Hyperborea and the Hyperboreans (according to REH)

[deuce]

This thread is intended to provide data from REH about the Hyperboreans. It is here to discuss what all of the data indicates in regard to Hyperborea's people, culture and relationship to other peoples of the Hyborian Age. It is also here, since such threads always tend that way, to discuss that information and try to determine if, perhaps, Robert E. Howard had a historical model in mind when he envisioned Hyperborea.



This thread is "according to Robert E. Howard". It is not "according just to the Lancer/Ace Conans" or "according to what I cherry-pick, and to hell with what REH thought otherwise". Robert E. Howard did not write his tales of the Hyborian Age in a vacuum. As has been noted by many, many people, Howard drew upon his extensive knowledge of, and interest in, history when creating the Hyborian Age. It should be noted that REH's interests and knowledge were not equal across the board. He preferred some regions and periods in history far more than others. Thus, what REH thought about various cultures and what he knew about various cultures and how he wrote about various cultures can come into play on this thread.



If what Robert E. Howard thought about a certain culture is "wrong" according to "accepted history" or someone else's "understanding of history", then Robert E. Howard's views supersede them on this thread. That simple. It is right in the title of this thread.



Robert E. Howard had plenty to say about the Hyperboreans, you just have to look. Time to post his quotes in one place, starting with The Coming of Conan (Del Rey)...




"...there was an Age undreamed of, when shining kingdoms lay spread across the world like blue mantles beneath the stars – Nemedia, Ophir, Brythunia, Hyperborea, Zamora with its dark-haired women and towers of spiderhaunted mystery, Zingara with its chivalry, Koth that bordered on the pastoral lands of Shem, Stygia with its shadow-guarded tombs, Hyrkania whose riders wore steel and silk and gold." (p17)





“The murderer, without doubt!” cried Arus. “He came from that door yonder. He is a northern barbarian of some sort – a Hyperborean or a Bossonian, perhaps.” (p48)



There was a giant Hyperborean renegade, taciturn, dangerous, with a broadsword strapped to his great gaunt frame – for men wore steel openly in the Maul. (p67)



And he knew the monster would not rise to attack him. He knew the marks of the rack, and the searing brand of the flame, and tough-souled as he was, he stood aghast at the ruined deformities which his reason told him had once been limbs as comely as his own. (p82)



Mitra of the Hyborians must be a strong god, because his people have builded their cities over the world. (p131)



Close on their heels marched the Khoraja spearmen, always comparatively few in any Hyborian state, where men thought cavalry the only honorable branch of service. (p162)



The mercenaries brought up the rear, a thousand horsemen, two thousand spearmen. (...) They were men of many races and many crimes. There were tall Hyperboreans, gaunt, bigboned, of slow speech and violent natures; (p162)


His [Yezdigerd's] armies ravaged the borders of Stygia in the south and the snowy lands of the Hyperboreans in the north. (p.299)



"The western part of Vanaheim lies along the shores of the western sea, and east of Asgard is the country of the Hyperboreans, who are civilized and dwell in cities. East beyond their country are the deserts of the Hyrkanians.” (p332)



This was a more or less pure-blooded race, though modified by contact with the Zingarans in the south, and, much less extensively, with the Bossonians of the west and north. Aquilonia, as the western-most of the Hyborian kingdoms, retained frontier traditions equalled only by the more ancient kingdom of Hyperborea and the Border Kingdom. (p348)



Gunderland existed for several generations in its former state as a separate principality. (...) They were, next to the Hyperboreans, the tallest of the Hyborian races. (p348)

[deuce]

Morgan Holmes has written about the Hyperborean military here:


www.rehtwogunraconteur.com/articles-essays/the-hyperboreans-re-imagined/

[buxom9sorceress]

Thanks for the quotes, Deuce.

--

But did you get a bit mixed up?

these 3 quotes you posted do not mention HYPER-boreans at all...

...

And he knew the monster would not rise to attack him. He knew the marks of the rack, and the searing brand of the flame, and tough-souled as he was, he stood aghast at the ruined deformities which his reason told him had once been limbs as comely as his own. (p82)



Mitra of the Hyborians must be a strong god, because his people have builded their cities over the world. (p131)



Close on their heels marched the Khoraja spearmen, always comparatively few in any Hyborian state, where men thought cavalry the only honorable branch of service. (p162)

====

why were they included?

[fernando]

Apr 29, 2016 11:54:13 GMT -5 buxom9sorceress said:

Thanks for the quotes, Deuce.

--

But did you get a bit mixed up?

these 3 quotes you posted do not mention HYPER-boreans at all...

...

And he knew the monster would not rise to attack him. He knew the marks of the rack, and the searing brand of the flame, and tough-souled as he was, he stood aghast at the ruined deformities which his reason told him had once been limbs as comely as his own. (p82)



Mitra of the Hyborians must be a strong god, because his people have builded their cities over the world. (p131)



Close on their heels marched the Khoraja spearmen, always comparatively few in any Hyborian state, where men thought cavalry the only honorable branch of service. (p162)

====

why were they included?

I don't know about the 2nd and 3rd one, but the first quote speaks about the tortures Conan probably saw in Hyperborea, before fleeing from there.

[deuce]

Apr 29, 2016 11:54:13 GMT -5 buxom9sorceress said:

Thanks for the quotes, Deuce.

--

But did you get a bit mixed up?

these 3 quotes you posted do not mention HYPER-boreans at all...

...

And he knew the monster would not rise to attack him. He knew the marks of the rack, and the searing brand of the flame, and tough-souled as he was, he stood aghast at the ruined deformities which his reason told him had once been limbs as comely as his own. (p82)



Mitra of the Hyborians must be a strong god, because his people have builded their cities over the world. (p131)



Close on their heels marched the Khoraja spearmen, always comparatively few in any Hyborian state, where men thought cavalry the only honorable branch of service. (p162)

====

why were they included?

I wasn't mixed up at all.

The likeliest place for Conan (at the age of 16-17) to have previously seen the effects of torture would have been in Hyperborea. Other venues are possible, just less likely.

There is a very common meme in Conan fandom that the Hyperboreans (during Conan's era) were "Bori worshippers". There is nothing to indicate this. It's like saying that William the Conquerer worshipped Madron or Nudd. 

The quote from Black Colossus just goes to show that the forces of Hyperborea were not leotard-clad wand-boys (as per Spraguey and Lin), nor were they mottled "Uber-Hai" grunts like Busiek said. The Hyborian nations (Hyperboreans were as Hyborian as the Aquilonians) put cavalry foremost.

[deuce]

May 4, 2016 7:21:17 GMT -5 @venaala said:

 Sadly, ROE didn't give much detail,

More Robert E. Howard quotes pertinent to the Hyperboreans. We'll start with "The Hyborian Age" essay in The Coming of Conan (Del Rey)...




But in the north, the tribes are growing. These people are called Hyborians, or Hybori; their god was Bori – some great chief, whom legend made even more ancient as the king who led them into the north, in the days of the great Cataclysm, which the tribes remember only in distorted folklore. They have spread over the north, and are pushing southward in leisurely treks. So far they have not come in contact with any other races; their wars have been with one another. Fifteen hundred years in the north country have made them a tall, tawny-haired, grey-eyed race, vigorous and warlike, and already exhibiting a well-defined artistry and poetism of nature. (p353)

Another factor has added to the impetus of Hyborian drift. A tribe of that race has discovered the use of stone in building, and the first Hyborian kingdom has come into being – the rude and barbaric kingdom of Hyperborea, which had its beginning in a crude fortress of boulders heaped to repel tribal attack. The people of this tribe soon abandoned their horse-hide tents for stone houses, crudely but mightily built, and thus protected, they grew strong. There are few more dramatic events in history than the rise of the rude, fierce kingdom of Hyperborea, whose people turned abruptly from their nomadic life to rear dwellings of naked stone, surrounded by cyclopean walls – a race scarcely emerged from the polished stone age, who had by a freak of chance, learned the first rude principles of architecture. (p354)





The rise of this kingdom [Elder Hyperborea] drove forth many other tribes, for, defeated in war, or refusing to become tributary to their castle-dwelling kinsmen, many clans set forth on long treks that took them half-way around the world. And already the more northern tribes are beginning to be harried by gigantic blond savages, not much more advanced than ape-men. (p354)



The blond savages of the far north [proto-Nordheimr] have grown in power and numbers so that the northern Hyborian tribes move southward, driving their kindred clans before them. The ancient kingdom of Hyperborea is overthrown by one of these northern tribes, which, however, retains the old name. (p354)



The Hyborians have become a considerably mixed race; the nearest to the ancient root-stock are the Gundermen of Gunderland, a northern province of Aquilonia. But this mixing has not weakened the race. They are supreme in the western world, though the barbarians of the wastelands are growing in strength. (p355)



In the north, golden-haired, blue-eyed barbarians [Nordheimr], descendants of the blond arctic savages, have driven the remaining Hyborian tribes out of the snow countries, except the ancient kingdom of Hyperborea, which resists their onslaught. Their country is called Nordheim, and they are divided into the red-haired Vanir of Vanaheim, and the yellow-haired Æsir of Asgard. (p355)



Between the inland sea and the eastern borders of the native kingdoms lie vast expanses of steppes and in the extreme north and extreme south, deserts. The non-Hyrkanian dwellers of these territories are scattered and pastoral, unclassified in the north, Shemitish in the south, aboriginal, with a thin strain of Hyborian blood from wandering conquerors. Toward the latter part of the period other Hyrkanian clans push westward, around the northern extremity of the inland sea, and clash with the eastern outposts of the Hyperboreans. (p355)





The dominant Hyborians are no longer uniformly tawny-haired and grey-eyed. They have mixed with other races. There is a strong Shemitish, even a Stygian strain among the peoples of Koth, and to a lesser extent, of Argos, while in the case of the latter, admixture with the Zingarans has been more extensive than with the Shemites. The eastern Brythunians have inter-married with the dark-skinned Zamorians, and the people of southern Aquilonia have mixed with the brown Zingarans until black hair and brown eyes are the dominant type in Poitain, the southern-most province. The ancient kingdom of Hyperborea is more aloof than the others, yet there is alien blood in plenty in its veins, from the capture of foreign women – Hyrkanians, Æsir, and Zamorians. Only in the province of Gunderland, where the people keep no slaves, is the pure Hyborian stock found unblemished. (p355)

An ancient feud had existed between Aquilonia and Hyperborea, and the latter now marched to meet the armies of her western rival. The plains of the Border Kingdom were the scene of a great and savage battle, in which the northern hosts were utterly defeated, and retreated into their snowy fastnesses, whither the victorious Aquilonians did not pursue them. (p356)

In the north there was incessant bickering along the Cimmerian borders between the black-haired warriors and the Nordheimr; and the Æsir, between wars with the Vanir, assailed Hyperborea and pushed back the frontier, destroying city after city. (p356)

Nemedia took the defensive in future wars, aided occasionally by Brythunia, and Hyperborea, and, secretly as usual, by Koth. (p357)




But Nemedia the western empire had never been able to subdue, although the latter’s triumphs were of the defensive sort, and were generally attained with the aid of Hyperborean armies. (p.360)


This invasion was from the ancient Hyrkanian kingdom of Turan, on the shores of the inland sea, but another, more savage Hyrkanian thrust came from the north. Hosts of steel-clad riders galloped around the northern extremity of the inland sea, traversed the icy deserts, entered the steppes, driving the aborigines before them, and launched themselves against the western kingdoms. These newcomers were not at first allies with the Turanians, but skirmished with them as with the Hyborians; new drifts of eastern warriors bickered and fought, until all were united under a great chief, who came riding from the very shores of the eastern ocean. With no Aquilonian armies to oppose them, they were invincible. They swept over and subjugated Brythunia, and devastated southern Hyperborea, and Corinthia. (p361-362)

Opposed to this barbaric empire [of the Picts] is the empire of the Hyrkanians, of which the northern boundaries are the ravaged lines of Hyperborea, and the southern, the deserts south of the lands of Shem. Zamora, Brythunia, the Border Kingdom,Corinthia, most of Koth, and all the eastern lands of Shem are included in this empire. (p.362)

Before the southward moving ice-fields the northern tribes drifted, driving kindred clans before them. The Æsir blotted out the ancient kingdom of Hyperborea, and across its ruins came to grips with the Hyrkanians. (p363)



[From a list of Hyborian Age names and countries compiled by REH in March 1932]



Hyperborea -- King Tomar



Cimmeria:

(...)

to the east Hyperborea;

(...)



Hyperborea:

to the west Asgard;

to the north the barren marches;

to the east Hyrkania;

to the west Cimmeria;

(p384)

[deuce]

The final batch of quotes from Robert E. Howard pertinent to the Hyperboreans.



Here are the entries from The Bloody Crown of Conan (Del Rey):



“They are the Shemitish mercenaries of Constantius, the Kothic voivode of the Free Companies.” (p245)



“Better death than the black shame that has come upon Khauran this day,” he groaned. “Did you see it, Ivga?” (p249)



The other was dressed like them in a white, girdled khalat and a flowing head-dress which, banded about the temples with a triple circlet of braided camel-hair, fell to his shoulders. But he was not a Shemite. The dusk was not so thick, nor Conan’s hawk-like sight so clouded that he could not perceive the man’s facial characteristics. He was as tall as Conan, though not so heavy-limbed. His shoulders were broad and his supple figure was hard as steel and whalebone. A short black beard did not altogether mask the aggressive jut of his lean jaw, and grey eyes cold and piercing as a sword gleamed from the shadow of the kafieh. Quieting his restless steed with a quick sure hand, this man spoke: “By Mitra, I should know this man!” (p254)



“There’s only one of your breed in these parts,” muttered Conan. “You are Olgerd Vladislav, the outlaw chief.” “Aye! And once a hetman of the kozaki of the Zaporoskan River, as you have guessed.” (p255)



It is rumored that he has become the right-hand man of Olgerd Vladislav, the kozak adventurer who wandered down from the northern steppes and made himself chief of a band of Zuagirs. (p258)



Baring his teeth in a snarl, Olgerd lifted his hand – then paused. There was something about the confidence in the Cimmerian’s dark face that shook him. His eyes began to burn like those of a wolf. “You scum of the western hills,” he muttered. “Have you dared seek to undermine my power?” “I didn’t have to,” answered Conan. “You lied when you said I had nothing to do with bringing in the new recruits. I had everything to do with it. They took your orders, but they fought for me. There is not room for two chiefs of the Zuagirs. They know I am the stronger man. I understand them better than you, and they, me; because I am a barbarian too.” (p266)



An excerpt from a letter by Robert E. Howard from The Conquering Sword of Conan (Del Rey)



Why or how, I am not certain, but he [Conan] spent some months among a tribe of the Æsir, fighting with the Vanir and the Hyperboreans, and developing a hate for the latter which lasted all his life and later affected his policies as king of Aquilonia. Captured by them, he escaped southward and came into Zamora in time to make his debut in print. (p344)

[deuce]

Here is a quote from REH's "The Shadow of the Hun", wherein Turlogh, the Irish Gaelic hero, talks about being shipwrecked in Finland after fighting Vikings:



"I awaked in the hut of a strange people. (...) Well, these folks were Finns -- kindly people who treated me well."



Right there is Robert E. Howard's opinion of Finns during the medieval period. Turlogh, a pure-blooded descendant of the Cimmerians, thinks the Finns are "kindly people" who treat defenseless strangers well. About as far from Conan's opinion of the Hyperboreans as one could get.


As Howard said in a letter from 1935:

"[Conan] spent some months among a tribe of the Æsir, fighting with the Vanir and the Hyperboreans, and developing a hate for the latter which lasted all his life and later affected his policies as king of Aquilonia."

Conan hated the Hyperboreans (we never hear about any such life-long hate by Conan for the Turanians or Stygians). According to REH, the Hyperboreans lived in cities (something the Finns didn't have until quite recently), they were mostly cavalry in their military (once again, that doesn't agree with Finnish history) and the Hyperboreans were slavers. The Finns don't have much of a history of enslaving others, but maybe I'm wrong. 

Robert E. Howard (like myself) considered the Finns a very kindly people. 


I hope we don't have to discuss this "Robert E. Howard thought the Finns = Hyperboreans" silliness in the future.

[docpod]

When I wrote the Armies of Hyperborea, I was thinking of Russia at the time of Vladimir and Yaroslav the Wise. I now think Howard modeled Hyperborea on the Principality of Muscovy, the Russia of the Ivans. This would be through reading Harold Lamb and his tales of the Cossacks. The Finns did not have cities and seem somewhat peaceful in comparison to their Scandinavian and Slavic neighbors.

[deuce]

May 9, 2016 9:35:42 GMT -5 @venaala said:

It is good that you brought this up.
In a way I feel that Howard is giving a contradictionary description of Hyperboreans, in different texts of his.
“…Hyperboreans, who are civilized and dwell in cities.” – with advanced cavalry.
Vs.
“gigantic blond savages, not much more advanced than ape-men.” + “a race scarcely emerged from the polished stone age.”

It is almost like Howard himself couldn’t make up his mind about the nature of the Hyperborea. Or is it simply the way Hyperborea changed in itself from being one to being the other in such a quik series of events?

There was no "quick series of events". REH's "The Hyborian Age" guideline (adjusted in reference to published tales like The Scarlet Citadel, Black Colossus and The Hour of the Dragon) places the arrival of the younger/newer (as opposed to "Elder") Hyperboreans as being (at the barest minimum) three thousand years before Conan's time.

The "blonde savages" are the proto-human ancestors of the Nordheimr, not the Hyperboreans. The "race scarcely emerged from the polished stone age" are the "Elder" Hyperboreans who were, thousands of years later, displaced by the barbaric Hyperboreans who later enslaved Conan (and hundreds of thousands of other people). That is the ethnos of King Tomar and Olgerd Vladislav (and many of the kozaki).

There is no contradiction, just REH describing the long (millennia long) history of Hyperborea (which encompasses the history of two distinct ethnoi, though both were ethnically Hyborian).

[deuce]

May 8, 2016 18:54:49 GMT -5 docpod said:

When I wrote the Armies of Hyperborea, I was thinking of Russia at the time of Vladimir and Yaroslav the Wise. I now think Howard modeled Hyperborea on the Principality of Muscovy, the Russia of the Ivans. This would be through reading Harold Lamb and his tales of the Cossacks. The Finns did not have cities and seem somewhat peaceful in comparison to their Scandinavian and Slavic neighbors.

Lamb's stories perfectly encapsulated the despotic, corrupt era of the Muscovite kings (which era also produced the Cossacks).

Your classic essay:

www.rehtwogunraconteur.com/articles-essays/the-hyperboreans-re-imagined/

[deuce]

May 4, 2016 23:46:21 GMT -5 deuce said:

May 4, 2016 7:21:17 GMT -5 @venaala said:

 Sadly, ROE didn't give much detail,

More Robert E. Howard quotes pertinent to the Hyperboreans in The Coming of Conan (Del Rey)...

[From a list of Hyborian Age names and countries compiled by REH in March 1932]



Hyperborea -- King Tomar
(p384)

"Tomar" was the name of a Russian aristocratic family of Kiev:

feefhs.org/links/Russia/rhn/rhn-pz.html

books.google.com/books?id=MK0tAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA83&lpg=PA83&dq=tomar+kiev+family&source=bl&ots=-duktwAdmF&sig=149OJbo_gAdLiGFtiywqZsFLakQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi53LzHqNHMAhVk_IMKHZg5Dy8Q6AEIKTAD#v=onepage&q=tomar%20kiev%20family&f=false

[Von K]

Thanks for collecting all of this material Deuce. I agree with your assesments.

Scholars like Deuce, Morgan and Jeff help us to get closer to understanding REH's original creative vision, especially in cases where REH didn't write as much about a particular place, or where what he wrote is spread out widely among his published works, or exists in sometimes not so easily available places such as unpublished early drafts or documents like the relatively recently published Notes on Various Peoples of the Hyborian Age, and Hyborian Names and Countries (referred to by Deuce above).

REH doesn't seem to have mentioned the Finns directly in a HA context, but I do feel that a proto Finnish Hyborian analogue for them could fit within the framework of REH's Hyborian Age conception, clearly not as the Hyperboreans, but maybe as a nomadic culture on the fringes of Hyperborea, Asgard, and Vanaheim, or even as a small kingdom. A kindly and hospitable people perhaps, overshadowed by their more violent neighbours, but robust enough to survive the cataclysm and go on to become the ancestors of the modern Finns?

After all, even Asgard and Vanaheim were relatively unknown until King Conan updated the Aquilonian maps. Perhaps other smaller kingdoms existed up there in the north, unmentioned in the Chronicles, but known to far-travellers like Conan...

[deuce]

May 13, 2016 21:45:15 GMT -5 Von K said:

Thanks for collecting all of this material Deuce. I agree with your assesments.

Scholars like Deuce, Morgan and Jeff help us to get closer to understanding REH's original creative vision, especially in cases where REH didn't write as much about a particular place, or where what he wrote is spread out widely among his published works, or exists in sometimes not so easily available places such as unpublished early drafts or documents like the relatively recently published Notes on Various Peoples of the Hyborian Age, and Hyborian Names and Countries (referred to by Deuce above).

REH doesn't seem to have mentioned the Finns directly in a HA context, but I do feel that a proto Finnish Hyborian analogue for them could fit within the framework of REH's Hyborian Age conception, clearly not as the Hyperboreans, but maybe as a nomadic culture on the fringes of Hyperborea, Asgard, and Vanaheim, or even as a small kingdom. A kindly and hospitable people perhaps, overshadowed by their more violent neighbours, but robust enough to survive the cataclysm and go on to become the ancestors of the modern Finns?

After all, even Asgard and Vanaheim were relatively unknown until King Conan updated the Aquilonian maps. Perhaps other smaller kingdoms existed up there in the north, unmentioned in the Chronicles, but known to far-travellers like Conan...

Actually, you took the words out of my keyboard, so to speak, VK. I was just thinking about that yesterday. We have this from the "Notes" above...

Hyperborea:



to the west Asgard;



to the north the barren marches;



to the east Hyrkania;



to the west Cimmeria;



(p384)

So, yeah, I could see a sort of pseudo-Saami/Lapp culture infiltrating the "barren marches" from the east after the ancestors of the Conan-era Hyperboreans had moved south, expelling the Elder Hyperboreans.

[docpod]

My own view of the a Howardian genesis of the Finns within his fictional history is this: Finns are the result of mixture of Aesir with Hyrkanians after the Hyborian Age. He mentions Cimmerians going around the shrinking Vilayet Sea mixing with Hyrkanians to become the Scythians. Same thing to the north, wandering Aesir going east mix with Hyrkanians to become the Finno-Urgic peoples.

Morgan