A Brief Howardian Interlude -- Conan's Origins

Things I think about as I research posts.

Any fan of Conan the Barbarian can likely quote the following verse from memory:

Hither came Conan, the Cimmerian, black-haired, sullen-eyed, sword in hand, a thief, a reaver, a slayer, with gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth, to tread the jeweled thrones of the Earth under his sandalled feet.”
—The Nemedian Chronicles.

It’s a rich description that Robert E. Howard wrote at the beginning of his story The Phoenix on the Sword published in the December 1932 edition of Weird Tales magazine. I’ve included the spelling from the pulp magazine above, so “sandalled” is spelled as it was published. This quote has long resonated with me and is among my favorite descriptions in all of literature. Given that Robert E. Howard was a well read young man, especially for someone living in a remote Texas town, he was often inspired by other literature for his ideas and descriptions; just as the best of authors are.

I have been researching references for an article here discussing the differences between Planetary Romance fiction and Sword and Sorcery tales as a follow up to my earlier post on the state of the Planetary Romance genre.

Wither Planetary Romance?

Planetary Romance and Sword and Sorcery are probably my two favorite literary genres and discussing the similarities and differences between them is something I love to do and what better way to discuss those differences than to write a pedantic article on the topic; a pedantic article that will challenge certain things that are “known” about the origins of the term. Or rather, that clarifies what has previously been a reductive account of that origin.

That’s neither here nor there. As a part of my research I was reading through old issues of AMRA (where people often say the term Sword and Sorcery was first used) and Ancalagon (where it was actually first used), when I came across a sentence in one of Michael Moorcock’s entries where he writes, “As de Camp showed in his Exegesis of Howard’s Hyborian Tales and as I did in my earlier and not nearly so complete article Historical Fact and Fiction in Connection with the Conan Series (Burroughsania, V2, #16, Aug 1957), the names for characters and backgrounds in Howard’s wonderful series were nearly all culled from legendry.”

The Exegesis is published in The Conan Reader, a pricey but worthy addition to any Howardian’s collection and thus a part of my own library, Burroughsania however may be a zine about one of my favorite authors but it is one that I’ve read far too little of in my travels. A few strokes of the key later I found the article written by good ol’ “M.J. Moorcock” and his friend J. Cawthorn. What a find it was.

As Moorcock mentioned in his AMRA article, he makes a number of connections between Howard’s writings and characters of legend. In particular, he demonstrates that Conan is the name of one of the companions of Finn-mac-Coul and he provides two literary descriptions of the character. The first description Moorcock provides comes from Charles Squires’ Celtic Myth and Legend and it describes the Fenian Conan as “an old, bald, vain, irritable man, as great a braggart as ancient Pistol and as foul-mouthed as Thersites, and yet, after he had been shamed into activity, a true man of his hands.”

That does not sound like the Conan I grew up with and I wondered what the connection to Howard’s Conan to Finn’s could be. Then I read onward in Moorcock’s piece where he mentions Donald A. Mackenzie’s tales of Finn and His Warrior Band. Mackenzie’s book is similar in tone and intent as Roger Lancelyn Green’s many mythological texts. It’s meant as a way to familiarize the mass public, and curious children, of the wonders of the fantastic tales of the past.

Mackenzie, to quote Moorcock, has a Conan who is “given more ‘character’ — although perhaps Mr. Squires’ description is nearer the Conan found in the Fenian stories — for although Mr. Mackenzie is a very eminent student of all kinds of folklore and wrote many books on the subject — he was adapting the stories to appeal to a reading public.” I’ll let

Ethan Sabatella

comment as to whether Mr. Mackenzie is a worthy scholar of folklore, but I will say that he might very well be the wellspring for the description of Conan.

Here is Mackenzie’s description of Finn’s companion:

There are differences, to be sure, but the rhythm is there. Howard is more poetic, likely a product of his being paid by the word and being a talented wordsmith who never let writing for a mass audience dampen his stylings. But two key things stand out to me. The fiery temper and the full of kindness being paralleled with one another. “Whose temper was fiery, and whose heart was full of kindness” isn’t quite “with gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth”, but it’s close enough for me to think it might have been an inspiration. Mackenzie’s book was published in 1911, covered a topic Howard loved, but sadly is not listed as among the books officially on the Howard bookshelf.

I will never know for sure if my theory is correct, but I think it just might be.