Conan the Barbarian (character)
Conan the Barbarian is a fictional character created by American author Robert E. Howard in the 1930s, known as a roaming warrior in a brutal, ancient world filled with sword-and-sorcery adventures. Originating in Howard's short story "The Phoenix on the Sword," Conan embodies the archetype of a stoic antihero, driven by personal glory rather than conventional morality, often resorting to violence and cunning to navigate his perilous surroundings. His stories take place in the Hyborian Age, a fictional period following the fall of Atlantis, characterized by a vast and untamed landscape populated by powerful kingdoms and a variety of dangers.
Conan's character stands out from typical heroic narratives, as he is not a noble knight but a complex figure displaying both courage and brutal practicality. His tales gained immense popularity during the Great Depression, providing escapism and inspiration for readers seeking resilience in challenging times. Over the decades, Conan has been adapted into various media, including comic books and films, with notable portrayals by Arnold Schwarzenegger in the 1982 movie "Conan the Barbarian." Despite the ups and downs of the franchise, Conan remains a significant figure in fantasy literature and culture, reflecting the enduring appeal of his adventures and the richly imagined world created by Howard.
Conan the Barbarian (character)
Conan the Barbarian is the fictional protagonist of a long-running series of short stories, novels, comic books, feature films, and other media. Created in the 1930s by American author Robert E. Howard, Conan is a roaming warrior fighting his way through a brutal ancient world full of sword-and-sorcery adventures.
Background
Robert E. Howard, creator of Conan the Barbarian and a wide variety of associated fictional places and characters, was born in Texas in 1906. In his early life, he developed an eclectic array of interests that would help form the vivid and imaginative writings of his adulthood. One of his most influential interests was history, ranging from tales of the Old South just a few generations before his time all the way back to antiquity. Howard pored over texts about barbarian tribes such as the Picts and learned to appreciate their lives, beliefs, accomplishments, and sufferings.
Another pivotal influence in young Howard's life was fiction. He enjoyed early pulp magazines with their tales of hardboiled detectives and dangerous femme fatales. At the same time, he also read fantastical and even occult and horror works, particularly those of H. P. Lovecraft. Howard joined the Lovecraft Circle, a band of science-fiction aficionados, and corresponded personally with the author. Lovecraft's brand of dark, sometimes shocking, otherworldly fiction strongly impressed Howard and helped inspire some of his own work.
Howard's passion for reading both fiction and nonfiction soon pushed him toward writing. His first focus, and the one that would fill the rest of his brief life, was short stories. He sold his first story—"Spear and Fang," a brutal tale of caveman life—to Weird Tales magazine, one of the most popular pulps of the day. This success led to further publications in more magazines, such as Argosy, Strange Detective, and Spicy Adventure. The characters he invented for these stories included Kull the Conqueror, Bran Mak Morn, and Solomon Kane. Although these characters were all battle-hardened warriors, they would be completely overpowered by Howard's most popular creation, a barbarian called Conan the Cimmerian.
Character and Setting
Howard's tales of Conan offered readers something unusual. Whereas most popular sword-and-sorcery tales revolved around romantic sagas of good versus evil, Howard's works dealt with the gritty, violent, amoral aspects of ancient life. Conan defied the archetype of the white knight questing for the love of a chaste damsel or the heroic king championing the cause of the needy. Rather, Conan is a stoic, sometimes sullen loner in search of personal glory. He uses strength and action rather than words and is not above raiding, killing, and plundering to improve his own situation. Although in these ways an antihero, Conan is simultaneously admirable in his limitless courage, honesty, patience, understanding, and love of independence.
Conan is the product of the Hyborian Age, the fictional ancient period in which he lives. In Howard's mythology, the Hyborian Age took place following the disappearance of the legendary Atlantis about 10,000 years ago. At this time, Africa and Europe are joined in a supercontinent of thousands of miles of largely untamed landforms including jungles, prairies, and deserts. The land has been carved into powerful kingdoms. Places inhabited by humans demonstrate architecture both stunning and mysterious, ranging from hidden tomb complexes to subterranean dungeons to sky-scraping pyramids, all with their own unique treasures and hazards. Conan must navigate these inhospitable places in his search for power, glory, and fortune.
Development of Conan
The idea for Conan came about in the early 1930s. Howard later claimed that the character concept developed quietly in his mind and then sprang forth fully mature; he even suggested it might have been an ancient spirit working through him, compelling him to chronicle Conan's adventures. Conan first appeared in the December 1932 issue of Weird Tales in a story called "The Phoenix on the Sword." Seventeen more stories quickly followed. Many of the stories were serialized parts of longer tales that were republished as novels starting in the 1950s. These novels included Hour of the Wolf, Conan the Conqueror, The Sword of Conan, The Coming of Conan, King Conan, Conan the Barbarian, and Tales of Conan.
Conan proved to be an immensely popular character and one of the main standouts of Weird Tales. The barbarian's guilelessness, bravery, and extraordinary might appealed to many readers. Some enjoyed the tales for their action and escapism or for their complex lore and mysteries. During the Great Depression, many readers turned to Conan for encouragement in daily life, hoping to emulate some fraction of his legendary courage and resilience. Robert E. Howard, however, did not thrive along with his fictional creations. In 1936, at the age of thirty, Howard became distraught over his mother's failing health and committed suicide.
The character of Conan, however, lived on, steadfastly refusing to fade from the public consciousness. After the novelization of the Conan stories in the 1950s, a fantasy craze began among young readers—a craze largely fueled by J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings saga, which had been partly influenced by Howard's earlier writings. In the 1970s, Marvel Comics adapted Conan for a comic book series. In the 1980s, the Conan tales were reinterpreted for the big screen. The Austrian-American bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger took up the mantle of the warrior in Conan the Barbarian, an acclaimed 1982 fantasy-adventure movie directed by John Milius. After a less-successful 1984 sequel, Conan the Destroyer, the franchise moved to television for two cartoon series and a live-action show in the 1990s. In 2011, the franchise was rebooted with Conan the Barbarian, directed by Marcus Nispel and starring Jason Momoa as Conan, but this movie did little to reignite public demand for the Hyborian warrior.
Bibliography
"Conan the Barbarian." Universal Pictures Home Entertainment. NBC Universal. 2015. Web. 20 Dec. 2015. www.uphe.com/movies/conan-the-barbarian
"Conan the Barbarian 3D." Lionsgate Films. 2011. Web. 20 Dec. 2015. www.conanthebarbarianin3d.com/index2.html#/story
"Conan the Destroyer." Universal Pictures Home Entertainment. NBC Universal. 2015. Web. 20 Dec. 2015. http://www.uphe.com/movies/conan-the-destroyer
Finn, Mark. Blood & Thunder: The Life and Art of Robert E. Howard. Robert E. Howard Foundation Press, 2013. 203–212, 227–228. Print.
Howard, Robert E. The Tales of Conan the Barbarian (A Collection of Short Stories). Worcestershire, England: Read Books Ltd., 2013. Print.
Knowles, Christopher. Our Gods Wear Spandex: The Secret History of Comic Book Heroes. Illustrated by Joseph Michael Linsner. Newburyport, MA: Weiser Books, 2007. 94–96. Print.
Mathews, Richard. Fantasy: The Liberation of Imagination. New York: Routledge, 2002. 118–134. Print.