#Khlit the Cossack

[rakkedyman]

skjam replied to your post: The works that inspired Conan the Barbarian

I hacve read all the Khlit stories and highly recommend them.

Thanks for the vote of confidence!

[magicwingslisten]

Before there was Conan there was Khlit. “Khlit the Cossack” by Harold Lamb.

Original heading for the first appearance of Khlit the Cossack in Adventure, November 3, 1917.

[igotopinions]

Oliver chats with  Philippine author Dariel Quiogue about his sword & silk novel, "Sword of the Four Winds"! Their discussion covers portrayal of war elephants in history and stories, Alexander the Great being a war criminal to some, Carter & De Camp (and Nyburg) Conan tales, Howard Lamb's Khlit the Cossack stories (a huge influence on Robert E Howard), drawing from Asian history for his stories - including an intriguing alternate path for Genghis Khan, wanting to write more fiction based in where you're from, being anxious about a lack of experience to the world limiting your fiction, how late in history Dariel feels you can set a story and still have it feel like sword & sorcery, the "Sword & Sorcery attitude", portrayal of sorcery in fiction and childhood fears, the cynicism of some classic S&S, Shōgun by James Clavell & Frank Herbert's Dune, the Howardian cycle of civilization and barbarism, "can you be better than a monster?", how his work as a photographer influences his writing, playing the Conan soundtrack while writing, gore levels in S&S, Homer, how much detail to put in a fight scene, how Conan is often misrepresented as one who triumphs through strength rather than wits, what makes a grand military battle scene captivating,  Mount & Blade: Warband, staying in the zone when you write, The Age of the Warrior by Hank Reinhardt, playlists to write by, writing on paper vs screen, Scrivener, the fantasy writing scene in the Philippines, Charles Saunders, the Savage Sword of Conan,  and more! Dariel's author website. Dariel's Ko-Fi which, as of this blog post, is funding toward the goal of commissioning cover art for his next novel. Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, which Dariel mentions, free on Gutenberg Those comic links we promised in the interview: https://www.wizards-keep.com/index.asp?Page=alfredo-alcala--62810916 https://www.wizards-keep.com/index.asp?Page=nestor-redondo--3242129 www.wizards-keep.com/index.asp?Page=alex-nino--99372500 www.wizards-keep.com/index.asp?Page=rudy-nebres--32795352

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[vintagegeekculture]

The works that inspired Conan the Barbarian

I already did one of these for King Kong. Conan came out so long ago that the pop culture that influenced him is mostly forgotten and downright prehistoric.

Tros of Samothrace by Talbot Mundy (1929)

A swashbuckling sea captain from the Greek island of Samothrace who opposes the sinister, debauched, and cruel Julius Caesar and his Roman Empire, Tros of Samothrace is, like Conan, a black haired ball of muscle who’s primary occupation is naval freebooting, who’s defining character traits are pride and a desire for freedom and personal independence above all else, and his chief hobbies include refusing to bow to powerful people and laughing at backstabbing enemies from treacherous civilized empires. 

Like Conan, Tros takes pride in being from a kingdom that was never conquered, even into Roman times. Also like Conan, he has allies in a persecuted and secretive religious minority like the ones that save King Conan’s life in “The Hour of the Dragon,” as Tros works with an eccentric religious order from his native island (the Mystery Cult of Samothrace). Because the Tros stories had the Romans as the “bad guys,” they were immensely controversial to the Adventure pulp readership, though this element must have delighted Robert E. Howard, an anti-imperialist who wanted Irish independence, who went on to have debauched, backstabbing Roman-style enemies in Conan, Kull, and Bran Mak Morn.

Khlit the Cossack By Harold Lamb (1917)

A Cossack hero from 16th Century Ukraine who starred in 21 stories and novels from 1917-1926 in the most famous pulp mag of all, Adventure, Khlit the Cossack, his Turkish curved scimitar in hand, found the lost tomb of Genghis Khan, rescued the son of the Emperor of China, battled the original Assassins in Syria, and killed a tyrannical impostor of the Czar in Russia. He had all kinds of adventures with Tartars, Afghans, and Indians.

A big part of Conan is the setting, which is steeped in orientalism and the exotic east, and Harold Lamb’s body of work was to the steppes of central Asia what Jimmy Buffett is to the tropics (his best known work is a biography of Genghis Khan). In fact, in one fascinating little bigraphical tidbit, Lamb was even an agent for US Intelligence during World War II in Iran.

 Edgar Rice Burroughs’s Tarzan

 To Howard fans, bringing up the many obvious similarities to Tarzan and the work of Edgar Rice Burroughs is kind of like one of those secrets everyone knows but nobody has the bad taste to discuss out loud, kind of like when you know someone at the office is an alcoholic. The reaction is usually like a little kid blurting out a family secret at Christmas dinner. 

The most ERB-like of all the Conan stories is “Red Nails,” a story about that most ERB-esque of topics, a crumbling lost city of immense antiquity found in a jungle inhabited by prehistoric creatures, who’s natives immediately try to make Tarzan – uh, Conan, sorry – their first victim of ritual human sacrifice. Likewise, Howard considered ERB’s “Gods of Mars” his favorite book (and said so in many letters) and borrowed ERB’s cynical take on priests and gods in that book, where they were impenetrable, unremovable conspiracies ruling traditionalist ancient societies, and who were not true believers at all.

[scrmnviking]

TIL there is a pulp fiction hero called “Khlit the Cossack” Written by Harold Lamb, if you want to follow that rabbit hole.