Conan and the Shemites: Robert E. Howard and Antisemitism

[bobbyderie]

For anyone curious, a new article on the old 'blog which examines Robert E. Howard's thoughts on Jews, particularly the exchange of ideas in his letters with H. P. Lovecraft and how that influenced his fiction, particularly the Shemites of the Hyborian Age.

deepcuts.blog/2022/04/06/deeper-cut-conan-and-the-shemites-robert-e-howard-and-antisemitism/

[Deleted]

Thanks for the link to the post.

I find it intriguing that REH considers certain Biblical characters to be of possible Aryan (Indo-European) descent.

...cannot think of Saul, David, Abner and Joab as Jews, not even as Arabs; to me they must always seem like Aryans, like myself. Saul, in particular, I always unconsciously visualize as a Saxon king, of those times when the invaders of Britain were just beginning to adopt the Christian religion.
—Robert E. Howard to H. P. Lovecraft, c. Feb 1931, MF 1.161

...and REH's Description of Samson:

Another Hebrew who interests me is Samson, and this man I am firmly convinced was at least half Aryan. In the first place, he had red hair or bright yellow hair; I feel certain of this because of his name, and the legend concerning his locks. His name referred to the sun, always pertaining to redness, brightness, golden tinted, in any language; his strength lay in his hair; I connect his name with his hair. What more natural than a superstition attached to the red hair of a child born in a in a dark-haired race? And that angel in the field—well, in the old, old days of Ireland, there was a legend that the old gods had fled into the west, from which they occasionally emerged to bestow their favours on some lucky damsel. Many a wanderer from the western hills assumed the part of a god. I am convinced that the “angel” was a wandering, red-haired Aryan, and that Samson was his son. The strong lad’s characteristics were most certainly little like those of the race that claimed him. He wouldn’t even associate with his people. He feasted and reveled with the lordly Philistines, and his drinking, fighting and wenching sound like the chronicles of some lad from Wicklow or a wild boy from Cork. He was a great jester, a quality none too common in his supposed race, and in the end he displayed true Aryan recklessness and iron lust for vengeance. When, in history, did a true Semite deliberately kill himself to bring ruin to his enemies? The big boy was surely an Aryan.
—Robert E. Howard to H. P. Lovecraft, c. Feb 1931, MF 1.161-162


...and also that the Ashkanezi Jews of Eastern Europe could be the of Khazar (Mongoloid/Turanian) descent. 

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 that 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—descendents of those Turanian Khazars with whom numbers of Jews settled and mixed in the Middle Ages. […] 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.
—Robert E. Howard to H. P. Lovecraft, c. Sep 1930, MF 1.82

Here's another excerpt concerning boxers of Eastern European Jewish origin:

'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. '

REH letter to HPL (c. December, 1930) A Means to Freedom, p.100

[bobbyderie]

With regard to the Bible, REH was basically doing the euhemerism bit which was pretty common during the period - looking at the Bible as myth and imagining the reality that lay behind. Probably not something he would have discussed in Sunday school in Cross Plains.

[kemp]

Well, Robert E Howard seemed to have liked some of the Biblical heroes such as David and Samson, so much so that he made them honorary 'Aryans', although from a purely historical point of view they were of strictly Semitic origin.

He did admit that for him they seemed as Aryans, his liking for Indo European heroes, and I do not believe that he was pushing some revision of history.

REH wasn't antisemitic, he simply had strong opnions about everyone, and lived in a slightly more honest and open era before the advent of our 'cancel culture'. I don't agree with everything REH wrote or said, but it's refreshing that level of openness as it led to the creation of 'unstilted' heroes such as Conan and Solomon Kane. the Solomon name perhaps in honour of the good King Solomon, but notice Kane, perhaps working on the biblical Cain, the duality of the swashbuckling Puritan's character. Justice and violence, but that is just my supposition on it. 

[karasuthecrow]

Apr 8, 2022 6:31:31 GMT -5 @hunnu said:

Thanks for the link to the post.

I find it intriguing that REH considers certain Biblical characters to be of possible Aryan (Indo-European) descent.

...cannot think of Saul, David, Abner and Joab as Jews, not even as Arabs; to me they must always seem like Aryans, like myself. Saul, in particular, I always unconsciously visualize as a Saxon king, of those times when the invaders of Britain were just beginning to adopt the Christian religion.
—Robert E. Howard to H. P. Lovecraft, c. Feb 1931, MF 1.161

...and REH's Description of Samson:

Another Hebrew who interests me is Samson, and this man I am firmly convinced was at least half Aryan. In the first place, he had red hair or bright yellow hair; I feel certain of this because of his name, and the legend concerning his locks. His name referred to the sun, always pertaining to redness, brightness, golden tinted, in any language; his strength lay in his hair; I connect his name with his hair. What more natural than a superstition attached to the red hair of a child born in a in a dark-haired race? And that angel in the field—well, in the old, old days of Ireland, there was a legend that the old gods had fled into the west, from which they occasionally emerged to bestow their favours on some lucky damsel. Many a wanderer from the western hills assumed the part of a god. I am convinced that the “angel” was a wandering, red-haired Aryan, and that Samson was his son. The strong lad’s characteristics were most certainly little like those of the race that claimed him. He wouldn’t even associate with his people. He feasted and reveled with the lordly Philistines, and his drinking, fighting and wenching sound like the chronicles of some lad from Wicklow or a wild boy from Cork. He was a great jester, a quality none too common in his supposed race, and in the end he displayed true Aryan recklessness and iron lust for vengeance. When, in history, did a true Semite deliberately kill himself to bring ruin to his enemies? The big boy was surely an Aryan.
—Robert E. Howard to H. P. Lovecraft, c. Feb 1931, MF 1.161-162


...and also that the Ashkanezi Jews of Eastern Europe could be the of Khazar (Mongoloid/Turanian) descent. 

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 that 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—descendents of those Turanian Khazars with whom numbers of Jews settled and mixed in the Middle Ages. […] 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.
—Robert E. Howard to H. P. Lovecraft, c. Sep 1930, MF 1.82

Here's another excerpt concerning boxers of Eastern European Jewish origin:

'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. '

REH letter to HPL (c. December, 1930) A Means to Freedom, p.100

That could eb because some biblical characters are describe as "golden haired" or with blue eyes.

[kemp]

Apr 10, 2022 18:03:31 GMT -5 karasuthecrow said:

Apr 8, 2022 6:31:31 GMT -5 @hunnu said:

Thanks for the link to the post.

I find it intriguing that REH considers certain Biblical characters to be of possible Aryan (Indo-European) descent.

...cannot think of Saul, David, Abner and Joab as Jews, not even as Arabs; to me they must always seem like Aryans, like myself. Saul, in particular, I always unconsciously visualize as a Saxon king, of those times when the invaders of Britain were just beginning to adopt the Christian religion.
—Robert E. Howard to H. P. Lovecraft, c. Feb 1931, MF 1.161

...and REH's Description of Samson:

Another Hebrew who interests me is Samson, and this man I am firmly convinced was at least half Aryan. In the first place, he had red hair or bright yellow hair; I feel certain of this because of his name, and the legend concerning his locks. His name referred to the sun, always pertaining to redness, brightness, golden tinted, in any language; his strength lay in his hair; I connect his name with his hair. What more natural than a superstition attached to the red hair of a child born in a in a dark-haired race? And that angel in the field—well, in the old, old days of Ireland, there was a legend that the old gods had fled into the west, from which they occasionally emerged to bestow their favours on some lucky damsel. Many a wanderer from the western hills assumed the part of a god. I am convinced that the “angel” was a wandering, red-haired Aryan, and that Samson was his son. The strong lad’s characteristics were most certainly little like those of the race that claimed him. He wouldn’t even associate with his people. He feasted and reveled with the lordly Philistines, and his drinking, fighting and wenching sound like the chronicles of some lad from Wicklow or a wild boy from Cork. He was a great jester, a quality none too common in his supposed race, and in the end he displayed true Aryan recklessness and iron lust for vengeance. When, in history, did a true Semite deliberately kill himself to bring ruin to his enemies? The big boy was surely an Aryan.
—Robert E. Howard to H. P. Lovecraft, c. Feb 1931, MF 1.161-162


...and also that the Ashkanezi Jews of Eastern Europe could be the of Khazar (Mongoloid/Turanian) descent. 

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 that 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—descendents of those Turanian Khazars with whom numbers of Jews settled and mixed in the Middle Ages. […] 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.
—Robert E. Howard to H. P. Lovecraft, c. Sep 1930, MF 1.82

Here's another excerpt concerning boxers of Eastern European Jewish origin:

'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. '

REH letter to HPL (c. December, 1930) A Means to Freedom, p.100

That could eb because some biblical characters are describe as "golden haired" or with blue eyes.

Some of them probably had those features, maybe, but David and Samson were not decribed with specific features, although over the centuries various European artists depicted them that way, artistic licence I suppose. 

[kemp]

On the other end of the spectrum Samson was portrayed as a black man in some Bible TV mini series from 2013. 




The Biblical character was an Israelite from the tribe of Dan, so a blonde Indo European and Black depiction would be both wrong, middle eastern, probably looked a little like Victor Mature from Samson and Delilah.



REH's Belit was of Shemite/Semitic origin. She was potrayed as materialistic, maybe REH attributed a certain avarice with the Semitic peoples, but than again, Conan was not averse to treasure seeking himself.    
 

[Von K]

Apr 7, 2022 17:18:17 GMT -5 bobbyderie said:

For anyone curious, a new article on the old 'blog which examines Robert E. Howard's thoughts on Jews, particularly the exchange of ideas in his letters with H. P. Lovecraft and how that influenced his fiction, particularly the Shemites of the Hyborian Age.

deepcuts.blog/2022/04/06/deeper-cut-conan-and-the-shemites-robert-e-howard-and-antisemitism/

A very informative article Bobby, thanks. Look forward to reading more responses and perspectives.

I'd always seen Shem as that part of REH's Hyborian Age sandbox where he could potentially set tales from a variety of cultures roughly analagous to the bronze and early iron age cultures of the middle east, from old testament influences, Babylonian, Assyrian, Mesopotamian and Summerian etc, with each of the city states having its own slightly distinct culture within that general rubric. I say roughly analagous because REH never did direct historical riffs but mix and matched certain elements - thus Belit bearing the name of an Assyrian goddess, Bel, Ishtar, Akbitanan steel etc.