Professor John Kirowan is a fictional character from

Robert E. Howard Robert Ervin Howard (January 22, 1906June 11, 1936) was an American writer. He wrote pulp fiction in a diverse range of genres. He is well known for his character Conan the Barbarian and is regarded as the father of the sword and sorcery subge ...

's contributions to H.P. Lovecraft's story cycle "the

Cthulhu Mythos The Cthulhu Mythos is a mythopoeia and a shared fictional universe, originating in the works of American horror writer H. P. Lovecraft. The term was coined by August Derleth August William Derleth (February 24, 1909 – July 4, 1971) was an ...

". Kirowan is often partnered with the character John Conrad, to the extent that these stories are often referred to under the group title ''Conrad & Kirowan''. Professor Kirowan is a younger son of a titled Irish family and a scholar of the Mythos who travelled widely in search of forbidden knowledge. His ancestor, Sir Michael Kirowan was a medieval knight famous for killing a particularly fierce and notorious villain, whose ghost Kirowan will meet and escape from.As stated in '' Dermod's Bane'' In

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

he studied with a man called Yosef Vrolok but refused to "descend to the foul depths of forbidden occultism and diabolism to which esank".'' The Haunter of the Ring'' by

In revenge, Vrolok used his "vile arts" to turn" the only woman Kirowan ever loved", against him and "debauched" her. In order to have his own revenge, Kirowan travelled the world seeking greater knowledge of the occult but became sickened by what he learned and renounced this knowledge. In later life he joined the Wanderer's Club, "which is composed of the drift of the world, travelers, eccentrics, and all manner of men whose paths lie outside the beaten tracks of life." The story '' The Haunter of the Ring'' provides much of Kirowan's background as well as establishing a link to Howard's Conan stories. The ring of the title is

Thoth-Amon "The Phoenix on the Sword" is one of the original short stories about Conan the Cimmerian written by American author Robert E. Howard and first published in ''Weird Tales'' magazine in December 1932. The tale, in which Howard created the charac ...

's ''Serpent Ring of Set'', first mentioned in the short story '' The Phoenix on the Sword''. Kirowan states that it has been "handed down by foul cults of sorcerers since the days of forgotten Stygia."

Stories

*''

The Children of the Night "The Children of the Night" is a 1931 short story by Robert E. Howard, belonging to the Cthulhu Mythos. It was first published in the pulp magazine ''Weird Tales'' in the April/May 1931 issue. Howard earned $60 for this publication.

'': First printed in '' Weird Tales'' (Apr-May 1931) *'' The Thing on the Roof'': First printed in '' Weird Tales'' (Feb 1932) *'' The Haunter of the Ring'': First printed in '' Weird Tales'' (June 1934) *'' Dig Me No Grave'': First printed in '' Weird Tales'' (Feb 1937) *'' Dermod's Bane'': First printed in ''The Magazine of Horror'' (Fall 1967) *'' The Dwellers Under the Tombs'': First printed in 1976 *'' Dagon Manor'': First printed in 1986, fragment completed by C. J. Henderson

References

External links

Ghostbreakers: John Conrad/Professor Kirowan
Characters in pulp fiction Literary characters introduced in 1931 Fictional professors Cthulhu Mythos characters Robert E. Howard characters Fictional Irish people {{fantasy-char-stub