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Post by deuce on Feb 18, 2018 2:20:09 GMT -5
REH to HPL (11 February 1936) Glad you enjoyed the dream write-up I sent you. Long narrative dreams are fairly common with me, and sometimes my dream personality is in no way connected with my actual personality. I have been a 16th century Englishman, a prehistoric man, a blue-coated United States cavalryman, campaigning against the Sioux in the years following the Civil War, a yellow-haired Italian of the Renaissance, a Norman nobleman of the 11th century, a weird-eyed flowing-bearded Gothic fighting-man, a bare-footed Irish kern of the 17th century, an Indian, a Serb in baggy trousers fighting Turks with a curved saber, a prize-fighter, and I've wandered all up and down the 19th century as a trapper, a westward-bound emigrant, a bar-tender, a hunter, an Indian-fighter, a trail-driver, cowboy - once I was John Wesley Hardin! I remember very well indeed the Roman dream of yours which Long used in his story. As I told you then it was an imaginative and poetic masterpiece.A Means to Freedom, p.915 Possible Wikipedia links of interest en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wesley_Hardinen.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_MišarAside from numerous other points of interest, we once again see REH ignoring/not placing himself in the "Greco-Roman" period, with the possible exception of the Goth. As he told HPL in another letter, the eras he was by far the most interested in were the Ancient Middle East (Egypt and Babylon), the Middle Ages and the American Frontier.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 18, 2018 11:12:11 GMT -5
REH to HPL (11 February 1936) Glad you enjoyed the dream write-up I sent you. Long narrative dreams are fairly common with me, and sometimes my dream personality is in no way connected with my actual personality. I have been a 16th century Englishman, a prehistoric man, a blue-coated United States cavalryman, campaigning against the Sioux in the years following the Civil War, a yellow-haired Italian of the Renaissance, a Norman nobleman of the 11th century, a weird-eyed flowing-bearded Gothic fighting-man, a bare-footed Irish kern of the 17th century, an Indian, a Serb in baggy trousers fighting Turks with a curved saber, a prize-fighter, and I've wandered all up and down the 19th century as a trapper, a westward-bound emigrant, a bar-tender, a hunter, an Indian-fighter, a trail-driver, cowboy - once I was John Wesley Hardin! I remember very well indeed the Roman dream of yours which Long used in his story. As I told you then it was an imaginative and poetic masterpiece.A Means to Freedom, p.915 Possible Wikipedia links of interest en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wesley_Hardinen.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_MišarAside from numerous other points of interest, we once again see REH ignoring/not placing himself in the "Greco-Roman" period, with the possible exception of the Goth. As he told HPL in another letter, the eras he was by far the most interested in were the Ancient Middle East (Egypt and Babylon), the Middle Ages and the American Frontier. Yeah, I agree. The extract below is all I can really remember, for now, where REH demonstrates a certain amount of interest in the 'Greco-Roman' period. Even though it is admittedly the Byzantine era. REH to HPL 'By the way, the study of the East Roman or Byzantine empire contains a certain amount of interest, what of their continuous wars and intrigues with the Moslems and barbarians Mongoloid and Aryan. what a strange mingling of voluptuous luxury and bloody conspiracy that empire must have been.'
Means to Freedom, p.338 I think the concept underlined below would've been a classic if REH continued writing historical fiction. REH to Tevis Clyde Smith (August of 1931) '...hinting Tamerlane as a fit subject for an Oriental Story story.... Now I've got to get hold of something on the Big Tatar and try to pound out a novelet; I've been thinking of writing a tale about him for a long time. And Babur the Tiger who established the Mogul rule in India - and the imperial phase in the life of Baibars the Panther, the subject of my last story - and the rise of the Ottomans - and the conquest of Constantinople by the Fifth Crusade - the subjugation of the Turks by the Arabs in the days of Abu Bekr - and the gradual supplanting of the Arab masters by their Turkish slaves which culminated in the conquest of Asia Minor and Palestine by the Seljuks - and the rise of Saladin - and the final destruction of Christian Outreamer by Al Kalawun - and the First Crusade - Godfrey of Boullion, Baldwin of Boulogne, Bohemund - Sigurd the Jorsala-farer - Barbarossa - Cour de Lion. Ye gods, I could write a century and still have only tapped the reservoir of dramatic possibilities. I wish to Hell I had a dozen markets for historical fiction - I'd never write anything else.' Sword Woman and Other Historical Adventures, p.524
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Post by Deleted on Feb 18, 2018 15:16:41 GMT -5
A modern rendition of Kul Tegin, a famous 8th century Türk warrior from Mongolia. With these letters REH and HPL discuss what it would have been like if the West had conquered the East in ancient times, and vice versa - for example what if Alexander the Great had conquered China? these excerpts concern the opposite possibility of the Eastern World conquering the Western World. Kinda reminds me of the Marvel 'What If?' comics. HPL to REH (May 7, 1932)It is my opinion that a Saracen conquest of Europe would have ended the Western World and established a dominant Moslem Empire, for the Arabs at their height were more civilised than we were at the same time. Had they conquered us physically, they could certainly imposed their culture on the land - as indeed they did for centuries in Spain. On the other hand, I doubt if the Tartars were civilised enough to do it. I think they would have become half-Aryanised - and heaven knows what sort of mongrel culture would have resulted.Means to Freedom, p.286 REH to HPL (24 May, 1932?)As you say, the Arabs, at their height, were far more highly civilized than we, and an Arabic conquest - had it not been the fundamental difference in nature - might not have been so bad - though the mind revolts at the thought. I agree with you that a Mongolian conquest would have been a mess. It seems to me that the Mongol tends to degenerate even quicker than the Aryan, when thrown from his nomadic pristine existence into luxurious environments, and more completely - as witness the decay of the Seljuks in Asia Minor, whose magnificent empire went to pieces scarcely more than fifty years after they swept out of High Asia. And look at the static condition of the Ottoman today - however, the Ottoman is a mongrel of the most tangled type, and he was never a Turk, anyhow, in the true sense of the word. If we'd been over-run and conquered by Turks or Tatars, I imagine the present-day western world would present a bewildering and paradoxical picture - probably with names like Yaruktash McDonald, Genghis O'Brien abd Tughluk Murphy. Means to Freedom, p.291
HPL to REH (June 8, 1932)
Speculations on historic might-have-beens are certainly interesting in the extreme, and I imagine you are largely right about the probable effect of a Mongol conquest of the western world. Today the basically Mongol stocks which (of course have much admixture) are classed as white are the Finns (whose Mongol heritage is residual and not a matter of conquest), the Magyars of Hungary, and the Turks. the Finns and Magyars have done pretty well in the matter of civilisation, but the Turks - in spite of Mustapha Kemal - remain to prove their capacity for Europeanisation.
Means to Freedom, p.306
Here's an extract from a letter relevant to this post: REH to HPL (c. April 1932) I read with much interest and appreciation your speculations on the possible trend of history, in the event of the destruction of Rome by the Gauls; they seem to have considered all angles. Continuing with these theoretical wanderings: suppose that Martel had not stopped the Arabs at Tours? Or that Tamerlane or Genghis Khan had conquered Europe? Or, speculating even from the other way, suppose that Alexander the Great had conquered India, and pressing on, subjugated the Cathayan empire? Would the East have been Aryanized, or the Western races sunk that much quicker in a mire of Orientalism? And suppose the Black Prince had carried out his dream of Oriental conquest? He was probably the only Western general of medieval times capable of holding his own with the great Eastern conquerors. In fact, I am convinced, that, with his English archers, he would have proven more than a match for Tamerlane, Genghis Khan, Baibars, Subotai, Saladin, or any of the rest.The main reason that the Crusaders and other western armies were so repeatedly defeated and overthrown by the Moslems and Mongols was partly because of the extreme mobility of the armies, partly because of the incredible inefficiency of the western kings and generals. By the way, Wright thought well enough of my yarn, 'The Sowers of the Thunder' published in the current Oriental Stories, to advertise it in 'Asia'. It deals with Baibars the Panther, and the overthrow of the last Christian army in Outreamer: a magnificently dramatic historical episode which I fear I have failed by a long way to do justice. I'll swear, I've written of Christian armies being defeated by Moslems until my blood fairly seethes with rage. Some day I must write of the success of the earlier Crusades to satisfy my racial vanity.'
Means to Freedom, p.280-281
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Post by Deleted on Mar 10, 2018 20:48:34 GMT -5
This extract is from an unfinished draft of The Shadow of the Hun, a Turlogh Dubh O’Brien yarn. Night had fallen when the companions rode up to the encampment of the Turgaslavs. Turlogh had seen Tatar camps and this Slavic camp did not differ materially from them. The same high lumbering wagons, the same peaked saddles heaped carefully about, the same rings about the fires, where women cooked meat and passed about drinking horns of milk and mead. The Aryan and the Turanian nomad had progressed and evolved on much the same lines. Turlogh realized that he was gazing on a phase of Aryan life which was swift passing. The Aryan nomad was gradually quitting the pastoral life in favor of the agricultural life, or was being absorbed by the Tatar nomads.Turlogh saw plenty of evidence that amalgamation was already taking place among these ancient Aryan steppes lords and the Mongolian peoples. Many of the Turgaslavs had the broad faces and black hair that betokened a Tatar strain, and there was a fair sprinkling of pure-blood Tatars, though the bulk of the tribesmen were tall and big boned, with the light eyes and flaxen hair of the primitive Aryan. The admixture had already begun such as in later centuries was to produce the Cossacks.The horses of these Aryan wanderers were tall and heavier than those ridden by the smaller Turks and Tatars, and their swords were long, straight and heavy, with both cutting edge and point. They were also armed with heavy axes, long spears and daggers, and bows, lighter and less effective than the bows of their Turanian rivals.Their armor was crude and scanty, consisting largely of iron helmets, rude corselets of iron plates laced to heavy hide jackets, and round wooden, leather-covered and iron-braced bucklers. They wore as clothing, garments of sheepskin. The men were tall, upright in carriage and frank and open of countenance, while the women were pleasing in appearance.Sentries on horseback roamed the steppe and these challenged the companions, but gave back at the word from Somakeld. A moon was rising as Turlogh and the youth trotted up the slope of the slight eminence whereon was pitched the Slavic camp, and sweeping the plains with his keen glance, Turlogh saw dark shadowy figures and lurching bulks cross the distant horizons, converging toward the camp on the rise.“My people answer the call of war,” said Somakeld, and the Gael nodded, his eyes glittering in the gloom as dim ancestral memories stirred vaguely in the sleeping deeps of his soul. Aye, the clans were gathering to feed the ravens as the Aryan clans had gathered in the dim lost ages—as the Gael’s own ancestors had gathered on these very steppes, lurching along in clumsy wagons, or swinging on half-wild horses.As they rode up to the fires a shout of welcome greeted them. Turlogh instantly picked out the chief—his name, as Somakeld had said, Hroghar Skel. He was old, but his long beard was still flaxen and when he rose to greet the stranger with simple stateliness, the Gael saw that he was mighty in stature and that age had not dimmed his eagle eye nor withered his iron muscles.“Your face is new to me,” said the chieftain in a deep calm voice. “You are neither Slav, Turk nor Tatar. But whoever you be, dismount and rest your steed. Eat and drink at our fires tonight.”“This is a noted warrior, oh ataman,” exclaimed Somakeld. “A bogatyr, a hero! He has come to aid us against the Turks! By the honor of my clan, three Turks he sent to howl at the gates of Hell this day!”The ancient inclined his lion-like head. “Our lives are yours, bogatyr.”As Turlogh swung from his saddle he noted another man squatted by the fire, a man in early middle life it seemed, with the broad, short build of the Tatar. This man had the bearing of a chief and beneath his sheepskins was the sheen of silks and the glimmer of silvered mail. His broad dark face was immobile, but his small beady eyes flickered as they rested on the splendid roan stallion. Behind the chief squatted a slim handsome youth, evidently his son. The Tatar’s eyes rested long on the roan stallion.Turlogh saw to his horse before he attended to his own needs, and assured that the roan was well cared for, he took a seat at the chieftain’s fire. Somakeld, proud of his new acquaintance and of his own admission to the fire of the leaders, told the tale of his meeting with the Gael, and repeated the story of Turlogh’s wanderings. All listened interestedly, and the new-comers, who were arriving in a steady stream, pressed close to gaze curiously at the Celt and to hear whispered versions of his exploits from folk of the outer rings.“You have the look of an eagle, bogatyr,” said Hroghar Skel. “Little matter to tell me you were a chief in your own land; well I know that you are a ruler of men. Well, the men of the Turgaslav need keen swords and strong wills. Khogar Khan moves against us and who knows how the war may go? The Turks are mighty fighters, and they have scattered like birds before the winds the warriors of Chaga Khan.” And he nodded at the Tatar who sat drinking mare’s milk.“Aye,” the Tatar’s voice was like the rasp of a sword from its scabbard, “they were like wolves among sheep—by Erlik, they are madmen!”“There is madness in them so that they fight as a stepped fire burns the grass,” nodded Hroghar Skel. “There is magic in them that upholds them in the teeth of the spears. Khogar Khan claims descent from that red-handed scourge of old times, Attila the Hun. And more: he wears in his girdle the very sword which the Hun quenched in the blood of kings.”Turlogh gave a surprised exclamation.This would of been a fascinating battle between the Aryan/Slavic Turgaslavs and the Turanian/Turkic hordes of Khogar Khan.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 16, 2018 2:53:06 GMT -5
Here's all the correspondence (eventually) between Robert E. Howard and HP Lovecraft concerning the Huns, Mongols, Tatars & Turks that I have managed to find from A Means to Freedom. It'll be fascinating to see the extracts presented in chronological order and the connections to the various subjects they discussed over the years. 1930
REH to HPL (ca. September 1930) ' The Celts were not bowmen, nor were the Germans, true, no Eastern nation ever equalled the skill and science of the medieval English archers but I think this can be traced indirectly to non-Aryan influence. The Normans brought the bow into England and it was arrows that decided the day at Senlac. But the bow came into France with Hrolf and his Norsemen, and the Danes particularly had been using the weapon skillfully for centuries. It is very likely that the Scandinavian peoples learned the effectiveness of the bow while still roaming the steppes of Northern Asia, by contact with some bow-and-arrow Turanian people, and brought that knowledge with them when they overflowed over Greater Sweden, and the Baltic countries and later all over the world. Of course, I do not mean that they really introduced the bow to the other western nations as a hither-to unknown weapon. But I mean that my belief is that archery as an art and science of war, originated with the Mongoloid races, was imparted to the eastern-most ancestors of the Danes and was spread by them over Europe.
For the bow is connected and interwoven with Oriental history from the very dawn of history. We read of the prowess of the Pharaohs, shooting from their war-chariots, and slaying lions and Hittites impartially; the Philistines give back from the fury of Saul and shower him from shafts from a distance; the Babylonians and Assyrians war with heavy bows, curved in exaggerated fashion; the Persians and Scythians exchange heavy flights of whistling shafts before they close in battle. And to come to a more recent date - the Roman legions reel before the cloud of Parthian arrows, the Crusaders fall before the Turkish bows, and the wild riders of Attila, Genghis Khan and Tamerlane wipe out whole armies without coming to sword-points.'A Means to Freedom, p. 42-3 HPL to REH (October 4, 1930) 'The Assyrians as shewn in their sculptures, are extreme examples of the Alpine type; and the Phoenicians and Carthaginians appear to have belonged to it. When the nomadic Jews conquered the cities of Canaan, they probably found this type prevailing there - the difference being clearly shewn in cultural ways. The two elements were mutually antagonistic, but eventually amalgamation occurred - the established and numerically preponderant Canaanite stock of course engulfing the relatively small but ruling element of Mediterranean Hebrews. Thus the Jew of historical times is probably more of a mongrel Canaanite of Alpine ancestry than a descendant of the original Hebraic group.'A Means to Freedom, p.53 REH letter to HPL, (c. October, 1930) 'I am inclined to agree with you that the Assyrians and Phoenicians were of Alpine-Semitic stock, also about the Jews. It is evident that the present day Hebraic race has little in common with the original wandering, fighting type. I wonder if the Alpine type could have been the result of admixture with Turanian races? It is said that the Assyrian's physiognomy was much like the present day Russian Jew's, and we know that the Jews of Russia and Poland have a great deal of Mongoloid blood in them - descendants of those Turanian Khazars with whom numbers of Jews settled and mixed in the middle ages.' A Means to Freedom, p.82 ' The Caliphates were crumbling to decay when the Seljuk Turks overran and assumed the leadership of Islam. The cultural progress ceased; the Turk never built anything; his mission in life has been to destroy. He is in many ways, the counterpart of the Dane of Viking days, who, incapable 'himself' of creating, nipped the growth culture of Saxon-England in the bud and almost totally blotted out civilization in Ireland. The Turanian has always, it seemed to me, been the man of action rather than the man of study and art. He has been, and still is, bold, adventuresome, capable and unsentimental, brutal and domineering; in creative genius he is infinitely inferior to the Semitic race. It would have been bad for the west had Martel lost at Tours; it would have been infinitely worse if the Occident had fallen before the hordes of Attila, Genghis Khan or Timur-il-lang.' Means to Freedom, p.82- 83 Unfortunately, the letter from Lovecraft in November, 1930 is non-extant. REH letter to HPL (c. December, 1930) 'I was also much interested in your remarks pertaining to the Assyrians and Turanians. True, the Assyrian nose is non-Turanian, and you are probably right in assuming the resemblance between the Assyrian of yesterday and the Russian Jew of today can be traced to the Semitic relationship. The truly Semitic Jew is doubtless superior to the Mongoloid Jew in moral and cultural aspects. However, the Mongoloid type seems to be the more aggressive of the two, judging from the great swarms of Jews now swamping the ranks of pugilism. Most Jewish fighters seem to have been born in Russia or Poland, or to have ancestral linkings with those countries, and they make, on the whole, skillful and courageous fighters. 'A Means to Freedom, p.100 'For my part the mystical phase of the East has always interested me less than the material side - the red and royal panorama of war, rapine and conquest. What I write for 'Oriental Stories' will be pure action, and romance - mainly historical tales. And I greatly fear that my Turks and Mongols are merely Irishmen and Englishmen in turbans in sandals!'Means to Freedom, p.101
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Post by Deleted on Mar 18, 2018 17:56:15 GMT -5
1932
Suleiman the Magnificent in a portrait attributed to Titian c.1530 REH to HPL (c. April 1932) I read with much interest and appreciation your speculations on the possible trend of history, in the event of the destruction of Rome by the Gauls; they seem to have considered all angles. Continuing with these theoretical wanderings: suppose that Martel had not stopped the Arabs at Tours? Or that Tamerlane or Genghis Khan had conquered Europe? Or, speculating even from the other way, suppose that Alexander the Great had conquered India, and pressing on, subjugated the Cathayan empire? Would the East have been Aryanized, or the Western races sunk that much quicker in a mire of Orientalism? And suppose the Black Prince had carried out his dream of Oriental conquest? He was probably the only Western general of medieval times capable of holding his own with the great Eastern conquerors. In fact, I am convinced, that, with his English archers, he would have proven more than a match for Tamerlane, Genghis Khan, Baibars, Subotai, Saladin, or any of the rest.The main reason that the Crusaders and other western armies were so repeatedly defeated and overthrown by the Moslems and Mongols was partly because of the extreme mobility of the armies, partly because of the incredible inefficiency of the western kings and generals. By the way, Wright thought well enough of my yarn, 'The Sowers of the Thunder' published in the current Oriental Stories, to advertise it in 'Asia'. It deals with Baibars the Panther, and the overthrow of the last Christian army in Outreamer: a magnificently dramatic historical episode which I fear I have failed by a long way to do justice. I'll swear, I've written of Christian armies being defeated by Moslems until my blood fairly seethes with rage. Some day I must write of the success of the earlier Crusades to satisfy my racial vanity.'
Means to Freedom, p.280-281 HPL to REH (May 7, 1932) 'It is my opinion that a Saracen conquest of Europe would have ended the Western World and established a dominant Moslem Empire, for the Arabs at their height were more civilised than we were at the same time. Had they conquered us physically, they could certainly imposed their culture on the land - as indeed they did for centuries in Spain. On the other hand, I doubt if the Tartars were civilised enough to do it. I think they would have become half-Aryanised - and heaven knows what sort of mongrel culture would have resulted.'Means to Freedom, p.286 REH to HPL (24 May, 1932?) 'As you say, the Arabs, at their height, were far more highly civilized than we, and an Arabic conquest - had it not been the fundamental difference in nature - might not have been so bad - though the mind revolts at the thought. I agree with you that a Mongolian conquest would have been a mess. It seems to me that the Mongol tends to degenerate even quicker than the Aryan, when thrown from his nomadic pristine existence into luxurious environments, and more completely - as witness the decay of the Seljuks in Asia Minor, whose magnificent empire went to pieces scarcely more than fifty years after they swept out of High Asia. And look at the static condition of the Ottoman today - however, the Ottoman is a mongrel of the most tangled type, and he was never a Turk, anyhow, in the true sense of the word. If we'd been over-run and conquered by Turks or Tatars, I imagine the present-day western world would present a bewildering and paradoxical picture - probably with names like Yaruktash McDonald, Genghis O'Brien abd Tughluk Murphy.' Means to Freedom, p.291 HPL to REH (June 8, 1932) 'Speculations on historic might-have-beens are certainly interesting in the extreme, and I imagine you are largely right about the probable effect of a Mongol conquest of the western world. Today the basically Mongol stocks which (of course have much admixture) are classed as white are the Finns (whose Mongol heritage is residual and not a matter of conquest), the Magyars of Hungary, and the Turks. the Finns and Magyars have done pretty well in the matter of civilisation, but the Turks - in spite of Mustapha Kemal - remain to prove their capacity for Europeanisation.' Means to Freedom, p.306 REH to HPL (July 13, 1932) 'Speaking of Mongol stocks, I notice the Finns seem to be somewhat divided among themselves, even to the point of violence. But as you say, they and the Hungarians have adapted themselves to western civilization surprizingly well for Mongolians. I think the backwardness of the Turks can be laid partly to the fact that they have always been more or less of a conquering caste, with the resultant intolerance to change, and distaste of manual work. They came from the steppes, wandering fighting nomads, who gained their living by following the flocks and plundering their fellow-man. They imposed their will on hordes of country-folk who did their work for them. The Turk has always scorned all labor but that of war. And what fighters they are! They are the one people whom decay and degeneration has not robbed of their pristine warlike heritage. History does not show a race, not even Roman or Spartan, which can boast of such consistent courage. Clean or depraved, honorable or degenerate, proud or besotted, the valor of the Turk has remained forever constant, as if it were a natural characteristic shining apart, untouched by the other characteristics of the man or the nation. I can not find an instance in which Turks showed the white feather. I intensely admire their high courage, and I hope to live to see the day when the Ottoman empire will be finally and completely swept out of existence.'Means to Freedom, p.316-17 'I am no economist nor politician, yet I can not but feel that the western peoples do not attach proper importance to the powers rising in the East. My studies of history show that such has always been the case; blinded by their own affairs, the people of the west have ignored the hordes of Attila, Tamerlane, Genghis Khan, Baibars, until those hordes were hammering their armies into bits. Now, they ignore Tatar-Russia and Japan. The bodies have hardly rotted in Chapei, yet already Europe and America seem to have forgotten the incident. I can not but feel that European policies and squabbles are thread-bare and outworn; while the people wrangle, they are blind to the powers rising in the east that may someday overwhelm them.'Means to Freedom, p.328 REH to HPL (9 August, 1932) 'When a race - almost any race - is emerging from barbarism, or not yet emerged, they hold my interest. I can seem to understand them, and to write intelligently of them. But as they progress toward civilization, my grip on them begins to weaken, until at last it vanishes entirely, and I find their ways and thoughts and ambitions perfectly alien and baffling. Thus the first Mongol conquerors of China and india inspire in me the most intense interest and appreciation; but a few generations later when they have adopted the civilization of their subjects, they stir not a hint of interest in my mind. My study of history has been a continual search for newer barbarians, from age to age. By the way, the study of the East Roman or Byzantine empire contains a certain amount of interest, what of their continuous wars and intrigues with the Moslems and barbarians Mongoloid and Aryan. what a strange mingling of voluptuous luxury and bloody conspiracy that empire must have been.' Means to Freedom, p.338 'The Mongols and Tatars were great eaters and drinkers, and especially in their more nomadic stages. Easily seen why; they lived a strenuous active outdoor life, and then food was not always handy. When they had plenty, it was their instinct to gobble as much as possible, against the times when they may go hungry. I hardly see how the Mongols of the Gobi managed to live, when their food consisted almost entirely of meat and milk - cheese and butter perhaps, and fermented mare's milk. They apparently had no grain, vegetables or fruit of any sort. At least not when they were penned in the wastes outside the Great Wall by the power of the Chinese. I'm all for the nomads when it came to wasting China. They'd had nothing but abuse from the Chinese for ages.
That reminds me - that business about Turanian drunkeness - that some of the readers took exception to my making Tamerlane a drinking man. I expected to be attacked on other scores - on Bayazid's suicide, which of course never took place - about my version of Timour's death - more particular I expected to be denounced because of the weapon my character used in that slaying. There were firearms in the world then, and had been for some time, but they were of the matchlock order. I doubt if there were any flint-lock weapons in Asia in 1405. But the readers pounced on the point I least expected - the matter of Muhammadan drunkards. They maintained that according to the Koran, Moslems never drank. Wright admitted in the souk that the Koran forbade liquor, but went on to quote a long extract from Clivijo's memoirs to prove that Timour and his Tatars drank to excess.
This writing of historical stories is hell in a way, though intensely interesting. It is easy to make mistakes. For instance I noted in his book of travels, Bayard Taylor, when speaking of his exploration of Vienna, mentioned Count Stahremberg as commanding Vienna in 1529, when, he said, Sobiesky rescued the city from the siege of the Turks under the Grand Vizier Muhammad. Stahremberg hadnt been born in 1529. Count Salm commanded then, and beat off, not Muhammad, who, with Sobiesky was still in the womb of the unborn, but Suleyman the Magnificent. It was in 1683 that the others played their part. And the vizier was not Muhammad but Kara Mustafa.'Means to Freedom, p.343-344 'But what a tangled mess and confusion Balkan history is! And what a mixture of blood-strains the average Balkan must be! Celtic, Roman, German, Slav, Greek, Mongol, Turkish - no wonder they're always hamstringing each other. I understand that for some time in those smaller countries the Germanic strain, and culture, has been dwindling out and being replaced by the cruder and more primitive Slavic - which is bound to be well mixed with Turanian strains, considering the century-long raids and occupations of the Huns, Bulgars, Avars, Petchenegs, Khazars, Mongols, Tatars and Turks.'A Means to Freedom, p.345 'Another thing - I have no patience with writers, historical or fictional, who glorify Oriental monarchs, comparing them with western rulers, to the discredit of the later; who decry the outrages committed by the westerners on the Orientals, and then gloss over the atrocities of the later, holding up some western outrage as some excuse. Westerners have suffered a hell of a lot more outrages at the hands of the Orientals than vice versa. I am utterly unmoved when I read of massacres of Asiatics - especially Muhammadans - by Christians. They started it, blast their hides - back in the days of Peter the Hermit, when the Seljuks took Palestine and started maltreating pilgrims to Jerusalem. And before that, in the days of Muhammad, and of the Caliphs - and of the Moors in Spain. Not a blow struck against Islam but we owed it to them. Even Stanley Lane-Poole deplores the action of Milosh Kabilovitch, who struck down Murad in the hour of victory at Kossovo - he looks on it as a traitorous murder, apparently. Bah! Who ever heard of such infernal drivel. Which was worse - Milosh, who approached the Turk smiling, and suddenly drove the dagger in his guts, or Murad, who had just butchered a nation, and dragged thousands of innocent men, women and children into slavery? I have intense admiration for Milosh - and for Ehud the Benjamite who stabbed Eglon the Moabitish tyrant - and for William Tell, wether real or legendary.'A Means to Freedom, p.354
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Post by Deleted on Mar 25, 2018 14:26:49 GMT -5
1933A Sombra do Abutre (The Shadow of Vulture) REH to HPL (March 6, 1933)
'I'm curious to know how the readers will like Gottfried von Kalmbach, one of the main characters in a long historical yarn I sold Wright, concerning Suleyman the Magnificent's attack on Vienna. A more dissolute vagabond than Gottfried never weaved his way across the pages of a popular magazine: wastrel, drunkard, gambler, whore-monger, renegade, mercenary, plunderer, thief, rogue, rascal - I never created a character whose creation I enjoyed more. They may not seem real to the readers; but Gottfried and his mistress Red Sonya seem more real to me than any other character I've ever drawn.'
A Means to Freedom, p.550
REH to HPL (ca. September, 1933)
'When the civilized Chinese set the the Huns in motion, and the Huns in turn drove the Eastern Teutons before them - in that crush of nations, where were the Lombards, the Vandals, the Franks, and the Goths to go, if not over the crumbling lines of a rotten civilization? There was suffering in such wars; there is suffering in all wars; the barbarians wrought less destruction on their civilized enemies than many civilized races have wrought upon vanquished barbarians - Spaniards upon the Aztecs and Incas, for instance; read inside accounts of French rule in Syria and Algeria for a good idea of how civilization deals with her barbaric subjects. The Romanized peoples probably suffered less from the Germans than the Germans themselves, and the Slavs, suffered from the Huns, Avars or Yen-Yen and Bulgars.'
A Means to Freedom, p. 643
'I am merely seeking to point out that the overthrow of a rotten civilization by barbarians is not necessarily more tragic and bloody than the overthrow of barbarians by civilized men, or the conquest of one civilized nation by another. The conquests of the Germans were scarcely more devastating and brutal than Alexander's sack of Thebes, Rome's destruction of Carthage, or the mutilation of Belgium in the last war. All wars are ghastly. And it must be admitted that the overthrow of Rome, and the events attendant thereupon did not represent what you might call the norm of Germanic barbaric life. That sudden crush of nations was at least as abnormal as the modern depression. Otherwise the expansion would have been more gradual. Such expansion has been going on, for centuries, with resultant wars and unrest as the different tribes collided with one another; but the sudden bursting of the barriers resulted from, as near as I can learn, The westward drive of the Turkish Huns. Leaving that aside for the moment, to look again at the suffering among the barbarians (and not among the civilized races who were overthrown by their onslaught) I am not by any means certain that their suffering was greater than that of modern man. They were giants physically; disease was rare; their food, if not always abundant, was at least sufficient for their needs, and evidently could digest anything; they fought among themselves, occasionally for love of war, but more often through necessity, but enjoyed fighting, so that was no hardship; their religion called for a violent death, so that was no hardship either. The mere fact that they expanded so greatly in numbers and importance shows that their lives were not unmixed rounds of suffering and agony. A race cannot develop under conditions too adverse; compare the Yakuts of Siberia, with the Ottomans of Western Asia - people of the same stock and blood, but developed under different conditions. As for the Germanic lack of artistic values - I'm not inclined to believe that modern artists get anymore satisfaction out of expressing themselves in their modern ways, than the German scalds and minstrels derived from telling their legends and composing and singing their sagas. And I'm not convinced that the proportion of honest artists among them was much less than it is in the present day.'
A Means to Freedom, p.644
'Concerning art: I am by no means convinced that art is any higher than certain other forms of human activity, even according to the evolutionary standard. Such men as Michel Angelo, Poe, Beethoven, Cellini, Shaw are no more highly evolved than such men as Saladin, Napoleon, Genghis Khan, Robert E. Lee, Sam Houston, Thomas Jefferson, or James Corbett for that matter. The whole trouble with the viewpoint of purely mental workers is that they invariably underrate the mentality of other types of persons, and the intelligence required by other types of activities.'
A Means to Freedom, p.650
REH to HPL (3 November 1933)
'Thank you very much for the kind things you said about the yarns in the Magic Carpet. "Alleys of Darkness" isn't much of a yarn, but I do like "The Shadow of the Vulture." I tried to follow history as closely as possible, though I did shift the actual date of Mikhal Oglu's death. He was not killed until a year or so later, on the occasion of a later invasion of Austria, in which the Akinji were trapped and destroyed by Paul Bakics. The incident of Suleyman's fete to celebrate his "victory" and his proclamation concerning his campaign is among the most curious episodes of history, which is often ironic.'
A Means to Freedom, p.687
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Post by Char-Vell on Mar 26, 2018 7:50:26 GMT -5
Red Sonya in The Shadow of Vulture was a ton cooler and more likeable than the Marvel/Hyborian age version that got famous.
Just sayin'
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Post by Deleted on Mar 26, 2018 11:52:09 GMT -5
Red Sonya in The Shadow of Vulture was a ton cooler and likeable than the Marvel/Hyborian age version that got famous. Just sayin' Shame we did not get to see The Shadow of Vulture adaptation by Roy Thomas and Rafael Kayanan.
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Post by Char-Vell on Mar 26, 2018 11:54:15 GMT -5
That looks cool. I'd have bought the hell out of that.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 26, 2018 12:11:52 GMT -5
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Post by Deleted on Apr 15, 2018 15:59:46 GMT -5
Read my first Steve Harrison yarn today (Lord of the Dead) with Erlik Khan - I'm not really into yarns set in the modern era, but I'll keep an eye out for Steve Harrison's Casebook. Aware that the door had opened, he twisted about and glared at the figure dimly framed there—a tall, shadowy form, clad in night-black robes. This figure moved like a shadow of Doom into the chamber, and closed the door. From the shadow of a hood, two icy eyes glittered eerily, framed in a dim yellow oval of a face.
For an instant the silence held, broken suddenly by the detective’s irate bellow.
“What the hell is this? Who are you? Get this chain off me!”
A scornful silence was the only answer, and under the unwinking scrutiny of those ghostly eyes, Harrison felt cold perspiration gather on his forehead and among the hairs on the backs of his hands.
“You fool!” At the peculiar hollow quality of the voice, Harrison started nervously. “You have found your doom!”
“Who are you?” demanded the detective.
“Men call me Erlik Khan, which signifies Lord of the Dead,” answered the other. A trickle of ice meandered down Harrison’s spine, not so much from fear, but because of the grisly thrill in the realization that at last he was face to face with the materialization of his suspicions.
“So Erlik Khan is a man, after all,” grunted the detective. “I’d begun to believe that it was the name of a Chinese society.”
“I am no Chinese,” returned Erlik Khan. “I am a Mongol—direct descendant of Genghis Khan, the great conqueror, before whom all Asia bowed.”
“Why tell me this?” growled Harrison, concealing his eagerness to hear more.
“Because you are soon to die,” was the tranquil reply, “and I would have you realize that it is into the hands of no common gangster scum you have blundered.
“I was head of a lamasery in the mountains of Inner Mongolia, and, had I been able to attain my ambitions, would have rebuilt a lost empire—aye, the old empire of Genghis Khan. But I was opposed by various fools, and barely escaped with my life.
“I came to America, and here a new purpose was born in me: that of forging all secret Oriental societies into one mighty organization to do my bidding and reach unseen tentacles across the seas into hidden lands. Here, unsuspected by such blundering fools as you, have I built my castle. Already I have accomplished much. Those who oppose me die suddenly, or—you saw those fools in the packing cases in the cellar. They are members of the Yat Soy, who thought to defy me.”
“Judas!” muttered Harrison. “A whole tong scuppered!”
“Not dead,” corrected Erlik Khan. “Merely in a cataleptic state, induced by certain drugs introduced into their liquor by trusted servants. They were brought here in order that I might convince them of their folly in opposing me. I have a number of underground crypts like this one, wherein are implements and machines calculated to change the mind of the most stubborn.”
“Torture chambers under River Street!” muttered the detective. “Damned if this isn’t a nightmare!”
“You, who have puzzled so long amidst the mazes of River Street, are you surprized at the mysteries within its mysteries?” murmured Erlik Khan. “Truly, you have but touched the fringes of its secrets. Many men do my bidding—Chinese, Syrians, Mongols, Hindus, Arabs, Turks, Egyptians.”
“Why?” demanded Harrison. “Why should so many men of such different and hostile religions serve you—”
“Behind all differences of religion and belief,” said Erlik Khan, “lies the eternal Oneness that is the essence and root-stem of the East. Before Muhammad was, or Confucius, or Gautama, there were signs and symbols, ancient beyond belief, but common to all sons of the Orient. There are cults stronger and older than Islam or Buddhism—cults whose roots are lost in the blackness of the dawn ages, before Babylon was, or Atlantis sank.
“To an adept, these young religions and beliefs are but new cloaks, masking the reality beneath. Even to a dead man I can say no more. Suffice to know that I, whom men call Erlik Khan, have power above and behind the powers of Islam or of Buddha.”
Harrison lay silent, meditating over the Mongol’s words, and presently the latter resumed: “You have but yourself to blame for your plight. I am convinced that you did not come here tonight to spy upon me—poor, blundering, barbarian fool, who did not even guess my existence. I have learned that you came in your crude way, expecting to trap a servant of mine, the Druse Ali ibn Suleyman.”
“You sent him to kill me,” growled Harrison.
A scornful laugh put his teeth on edge.
“Do you fancy yourself so important? I would not turn aside to crush a blind worm. Another put the Druse on your trail—a deluded person, a miserable, egoistic fool, who even now is paying the price of folly.
“Ali ibn Suleyman is, like many of my henchmen, an outcast from his people, his life forfeit.
“Of all virtues, the Druses most greatly esteem the elementary one of physical courage. When a Druse shows cowardice, none taunts him, but when the warriors gather to drink coffee, some one spills a cup on his abba. That is his death-sentence. At the first opportunity, he is obliged to go forth and die as heroically as possible.
“Ali ibn Suleyman failed on a mission where success was impossible. Being young, he did not realize that his fanatical tribe would brand him as a coward because, in failing, he had not got himself killed. But the cup of shame was spilled on his robe. Ali was young; he did not wish to die. He broke a custom of a thousand years; he fled the Djebel Druse and became a wanderer over the earth.
“Within the past year he joined my followers, and I welcomed his desperate courage and terrible fighting ability. But recently the foolish person I mentioned decided to use him to further a private feud, in no way connected with my affairs. That was unwise. My followers live but to serve me, whether they realize it or not.
“Ali goes often to a certain house to smoke opium, and this person caused him to be drugged with the dust of the black lotos, which produces a hypnotic condition, during which the subject is amenable to suggestions, which, if continually repeated, carry over into the victim’s waking hours.
“The Druses believe that when a Druse dies, his soul is instantly reincarnated in a Druse baby. The great Druse hero, Amir Amin Izzedin, was killed by the Arab shaykh Ahmed Pasha, the night Ali ibn Suleyman was born. Ali has always believed himself to be the reincarnated soul of Amir Amin, and mourned because he could not revenge his former self on Ahmed Pasha, who was killed a few days after he slew the Druse chief.
“All this the person ascertained, and by means of the black lotos, known as the Smoke of Shaitan, convinced the Druse that you, detective Harrison, were the reincarnation of his old enemy Shaykh Ahmed Pasha. It took time and cunning to convince him, even in his drugged condition, that an Arab shaykh could be reincarnated in an American detective, but the person was very clever, and so at last Ali was convinced, and disobeyed my orders—which were never to molest the police, unless they got in my way, and then only according to my directions. For I do not woo publicity. He must be taught a lesson.
“Now I must go. I have spent too much time with you already. Soon one will come who will lighten you of your earthly burdens. Be consoled by the realization that the foolish person who brought you to this pass is expiating her crime likewise. In fact, separated from you but by that padded partition. Listen!”
From somewhere near rose a feminine voice, incoherent but urgent.
“The foolish one realizes her mistake,” smiled Erlik Khan benevolently. “Even through these walls pierce her lamentations. Well, she is not the first to regret foolish actions in these crypts. And now I must begone. Those foolish Yat Soys will soon begin to awaken.”
“Wait, you devil!” roared Harrison, struggling up against his chain. “What—”
“Enough, enough!” There was a touch of impatience in the Mongol’s tone. “You weary me. Get you to your meditations, for your time is short. Farewell, Mr. Harrison—not au revoir.”
p.234-237, The Best of Robert E. Howard Volume 1: Volume 1: The Shadow Kingdom, Del Rey, 2007.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 23, 2018 12:04:55 GMT -5
1935-36
REH to HPL (c. July, 1935)
'As for your remark about my "contention that only civilized men are ungallant"; that's scarcely accurate. I have never attributed any undue chivalry to the Goths, Huns or any other tribe of barbarians. I am quite aware that the Goths butchered, raped, and plundered without regard for the age or sex of their victims; they did not, however, claim that their raping, butchering and plundering was in defense of art, progress and civilization. Therein they differed from modern "civilized" men. I will not bother to deny the implication in the use of the term "noble savage". You know very well that I have never used that term in reference to any race.'
A Means to Freedom, p.863
REH to HPL (11 February 1936)
'Glad you enjoyed the dream write-up I sent you. Long narrative dreams are fairly common with me, and sometimes my dream personality is in no way connected with my actual personality. I have been a 16th century Englishman, a prehistoric man, a blue-coated United States cavalryman, campaigning against the Sioux in the years following the Civil War, a yellow-haired Italian of the Renaissance, a Norman nobleman of the 11th century, a weird-eyed flowing-bearded Gothic fighting-man, a bare-footed Irish kern of the 17th century, an Indian, a Serb in baggy trousers fighting Turks with a curved saber, a prize-fighter, and I've wandered all up and down the 19th century as a trapper, a westward-bound emigrant, a bar-tender, a hunter, an Indian-fighter, a trail-driver, cowboy - once I was John Wesley Hardin! I remember very well indeed the Roman dream of yours which Long used in his story. As I told you then it was an imaginative and poetic masterpiece.'
A Means to Freedom, p.915
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Post by Deleted on Apr 30, 2018 13:54:38 GMT -5
Khitans using eagles to hunt (9th–10th centuries).Red Blades of Black Cathay
Trumpets die in the loud parade, The gray mist drinks the spears;
Banners of glory sink and fade
In the dust of a thousand years.
Singers of pride the silence stills,
The ghost of empire goes,
But a song still lives in the ancient hills,
And the scent of a vanished rose.
Ride with us on a dim, lost road
To the dawn of a distant day,
When swords were bare for a guerdon rare—
The Flower of Black Cathay.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 18, 2018 13:21:32 GMT -5
A couple of extracts from The Golden Caliph by Robert E. Howard (c.1922- 23) There is only one extant copy of this 4 page chapbook. I think? Jozef Brandt: Cossacks Return from a Campaign (1894).The first one is untitled: A Cossack and a Turk met on the steppes of Sungar, The Cossack had a richly wrought scabbard but no sword. The Turk had a scimetar but no scabbard.
“ I will gamble with you for your scabbard.” Said the Turk.
So they gambled and the Cossack won the Turk’s scimitar, whereupon, being armed, the Cossack took from the Turk, his saddle, his steed and his turban eigret, and rode away.
Quoth the Turk, “ He who puts a weapon in an enemy’s hands is a fool.”
..and a poem. Kublai KhanWho hath heard of Kublai Khan?For the lust of his desireHe hath built a mighty city,Far exceeding Rome and Tyre.Never such a cityEver built by man.Who hath hear of Cambalu,Built by Kublai Khan?You can. find a scan of the first page of The Golden Caliph at Howardworks: howardworks.com/goldencaliphv1n1.htmlOr if you have a copy of Glenn Lord's The Last Celt, Donald M. Grant, 1976, page 377.
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