"The Hyborian Age" is an essay by Robert E. Howard pertaining to the

Hyborian Age The Hyborian Age is a fictional period of Earth's history within the artificial mythology created by Robert E. Howard, serving as the setting for the sword and sorcery tales of Conan the Barbarian. The word "Hyborian" is derived from the l ...

, the fictional setting of his stories about Conan the Cimmerian. It was written in the 1930s but not published during Howard's lifetime. Its purpose was to maintain consistency within his fictional setting.

The essay

The essay sets out in detail the major events of Howard's pseudohistorical prehistory, both period before and after the time of the Conan stories. In describing the cataclysmic end of the Thurian Age, the period described in his

Kull Kull may refer to: Arts * Kull of Atlantis, a fictional character created by Robert E. Howard ** ''Kull the Conqueror'', a 1997 fantasy action film based on Howard's character and starring Kevin Sorbo * King Kull (DC Comics), a Fawcett Comics and D ...

stories, Howard links both sequences of stories into one

shared universe A shared universe or shared world is a fictional universe from a set of creative works where more than one writer (or other artist) independently contributes a work that can stand alone but fits into the joint development of the storyline, chara ...

. The names he gives his various nations and peoples of the age borrow liberally from actual history and myth. The essay also sets out the racial and geographical heritage of these fictional entities, making them progenitors of modern nations. For example, Howard makes the Gaels descendants of his own

Cimmerians The Cimmerians (Akkadian: , romanized: ; Hebrew: , romanized: ; Ancient Greek: , romanized: ; Latin: ) were an ancient Eastern Iranian equestrian nomadic people originating in the Caspian steppe, part of whom subsequently migrated into Wes ...

. In addition to its use as underpinning to his Kull and Conan stories, Howard drew on his invented prehistory in tales with later settings. For instance, "Kings of the Night" brings King Kull forward in time to fight the

Roman legion The Roman legion ( la, legiō, ) was the largest military unit of the Roman army, composed of 5,200 infantry and 300 equites (cavalry) in the period of the Roman Republic (509 BC–27 BC) and of 5,600 infantry and 200 auxilia in the period o ...

s, while " The Haunter of the Ring", set in the modern age, makes use of a Hyborian artifact.

Related works

An unnamed Howard fragment published by Glenn Lord features two

grave robbers Grave robbery, tomb robbing, or tomb raiding is the act of uncovering a grave, tomb or crypt to steal commodities. It is usually perpetrated to take and profit from valuable artefacts or personal property. A related act is body snatching, a term ...

, Allison and Brill, who discover in the Egyptian desert a structure older and different from anything they encountered before. Brill proposes that the structure is Stygian rather than Egyptian, and starts recounting the history of Stygia in nearly identical words to those used in ''The Hyborian Age'' – but making no mention of the Hyborian kingdoms to the north of Stygia. Brill's source for the information is the '' Unaussprechliche Kulte'' (also known as ''Nameless Cults''), a fictional work of

Cthulhu Mythos arcane literature Many fictional works of arcane literature appear in H. P. Lovecraft's cycle of interconnected works often known as the Cthulhu Mythos. The main literary purpose of these works is to explain how characters within the tales come by occult or esot ...

, cited in other Howard stories. This historical exposition seems an earlier draft, which Howard later extended greatly and dropped the grave robbers frame story. Howard's story " Men of the Shadows" includes a long historical narrative, similar in style to "The Hyborian Age" but different in detail. ''

The Hour of the Dragon ''The Hour of the Dragon'', also known as ''Conan the Conqueror'', is a fantasy novel by American writer Robert E. Howard featuring his sword and sorcery hero Conan the Cimmerian. It was one of the last Conan stories published before Howard' ...

'', the only Conan novel authored by Howard, expands upon the history of the world presented in this essay by introducing a new ancient empire called Acheron that had ruled the Hyborian kingdoms in the past.

Related texts

Robert Yaple wrote a semi-historical essay entitled "Acheron – A Revisionary Theory", emulating the style of Howard's ''The Hyborian Age'', tracing systematically the history of Acheron and integrating it within the data provided in Howard's essay. ''The Hyborian Age'' was also the name of a fanzine published in the 1930s.

Publication history

The essay has been published as follows: *''The Phantagraph'' (fan publication) February – November 1936 (first part of essay only – up to Conan's time) *''The Hyborian Age'' (Los Angeles-New York Cooperative Publications, 1938) *'' Skull-Face and Others'' (

Arkham House Arkham House is an American publishing house specializing in weird fiction. It was founded in Sauk City, Wisconsin, in 1939 by August Derleth and Donald Wandrei to publish hardcover collections of H. P. Lovecraft's best works, which had ...

, 1946) *''

The Coming of Conan ''The Coming of Conan'' is a collection of eight fantasy short stories by American writer Robert E. Howard, featuring his sword and sorcery heroes Kull and Conan the Barbarian, together with the first part of his pseudo-history of the "Hyborian ...

'' (

Gnome Press Gnome Press was an American small-press publishing company primarily known for publishing many science fiction classics. Gnome was one of the most eminent of the fan publishers of SF, producing 86 titles in its lifespan — many considered classic ...

, 1953, first part of essay only) *'' Conan'' (

Lancer Books Lancer Books was a publisher of paperback books founded by Irwin Stein and Walter Zacharius that operated from 1961 through 1973. While it published stories of a number of genres, it was noted most for its science fiction and fantasy, particularl ...

, 1967, first part of essay only) *''

Conan the Avenger ''Conan the Avenger'' is a 1968 collection of two fantasy works written by Björn Nyberg, Robert E. Howard and L. Sprague de Camp featuring Robert E. Howard's sword and sorcery hero Conan the Barbarian. It was first published in paperback by L ...

'' (Lancer Books, 1968, second part of essay only) *''Skull-Face Omnibus'' (Neville-Spearman erseyLtd., 1974, reprinted as 3-volume paperback, Panther Books Ltd., 1976) *''

Red Nails "Red Nails" is the last of the stories featuring Conan the Cimmerian written by American author Robert E. Howard. A novella, it was originally serialized in ''Weird Tales'' magazine from July to October 1936, the months after Howard's suicide. ...

'' ( G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1977, also published in paperback, Berkley Books, 1977) *''

The Conan Chronicles ''The Conan Chronicles'' is a 1989 omnibus collection of three fantasy collections by American writers Robert E. Howard, L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter, featuring Howard's seminal sword and sorcery hero Conan the Barbarian, published by S ...

'' (

Sphere Books Sphere Books is the name of two British paperback publishers. History The original Sphere Books was launched in 1966 by Thomson Corporation. Sphere was sold to Pearson PLC in 1985 and became part of Penguin. The name was retired in 1990. In 19 ...

, 1989, first part of essay only) *'' The Conan Chronicles Volume 1: The People of the Black Circle'' (

Millennium A millennium (plural millennia or millenniums) is a period of one thousand years, sometimes called a kiloannum (ka), or kiloyear (ky). Normally, the word is used specifically for periods of a thousand years that begin at the starting point (ini ...

/ Gollancz, August 2000) *''Conan of Cimmeria: Volume One (1932-1933)'', Wandering Star Books, London, 2003, published in the United States as ''

The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian ''The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian'' is the first of a three-volume set collecting the Conan stories by author Robert E. Howard. It was originally published in 2002, first in the United Kingdom by Wandering Star Books under the title ''Conan of ...

'', New York, Ballantine/ Del Rey, December 2003 *''The Hyborian Age: Facsimile Edition'' (Skelos Press), 2015

References

External links

* *
An illustrated version of The Hyborian Age essay
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hyborian Age, The Essays by Robert E. Howard Conan the Barbarian Mythopoeia Works originally published in American magazines 1936 essays