![]() One thing that tends to be lost in the move towards other media is Conan’s wit. He was a thief, a warrior, a pirate, a soldier, and eventually even a king. Conan could move quickly, perform feats of great strength, and always had what it took to complete the adventure at hand. He was usually described as massive and muscular, the opposite of his oft-sickly creator. He was introspective, intelligent in a way one would not expect from a barbarian, and fearsome in a way that one would expect from his reputation.Ĭonan was described as dark haired, blue-eyed, and sullen. According to Howard, he was a man of gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth. Who was Conan? While the stories cast him in many roles, his general personality seemed to stay the same. It was a rich setting that allowed readers a chance to inhabit a world both old and new. The Hyborian Age was home to more stories than just those of Conan. It’s a clever way of putting together a landscape that is both familiar and alien and that allows the reader a certain level of comfort with the surroundings despite them being entirely fictional. The world of Hyboria is one that takes place between cataclysms, one that will soon become the world that readers inhabit. Characters hail from places like Cimmeria and Archeron, places that would one day become real locations like Ireland and Rome. The vast majority of this world can map to the real world if the reader is willing to dig a bit. ![]() The world is noticeably one that will one day become ours, even if its unfamiliar. It is a world meant for sword and sorcery, one that is in constant danger of falling to pieces. This is not a golden age of humanity, though – this is already a fallen world, one that exists between the fall of Atlantis and the advent of current written history. The Conan stories take place in a time before recorded history, during the fictional Hyborian Age. Conan’s birth was taken partially from the fantastic, partially from the real – fitting for the character. Conan was largely wish fulfillment in certain ways, though the character’s great melancholies were certain taken from Howard’s own life. It’s also important to note that Conan was largely based on what Howard was – and wished he was. This was his first real peak into the deeper world behind the character, one that would coalesce into the world of Conan and the Hyborian Age. When vacationing near the Mexican border, Howard wrote a poem entitled Cimmeria. This protagonist would be something special, even if Howard didn’t realize it at the time. ![]() He had already made one character, Kull of Atlantis, and it didn’t take much to rework one of his stories to be about a different protagonist. Howard had written fantasy stories before Conan, but it was Conan who would become his greatest character.Ĭonan’s creation came about because Howard needed a new character to sell to pulp fiction magazines. Conan’s genesis really did come from the mind of a giant in the genre, but his creation was also one that came from a real need to make money. It is at once fantastical and at the same time fairly mercenary. Conan is part of popular culture – and understanding his origins can help fans of fantasy understand how he transitioned from pulp hero into the icon that he is today.Ĭonan’s birth is a great deal like the character himself. There have been successful Conan films, video games, and board games. He’s appeared in novels, comic books, and newspaper strips. Howard’s Conan, a character who has become the byword for barbarian hero throughout the English-speaking world.Ĭonan started as a character in pulp magazines, but he has become much more. These characters are so important than those who have never read or saw their adventurers feel familiar with them as a concept. There are a few characters that take such deep root in the public consciousness that they become part of the background fictional landscape. ![]()
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