Conan the Cimmerian
Robert E. Howard’s barbarian

John Clute (in The Encyclopedia of Fantasy) describes Conan the Cimmerian as a ―

mighty-thewed, panther-swift barbarian warrior, whose senses are preternaturally acute, who responds to almost any challenge with sword or axe, who frequently turns berserker when the odds seem insuperable. … extremely rough on women, though without malice.

He is ruthless to traitors, profoundly loyal to any worthy companion… the barbarian’s shrugging contempt for effete civilization is married to a wintry fatalism clearly reminiscent of the doom-laden worldview expressed by heroes of Nordic saga.

In this, Conan – probably the best-known sword-and-sorcery hero – is a typical Robert E. Howard hero. Despite his encouters with the fabulous and fantastic, the alien and arcane, Conan’s character is grounded in reality: Howard based him on prize-fighters (boxers) and bootleggers he knew personally.

Conan was established in a mere 20 or so original stories, most published in Weird Tales between 1932 and Howard’s death in 1936 (see Bibliography).

Their luridly coloured, extremely violent mix of action-adventure and magic achieved rapid popularity, and Conan has since become one of the exemplars of the sword-bearing, brawling barbarian hero of heroic fantasy.

Conan lived in the “Hyborian” lands – those surrounding what would become the Mediterranean – sometime around 10-12,000 years ago.

He is a Cimmerian. Homer’s Odyssey mentions the Cimmerians, “who live enshrouded in mist and darkness which the rays of the sun never pierce”. Historically, they were a nomadic, Late-Bronze-Age people, closely related to the Scythians, who occupied the southern Russian steppes between 1200 and 800 BC (see the article by Jona Lendering at Livius ). According to some sources, the Cimmerians were the ancestors of the Celts. Certainly the pre-Celtic settlers of Ireland – the Partholónians, Nemedians, etc. – and the Celtic Milesians all have Scythian connections. So Conan turns out to be another one of Howard’s Irish heroes!

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