Robert E Howard
Created | Updated Jun 11, 2006
Today is a rather auspicious anniversery. It is 70 years since a writer names Robert Ervin Howard, at around 8 in the morning, shot himself after hearing his mother had died. Rather more auspiciously, both were buried together on June 14th, which so happens to be my Birthday1.
I've not always had a love for Robert E Howard. Before him came Brian Jacques, and after him came David Gemmell. Sword and sorcery have always been a staple of my diet, and whilst guns and the future often lure me away its never for too long. I put this down to a certain Austrian bodybuilder and a man called John Millius, without who I wouldn't even be into swords and sorcerer like I am. But then I saw Conan the Barbarian, and my life was changed.
How could I not be? It was a film that fuffilled most of my needs at the time - strong hero, must kill everything. And as the years went by I began to understand it more, see Conan as an anti-hero, realise how unlike other heros, this one could really die. Then the other actors come into play, like Max Von Sydow and the awe inspiring James Earl Jones. Now I study films, and I've looked at Conan again. Is it one of the greatest films of all time? No not really. But then I started to read Conan.
The first book I got was 'Conan' from Dobbie2. Before then I had barely heard of Robert E. Howard, let alone gone after the stories. Yet, less then a year later, I have nearly all the Conan stories from the Lancer series (although its published by Sphere, very confusing) barring a few, and I've been putting them to good use...
For the past year or so I've been building a MMORPG on H2G2. I've been building it unlike anything else I've seen on hootoo. I had originally intended to do LOTR but it seems werekitty and HPB have been working on that... kind of.. but I'm glad I did this now. Its no where near completion but I am a man of portents. I wouldn't have known about these anniverserys if I hadn't been home this weekend, which I wouldnt have been if the filming had taken place and a series of choices gone the other way. Oh yes, very momentous.
So on July 23rd, around Lunch time, I will open the doors to Hyborian Age in what ever state its in. Theres enough written down to make sure it works properly, with enough scope to keep me building for another year at least. Why the 23rd? Well the 23rd coincides with a letter to Clark Ashton Smith in which he referances a story called Red Nails. I was tempted to hold out till the 1st of Janruary and tie in with Howard's birthday I'd rather get my baby out now. To quote:
"Sent a three-part serial to Wright yesterday: "Red Nails", which I devoutly hope he'll like. A Conan yarn, and the grimmest, bloodiest and most merciless story of the series so far. Too much raw meat, maybe, but I merely portrayed what I honestly believe would be the reactions of certain types of people in the situations on which the plot of the story hung."
But whats not finished I hear myself ask? Well there's the Black kingdoms and the South for a start which I'm gradually picking at but not with any great vigor. Then there's the East, which stretches like a colossus before me/ Khitai is three times the size of aquilonia, so would require at least 16 pages to itself, whilst the Japanesse nation is also beconning me3. So much to do and so little time, but eithe way it shall be completed for the most part4 in time for his Birthday.
'Recompense' by Robert E. Howard
I have not heard lutes beckon me, nor the brazen bugles call,
But once in the dim of a haunted lea I heard the silence fall.
I have not heard the regal drum, nor seen the flags unfurled,
But I have watched the dragons come, fire-eyed, across the world.
I have not seen the horsemen fall before the hurtling host,
But I have paced a silent hall where each step waked a ghost.
I have not kissed the tiger-feet of a strange-eyed golden god,
But I have walked a city's street where no man else had trod.
I have not raised the canopies that shelter revelling kings,
But I have fled from crimson eyes and black unearthly wings.
I have not knelt outside the door to kiss a pallid queen,
But I have seen a ghostly shore that no man else has seen.
I have not seen the standards sweep from keep and castle wall,
But I have seen a woman leap from a dragon's crimson stall,
And I have heard strange surges boom that no man heard before,
And seen a strange black city loom on a mystic night-black shore.
And I have felt the sudden blow of a nameless wind's cold breath,
And watched the grisly pilgrims go that walk the roads of Death,
And I have seen black valleys gape, abysses in the gloom,
And I have fought the deathless Ape that guards the Doors of Doom.
I have not seen the face of Pan, nor mocked the Dryad's haste,
But I have trailed a dark-eyed Man across a windy waste.
I have not died as men may die, nor sin as men have sinned,
But I have reached a misty sky upon a granite wind.
