| Grignr | |
|---|---|
 Illustration from Son of Grafan, 1972, by MoHow & McFadden | |
|
Real Name |
Grignr |
|
First Appearance |
The Eye of the Argon (August 1970) |
|
Original Publisher |
Ozark Science Fiction Association |
|
Created by |
Jim Theis |
Grignr is a barbarian hero that appears in the novella The Eye of Argon by Jim Theis. He also appears in a sequel story called The Sacred Crest.[1]
Origin[]
- After killing mercenaries who were after him, Grignr resumes his journey through the empire of Noregolia to the city of Gorzom.
- Grignr arrives in Gorzom and goes to a tavern, where he makes love to a prostitute with a "lithe, opaque nose". A drunken guard challenges him over the woman; he beheads the guard, but is arrested by the man's companions and brought before the local prince Agaphim. Infuriated after being insulted by Grignr, Agaphim condemns him to a life of forced labor. Enraged, Grignr seizes a sword and stabs the prince's advisor Agafnd; he is about to kill Agaphim when he is knocked unconscious. Grignr awakens in a dark underground cell. He sits despondently, thinking of his homeland.
- A group of "shamen" prepare to sacrifice a young woman to the titular Eye of Argon, a grotesque "many fauceted scarlet emerald" idol.
- Losing track of time, Grignr sits bored and anguished in his cell. A large rat attacks him and he decapitates it. It then inspires him with a plan involving the corpse of the rat, which he dismembers.
- The pagan ritual proceeds, with a priest ordering the young woman up to the altar. When she ignores him, he attempts to grope her. She vomits onto the priest, who chokes her. She then disables him with a hard kick between the testicles, which causes him to ooze ichor. Enraged, the other shamans molest her.
- Grignr is taken from his cell by two soldiers. He takes the rat's pelvis, which he has fashioned into a dagger, and slits one soldier's throat. He then strangles the second and takes his clothes, torch, and ax. He wanders the catacombs for a time, finding a storeroom, and narrowly avoids being killed by a booby-trap. Below this room, he finds the palace mausoleum. He resets the booby-trap in case he is being pursued.
- He hears a scream apparently coming from a sarcophagus. He opens it to find the scream is coming from below. He opens a trap door, finding the sacrifice and the Eye of Argon. Seeing a shaman about to sacrifice the young woman, Grignr plows into the group of shamans with the ax and takes the Eye. The young woman, Carthena, turns out to be the tavern wench from Chapter 2. She and Grignr depart.
- One priest, who had been suffering an epileptic seizure during Grignr's attack, recovers. Maddened by what he sees, he draws a scimitar and follows Grignr and Carthena through the trap door in the ceiling. The priest strikes at Grignr but he triggers, and is killed by, the reset booby-trap before his sword can connect. Carthena tells Grignr of the prince, Agaphim, who had condemned him to the mines. They encounter Agaphim and kill him, as well as his advisor Agafnd. As Grignr and Carthena leave, he pulls the Eye of Argon out of his pouch to admire. The jewel melts and turns into a writhing blob with a leech-like mouth, which attacks him and begins sucking his blood. Carthena faints; Grignr grabs a torch and thrusts it into the blob's mouth.
- The blob explodes into a thousand pieces, leaving a dark red blotch upon the face of the earth, blotching things up. Grignr and the still-unconscious Carthena ride off into the distance.
Notes[]
- The Eye of Argon was published without a copyright notice, making it and it's characters public domain.[2]