The Riddle of Steel

What is the Riddle of Steel?

The Thulsa Doom answer : Flesh is stronger than Steel?

The forging recipe OF carbon and Iron ?

The life adversity that make stronger a man like steel ?

or what?

Will in your soul wich moves your flesh is stronger than a sword. If only the sword matters, if one day is broken... then what?

People searches for the best, finest, external "tool" to be powerful... Instead of looking for the true power wich is in your heart, in your inside.

I agree with Flaming Turd. I like so much Doom's speech : What is steel compared to the hand that wields it ?Look at the strength of your body, the desire in your heart.... I gave you this, such a waste !

And it took Thulsa Doom a thousand years to discover this well-kept secret... well done Nial, nice one Cimmerians !

But Doom's strength was his voice, his power of persuasion and the ability of hypnotizing people with his deep-magic-blue eyes. Finally, I never understood why HE was searching for steel.

He was probably a narcissistic collector of prestige and power items.

Ok I asked couse is the question Conan will make the the player in the upcoming miniquest mod I am making for skyrim :) I hope you do not mind if I use your answer :) ...

Of course just thank me somewhere on the credits.

I have changed it and adapted to the story but you will have to answer a riddle ofc :) ...

Doom did say "Ah. It must have been when I was younger. There was a time, boy, when I searched for steel, when steel meant more to me than gold or jewels."

and this is where Conan mentions the riddle of steel.

It's possible Doom only discovered the answer in Conan's lifetime.
But I always liked to think he was giving Conan a false answer so he would be cast out of Valhalla if he trusted him.

For me the riddle of steel means the making of Wootz. Wootz is an extremely special Crucible steel that was discovered in the middle East, it behaves completely different to normal steel, it's strength comes from bands of carbon that run through it. The knowledge of how to make Wootz was also lost within a few hundred years of the Viking age... so it became a riddle. Some of the greatest heroes of old had Wootz swords... Attila was said to have had a sword of "Meteoric Iron" way before the iron age happened. Beowulf found a Wootz Sword forged by giants... it is described as a "Damascend" sword (not to be confused with damascus). this is in keeping with the Conan film and Giants stealing the secret of steel from Crom.

Another thought I had was that the riddle of steel was the hardening and tempering process. This was badly implied in the latest Conan film. In CTB and the forging of the father's sword, if you disregard the sword being made from molten cast iron(ridiculous), and skip forward to the hardening process, only half of the blade is glowing orange when it is quenched in snow... this would create a severe weak point halfway up the blade (not that you can quench steel in snow anyway) I used to think this was just a bad typical hollywood blacksmithing scene, but then the sword does break at that point on the blade, later in the film...

Besides, if Doom was telling the truth, then Conan's Father was lying... which I doubt-
"No one in this world can you trust, not men, not women, not beasts.... This you can trust."
pretty sure Conan's father believed that the answer to the riddle of steel wasn't flesh...

I think Doom was misleading Conan, he had no reason to help him, other than to change his beliefs and make him another lieutenant in his cult...