Death of Toghrul in the Kolari earthquake

The Death of Toghrul in the Kolari earthquake is the pivotal moment when Conan, after a decade of enslavement, refuses to save his dying master and claims his freedom. This event marks the end of his servitude under the Hyrkanian pit master and the beginning of his journey toward vengeance against Thulsa Doom.

The Earthquake and the Collapse of the Cave

The catastrophe began without warning. The earth shook, a muffled moan within the ground swelled to a rumbling roar, and the ground cracked open. A stream of rocks cascaded down the hillside past the entrance to the cave where Conan and a girl were sheltering. The girl woke, screaming, and fumbled for her lover, but Conan, fully clad, was already crouching on the cave floor, his outstretched arms braced against the stone wall as the ground heaved and shook beneath him. Huddled there, he recalled the legends his father had told him about giants in the earth and wondered whether some of them, astir, were causing the catastrophe. The rumble increased in volume until Conan had to shout to the trembling girl, urging her to join him. From Kolari came a continuing ululation of screams as terror-stricken people rushed from their tumbling houses. Behind Conan and the girl, a section of the cave roof collapsed with a thunderous roar, filling the air with rock dust.

Conan's Escape from the Cave

As Conan, growling curses, seized the bars that penned them in, the ground beneath his feet split open. A line like black lightning zigzagged down the rock in which the hinges of the barred gate were set. The gate loosened in Conan's desperate grip as the lower hinge parted from its setting. A violent push, and the gate hung awry. "Get out, girl!" shouted Conan, as he forced the gate ajar. The girl squeezed past him through the narrow opening and ran screaming into the night, clutching her furs and flimsy garments against her naked bosom. With another mighty heave, Conan broke the gate loose from its remaining hinge and hurled it down the hillside. As the earth rocked and vibrated beneath his feet, he staggered out into the moonlight and glared wildly at the scene of devastation. In the middle distance, he perceived the houses of Kolari in ruins, and their homeless tenants running aimlessly about, like ants after the obliteration of their nest.

The Plea of the Pit Master

Below him, at the foot of the little hill, Conan saw the Pit master's head protruding from a wide crack in the earth. The earth had opened beneath the Hyrkanian's feet and swallowed him to his shoulders. Wedged in the crack, the man was unable to free himself. "Pull me out!" implored the Pit master. "Why should I?" Conan replied. "I'll pay gold! I'll give you your freedom! Only save me now!" the Pit master promised. "My freedom, eh?" Conan threw back his head and laughed—his first good laugh since the Vanir had captured him, ten long years ago. "That I already have. Stay there, swine! If the earth swallows you down, good riddance to you!" Conan turned and walked away. Guided by the moonlight, he headed for a clump of trees on a hillock in the distance. He had neither supplies nor weapons and did not know whither he was going, but at least he knew that southward the weather was warmer. Behind him, Toghrul's frantic voice rose to an awful shriek as, in a final earth tremor, the crack that held him closed once more.

The Looting of the Hyrkanian Warrior

Conan saw no one, alive or dead, in the direction he chose to travel, save, after a time, one Hyrkanian warrior, who sprawled beneath a fallen tree. In its descent, the tree had broken the fellow's back. Conan knelt and looted the corpse for such articles as he might need: boots, flint and steel, a dagger, a fur cloak, and a bag of coins. He also took the man's quiver and bow case, although he looked doubtfully at them, for the bow was little used among the Cimmerians, and Conan had never learned to shoot. "You'll have no use for these in the red pits of Hell, Hyrkanian," he said cheerfully, "and they may serve me well before I join you there." So saying, he donned the dead man's gear and glided away through the trees.

The End of a Decade of Slavery

The death of Toghrul closes the longest chapter of Conan's servitude. It began with the raid on his Cimmerian village, when the Vanir swept down upon the hamlet, shattering the thin ice of the stream that paralleled the village, and dragged the boy Conan into slavery. Chained one to another, the captives trudged across an endless expanse of pristine snow, shadowed by pines, into slavery. At Thrudvang, Conan was chained to the Wheel of Pain, grinding grain to powder beneath its ponderous weight, beside other ragged, dull-eyed youths and men from lands unknown or rarely mentioned in Cimmeria. Later, Toghrul, a pit master from Hyrkania, a land far to the east, beyond barren Hyperborea, bought him. The chain, wound around the pommel of his saddle, clanked against the clumsy wooden collar that confined the neck of the Cimmerian slave. The muscles of Conan's legs were strong from years of toil at the wheel, and massive was his chest; yet his thews ached, and each indrawn breath became a strangled sob as his master quickened his pace from a trot to an easy canter. Stones thrust jagged edges against Conan's naked feet. Once, when he stumbled, he was dragged along until the pony, unsettled by the unaccustomed weight of an inert body, slowed to a walk. Then the youth regained his footing and forced his bruised and bleeding limbs to carry him forward. The earthquake at Kolari, which destroyed the town and swallowed Toghrul, thus becomes the instrument of Conan's liberation, a violent natural force that severs the last bond of his captivity.

The Birth of a Free Man

This event transforms Conan from a slave into a free man, a change he immediately asserts with his refusal to help Toghrul. His laughter, his first good laugh since the Vanir had captured him, signals the release of a decade of pent-up suffering. The death of Toghrul also sets Conan on the path that will lead him to Shadizar of Zamora, the crossroads of the world, where he will find that which he seeks, and ultimately to his confrontation with Thulsa Doom. The event foreshadows the theme of steel versus the hand that wields it, as Conan, now free, will later learn that what matters is not the steel within the blade, but the steel within the man. The death of Toghrul is thus not merely an act of vengeance or cruelty, but the necessary precondition for Conan's emergence as a hero, a man who will one day wear a crown won by his own sword.