Robert E Howard

Flight

Flight

Full Member
Have many folks read R E Howards stuff ? When I was a teenager me and my best mate had a regular Saturday. We'd meet up at the record shop, go round the second hand bookshops, then spend the afternoon practising with our band.

He always collected Michael Moorcock and I would scour everywhere for Howard books. Most people don't realise how much influence Howard had on fantasy. There was no-one before him; other than Rice Burroughs. Hyboria predates the Hobbit, which was written in the early 30's. Howard created sword and sorcery. The classes, the settings, the magic, the phat lewtz - its all there.

My favourite was Bran Mak Morn - a Pict living in Roman Britain. Howard and H P Lovecraft were close friends and their works influenced each other and sometimes crossed over. Cthulhu and R'lyeh are mentioned in Bran Mak Morn, Worms of the Earth, although the name of Cthulhu is later changed to the Nameless One.



So, the point is, Age of Conan the MMORPG is released soon. Like Howards writing, it is rated 18+. The books were often bloody, violent and debaucherous. If you haven't before, I'd recommend reading some Howard. Conan is good, but some of his other stuff is even better. And I dare suggest without Howard there might have been no DnD, no Diablo, no ClanUK, no AO and no fantasy MMORPGs.
 
Cullhaven

Cullhaven

Hernes Son
Yeh but D n D owes a huge debt to writers such as Jack Vance and Fritz leiber as well and JRR of course. Always liked what little I'd read of Howards work, could never get away with Lovecraft at all. But it was Leibers Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser and Jack Vances Cugel that dragged me in to fantasy in a big way after reading Tolkien. There is a lot more pre-Tolkien fantasy than people think, Eddisons Worm Ourouboros, which I stuck with to the end despite the terrible old fashioned writing style, and stuff I have always wanted to read like William Morris ( the Pre-Raphaelite designer) fantasy books, The King of Elflands daughter by Lord Dunsany and Lud in the mist by Hope Mirlees. If Tolkeins biggest contribution to Fantasy games/books could be said to be the elves Howard I think would be the Barbarian and his ways :)

Im starting to lean more towards Conan than Warhammer tbh, only really got involved in Warhammer fantasy roleplay coz friends ran it, wouldnt have bothered myself.
 
R

Readon

Full Member
Been a fan of Howards work for a long time, with Soloman Kane being my favorite of his characters. I like the very real human approach to his characters, they have flaws and often persue their desires rather than the greater good and are often nothing like the heroes portrayed in the more conventional modern fantasies.

As an addition i'm also keen to see AoC, everything i've read about it suggests that they are trying to stay true to Howards vision of Hyboria and are milking everything they can out of the mature rating. I'm also hoping that the mature rating will reduce the number of kids in the game (I know it won't remove them all but a reduction is better than nothing). I've been following Wahammer Online for quite awhile but i have a feeling that it'll attract an awful lot of kids.
 
Flight

Flight

Full Member
Cullhaven said:
Yeh but D n D owes a huge debt to writers such as Jack Vance and Fritz leiber as well and JRR of course.
Click to expand...

I could be wrong mate, but I think you'll find Howard pre dates them and was in fact dead before their first works (Howard committed suicide in 1936, aged 30). They both wrote their early works for pulp comics/magazines - as did Howard.

Howard was a huge influence on that media and was a massive influence on those early writers, including the two you name.


As for the MMOs I'm tipping AoC to be a surprise hit and Warhammer to be awful, unless they push the release way back again and do a big redesign.
 
Cullhaven

Cullhaven

Hernes Son
No problem mate. I really want to read a lot more early fantasy, some of it sounds very intreaguing.

Thats a good list to start trying to get hold of, cheers Flight :)

It misses out Alan Garner from the golden age 50s and 60s list, arguably the best childrens fantasy writer of that period with The Weirdstone of Brisingamen, The Moon of Gomerath and Elidor.
 
Cullhaven

Cullhaven

Hernes Son
As a humerous aside, I found out yesterday that one of my old LARP players is being sued by Robert E Howards estate coz he has been running a Hyborea LARP and didnt get permission!
 
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