"Riders Beyond the Sunrise" by Robert E. Howard and Lin Carter (1967) Originally appeared in King Kull 1967. Plot: The Farsunian adventurer Felnar and the valusian countess Lala-ah elope, breaking Valusia's law about foreigners marrying Valusians without the king's permission. Fenar adds injury by sending a message that calls Kull a barbarian and threatens to beat him and dress him in women's clothes. Kull is enraged and calls up the Red Slayers to ride with him in pursuit. One of the riders is Kelkor, a venerable soldiers who is denied command because he is a Lemurian. They cross the Zarfhaanian border, following the lovers to Talunia, where Kull and Brule search for them alone. An old woman, for a bribe of gold, sends Kull into a dark house. He finds the lovers escaping out of the window. The pursuit continues to Grondar, the weird country to the east. There Kull meets 400 horsemen who let him pass for no one ever returns from beyond the sunrise. The pursuers come to the River Stagus, where a ferryman takes kull alone across to the other side. There he meets up with Felnar and the countess. The woman disappears in a puff of smoke and Felnar turns out to be Thulsa Doom. Doom attacks with a magical sword that sucks Kull's vitality from him. He is slowly losing when Kelkor shouts to him, use his sword against him. Kull disarms Doom and fights him with his sword, sucking the power from Thulsa Doom. He finishes him with a stab to the chest. Kelkor swam the river to help his king. For this, kull makes him commander of teh red Slayers, even though he is a Lemurian. Monsters: Thulsa Doom History: This version of this tale is mostly written by Howard (see "Kull Fragment 2" ) though it was entirely Carter's idea to make Felnar/Fenar Thulsa Doom. Carter's edit include giving a bag of gold to the old crone for hr help (Howard implies she is in on the trick) and to remove references to Karon as the ferryman. In Howard's version the river is filled with poisonous snakes and unswimmable. In Carter's version, only Kull crosses on the ferry. Only the lancer King Kull features this story. All later Kull collections only contain Howard's fragment. Carter included the tale in his DAW collection Lost Worlds (1980).
This story appeared in Marvel Preview #19 (Summer 1979) and was adapted by Roy Thomas and drawn by Sal Buscema and Tony de Zuniga.
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