Okay, not Conan, but his creator Robert E. Howard, was born on this day in 1906.
Conan the Barbarian has become a literary character whose cultural influence at least approaches such icons as Sherlock Holmes and Tarzan. Although something possibly even more important comes with the 1927 short story “the Shadow Kingdom.” Where Howard took the “weird tale” genre developed by writers like Edgar Allan Poe and H. P. Lovecraft, and as the Wikipedia article puts it “mixing elements of fantasy, horror and mythology with historical romance, action and swordplay into thematic vehicles never before seen, a new style of tale which ultimately became known as ‘sword and sorcery.'” The “Hyborian Age” in which Conan flourishes is a pitch perfect development of the sword and sorcery theme.
The problems with Howard’s characters and cultural views are, well, pretty much endless. But, it is a rare eleven year old boy who can resist the heroics of the sword and sorcery universes. And it seems nearly all of us, men and women, have such a little boy lurking somewhere inside us.
And so, today, you might want to raise a cup of mead in honor of Conan and his creator.
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