

"I know you now," she said; "I know you, son of an evil woman, for you wear her ring, the sacred ring of Thoth. You have stained that ring with blood, as she stained it—with the blood of those who loved and trusted you. I could name you, but my lips are sealed—I could name you, brood of a witch, murderer, for I know you now."

Today's fable comes to us from Sax Rohmer, the creator of one of the most famous villains to cross the pulps, Fu Manchu. But rather than one of the entries in the Fu Manchu mythos I felt it would be interesting to delve into some of his earlier and more pure horror-oriented works.

Brood of the Witch Queen was originally serialized in the British magazine Premier for nine issues. It was later published under the title "The Witch's Son" in Mystery Magazine and finally novelized in 1918.

Brood promises to be a lot of fun, using the serialized nature to pass along several adventures leading into the tombs of Egypt. Though "ancient Egyptian evils" are old hat nowadays, in 1914-1918 it was a fairly new concept for the pulp world. I don't really have much more to say about it than that, so let's get going!