Robert E. Howard: the father of sword & sorcery

Conan. Solomon Kane. Kull the Conqueror. Bran Mak Morn. Red Sonya. Sailor Steve Costigan.

These and many others are the creations of Robert E. Howard (1906-36), a pulp writer who is credited as the “father of sword & sorcery,” though he wrote in other genres as well: adventure, pirate, historical fiction, science fiction, western, spicy, weird menace, horror/fantasy, and more.

If people haven’t read his original works, they probably know his creations through adaptions in movies, TV, and comic books. He was considered one of the main triumvirate of Weird Tales, along with H.P. Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith, and he corresponded with Lovecraft, and contributed to the Cthulhu mythos.

Howard was born and raised in Texas, spending most of his life in Cross Plains. Sadly, he ended his life at age 30 when his mother fell into a coma. What might he have contributed had he lived longer?

I am not in any way an authority on REH, as many refer to him, but hopefully, this will serve as an introduction to his work. There will be further postings on more specific stories and characters in the future.

Conan the Cimmerian

Probably his most well-known character, thanks largely to the 1982 movie starting a certain Austrian actor.

Myself, I first read him thanks to a series of massmarket paperback reprints of early Marvel Comics adaptions of his stories by Roy Thomas and Barry Winsor-Smith.

The stories of Conan are set in a pre-historic period lost to time, the so-called “Hyborian Age” of 10,000 years ago. Set after the sinking of Atlantis and Lemuria, the stories take place in the land that will be modern Europe/Asia and North Africa. But it’s one where there is no Mediterranean Sea, Great Britain is landlocked, only about half of Africa exists, the Arctic ice sheet is larger, etc.

Conan, who is from the country of Cimmeria, represents the ancient Indo-Europeans and were based on the Scot-Irish, is a barbarian, who roves the lands having adventures and even becoming a king. This is a world of “low fantasy” — sword and sorcery — where magic exists. There is even a race of “serpent people” to contend with. Howard created the Hyborian Age because, while he wanted to set his stories in a historical period, if he did so using a real one, he’d have to do a lot of research. So it was easier to just create his own, which he documented in an essay entitled “The Hyborian Age”.  It would be published after his death and is available in a fascimile reprint from Skelos Press.

There have been several collections of Conan stories over the years, and others have added additional ones, going back to the work of L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter. Marvel Comics, for several years, did both color and black-&-white comics, which have since been collected in trade and omnibus editions. Dark Horse Comics has done the same. There is now a new series of comic adaptions of his original stories from Europe that includes those stories. But due to licensing, they are titled in the U.S. as just The Cimmerian. Four hardback albums are out.

Kull the Conqueror

Another of REH’s sword-and-sorcery characters, Kull is set earlier in the time of Atlantis. Only a few of his stories were published before REH’s death. Kull, too, was adapted into comics and movies.

Red Sonya/Red Sonja

Red Sonya was a character who appeared in one REH story, a historical fiction piece. This character was then transformed by Roy Thomas and Barry Winsor-Smith in the Marvel Comic’s Conan series into a red-headed female warrior in the Hyborian Age that has appeared in other comics and a movie: Red Sonja. So she’s less of a creation of REH’s, but one more inspired by his works. There have since been a movie and many comics, including reprints of the Marvel material, from Dynamite now.

Solomon Kane

Kane is a 16th-century Puritan who travels the world fighting evil in all its forms. I think some people have used him as a model for similar characters who fight occult threats of the time. Again, he has been used in comics and movies.

Others

So what about some of the other characters? Sailor Steve Costigan stars in a series of humorous fight stories.  El Borak is the star of a series set in Afghanistan.  Breckenridge Elkins stars in a series of humorous Westerns.

Detective Steve Harrison deals with various weird mysteries. Bran Mak Morn is the last king of a fictionalized version of the Picts. A couple of his stories tie to the Cthulhu mythos.  There are several others.

Lovecraft & the Cthulhu Mythos

As noted, REH was a friend of Lovecraft’s. They corresponded, and there is a 2 volume set you can get of their letters from Hippocampus Press. REH wrote a few works of horror, as well as some set in the Cthulhu mythos. These have been collected in a book from Baen, which I need to review, and later in a large collection from Chaosium. He contributed the volume Unaussprechlichen Kulten, or Nameless Cults, to the mix, which others have used.

For anyone wanting to delve into Robert E. Howard, the issue is not so much finding his works, but deciding what to get. All his works are in print, often from several publishers. Del Rey seems to have his major works in print in 11 authorized trade paperbacks, all of which have illustrations.

Robert E. Howard Library from Del Rey:

• The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian
• The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane
• The Bloody Crown of Conan
• Brak Mak Morn: The Last King
• The Conquering Sword of Conan
• Kull: Exhile of Atlantis
• The Best of Robert E. Howard, Vol 1: Crimson Shadows
• The Best of Robert E. Howard, Vol 2: Grim Lands
• The Horror Stories of Robert E. Howard
• El Borak and Other Desert Adventures
• Sword Women and Other Historical Adventures

For the rest of his works, you’ll need to go to the Robert E Howard Foundation, which works to preserve his legacy and publish the rest of his work in a definitive Ultimate edition of 22 volumes as originally created (sadly, many versions out there were edited and altered by others).  So far, I believe about 7 volumes are out.  These include volumes of his letters, poetry, and more.  I expect we’ll get his western and fight stories and other works not in the Del Rey collections.

There is even a film about him, The Whole Wide World.

And because he wrote more than just sword-and-sorcery works, there may be something of interest for many. If you haven’t, check him out.