Conan the Swordsman

by L. Sprague De Camp

  Perhaps Lovecraft had especially in mind the Asiatic names that originated in the conquests of Alexander the Great in —IV, or in those of the Muslim Arabs in +VII. It is interesting to note that the three made-up names above, beginning with "Th," are all names of monsters.

  Despite Lovecraft's criticism, there was much to be said for Howard's use of real ancient names and names derived from these, because his purely made-up names show a disagreeable sameness (Ka, Kaa-u, Ka-nu, Kaanuub; Thak, Thaug, Thog, etc.). The reason for this is probably a lack of linguistic sophistication on Howard's part. When he graduated from the Kull stories to the Conan stories, he seems to have sworn off made-up names in favor of real names from history and geography, sometimes slightly modified. These borrowed names are usually well-chosen and euphonious. They convey the glamor of antiquity by their near-familiarity without being too difficult for the modern reader, who, having been taught to read by sight-reading methods, is apt to boggle at any name more exotic than "Smith."

  Moreover, Lovecraft sometimes borrowed real ancient names (Menes, Kranon, Sarnath) in exactly the manner which he chided Howard for doing.

  Howard's geographical names come mainly from the more accessible bodies of myth: Classical (e.g., Stygia), Norse (Asgard), or biblical (Rush); and from the land of geographical lore to be had from an atlas. Besides the names of obvious derivation, there are many whose origin is more complex, showing wide reading by Howard.

  Anybody who made a practice of reading Adventure Magazine during the 1920s will recognize, in Howard's Hyborian stories, the influence of the historical adventure stories by Harold Lamb and Talbot Mundy, published in this magazine at this time. Lamb's tales were usually set in an Asiatic locale, dealing with such events as the Crusades, the Mongol and Turkish conquests, and the rise of the Russian state. Howard's stories of Conan and the kozaki are closely derived from Lamb's yarns of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Cossacks.

  Mundy's stories were usually laid in modem India, Afghanistan, Tibet, or Egypt. Mundy's picture of these countries is highly romanticized, full of assumptions of ancient sorceries and occult wisdom. Howard's Stygia and Vendhya are essentially Mundy's Egypt and India, respectively, with the names changed. There may also have been some Kipling influence on Howard.

  Besides Lamb and Mundy, Howard must have read many other stories in Adventure. A search reveals derivations from other leading adventure-story writers of the time, such as Frederick Faust, A. D. Howden Smith, and Sax Rohmer. The stories "Beyond the Black River," "The Treasure of Tranicos," and 'Wolves Beyond the Border" are derived from the Indian-fighting novels of Robert W. Chambers, which were often laid in upstate New York in late +XVIII, and possibly also from the novels of J. Fenimore Cooper.

  Other fictional influences on Howard were Jack London (whom he much admired), Howard Pyle, and Edgar Rice Burroughs. He also read travel books, such as those of Sir Richard Burton and (possibly) Rosita Forbes. And he read a lot of history. His knowledge of the medieval Muslim world was not negligible, as was shown by the original manuscript of "Hawks over Shem" (entitled, before I rewrote it as a Conan story, "Hawks over Egypt"). This story dealt with the reign and disappearance of the mad eleventh-century Caliph Hakim.

  The fantastic side of Howard's stories seems to have been derived largely from Lovecraft and from Clark Ashton Smith, as is shown by several of Howard's names (Crom, Valusia, Commoria, etc.). There is some slight, inconclusive evidence that Howard had read Eddison's The Worm Ouroboros: the Iron Tower of Tarantia and the Iron Tower of King Gorice of Carcë; Eddison's Gallandus and Howard's Gallanus; and the mention of Hyperboreans by both. He had also read some of Lord Dunsany's stories.

  -

  Here follows a glossary of personal and place names in the fifty Conan stories professionally published so far. Besides the names devised by Howard for his original Conan stories, I have also included (a) names adopted by the living Conan authors for their stories, including stories written in posthumous collaboration with Howard, and (b) names discarded by Howard in the course of his writing. The living authors have tried to follow the same system in choosing names that Howard did. Howard often changed the names of places and persons between his first and his final draft; Glenn Lord, working from Howard's rough drafts, has furnished a list of these discarded names. When an entry is followed by another name in boldface, in parentheses and preceded by =, the first name was discarded in favor of the second before the story reached final form.

  As far as possible, supposed derivations are given for all names. Where no derivation is given, either the source of the name is not known, or it has been forgotten by the author responsible for it, or it is thought that the name is a purely made-up one. Stories are referred to by code letters, as shown below. Stories are listed in the chronological order in which they occur in Conan's life. The lower-case letters in parentheses following each title refer to authorship, thus: c for Carter, d for de Camp, h for Howard, and n for Nyberg. Here are the stories:

  LD—Legions of the Dead (cd)

  TC—The Thing in the Crypt (cd)

  TE—The Tower of the Elephant (h)

  HD—The Hall of the Dead (dh)

  GB—The God in the Bowl (h)

  RH—Rogues in the House (h)

  HN—The Hand of Nergal (ch)

  PP—The People of the Summit (dn)

  CS—The City of Skulls (cd)

  CM—The Curse of the Monolith (cd)

  BG—The Bloodstained God (dh)

  FD—The Frost Giant's Daughter (h)

  LW—The Lair of the Ice Worm (cd)

  QC—Queen of the Black Coast (h)

  VW—The Vale of Lost Women (h)

  CT—The Castle of Terror (cd)

  SD—The Snout in the Dark (cdh)

  HS—Hawks Over Shem (dh)

  BC—Black Colossus (h)

  SI—Shadows in the Dark (cd)

  SM—Shadows in the Moonlight (h)

  RE—The Road of the Eagles (dh)

  WB—A Witch Shall be Born (h)

  BT—Black Tears (cd)

  SZ—Shadows in Zamboula (h)

  SK—The Star of Khorala (dn)

  DI—The Devil in Iron (h)

  FK—The Flame Knife (dh)

  PC—The People of the Black Circle (h)

  SS—The Slithering Shadow (h)

  DT—Drums of Tombalku (dh)

  GT—The Gem in The Tower (cd)

  PO—The Pool of the Black One (h)

  CB—Conan the Buccaneer (cd)

  RN—Red Nails (h)

  JG—Jewels of Gwahlur (h)

  IG—The Ivory Goddess (cd)

  BR—Beyond the Black River (h)

  MB—Moon of Blood (cd)

  TT—The Treasure of Tranicos (ex-The Black Stranger) (dh)

  BB—Wolves Beyond the Border (dh)

  PS—The Phoenix on the Sword (h)

  SC—The Scarlet Citadel (h)

  CC—Conan the Conqueror •( ex-The Hour of the Dragon) (h)

  CA—Conan the Avenger (ex-The Return of Conan)(dn)

  WM—The Witch of the Mists (cd)

  BS—Black Sphinx of Nebthu (cd)

  RZ—Red Moon of Zembabwei (cd)

  SH—Shadows in the Skull (cd)

  CI—Conan of the Isles (cd)

  Dates are indicated thus: Arabic numerals mean years; Roman numerals, centuries; Arabic numerals followed by M, millennia. The signs + and - mean A.D. and B.C. respectively, although + is omitted for years after + 1000. Hence -65 means 65 B.C.; +III denotes the third century of the Christian Era; -2M means the second millennium B.C.

  -

  Abdashtarth — In HS, the high priest of Pteor in Asgalun. A Phoenician name.

  Abimael — In GT, a Shemitish sailor in the crew of the Hawk. A biblical name (Gen. 10:28).

  Abombi — In SC, a town on the Black Coast sacked by Conan and Bêlit. From Abomey, West Africa.

  Acheron — In CC, an empire that fed 3,000 years before Conan's time, sometimes called the "northern Stygia
n kingdom." In Greek mythology, one of the four rivers of Hades; also the name of several rivers in ancient Greece, the largest (modern Gourla) being in Thesprotia.

  Adonis — In QC, a Shemitish god. In HS, Asgalun has a "Square of Adonis." The Greek name for a Semitic god of vegetation and agriculture, called Adonai ("Lord"), Tammuz, or (in Babylonia) Dumuzi.

  Æsir — In FD, QC, PS, &c, the blond folk of the northern country of Asgard. In Norse myth, the chief gods (singular, As): Odin, Thor, &c.

  Afari — In SD, a henchman of the Kushite nobleman Tuthmes. From the Afar, a Hamitic or Erythriotic tribe of Abyssinia (Ethiopia) and Somaliland; their name may be connected with ancient Ophir (q.v.).

  Afghuli — In PC, CA, one of the people of Afghulistan (q.v.).

  Afghulistan — In PC, a region of the Himelias. A mixture of Ghulistan (q.v.) and Afghanistan. The Afghuli tribe, of which Conan becomes chief, dwells here.

  Ageera — In SD, a Kushite witch-smeller.

  Agha — This title occurs in the names of Agha Shupras (BC) and Jehungir Agha (DI). From ağâ, a Turkish title of respect.

  Aghrapur, Agrapur — In HN, SZ, DI, &c, the capital of Turan. After Agrâ, India, the site of the Taj Mahal, + the Hindustani pur, "town."

  Ahriman — In CC, BN, RZ, the Heart of Ahriman is a magical jewel. The evd god of Mazdaism or Zoroas-trianism (Old Persian, angra mainyu, "evd spirit"). Ahrunga (=Gwarunga) In the first draft of JG; discarded.

  Aja — In VW, the chief of the Bakalah. Possibly from Jaja, an enterprising long of the Jbo or Igbo of Nigeria in the 1870s.

  Ajaga — In SC, a Kushite king. Possibly from the same source as Jaja or Ajonga (q.v.).

  Ajonga — In CC, a Negro galley slave. Possibly from Wajanga, a place in southern Libya mentioned by Rosita Forbes; or from ajoga (or ajonga) meaning "wizard" in the speech of the Lango of Uganda.

  Ajujo — In DT, the god of the black tribesmen of Tombalku. Possibly from "juju," a West African fetish, which comes from the French joujou, toy.

  Akbatana, Akbitana — In BC and JG, a Shemitish city. From Agbatana or Ecbatana, the Greco-Roman names for Hagmatana or Hangmatana (mod. Hamadan), the capital of ancient Media.

  Akeb Man — In CA, a Turanian officer. A pseudo-Arabic name.

  Akhirom — In HS, the mad king of Pelishtia. A Phoenician name, Hiram in Hebrew.

  Akhlat — In BT, a Shemitish town in the Zuagir deserts.

  Akif — In SZ, CA, a Turanian city. A Turkish proper name; e.g., 'Akif Pasha, a Turkish poet of +XIX.

  Akivasha — In CC, an evil immortal princess. From the Egyptian name (Ekwesh or Akkaiwasha) for the Achaioi or Achaeans (in archaic Greek, Achaiwoi).

  Akkharia, Akkharim — In HS, WB, BT, a Shemitish city-state and its people. Possibly from Akkad (Agade) in ancient Iraq.

  Akkutho — In SC, a former king of Koth. Possibly from the same source as Akkharia (q.v.).

  Akrel — In PC, an oasis in the desert near Khauran.

  Akrim — In RE, a river entering the Vilayet Sea from the southeast.

  Alafdhal, Yar Afzal — Respectively a Turanian guardsman in SZ and a Wazuli chief in PC. From al-Afdal (literally, "the most generous"), an Arabic name.

  Alarkar — In SK, a count, ancestor to Queen Marala.

  Albiona — In SK, CC, an Aquilonian countess, formerly Queen Marala of Ophir. From Albion, an old name for Britain, which in turn comes from the Albiones, the name given the Britons by several ancient geographers, such as Pytheas of Massilia (paraphrased by the late-Roman poet Avienus).

  Alcemides — In WB, TT, a Nemedian philosopher. From various Greek names like Alkides (Herakles), Alkimenes (Bellerophon's brother), Alkman ( a poet of -VII), &c.

  Alimane — In CC, BS, a river between Aquilonia and Zingara, a tributary of the Khorotas. Probably from Allemagne, French for "Germany."

  Alkmeenon — In JG, IG, a deserted place in Keshan, once the capital of white rulers of the country. From one or more of the Greek names Alkman, Alkmaion, or Alkmene.

  Almuric — In SS and CC, a prince of Koth. The name was used in Howard's posthumously published interplanetary novel, Almuric, as the name of the distant planet to which the hero is transported.

  Altaku — In BC, a well in the Oasis of Aphaka. From Altaqu or Eltekeh, a place in ancient Judah, about 12 miles northwest of Jerusalem, where Sennacherib's Assyrians defeated the Egyptians in -700.

  Altaro — In CC, a Nemedian priest, subordinate to Orastes. Possibly from Altare, Italy.

  Alvaro — In CI, a Zingaran pirate of the Barachas. A Spanish given name.

  Amalric — In BC, a Nemedian soldier of fortune; in CC, the Nemedian baron of Tor— perhaps intended as the same man, although the stories do not clearly so state; also, in DT, a young Aquilonian mercenary soldier. An old Germanic name (Gothic Amalreiks, French Amaury, English Emery, Emory, Amory), common in the Middle Ages; e.g., the name of two Christian kings of Jerusalem. Howard probably took the name from these last, since he wrote a historical novelette, "Gates of Empire" (Golden Fleece for Jan. 1939) wherein one of these Kings Amalric of Jerusalem appears.

  Amalrus — In SK, SC, a noble and later king of Ophir. Probably from Amalric (q.v.). Amazons In CB and mentioned in "The Hyborian Age," a southern Negro nation ruled by women. In Classical legend, nations of warrior women in Asia Minor and North Africa. The legend may be based upon the Sarmatians, a nomadic Iranic tribe of the Kuban, whose women were required to slay an enemy before they might marry.

  Amboola — In SD, an officer of the black spearmen of the kingdom of Kush. Probably from bamboula, a drum used in West African and Voodoo ceremonies and the dance performed to it. Cf. Bambula.

  Amerus (=Posthumo) — In the first draft of GB, discarded; from the same source as Amalric (q.v.).

  Amilio (= Tiberias) — In first draft of BR, discarded; from the same source as Amilius (q.v.).

  Amilius — A barony in Aquilonia mentioned in CC. From Æmilia (mod. Emilia), a province in northern Italy, and Æmilius, the corresponding Roman gentile name.

  Amir — In PC, the Amir Jehun pass is in Ghulistan. Arabic for "commander."

  Amra — In CC, the name, meaning "lion," by which Conan was known when he sailed with the black corsairs. Howard had used the name before, as Am-ra, a young Atlantean in the Kull story "Exile of Atlantis," and again as the hero of the story "Gods of the North," rewritten from a Conan story, "The Frost Giant's Daughter," but when it was rejected published in a fan magazine with the title and the hero's name changed. Several possible derivations have been suggested. Amra is the name of a small place in Kathiavar, western India. In Arabic, 'umara or 'amara means "princes." Amra ("strange") is the title of a poem in praise of St. Columba, allegedly by the Irish bard Dalian Forgadl (+VI), although the poem is by some scholars considered a pseudographic work of later date. None of these derivations seems completely satisfactory.

  Amric — In BN, a Kothian soldier in Conan's guard. From Amalric (q.v.) and Alric, a +VIII long of Kent, England.

  Amurath — In SM, Shah Amurath is a Turanian noble. A Turkish proper name, also rendered as Murad.

  Anakia, Anakim — In HS, WB, CA, a Shemitish city-state and its people. A race of tad mountaineers in southern Palestine before its conquest by Joshua, mentioned in Deut. 1:28; 9:2; Josh. ll:21f.

  Andarra — In SS, a dream place mentioned by a man of Xuthal. From Andorra, a small Pyrenean principality.

  Angharzeb — In PS, a onetime king of Turan. From Aurangzeb Almagir, a +XVII Mughal emperor of India.

  Angkhor — In WM, RZ, the capital of Kambuja. From Angkor Wat, the ancient capital of Cambodia. Anshan In FK, the capital of Iranistan. A city In ancient Elam.

  Antar — In FK, a Zuagir. From Antara, a legendary Arab hero.

  Antillia — In CI, an archipelago between the former site of Adantis and the American coast The name given a suppositious land in the western Atiantic by pre-Columbian geographers; the name (Italian, Antigla; Portuguese, Antilha; all pronounced the same way) means "counte
r-island."

  Anu — In RH, a Hyborian god The Babylonian sky god.

  Aphaka — In BC, an oasis in the Shemitish desert. Probably from the Lebanese vdlage known to the Classical Greeks as Aphaka, mod. 'Afqa, near al-Munteira. It was destroyed by a landslide in 1911.

  Aphaki — In DT, the former ruling caste of Tom-balku, of mixed Shemite-Negroid ancestry. Probably from the same source as Aphaka (q.v.).

  Aquilonia — In TE, QC, RN, &c, the leading Hyborian kingdom, of which Conan eventually becomes king. The name of an ancient city in southern Italy, between modem Venosa and Benevento; ultimately from Latin aquilo, -onis, "north wind."

  Arallu — In FK a hell referred to by Antar. The Babylonian hell.

  Aram — In SZ, Aram Baksh is a vdlainous innkeeper of Zamboula. An Armenian proper name, going back to a king of Urartu in -IX. Also the Hebrew name for Syria, whence "Aramaic."

  Aratus — In SM, a Brythunian pirate. From the Greek proper name Aratos, borne by a statesman of -III among others.

  Arbanus — In SC, the general of King Strabonus of Koth. From Artabanus, the Latin form of Artabanush (later Artaban, Artavan), bome by various Persian and Armenian notables including four Parthian kings.