The Barbarian Swordsmen (Star, 1981). Cover by Gino D’Achille

The Barbarian Swordsmen, edited by Sean Richards, Star publishers, a British press, 1981, cool cover by Gino D’Achille. A collection of Sword & Sorcery (S&S) tales that likely wouldn’t exist except for Robert E. Howard.

I couldn’t find out much about Mr. Richards but Toby Hooper revealed to me that Richards has been reported as a pseudonym for Peter Haining and that appears to be true. His intro here doesn’t reveal anything.

The stories are:

“The War of Fire,” by J. H. Rosny. An exciting excerpt from The Quest for Fire, which was also made into a fine movie. J. H. Rosny was a pseudonym, often used by two brothers, Joseph Henri Boex, and Justin Boex. From what I understand, though, Quest for Fire was written solely by Joseph, the elder. The movie does a good job distilling the book but the writing is still enjoyable. We have a primitive cave man named Naoh, what we’d call a Cro-magnon, whose tribe loses its fire. Since they can’t make fire, only maintain it, they have to seek out fire from another tribe, and Naoh and his companions have many adventures doing so, including a battle with Neanderthals. That’s the piece featured in this book.

“The Sword of Welleran,” by Lord Dunsany. Lord Dunsany, an Irishman, is well known to fans of S&S. His fantasy work certainly skated the edge of that genre and he helped develop some of the tropes that later became important. He is said to have influenced Tolkien. His work is rather slowly paced and turgid for modern readers but I find it enjoyable. “The Sword of Welleran” is one of his most approachable tales.

“The Tower of the Elephant,” by Robert E. Howard. I consider this the strangest of the Conan stories. It certainly breaks ranks with most of the other Cimmerian tales in that there’s a strong SF element. I was much taken with it when I first read it, years ago.

“Brachan the Kelt,” by Robert E. Howard. Howard wrote a number of stories involving reincarnation, and several featured the character James Allison, a modern man capable of remembering his past lives. This is a short piece and definitely not fully developed, but it shows the power of Howard’s prose. Allison recalls being a wandering warrior from a time before history was recorded, when the first white-skinned tribes were entering Europe. As Brachan, he must defeat a beast that makes one think of the yeti.

“Jirel Meets Magic,” by C. L. Moore. Catherine Moore was just a superb writer and her stories of Jirel of Joiry are outstanding S&S tales. Beautifully written and emotionally charged. Jirel is one of the very first fire-tressed female warriors of fantasy fiction. This is not my favorite of the Jirel stories but it’s close. Moore was influenced by Howard, though most of the influence was in subject matter rather than story effects.

“Spawn of Dagon,” by Henry Kuttner. Kuttner married C. L. Moore and after that they mostly wrote as a team. I think Moore was the better writer but Kuttner was more prolific and very professional. Kuttner alone wrote a series of tales about Elak, a prince of Atlantis, and this is one of the best of those. Elak was certainly influenced by Conan but is his own character.

“The Thief of Forthe,” by Clifford Ball. Ball was another writer strongly influenced by REH, which is clearly seen in this tale. It was still well written and enjoyable. Apparently, Ball created an earlier character who was essentially a pastiche Conan, but “Rald,” the “Thief of Forthe” shows some originality. I haven’t read much of Ball’s work but will seek out more.

“The Two Best Thieves in Lankhmar” by Fritz Leiber. Leiber is another writer who was influenced by Howard as to subject matter, but who in no way appears to be an REH clone. His characters and settings are unique and there is a lot more humor in Leiber’s tales than in the Conan stories. Leiber’s characters are Fafhrd, a giant of a man, a barbarian warrior, and the Gray Mouser, a dark and slender thief. They are unlikely friends but friends they are. All these stories are enjoyable.

Appendix is: The Man Who Influenced Robert E. Howard. This is an excerpt from a letter written from Robert Howard to H. P. Lovecraft in which Howard indicates his admiration for the poetry of Alfred Noyes.

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Charles Gramlich administers The Swords & Planet League group on Facebook, where this post first appeared. His last article for us was a look at The Mighty Sword & Sorcery Anthologies of Hans Stefan Santesson. See all of his recent posts for Black Gate here.