Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue...

However, missing in these images is Conan's oft-remarked-upon blue eyes - commonly used in descriptions of the warrior -  that may leave some die-hard fanboys disappointed (you know, the kind that freak out about that kind of thing).
 - spill.com makes my ears burn

Will people really miss the blue eyes?
 - Ciaran O'Keeffe, in the comments section

"blue eyes?"
- sol aka "Cap'n Hates-A-Lot!"

REALLY? Blue eyes? That's the stupidest complaint anyone could ever make. If anyone does, I'm going to their house and kicking them. repeatedly. in the face.
 - Stiver, and by Crom, I really want him to try that, and see if his internet tough-guy act translates over into real life

 Blue eyes? I was a big Conan fan in my teen years, but these days I don't really care that much about the color of his eyes.
 - Relentless Monkey

People who complain about the blue eyes are in the same category as the James Bond fans who said "Bond is not blonde".
 - Omega Dinobot, and for his sake I hope he wasn't one of those people who complained about the flames on Optimus Prime in the Transformers movies: said the frying-pan to the kettle, get away, blackbreech!

This is one of those times where I'm actually at a loss.  I know Conan having blue eyes is important.  You lads and lasses all know Conan having blue eyes is important. But... how can you make the point across that, no, Conan's eye colour is not the same sort of thing as Daniel Craig's hair colour or Spider-Man's organic web shooters?  That it's one of the most important distinguishing factors of the character, a defining aspect of his place in the setting, a crucial visual element which marks him as utterly different from just about every other character?

Well, since I still need to get my mind off the teaser (DREADLOCKS!  LIPS!  GUITARS!) I decided that, instead of going about correcting People Who Are Wrong On The Internet, I would present an argument as to exactly why Conan's blue eyes do, indeed, matter.  All that was left to do was delve back into the Del Reys and pore, pore, pore.



First of all, here's my comment, put on the site.

Yes, there are people out there who care about the blue eyes.  Because Conan having blue eyes is important.  Why?  Because Robert E. Howard thought blue eyes were important.  Nearly every single description of the man talked about his black hair and blue eyes.  That should be enough.  But there's a lot more than that.

Blue eyes are an important method of distinction in the Hyborian Age.  This is an age before tribes intermarried and merged, where you'd have people of different tribes having a multitude of hair colours.  Case in point, if you had red hair, that meant you were a Vanir.  There were no other redheads in the Hyborian Age apart from the Vanir.  There was more leeway with black, brown and blonde hair, as well as eye colour, but Conan is often the only character in the story with blue eyes.  It helps set him apart from the civilized people.

There are a few stories where Conan's different eye colour actually impacts the plot.  In "The Hour of the Dragon," Conan is trying to infiltrate the xenophobic kingdom of Stygia.  He could succeed, since he's similar to their warrior class in build - but not his eyes, since all Stygians had dark eyes.  There are countless others where Conan's blue eyes alert other characters to the fact that he isn't a Hyborian, but a Cimmerian.

James Bond's hair colour doesn't matter, and didn't matter, to Ian Fleming.  James Bond having dark hair didn't impact the plot of any stories in any meaningful way.  Conan's eye colour is important.  It impacts the stories, it's an important physical distinction for his character, and it's one of the most instantly identifiable things about him.  Now, if EVERYTHING ELSE about the film was pitch perfect, yeah, I think fans could get over it.  But it isn't.  This is just one of many, many divergences from the source material.  This isn't Raimi's Spider-Man.  This isn't even Judge Dredd.  We're talking Starship Troopers level divergence.

But hey, as long as we're accusing each other of being "too nerdy," may I remind you that this is a movie website.  We're all nerds here.  No point in saying "yeah, but at least I'm not as nerdy as you."

It always bemuses me when people poke fun at others being nerds... on the internet.

Then, I started thinking about it.  How much does Conan's eye colour matter?  Only one thing for it: I'll have to dig.

The List

So, I went through all the Conan stories.*  Sure enough, just about every single completed story mentions Conan's blue eyes, with one perplexing exception: "The Servants of Bit-Yakin."  For some reason, Conan's eye colour is never mentioned in this yarn.  Damned peculiar.  Still, this means that twenty out of twenty-one Conan stories cite his blue eyes.  Ah, but how often?  Are they only mentioned once in each, making them easy to miss?  Let's note it down:

"The Phoenix on the Sword": 1
"The Frost-Giant's Daughter": 1
"The God in the Bowl": 8
"The Tower of the Elephant": 1
"The Scarlet Citadel": 3
"Queen of the Black Coast": 3
"Black Colossus": 3
"Iron Shadows in the Moon": 3
"Xuthal of the Dusk": 2
"The Pool of the Black One": 2
"Rogues in the House": 1
"The Vale of Lost Women": 1
"The Devil in Iron": 2
"The People of the Black Circle": 5
The Hour of the Dragon: 8
"A Witch Shall Be Born": 2
"Beyond the Black River": 3
"The Black Stranger": 1
"The Man-Eaters of Zamboula": 2
"Red Nails": 2

It's interesting that "The God in the Bowl," one of the shortest Conan stories, has exactly the same amount of references to Conan's blue eyes as The Hour of the Dragon. Can a pattern be discerned?  I notice that some tales where Conan is remarked upon as being not just a thief or barbarian, but an outsider tend to have more mentions of blue eyes. Nonetheless, the majority of Conan stories only mention Conan's eye colour once or twice - but if you've taken the time to read even a fraction of the Conan stories, you simply must notice mention of Conan's eye colours even in a brief skim of the stories.  Most of the stories where the eye-colour is seldom mentioned appear near the beginning of the story ("The Tower of the Elephant," for example) or at least in the introduction to Conan ("The Phoenix on the Sword") so for anyone to mistakenly think Conan's eye colour is some weird, obscure detail like his hairy chest - mentioned only twice in all the stories - doesn't hold water with me.

Out of the fragments, only the Yaralet fragment mentions blue eyes: it can be presumed that had Howard expanded the Nestor synopsis, and completed the Tombalku and Shumballa fragments, he may well have mentioned Conan's blue eyes in those tales too.

If Conan the Adventurer got the blue eyes, then there's no excuse for the film.

Cultural Identity

“What manner of men are these northern folk?” asked Prospero.
“Tall and fair and blue-eyed.
  - "The Phoenix on the Sword," The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian, p24

They were black haired, and grey or blue eyed.
 - Notes on Various Peoples, The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian, p349

In the north, golden-haired, blue-eyed barbarians, descendants of the blond arctic savages, have
driven the remaining Hyborian tribes out of the snow countries, except the ancient kingdom of
Hyperborea, which resists their onslaught.
 - "The Hyborian Age," The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian, p355

But the barbarians have kept their bloodstream pure; the Cimmerians are tall and powerful, with dark hair and blue or grey eyes.
 - "The Hyborian Age," The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian, p354-355

The fact that Conan is usually the only character in the entire story with blue eyes is supplemented by examination of Hyborian Age phenotypes.  Blue eyes seem, for the most part, to be unique to the northern barbarians: the Cimmerians, Æsir and Vanir are all uniformly noted to have blue eyes, or blue or grey eyes for the Cimmerians.  The fact that this is used as a distinguishing feature indicates that this is indeed an important method of distinction from the grey-eyed Hyborians and dark-eyed Shemites, Hyrkanians, Zamorians and Stygians.

In other words, if you have black hair and blue eyes, you are very likely to be a Cimmerian.  In modern times, people from many ethnicities can sport that combination, and be from anywhere in the world: black haired, blue eyed folk can be ethnically Gaelic, Brythonic, Spanish, Slavic, Finnish, Scandinavian, Germanic, Baltic, Greek, Italic, North African, Iranian, Indian, and even more.  Even in earlier history there was a decent amount of admixture.  But in Howard's Hyborian Age, this is not so, and when it comes to the insular barbarians, you can tell whether someone's from Cimmeria, Asgard, or Vanaheim simply by the colour of their hair and eyes - not to mention other things like height, build, features and skin hue.

A single look at the moody, broad-browed features told the watchman that the man was no Nemedian. From under a mop of unruly black hair smoldered a pair of dangerous blue eyes. A long sword hung in a leather scabbard at his girdle.
  - "The God in the Bowl," The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian, p46

"The God in the Bowl" is a very important Conan tale, because it serves as an introduction to one of the most powerful themes in the Conan saga: barbarism and civilization.  Conan is instantly recognizable as "other" due to his appearance, and there is no question that he is not native to the country in which the tale takes place.  At first, Arus presumes Conan to be a Bossonian or Hyperborean due to his size and foreign features, evidently not even considering him to be a Cimmerian or Nordheimr: this supports the statement in "The Phoenix on the Sword," where even the Aquilonians consider the Cimmerians mysterious and unknown.

“You are no soft Hyborian!” she exclaimed. “You are fierce and hard as a gray wolf. Those eyes were never dimmed by city lights; those thews were never softened by life amid marble walls.”
“I am Conan, a Cimmerian,” he answered.
To the people of the exotic climes, the north was a hazy half-mythical realm, peopled with ferocious blue-eyed giants who occasionally descended from their icy fastnesses with torch and sword. Their raids had never taken them as far south as Shem, and this daughter of Shem made no distinction between Æsir, Vanir or Cimmerian. With the unerring instinct of the elemental feminine, she knew she had found her lover, and his race meant naught, save as it invested him with the glamor of far lands.
  - "Queen of the Black Coast," The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian, p128

This is another example of blue eyes being a feature considered somewhat remarkable among the Shemites. Otherwise, why would their blue eyes be remarked upon at all?  Indeed, the northern peoples are so mysterious to the Shemites that they're considered "half-mythical," their denizens the stuff of legend.  Indeed, Bêlit doesn't even distinguish between Æsir, Vanir or Cimmerian: all are "ferocious blue-eyed giants" to her, and considering the Queen of the Black Coast has undoubtedly travelled far on her adventures, she's seen even more amazing things than the average Shemite. Thus, if even Bêlit considers the blue-eyed giants of the north half-mythical, imagine what Conan looks like to the average Shemite.

And survivors of butchered Stygian ships named Bêlit with curse, and a white warrior with fierce blue eyes.
  - "Queen of the Black Coast," The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian, p129

Once again, Conan's blue eyes are noted.  Not merely a "white warrior," but a white warrior with fierce blue eyes. Conan's bronze skin, black hair and tall, muscular build is shared by the warrior classes of the Shemites and Stygians: his blue eyes are not.  This would be an important aspect of the four chapters dealing with Conan's infiltration of Stygia, which I'll discuss later.

A more baleful fire glittered bluely in his eyes. At first glance she saw he was no Kothian; when he spoke she knew he was no Hyborian. He was clad like a captain of the mercenaries, and in that desperate command there were men of many lands, barbarians as well as civilized foreigners. There was a wolfishness about this warrior that marked the barbarian. The eyes of no civilized man, however wild or criminal, ever blazed with such a fire.
 - "Black Colossus," The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian, p158

She saw more fully now his unlikeness to the Hyborian races. In his dark, scarred face there was a suggestion of moodiness; and without being marked by depravity, or definitely evil, there was more than a suggestion of the sinister about his features, set off by his smoldering blue eyes.
  - "Black Colossus," The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian, p158

Even at first glance, Yasmela knew that Conan was not a Kothian: the Kothians are grey-eyed, though the Stygian/Shemite strain in the population means many are dark-eyed too.  Then, combined with his accent, it's clear to her that Conan isn't even a Hyborian.

So she watched the white man with painful intensity, noting every detail of his appearance. He was tall; neither in height nor in massiveness was he exceeded by many of the giant blacks. He moved with the lithe suppleness of a great panther. When the firelight caught his eyes, they burned like blue fire. High-strapped sandals guarded his feet, and from his broad girdle hung a sword in a leather scabbard. His appearance was alien and unfamiliar; Livia had never seen his like. But she made no effort to classify his position among the races of mankind.
  - "The Vale of Lost Women," The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian, p286

Livia is an Ophirean noblewoman who's travelled far to the south with her brother: she's undoubtedly seen many different ethnoi on her journey. Yet even to Livia, Conan is alien and unfamiliar, unlike any other man she had seen before.

He was dressed like a hillman, but his dark features and blazing blue eyes did not match his garb. Chunder Shan had never seen a man like him; he was not an Easterner, but some barbarian from the West.
  - "The People of the Black Circle," The Bloody Crown of Conan, p19-20

Once again, Conan's blue eyes mark him as a foreigner in the setting of the story.  Conan's eyes are mentioned as blue a total of five times in this story, the third highest after "The God in the Bowl" and The Hour of the Dragon (both eight).Once again, this is an occasion where his bronze skin and black hair are shared by the Afghuli, Vendhyans and Hyrkanians, but his blue eyes set him apart: everyone else in the tale has dark eyes.

No one cast him more than a casual glance as he mounted the long steps, unobtrusively avoiding the torches that flared at intervals above the lapping black water. He seemed but an ordinary, empty-handed fisherman, returning after a fruitless day along the coast. If one had observed him closely, it might have seemed that his step was somewhat too springy and sure, his carriage somewhat too erect and confident for a lowly fisherman. But he passed quickly, keeping in the shadows, and the commoners of Stygia were no more given to analysis than were the commoners of the less exotic races.
In build he was not unlike the warrior castes of the Stygians, who were a tall, muscular race. Bronzed by the sun, he was nearly as dark as many of them. His black hair, square-cut and confined by a copper band, increased the resemblance. The characteristics which set him apart from them were the subtle difference in his walk, and his alien features and blue eyes. But the mantle was a good disguise, and he kept as much in the shadows as possible, turning
away his head when a native passed him too closely.
But it was a desperate game, and he knew he could not long keep up the deception. Khemi was not like the sea-ports of the Hyborians, where types of every race swarmed. The only aliens here were negro and Shemite slaves; and he resembled neither even as much as he resembled the Stygians themselves. Strangers were not welcome in the cities of Stygia; tolerated only when they came as ambassadors or licensed traders. But even then the latter were not allowed ashore after dark. And now there were no Hyborian ships in the harbor at all. A strange restlessness ran through the city, a stirring of ancient ambitions, a whispering none could define except those who whispered. This Conan felt rather than knew, his whetted primitive instincts sensing unrest about him.
If he were discovered his fate would be ghastly. They would slay him merely for being a stranger; if he were recognized as Amra, the corsair chief who had swept their coasts with steel and flame – an involuntary shudder twitched Conan’s broad shoulders. Human foes he did not fear, nor any death by steel or fire. But this was a black land of sorcery and nameless horror. Set the Old Serpent, men said, banished long ago from the Hyborian races, yet lurked in the shadows of the cryptic temples, and awful and mysterious were the deeds done in the nighted shrines.
  - The Hour of the Dragon, The Bloody Crown of Conan, p197-198

The above is by far the most prominent of the examples of Conan's eye colour impacting the plot, and it affects no less than four chapters: "Black-Walled Khemi," "He Has Slain The Sacred Son of Set!" "I Am The Woman Who Never Died," and "In The Hall of the Dead." In all four, Conan's build, bronze skin and black hair allow him to blend in somewhat with the Stygians, but his features are alien: the most important, though, are his blue eyes, since the Stygians are - like the Shemites, Hyrkanians, Vendhyans, Afghuli and others - dark eyed.  Conan's stealthy venture through Khemi to the Temple of Set is tense and ready to fall apart if anyone catches a glimpse of his eyes. Even when he gets to the temple, he has to use a mask in order to get in, only failing when he attempts to bluff the guard with a secret handshake.

Conan shifted his broad sword-belt to his liking, and calmly returned the searching stares directed at him by the squad of watchmen as they swung past. They eyed him curiously and suspiciously, for he was a man who stood out even in such a motley throng as crowded the winding streets of Zamboula. His blue eyes and alien features distinguished him from the Eastern swarms, and the straight sword at his hip added point to the racial difference.
  - "The Man-Eaters of Zamboula," The Conquering Sword of Conan, p168-169

Zamboula is a cosmopolitan city, a trade hub betwixt east and west, north and south: men from all across the Hyborian Age can be found there. Yet even here, in this Hyborian Istanbul, Conan is set apart by his blue eyes.

 Even 2007's Conan game had blue eyes, fercryinoutloud.

Others with Blue Eyes

Remarkably, of the scores upon scores of supporting characters, heroines, villains and protagonists, very few have blue eyes.  Discounting the Nordheimr of "The Frost-Giant's Daughter" - who must have blue eyes despite not actually being described as having them - only two other characters have blue eyes.  This is, in itself, a fascinating mystery.

The first is the mad minstrel Rinaldo of "The Phoenix on the Sword":

“Aye, haste!” cried Rinaldo, his blue eyes matching the gleam of the sword he swung above his head. “My blade is thirsty! I hear the gathering of the vultures! On!”
  - "The Phoenix on the Sword," The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian, p31

The third was a tall wiry man in the garb of a jester, whose unruly yellow hair fell wildly above flaming blue eyes.
  - "The Phoenix on the Sword," draft, The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian, p324

Rinaldo's spiritual ancestor, Ridondo, also bore blue eyes and blond hair, so it can possibly be considered a carry-over from "By This Axe, I Rule!" that Howard didn't choose to alter. A few other Hyborian peoples sport blond hair: Aquilonians (Prince Valerius, Albiona, Amalric Valerus, Valeria), Argosseans (Strom), Brythunians (Natala, Brythunians "of the better class"), the Gundermen, Nemedians (General Amalric, Octavia), and Ophireans (Livia, Tina). None of them, however, have blue eyes.

The explanation for why Rinaldo, and others Hyborians, have blond hair is linked to the second blue-eyed character, the Argossean pirate captain Strom of "The Black Stranger."

He was a big man, bare-headed, his tawny hair blowing in the wind. Of all the sea-rovers who haunted the Barachans, none was more famed for deviltry than he.
- "The Black Stranger," The Conquering Sword of Conan, p105

"Oh, don't dissemble!" laughed Strom, but anger blazed blue in his eyes.
- "The Black Stranger," The Conquering Sword of Conan, p129

Strom and Rinaldo not only have blue eyes, they have blond hair. The only other people of the Hyborian Age to have both are the Æsir.  I'm of the opinion that there is indeed an element of Æsir ancestry among the Hyborians, at least in small pockets.  We know that the Shemites are dimly aware of northern barbarians embarking on occassional raids to the south, and that they made no distinction between Æsir, Vanir or Cimmerian: this indicates that all three tribes have made such invasions.  We know the Æsir and Vanir habitually raid and attack Cimmeria and Hyperborea.  Finally, though he and his grandfather are rare, we know that the Cimmerians very occassionally venture to the southern lands.  Why shouldn't the Æsir?

I'm of the opinion that the blond populations of Aquilonia, Argos, Brythunia, Gunderland, Nemedia, and Ophir are the result of early Æsir explorations, possibly between the fall of Acheron and the rise of the Hyborian Kingdoms.  The Æsir settled in those kingdoms, forming a small minority of blond-headed Hyborians. The reference to Octavia's "pure blood" may even be a reference to a Nemedian royal dynasty with Æsir origins, their old homeland lost and obscured by later Nemedian genealogy and legend.

Behind Blue Eyes

Conan's eye colour is not merely an aesthetic detail which has little bearing on the character's history, adventures or personality.  Blue Eyes in the Hyborian Age are a mark of the mysterious, a feature that makes Conan distinct and unusual from almost every other human being he encounters.  Like the Fremen of Arrakis, Conan's blue eyes are pretty unusual. When does James Bond's dark hair set him apart from other characters?  When do Captain Kirk's brown eyes affect the outcome of the story? 

If Jason Momoa's Conan doesn't have blue eyes, then it's just another mark against it contradicting the Conan canon.  An adaptation of "The People of the Black Circle" will lose Conan's distinctiveness when he has the same eye colour as everyone else in the story.  An adaptation of The Hour of the Dragon removes a significant amount of tension in Stygia if Conan's eye colour is the same as that of the Stygians.  Even if you do yet another pastiche, blue eyes are so rare in the Hyborian Age that if Conan lacks them, then he ends up looking less distinctive in comparison to the other characters.

Shemites, Stygians, Hyrkanians, Turanians, Afghuli, Vendhyans, Picts, Zingarans, Argosseans, and more all have dark hair and brown eyes.  Conan's blue eyes make him different, be it from the exotic civilized kingdoms, the bleak savagery of the barbarians, or the grim melancholy of the nomadic hillmen.  If Jason Momoa's Conan does indeed have brown eyes - just like the vast majority of humanity in the Hyborian Age - then it's yet another sign that the people making this film have no idea what Robert E. Howard's Conan is about.

*And, since I'm a glutton for punishment, here they all are!

Now he laid down the golden stylus with which he had been laboriously scrawling on waxed papyrus, rested his chin on his fist, and fixed his smoldering blue eyes enviously on the man who stood before him.
  - "The Phoenix on the Sword," The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian, p22

With an oath the Cimmerian heaved himself up on his feet, his blue eyes blazing, his dark scarred face contorted.
  - "The Frost-Giant's Daughter," The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian, p41

From under a mop of unruly black hair smoldered a pair of dangerous blue eyes.
  - "The God in the Bowl,"The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian, p46

A flicker of interest showed in the moody blue eyes.
  - "The God in the Bowl,"The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian, p47

An angry glint rose in the moody blue eyes.
  - "The God in the Bowl,"The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian, p48

“Save your bullying for the fools who fear you,” he growled, blue fires smoldering in his eyes.
  - "The God in the Bowl,"The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian, p50

“Back, if you value your dog-lives!” he snarled, his blue eyes blazing.
  - "The God in the Bowl,"The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian, p52

Conan’s eyes began to burn bluely, and a tension crackled in the air, when an interruption came.
  - "The God in the Bowl,"The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian, p62

Conan’s eyes blazed and he started as if stung; the guards tensed, grasping their bills, then relaxed as he dropped his head suddenly, as if in sullen resignation, and not even Demetrio could tell that he was watching them from under his heavy black brows, with eyes that were slits of blue bale-fire.
  - "The God in the Bowl,"The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian, p64

His skin was brown from outland suns, his eyes blue and smoldering; a shock of tousled black hair crowned his broad forehead.
  - "The Tower of the Elephant," The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian, p68

Before the savage blue eyes blazing murderously from beneath the crested, dented helmet, the boldest shrank.
  - "The Scarlet Citadel," The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian, p89

In strong contrast stood Conan, grim, blood-stained, naked but for a loin-cloth, shackles on his mighty limbs, his blue eyes blazing beneath the tangled black mane which fell over his low broad forehead.
  - "The Scarlet Citadel," The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian, p93

“Aside, wizard!” shrieked Amalrus, maddened by the glare in the Cimmerian’s blue eyes.
  - "The Scarlet Citadel," The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian, p94

Under the horned helmet a square-cut black mane contrasted with smoldering blue eyes.
  - "Queen of the Black Coast," The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian, p122

And survivors of butchered Stygian ships named Bêlit with curse, and a white warrior with fierce blue eyes.
  - "Queen of the Black Coast," The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian, p129

A more baleful fire glittered bluely in his eyes.
  - "Black Colossus," The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian, p155

In his dark, scarred face there was a suggestion of moodiness; and without being marked by depravity, or definitely evil, there was more than a suggestion of the sinister about his features, set off by his smoldering blue eyes.
  - "Black Colossus," The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian, p158

Conan drew his sword, his eyes slits of blue bale-fire.
  - "Black Colossus," The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian, p171

From under the tangle of his locks, bloodshot eyes glared like coals of blue fire.
  - "Iron Shadows in the Moon," The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian, p179

His blue eyes, though they smoldered with unquenchable fire, were no longer murky or bloodshot.
  - "Iron Shadows in the Moon," The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian, p184

Conan fought in silence, his eyes slits of blue bale-fire.
  - "Iron Shadows in the Moon," The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian, p197

The Cimmerian growled wordlessly, glaring truculently at the surrounding waste, with outthrust jaw, and blue eyes smoldering savagely from under his black tousled mane, as if the desert were a tangible enemy.
  - "Xuthal of the Dusk," The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian, p208

He ran his fingers through his streaming black mane, and his blue eyes lit as they rested on the girl.
  - "Xuthal of the Dusk," The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian, p238

His lips smiled, and in his blue eyes danced a wild gleam.
  - "The Pool of the Black One," The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian, p246

The dancing recklessness was gone from his eyes. They blazed like blue bale-fire; his mane bristled, his thin lips snarled.
  - "The Pool of the Black One," The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian, p256

Under his tangled black mane his blue eyes blazed with unquenchable savagery.
  - "Rogues in the House," The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian, p263

When the firelight caught his eyes, they burned like blue fire.
  - "The Vale of Lost Women," The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian, p286

A fierce vitality that was evident in each feature and motion set him apart from common men; yet his expression was neither savage nor somber, though the smoldering blue eyes hinted at ferocity easily wakened.
  - "The Devil in Iron," The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian, p304

He stood silently facing the dark towers that loomed through the trees, his eyes slits of blue bale-fire.
  - "The Devil in Iron," The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian, p306

The fellow was a Cimmerian, a giant with a black mane and smoldering blue eyes.
  - the Yaralet fragment, The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian, p372

He was dressed like a hillman, but his dark features and blazing blue eyes did not match his garb.
  - "The People of the Black Circle," The Bloody Crown of Conan, p19-20

A wild blue flame flickered in the hillman’s eyes, but Chunder Shan shrugged his shoulders, though keeping an eye on the keen steel.
  - "The People of the Black Circle," The Bloody Crown of Conan, p21

Chunder Shan saw recognition and intent flame up in the fierce blue eyes.
  - "The People of the Black Circle," The Bloody Crown of Conan, p21

When she stepped from behind the rock he swore in surprize, and she felt a curious rush of emotions at the unrestrained admiration burning in his fierce blue eyes.
  - "The People of the Black Circle," The Bloody Crown of Conan, p42

Conan turned to Yasmina, his red knife still in his hand, his blue eyes smoldering, blood oozing from wounds on his thickly-muscled arms and thighs.
  - "The People of the Black Circle," The Bloody Crown of Conan, p79

His brow was low and broad, his eyes a volcanic blue that smoldered as if with some inner fire.
  - The Hour of the Dragon, The Bloody Crown of Conan, p87

So formidable was his appearance, naked but for short leather breeks and sleeveless shirt, open to reveal his great, hairy chest, with his huge limbs and his blue eyes blazing under his tangled black mane, that the squire shrank back, more afraid of his king than of the whole Nemedian host.
  - The Hour of the Dragon, The Bloody Crown of Conan, p99

His eyes coals of blue fire and his lips smiling bleakly, he lashed right and left with his two-handed sword.
  - The Hour of the Dragon, The Bloody Crown of Conan, p128

Conan’s head jerked up and a lethal flame lit his blue eyes.
  - The Hour of the Dragon, The Bloody Crown of Conan, p139

Conan started and stared at Servius with such anger smoldering in his blue eyes that the patrician shrank back.
  - The Hour of the Dragon, The Bloody Crown of Conan, p141

Through the coif the eyes blazed like coals of blue fire, and as these eyes rested on each man in turn, he felt a curious chill travel down his spine.
  - The Hour of the Dragon, The Bloody Crown of Conan, p146

The characteristics which set him apart from them were the subtle difference in his walk, and his alien features and blue eyes.
  - The Hour of the Dragon, The Bloody Crown of Conan, p197-198

His helmet was gone; he shook back his black mane and his blue eyes blazed with their old fire.
  - The Hour of the Dragon, The Bloody Crown of Conan, p240

The perspiration of agony beaded his face and his mighty breast, but from under the tangled black mane that fell over his low, broad forehead, his blue eyes blazed with an unquenched fire.
  - "A Witch Shall Be Born," The Bloody Crown of Conan, p251

To his splendor the huge Cimmerian opposite him offered a strong contrast, with his square-cut black mane, brown scarred countenance and burning blue eyes.
  - "A Witch Shall Be Born," The Bloody Crown of Conan, p263

Nor was the face below it that of a civilized man: dark, scarred, with smoldering blue eyes, it was a face as untamed as the primordial forest which formed its background.
  - "Beyond the Black River," The Conquering Sword of Conan, p49

The burning blue eyes turned upon him.
  - "Beyond the Black River," The Conquering Sword of Conan, p49

And the forester, staring into the moody, smoldering blue eyes knew the barbaric oath would be kept.
  - "Beyond the Black River," The Conquering Sword of Conan, p94

A momentary anger flickered bluely in the giant's eyes.
  - "The Black Stranger," The Conquering Sword of Conan, p134

His blue eyes and alien features distinguished him from the Eastern swarms, and the straight sword at his hip added point to the racial difference.
  - "The Man-Eaters of Zamboula," The Conquering Sword of Conan, p168-169

She cast a quick glance into his face, and properly interpreted the gleam in his blue eyes.
  - "The Man-Eaters of Zamboula," The Conquering Sword of Conan, p177

He grinned hardly, and his fierce blue eyes burned with a light any woman could understand as they ran over her magnificent figure, lingering on the swell of her splendid breasts beneath the light shirt, and the clear white flesh displayed between breeches and boot-tops.
  - "Red Nails," The Conquering Sword of Conan, p196

His fierce blue eyes roved about the chamber, and he kept his sword close to his hand.
  - "Red Nails," The Conquering Sword of Conan, p229