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Post by thedarkman on Aug 20, 2016 8:44:12 GMT -5
Conan of the Reavers, from People of the Dark. That Gaelic Iron Age pirate really captured my imagination. Cut from the same cloth as several of his barbaric/Celtic heroes, Howard seemed to give this one a little more sandpaper in his character, a touch more grit. A true iron man from rough, crude Iron Age. I would love to try a few pastiche short stories about this Conan, and possibly expand on his adventures just a little.., Yeah, I thought that from the first time I read TPotD. Conan of Eir-ann was a bloody-handed killer. IMO, he and FitzGeoffrey and Conn (TGGP) were all prototypes of Conan that REH was working toward. Conan the Reaver could definitely have had other cool adventures. Just guessing, I'd say they would take place sometime around 1AD. That is, between the time of Caesar's failed invasion and the Claudian one. On a similar note, I am a huge fan of Eithriall the Gaul ( Two Against Tyre). I read that tale before I ever read any REH Conan. In high school, I came up with a rough outline of adventures for him with various illos I drew myself. I spent several years trying to nail down the likely period and decided the "Shalmaneser" in the tale had to be Shalmaneser V mentioned in the Bible: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shalmaneser_VA tumultuous period and ripe for tales of blood and skullduggery. [ So, looking back at this post, I still want to try an Iron Age adventure featuring Conan of the Reavers. What do you think Duece? Due to the character's name, should I re-name him to avoid confusion? Would there be copyright issues? Or should I create my own character in the same setting? I am really intrigued by this era...
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Post by deuce on Oct 7, 2016 3:19:08 GMT -5
Yeah, I thought that from the first time I read TPotD. Conan of Eir-ann was a bloody-handed killer. IMO, he and FitzGeoffrey and Conn (TGGP) were all prototypes of Conan that REH was working toward. Conan the Reaver could definitely have had other cool adventures. Just guessing, I'd say they would take place sometime around 1AD. That is, between the time of Caesar's failed invasion and the Claudian one. On a similar note, I am a huge fan of Eithriall the Gaul ( Two Against Tyre). I read that tale before I ever read any REH Conan. In high school, I came up with a rough outline of adventures for him with various illos I drew myself. I spent several years trying to nail down the likely period and decided the "Shalmaneser" in the tale had to be Shalmaneser V mentioned in the Bible: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shalmaneser_VA tumultuous period and ripe for tales of blood and skullduggery. [ So, looking back at this post, I still want to try an Iron Age adventure featuring Conan of the Reavers. What do you think Duece? Due to the character's name, should I re-name him to avoid confusion? Would there be copyright issues? Or should I create my own character in the same setting? I am really intrigued by this era... You would have more freedom and a much easier time legally if you just let yourself be "inspired" by REH's character. You can set things up however you want that way. Keith Taylor did something similar.
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Post by thedarkman on Oct 7, 2016 6:11:55 GMT -5
I agree Duece. Gives me freedom to do what I want with the character. I still want to mix horror/fantasy with history, but keep the history kinda loose by staying away from major events and figures, at least for now. Love how Howard mixed fantasy with history, and Keith continues the tradition today, with real artistic skill. Writers worth looking up to...
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Post by deuce on Jun 30, 2017 23:58:26 GMT -5
Here was a man who was akin to the original Hellenes, but who was much nearer the pristine Nordic stem—a man whose life had been spent, not in marble cities or fertile agricultural valleys, but in savage conflict with nature in her wildest form. This fact showed in his strong moody face, in the hard economy of his form—his heavy arms, broad shoulders, and lean loins. He wore an unadorned helmet and a scale-mail corselet, and from a broad gold-buckled girdle hung a long sword and a Gaulish dagger with a double-edged blade, fourteen inches in length, and broad as a man’s palm near the hilt—a terrible weapon, one edge slightly convex, the other correspondingly concave.-- Eithriall the Gaul, as described by Robert E. Howard in "Two Against Tyre"
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Post by themirrorthief on Sept 20, 2017 10:53:37 GMT -5
I really, really liked those John Gorman stories somebody wrote...sort of a cross between El Borak and Conan...or something like that. Great stuff over at internet archive.
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Post by deuce on Sept 20, 2017 11:56:21 GMT -5
I really, really liked those John Gorman stories somebody wrote...sort of a cross between El Borak and Conan...or something like that. I've never read the Gorman stories by Hoffman and Cerasini, but they sound cool. This link explains things: howardworks.com/risquestories1.html
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Post by themirrorthief on Sept 20, 2017 23:45:45 GMT -5
they are a lot better than I expected...sort of El Borak with fantasy elements...nice
there are shades of H Rider Haggard too but they do a great job apeing Howard's unique pacing skills...Gorman is different from Howard's heroes tho, a bit more cautious maybe
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Post by themirrorthief on Sept 20, 2017 23:58:36 GMT -5
I really, really liked those John Gorman stories somebody wrote...sort of a cross between El Borak and Conan...or something like that. I've never read the Gorman stories by Hoffman and Cerasini, but they sound cool. This link explains things: howardworks.com/risquestories1.htmlthis particular issue has an especially good Gorman tale if I recall correctly?
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Post by keith on Nov 3, 2017 6:41:18 GMT -5
He's only in one story, but I kinda like Baibars, from Sowers of the Thunder.Me too! We have a much greater resource for doing our research and checking facts and dates on the Internet, these days, than REH had. But being mumble mumble cough years old, I can remember when I had to track down all the background info I wanted from books in libraries and it took much time. As did typing on prehistoric machines that contained messy ribbons, and made correcting with erasers or liquid paper a requirement.
With regard to Baibars ... I think REH had a bit of a misconception about the date of his birth, and maybe some confusion with another Baibars. Baibars al-Buduqdari (the Panther), who later became Sultan of Egypt, was only 21 years old in the year 1244, a common Mamluk slave soldier. The Emir Baibars who encountered the Khwarezmians at their terrible siege and sack of Jerusalem was almost certainly another man.
But Baibars the Panther is definitely a memorable character in REH's story; he and the failed Irish king, Cahal Ruadh O'Donnel, are well matched. And I like the idea that Baibars might have been a bastard son of Genghis Khan's general, Subotai. Baibars' mother was a Kipchak Turk in territory that is now Russian. Subotai crushed the Kipchaks of the Don in 1222, so he might have casually fathered Baibars on a Kipchak woman before he moved on!
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Post by Deleted on Nov 4, 2017 3:38:14 GMT -5
He's only in one story, but I kinda like Baibars, from Sowers of the Thunder.Me too! We have a much greater resource for doing our research and checking facts and dates on the Internet, these days, than REH had. But being mumble mumble cough years old, I can remember when I had to track down all the background info I wanted from books in libraries and it took much time. As did typing on prehistoric machines that contained messy ribbons, and made correcting with erasers or liquid paper a requirement.
With regard to Baibars ... I think REH had a bit of a misconception about the date of his birth, and maybe some confusion with another Baibars. Baibars al-Buduqdari (the Panther), who later became Sultan of Egypt, was only 21 years old in the year 1244, a common Mamluk slave soldier. The Emir Baibars who encountered the Khwarezmians at their terrible siege and sack of Jerusalem was almost certainly another man.
But Baibars the Panther is definitely a memorable character in REH's story; he and the failed Irish king, Cahal Ruadh O'Donnel, are well matched. And I like the idea that Baibars might have been a bastard son of Genghis Khan's general, Subotai. Baibars' mother was a Kipchak Turk in territory that is now Russian. Subotai crushed the Kipchaks of the Don in 1222, so he might have casually fathered Baibars on a Kipchak woman before he moved on!
I remember the days before the advent of the internet - when I hunted down books on the Altaic peoples the good old fashioned way in those great second-hand bookshops up the West End of London. There were a couple of bookshops that specialized in oriental history. I'd save up the pennies for that special book (as they say if you Look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves) on the Huns, ancient Turks or Mongols. When I could not locate a certain volume or they turned out to be too expensive I'd hunt them down at the SOAS (School of Oriental & African Studies) library, spending hours, sometimes days photocopying old dusty volumes. I kinda lost interest in the history of the Turco-Mongol peoples once they settled down among their sedentary neighbors or converted to Islam and Buddhism. That's what I loved about the Turco-Mongolian characters in REH's historical fiction. The closer the characters were to the wild untamed steppe, the more likable the character. Along with Baibars, and, I also love the Conan-like philosophy of the Turkic warrior Zenghi found in The Lion of Tiberias. "You are a pagan at heart, Zenghi," sighed Ousama.
"It may be," answered the Turk with a shrug of his shoulders. "Had I been born beyond the Oxus and bowed to yellow Erlik as did my grandsire, I had been no less Zenghi the Lion. I have spilled rivers of gore for the glory of Allah, but I have never asked mercy or favor of Him. What care the gods if a man lives or dies? Let me live deep, let me know the sting of wine in my palate, the wind in my face, the glitter of royal pageantry, the bright madness of slaughter —let me burn and sting and tingle with the madness of life and living, and I quest not whether Muhammad's paradise, or Erlik's frozen hell, or the blackness of empty-oblivion lies beyond."
As if to give point to his words, he poured himself a goblet of wine and looked interrogatively at Ousama. The Arab, who had shuddered at Zenghi's blasphemous words, drew back in pious horror. The Atabeg emptied the goblet, smacking his lips loudly in relish, Tatar-fashion.
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Post by keith on Nov 4, 2017 22:30:46 GMT -5
I really liked Turlogh O'Brien in "The Dark Man." I'd like to read more his tales, provided they're out there. I just loved how he was such a bastard, but with a streak of humanity. Turlogh grew up hard. Watching your people get raided, enslaved and/or taxed by foreigners can give one a bad attitude. I've been a fan since I read The Grey God Passes. Here are all the TOB tales and every book they were ever published in: howardworks.com/subject.htm#turloughHoward Works is every REH fan's friend.
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Post by keith on Nov 4, 2017 22:39:07 GMT -5
I am quite a fan of that furious wielder of the dread Dalcassian axe, also. He was at Clontarf; REH records that. And since the fisherman in "The Dark Man" describes him as "clean shaven and close-cropped in the Norman fashion" I'd guess he spent some time in Normandy. I speculate he was in England while Ethelred the Unready's very different son, Edmund, was fighting the Danes, and became quite good friends with Edmund.
I'd guess that he entered the Danish camp as a spy at one time, pretending to be half Danish, half Irish, and gained the nickname Wulf the Quarrelsome. This is because a warrior called Wulf the Quarrelsome is mentioned as being at Clontarf in the Icelandic "Njal's Saga", and according to that story was the slayer of Brodir after Clontarf, to avenge Brian Boru.
That'd be Turlogh! Brodir of Man was no easy victim.
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Post by mindboggled on Jun 29, 2019 0:51:27 GMT -5
Hernando De Guzman the protagonist of Howard's Nekht Semerkeht. He's a Spanish crusader who has lived a life full to the brim of murder. Conquring and wiping out the natives of middle america. He is quite an evil man, who has little to no redeemable moral qualities. He's an extermly well developed character, who always has something interesting going on in his mind. He is one of my favorite Howard characters.
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Post by korak on Jul 13, 2019 16:24:56 GMT -5
Other then Conan some of my faves are Esau Ironhand,Donn Othnna,and El Borak
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Post by keith on Jan 9, 2020 8:42:02 GMT -5
Cormac mac Art! (Of course.) The occult investigators Conrad and Kirowan and their brash young Texan pal O'Donnel. I don't know if he was any kind of kinsman to Kirby O'Donnell, but it wouldn't surprise me. Female pirate (and likely contemporary of Black Vulmea) Helen Tavrel. Steve Clarney and Yar Ali, adventurers and blood brothers, who feature in "The Fire of Asshurbanipal." I also rather like their enemy, the arrogant Nureddin al Mekru, who comes to a bad end in the same story.
These lesser lights apart from Conan and Bran Mak Morn and Solomon Kane, naturally.
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