The Frost-Giant's Daughter

"The Frost-Giant's Daughter" is one of the original fantasy short stories about Conan the Cimmerian, written by American author Robert E. Howard.

The story is set in the pseudo-historical Hyborian Age and details Conan pursuing a spectral nymph across the frozen tundra of Nordheim.

Rejected as a Conan story by Weird Tales magazine editor Farnsworth Wright, Howard changed the main character's name to "Amra of Akbitana" and retitled the piece as "The Gods of the North", in which it was published in the March 1934 issue of The Fantasy Fan.

Following his fierce battle against the red-haired Vanir, Conan, lying exhausted on a corpse-ridden battlefield, is visited by a beautiful and partially-nude woman identifying herself as "Atali".

The mere sight of her strange beauty awakens Conan's lust and, when she repeatedly taunts him, he insanely chases Atali for miles across the snow-covered region while attempting to capture her.

While Robert E. Howard had already written many fantasy stories featuring northern Viking-like characters, the names and plot structure for "The Frost-Giant's Daughter" was derived in its entirety from Thomas Bulfinch's The Outline of Mythology (1913).