The Monsters of the Hyborian Age 3: The Tower Spider
If you missed last time…. The gigantic spider, through the works of both Robert E. Howard and J. R. R. Tolkien, has become a standard Read More
If you missed last time…. The gigantic spider, through the works of both Robert E. Howard and J. R. R. Tolkien, has become a standard Read More
All the stories I selected this time came from magazines first, ones that occasionally published good Sword & Sorcery. You can find them if you Read More
Polar bears as creatures of Fantasy have not had the widespread exposure that other animals have. I suspect this is because J. R. R. Tolkien Read More
George Barr’s art is influenced by Maxfield Parrish and his acolytes, Hannes Bok and Virgil Finlay. Like another influence, Arthur Rackham, Barr works in water Read More
“The Tower of the Elephant” (Weird Tales, March 1933) by Robert E. Howard is one of the central Conan stories, set in his youth. Conan Read More
The 1960s saw an explosion in heroic fantasy fiction with Ballantine’s The Lord of the Rings and the Lancer Conan paperbacks. Suddenly barbarians and hobbit-like Read More
In 1982, Gary Gygax of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons fame gave us the character class “The Barbarian” in The Dragon #63 (July 1982). One of Read More
The folklore of Europe has given us many creatures of the night. The Strigoi date back to Romanian tales about troubled spirits that rise from Read More
As I sat watching the last of The Hobbit trilogy of films I realized something. We take so much for granted in the 21st Century. Read More
This piece uses quotes from the Gutenberg version of Grettir the Strong. Available here. Grettir the Strong is a 13th Century heroic saga of the Read More