# Conan the Cimmerian *Robert E. Howard's tales of the Hyborian Age* - Work: Book series - Date: 1932–36 (Weird Tales) - Made by: Robert E. Howard (Creator and author) - Canonical: https://www.lanternhall.org/works/conan-the-cimmerian/ > A black-haired barbarian from the northern hills is thief, pirate, mercenary and king in a lost prehistoric age of decadent cities and ancient sorceries — the hero who founded sword and sorcery. **Why it matters:** Conan created sword and sorcery, set the template for the barbarian hero, and fed Dungeons & Dragons directly — from the Hyborian gods in Gods, Demi-gods & Heroes to the barbarian class and TSR's own Conan game. ## Quick answers **When was Conan the Cimmerian first published?** Conan the Cimmerian was first published in 1932–36 (Weird Tales). **Who created Conan the Cimmerian?** Conan the Cimmerian was made by Robert E. Howard (creator and author). **What kind of work is Conan the Cimmerian?** Conan the Cimmerian is a book series in the Sword & Sorcery and Dark Fantasy tradition. **Why is Conan the Cimmerian important?** Conan created sword and sorcery, set the template for the barbarian hero, and fed Dungeons & Dragons directly — from the Hyborian gods in Gods, Demi-gods & Heroes to the barbarian class and TSR's own Conan game. ## Overview "Know, O prince, that between the years when the oceans drank Atlantis ... there was an Age undreamed of." So begins the pseudo-chronicle that introduces Conan of Cimmeria, a barbarian from the bleak northern hills who wanders south into a world of rich, rotten kingdoms: Aquilonia, Nemedia, Zamora, Stygia, Vendhya. Across the stories [Robert E. Howard](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/robert-e-howard/) wrote for the pulp magazine *[Weird Tales](https://www.lanternhall.org/culture/weird-tales/)* between 1932 and 1936, Conan is a thief, a mercenary, a pirate captain, a raider and finally the king of Aquilonia — always suspicious of civilization, always ready to kill a sorcerer. The Conan stories are the founding texts of [Sword & Sorcery](https://www.lanternhall.org/atlas/sword-and-sorcery/): fast, violent adventures about a personal hero rather than a world-saving quest, where magic is ancient, alien and usually evil, and where survival depends on muscle, nerve and a sharp blade. ## Origins Howard was a Texan who lived almost his whole life in the small town of Cross Plains and made his living writing for pulp magazines — boxing stories, westerns, historical adventures and horror. He was a correspondent of [H. P. Lovecraft](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/h-p-lovecraft/) and [Clark Ashton Smith](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/clark-ashton-smith/), and his fantasy grew out of that circle's cosmic horror as much as from history and legend. His earlier hero, King Kull of Atlantis, did not sell well; Howard reworked a rejected Kull story, "By This Axe I Rule!", into the first Conan tale, "The Phoenix on the Sword", published in *Weird Tales* in December 1932. To keep his stories consistent, Howard wrote an essay, "The Hyborian Age", sketching the history of his imagined prehistoric world from the fall of Atlantis to the rise of known nations. It was an early and influential piece of fantasy [Worldbuilding](https://www.lanternhall.org/lexicon/worldbuilding/). Seventeen Conan stories appeared in *Weird Tales*, including the novel *The Hour of the Dragon* and the last, "Red Nails", serialized in 1936. Howard died by suicide in June 1936, aged 30; he had completed 21 Conan stories in all. ## The story The stories were written out of order, as episodes from a long life. In "The Tower of the Elephant" (March 1933), a young Conan, a thief in Zamora, climbs a sorcerer's tower to steal a fabled jewel and finds a tragic alien being imprisoned there. "Queen of the Black Coast" pairs him with the pirate Bêlit; "Beyond the Black River" pits frontier settlers against the Picts; "Red Nails" traps him in a city where two feuding clans have fought for generations within its walls. In *The Hour of the Dragon* and "The Phoenix on the Sword", Conan is a king defending his throne against sorcery and conspiracy. ## Reception & impact Conan was popular with *Weird Tales* readers but was largely out of view for years after Howard's death. Gnome Press published the stories in hardcover in the 1950s. The breakthrough came with the Lancer paperbacks from 1966, edited by L. Sprague de Camp and [Lin Carter](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/lin-carter/) — who also rewrote Howard fragments and added pastiches — and wrapped in [Frank Frazetta](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/frank-frazetta/)'s muscular, lurid paintings, which fixed the popular image of the barbarian. Marvel Comics launched *Conan the Barbarian* in 1970, written by Roy Thomas and drawn by Barry Windsor-Smith, and John Milius's film *[Conan the Barbarian](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/conan-the-barbarian-film/)* (1982) made Arnold Schwarzenegger a star. In 1961, answering Michael Moorcock's call for a name for Howard's kind of story, [Fritz Leiber](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/fritz-leiber/) proposed "sword-and-sorcery", and the term stuck. ## Legacy Conan was in *[Dungeons & Dragons](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/original-dungeons-and-dragons/)* almost from the beginning. Howard is on [Gary Gygax](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/gary-gygax/)'s [Appendix N](https://www.lanternhall.org/culture/appendix-n/) reading list, and the 1976 supplement *Gods, Demi-gods & Heroes* gave the Hyborian Age its own pantheon. In July 1982 Gygax introduced a barbarian [class](https://www.lanternhall.org/lexicon/character-class/) in *Dragon* magazine, later reprinted in *Unearthed Arcana* (1985). [TSR](https://www.lanternhall.org/houses/tsr/) licensed the character itself for the modules *Conan Unchained!* and *Conan Against Darkness* (1984) and the *Conan Role-Playing Game* (1985). Video games followed. Funcom's MMORPG *Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures* (2008) put thousands of players into the Hyborian Age at once, and its survival game *Conan Exiles* opened in early access in January 2017. Beyond the licensed games, the barbarian — the rage-fueled warrior who distrusts magic and civilization alike — became one of the fundamental archetypes of fantasy gaming, and every one of them owes something to the Cimmerian. ## Facts - Conan's debut, 'The Phoenix on the Sword' (Weird Tales, December 1932), was reworked from a rejected story about Howard's earlier hero, King Kull. - Howard wrote 21 complete Conan stories; 17 appeared in Weird Tales, the last serialized after his death in June 1936, at age 30. - Frank Frazetta's covers for the Lancer paperbacks, beginning in 1966, defined the look of the barbarian for a generation. - Gary Gygax listed Howard's Conan series in Appendix N, the reading list in the 1979 Dungeon Masters Guide. - Howard's Hyborian Age had its own pantheon in D&D's 1976 supplement Gods, Demi-gods & Heroes. - TSR published two Conan modules in 1984 and a standalone Conan Role-Playing Game in 1985. ## Sources and further reading - [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conan_the_Barbarian) - [Gods, Demi-gods & Heroes (Wikipedia)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gods,_Demi-gods_%26_Heroes) --- From The Lantern Hall (https://www.lanternhall.org/), a museum of fantasy literature and roleplaying games.