Robert E. Howard

[TheFolklorist]

It is probably appropriate to say that H.P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard were best friends. Even though they never physically met and only began corresponding with one another during the last five years of R.E. Howard's life their correspondence was voluminous and their influence upon one another profound.

With this in mind I'm starting up a Conan the Cimmerian and Other Robert E. Howard Stories thread for anyone here who has read or enjoys discussing Howard's life and work.

Since we have a new Conan movie coming out later this summer directed by Marcus Nispel (Pathfinder) and staring Jason Momoa as Conan I though we could start by discussing our impressions of the Conan stories. What are your favorites? Why? Do you see any Lovecraftian influences in these stories?   

[Miskatonic Philologus]

On a general literary level, one of the points of connection between HPL and REH was love of poetry. I don't think this is sufficiently appreciated.

Both wrote a good deal of poetry, and the importance of "poetic style in prose" was of importance to them.

In contrast, HPL was the better stylist, overall, whereas REH was the better yarn-weaver. I find their physical/psychological contrasts of interest as well: HPL the thin, anemic-looking intellectual, Bob Howard the robust, gun-packing (literally!) Texan. 

But they both loved poetry, a fine fantasy and/or horror story, and were recognized by their peers as top guys in their field (i.e., the pulps).

I know most of REH's Conan (have a dislike for what Sprague de Camp did with REH's remnant manuscripts), and think it all worth reading. Also, you might want to try his boxing stories (often cast in the tall-tale format), not much mentioned, but very entertaining.

[theblackhatclub]

I fear in the long  run I perfer  Howards  work to HPL's tho I love both. As to mythos elements in Conan stories I'm sure there's some. I just can't think of any, as It's been a while since I read them, but i know of several of Howard's horror stories that had them, or an Lovecraftian atmosphere. The Black Stone, Dig Me No Grave, The Thing on the Roof, People of the Dark, Children of the Night, and Worms of the Earth tho part of the Bran Mak Morn cycle of Sword and Sorcery stories is very Lovecraftian with it's half reptilian witch woman,  the worms who have degenerated to snake like creatures after a millennia of living underground, and references to  both R'lyeh and Dagon. Howard also created Von Junzt's book of arcane literature Unaussprechliche Kulte aka Nameless Cults. HPL used this several times in his stories.

As far as my favorite Conan stories are Red Nails, Tower of the Elephant, The Man-Eaters of Zamboula, and Rogues in the House.

[catamount]

I'm also a huge fan of RE Howard, although the Conan stories are not really my favorite, I prefer that iterate puritan mercenary Solomon Kane (just something about well armed psychopathic religious fanatics). I do like Red Nails as well and The Black Pool though for the Conan Sagas.

[Rob]

I hold HPL and REH in equal esteem, though they have different styles. Lots of mythos cross-over in REH's tales and I remember in RA Wilson's Illuminati trilogy they blended in both REH's Hyborian Age mythos and the Cthulhu mythos quite nicely  

Don't get me started on the forthcoming movie though - the signs so far are not good....  

[Genus Unknown]

I prefer that iterate puritan mercenary Solomon Kane (just something about well armed psychopathic religious fanatics).

I love the character of Solomon Kane, but the stories and the writing of the Kane stories are noticeably more amateurish and generally inferior to the Conan stories. They're also (at the risk of bringing up that old demon that haunts so much classic pulp literature) a lot more racist... unsurprising, seeing as how they were written by a Texan in the '30s, and most of them take place in Africa.

Here's a choice paragraph that's as bad as, if not worse than anything HPL ever wrote (aside from that notorious poem):

Kane stood with the ju-ju stave in one hand and the smoking pistol in the other, above the smoldering ruins that hid forever from the sight of man the last of those terrible, semi-human monsters whom another white-skinned hero had banished from Europe in an unknown age. Kane stood, an unconscious statue of triumph - the ancient empires fall, the dark-skinned peoples fade and even the demons of antiquity gasp their last, but over all stands the Aryan barbarian, white-skinned, cold-eyed, dominant, the supreme fighting man of the earth, whether he be clad in wolf-hide and horned helmet, or boots and doublet - whether he bear in his hand battle-ax or rapier - whether he be called Dorian, Saxon or Englishman - whether his name be Jason, Hengist or Solomon Kane.

Yikes. Yet another great pulp adventure marred by rhetoric that would fit in a neo-nazi pamphlet.

Howard's prehistoric tales avoid a lot of that. Aside from Conan and Kull, there's also the supremely badass Bran Mak Morn. "Worms of the Earth" was the first Howard story I ever read, and remains one of my favorite short stories of all time.

[Genus Unknown]

I just got a Kindle, and two of the first e-books I bought were The Collected Western Stories and The Collected Boxing Stories of Robert E. Howard.

I've been skimming the first stories of each, and man, the Western stuff is disappointing. I'm only on the first one, A Gent From Bear Creek, but... well here's a sample:

"What have you did?" she raged, doing a kind of a war-dance on her bare feet. "You outlaw! You murderer! You jack-eared son of a spotted tail skunk! Look what you done!" She p'inted at her old man dazedly pulling his head out of the rooins of the rain-barrel, and her brothers laying around the yard in various positions, bleeding freely and groaning loudly. "You tried to murder my family!" says she, shaking her fists under my nose. "You throwed Bill onto me on purpose!"

"I didn't neither!" I exclaimed, shocked and scandalized. "You know I wouldn't hurt a hair of yore head, Glory! Why, all I done, I done it for you--"

"You didn't have to mutilate my pap and my brothers!" she wept furiously. Ain't that just like a gal? What could I done but what I did? She hollered: "If you really loved me you wouldn't of hurt 'em! You jest done it for meanness! I told you to be ca'm and gentle! Whyn't you do it? Shet up! Don't talk to me! Well, whyn't you say somethin'? Ain't you got no tongue?"

"I handled 'em easy as I could!" I roared, badgered beyond endurance. "It warn't my fault. If they'd had any sense, they wouldn't--"

"Don't you dare slander my folks!" she yelped. "What you done to Mister Wilkinson?"

The aforesaid gent jest then come limping around the corner of the cabin, and started for his hoss, and Glory run to him and grabbed his arm, and said: "If you still want to marry me, stranger, it's a go! I'll ride off with you right now!"

He looked at me and shuddered, and jerked his arm away.

"Do I look like a dern fool?" he inquired with some heat. "I advises you to marry that young grizzly there, for the sake of public safety, if nothin' else! Marry you when he wants you? No, thank you! I'm leavin' a valuable finger as a sooverneer of my sojourn, but I figger it's a cheap price! After watchin' that human tornado in action, I calculate a finger ain't nothin' to bother about! Adios! If I ever come within a hundred miles of Bear Creek again it'll be because I've gone plumb loco!"

The whole thing jumps back and forth between REH's patented two-fisted ass-kicking action scenes, and Hee Haw sketches.  

Although at one point, one character calls another "you mountain of beef and ignorance," which I intend to file away in the back of my mind and save for a rainy day.

[catamount]

Yeah, I've shied away from his Western and Boxing stories, other people have told me that they are not worth the time or effort to sift through looking for a gem...my first kindle book was Arsène Lupin, Gentleman Burglar by Maurice Leblanc.

[DMcCool]

I think most of Howard's Mythos-type material is buried within his sword and sorcery stories, and not standing along like "The Black Stone".  All of his Hyborian Age elements tie into the Mythos really well by including ancient civilizations of monster-like beings, like Yag-Kosha in "The Tower of the Elephant".  In addition, there are the various "gods" that show up in some form or another in the Conan stories, and others.

[old book]

Trivia question: Red Sonya, Sonya Greene, coincidence?

[bar1scorpio]

I'm just worried that the Conan movie is two months away and I haven't seen a trailer yet.

[MediaGhost]

Here's the trailer:

http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/lions_gate/conanthebarbarian/

It looks like the usual CGI craptacular.  The only real question is the boobs-to-blood ratio.  That is, whether the studio goes PG-13 or R.  I can't imagine they'd go 'R' and risk the film's target audience, but who knows.

[Tcho-Tcho Gourmand]

I really, really love King Kull stories, specially the powerful "By this axe, I rule", and the impressive "Shadow Kingdom" (sorry if these titles are wrong, I'm Spanish and I'm translating the Spanish titles). I also enjoy Solomon Kane and Conan. "Red Nails" is my favourite Conan story, and its insane and opressive atmosphere can be attractive for any Lovecraft fan.

Howard's pict stories about Bran Mak Morn could be quite interesting for Lovecraft readers, specially "Worms of the Earth" because of the presence of these degenerated critters, which gives the tale a definite eerie and Lovecraftian flavour.

[Kolani]

I really, really love King Kull stories, specially the powerful "By this axe, I rule", and the impressive "Shadow Kingdom" (sorry if these titles are wrong, I'm Spanish and I'm translating the Spanish titles). I also enjoy Solomon Kane and Conan. "Red Nails" is my favourite Conan story, and its insane and opressive atmosphere can be attractive for any Lovecraft fan.

Howard's pict stories about Bran Mak Morn could be quite interesting for Lovecraft readers, specially "Worms of the Earth" because of the presence of these degenerated critters, which gives the tale a definite eerie and Lovecraftian flavour.

Also, R'yleh is cited in Worms too.

[Genus Unknown]

Not only that, but there's a body of water in "Worms of the Earth" called Dagon's Mere, where Bran Mak Morn hides a certain stolen object. When he goes to retrieve it, he sees (and feels) hints of a huge monster said to live in the Mere.