When many people hear the words “Sword & Sorcery”, they immediately think of Conan. He might be Robert E. Howard’s original, or the L. Sprague de Camp/Lin Carter pastiche Conan, the Marvel Comics Conan of Roy Thomas, or sadly, the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie Conan. No matter which they think of, there is good reason for this association. Conan was not the first S&S character, but he was the first S&S superstar. Howard’s most popular character, hated by some critics, dismissed by others, it matters not. Conan is iconic. He is the poster child for all things Sword & Sorcery.
Conan’s career was never well planned. Howard once wrote to Clark Ashton Smith: “Some mechanism in my sub-consciousness took the dominant characteristics of various prize-fighters, gunmen, bootleggers, oil field bullies, gamblers, and honest workmen I had come in contact with, and combining them all, produced the amalgamation I call Conan the Cimmerian.” He was said to be born on a battlefield but a scrap heap is actually more accurate. After Howard’s first S&S hero, Kull, failed to produce, the author rethought the mix and adapted a rejected Kull tale, “By This Axe I Rule”. Howard added supernatural elements and Conan appeared for the first time in “The Phoenix on the Sword”. Again, not well planned, for this story takes place at the end, when Conan has secured his kingdom. No spry little barbarian running around the hills of Cimmeria. Such tales did follow though. “The Rogues in the House” and “The Tower of the Elephant” go back to Conan’s youth when he survived as a thief in the streets of Zamora.
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