The Gods of Bal-Sagoth

"The Gods of Bal-Sagoth", also known as "The Blonde Goddess of Bal-Sagoth", is a short story by Robert E. Howard. It was first published on Weird Tales in October 1931.
==Synopsis==
After a savage battle with Vikings and a subsequent shipwreck after being blown far off course, Turlogh O'Brien the Gael and his friend-enemy Athelstane the Saxon wash ashore on a mysterious island. Swiftly embroiled in rescuing a scantily clad blonde girl from a giant dinosaurian bird, they discover that the girl is actually a Viking princess, Brunhild. She explains to them that they have washed up on the Isle of the Gods, the "oldest land in the world". It transpires that the devil-bird the men killed was Groth-golka the bird god, the last of an ancient race that preyed upon the local people of the island's city-state for innumerable generations.
Having had the worst of it in the palace takeover she had plotted, Brunhild now enlists the aid of Turlogh and Athelstane to help her try and take power once more. Their main enemy is Gothan, an ancient priest who has enjoyed an unnaturally long life. Together with the menace of Gol-goroth the god of darkness, this is the countervailing political force the girl intends to overthrow.
In a tumultuous battle of champions, the Mesoamerican society of the island is conquered and Brunhild becomes their queen.
Gothan strikes from hiding, using his own hypnotic powers, ape-men assassins and a nameless Thing, a black-skinned demonic giant which is only killed with great difficulty. Then, whether from supernatural causes or sheer coincidence, Brunhild is crushed to death beneath the peculiar enormous statue of Gol-goroth and the local people rise up against the two fighting men. Turlogh and Athelstane slaughter their way to safety as the city burns around them and take to a boat, sailing from the lost island and on to new adventures.
==Notes==
It is interesting perhaps to modern eyes that the bird monster Groth-golka clearly has dinosaurian traits - scale-like primitive feathers for example, which conform more to modern concepts of how dinosaurs appeared than the "giant lizard" versions current at the time the story was written.
The statue of the dark god Gol-goroth, as opposed to the putative dark god itself, seems to have electrical effects. In fact there are no "real" gods of any kind in this story, even though it does feature monsters and sorcery. Groth-golka is presented as the last of a species of prehistoric birds, centuries-old and worshiped by the people of Bal-Sagoth, but still a flesh and blood creature, as it's killed by Athelstane's sword. Both Groth-golka and the toad-like Gol-goroth have been elevated to the status of Great Old Ones by later authors (although it should be noted that Howard himself had already listed Gol-goroth alongside Cthulhu, Yog-Sothoth and Tsathoggua in "The Children of the Night").
In the first version of "The Fishers from Outside", Lin Carter confused the name of Groth-golka with Gol-goroth due to the fact that both debuted in "The Gods of Bal-Sagoth". At Carter's request, the error was corrected by Robert M. Price in his collection The Xothic Legend Cycle.
Category:Robert E. Howard works
Category:Lovecraft Circle Works