Conan the Swordsman

by L. Sprague De Camp

  Ardashir — In CS, a Turanian officer. An Iranian name, originally Artaxerxes or

  Artakhshathra. — In CA, another Turanian officer.

  Arenjun — In TC, HD, BG, &c, the "thief-city" of Zamora. From Erzincan, Turkey (the Turks use c for the sound of English /).

  Argos — In QC, WB, PO, &c, a maritime Hyborian nation. A Peloponnesian city in classical Greece, reputedly the oldest city in Greece, at the head of the Gulf of Argolis near modem Nafplion. Howard calls the people of his Argos "Argosseans," whereas the folk of the historical Argos were called "Argives."

  Argus — In QC, an Argossean ship. From Argos, a Greek name bome by a mythical hundred-eyed giant Odysseus' dog, and others. Cf. Argos.

  Arideus — In CC, the squire of Tarascus. Possibly from Philip Arrhidaeus (Arridaios), a half-brother of Alexander the Great.

  Ariostro — In BN, CI, the young Idng of Argos, successor to Milo. From Lodovico Ariosto, the Italian poet of +XV and +XVI, author of Orlando Furioso.

  Arno — In MB, an Aquilonian officer. A North European given name; also a river in Italy.

  Arpello — In SC, an Aquilonian noble. Possibly from Rapallo, Italy, or Apelles, a Greek painter of -IV, or a combination of the two.

  Arshak — In BG, a Turanian prince; in FK, the successor to Kobad Shah as king of Iranistan. An Iranian name (also Arshaka or Arsaces) borne by the founder of the Parthian dynasty among others.

  Artaban — In RE, a Turanian general. From the same source as Arbanus (q.v.).

  Artanes — In CI, a Zamorian pirate in Conan's crew. A Persian name (later Arten) borne by various Achae-menid and Armenian notables.

  Artus — In CA, a Vilayet pirate. A form of "Arthur."

  Arus — In "The Hyborian Age," a Nemedian priest of Mitra, missionary to the Picts. In GB, a Nemedian watchman. In CA, a name taken by Conan on his way to Khanyria. Possibly from Arus, a medieval sultan of Wadai (q.v.), Africa.

  Aryan, Aryas — In the prolegomenon to CC (see the. introduction to the Ace Books edition of Conan), Howard speaks of the Hyborian Age as the time 'between the years when the oceans drank Atiantis and the gleaming cities, and the years of the rise of the Sons of Aryas." I do not know whether "Aryas" is an individual or an error for "sons of the Aryas." In "The Hyborian Age," Howard speaks of the Aryans as the people of mixed Vanir, Æsir, and Cimmerian descent who conquered lands in Europe and Asia after the Picts and the Hyrkanians had overthrown the Hyborian nations and a convulsion of nature sank much of the Hyborian land beneath the Atiantic Ocean and the North and Mediterranean seas.

  The true history of the term "Aryan" is complex. Arya is a Sanskrit word meaning "noble." Between -1500 and -1000, nomadic, cattle-raising barbarians calling themselves Arya, "noble ones," overran Iran and northern India. About the same time other nomads, speaking similar tongues, conquered most of Europe and parts of the Near East. They ruled the natives, imposed their languages upon them, and finally mixed with them. On linguistic evidence, these nomads probably radiated out originally, perhaps before -2000, from what are now Poland and the Ukraine. They were enabled to conquer their neighbors and their neighbors' neighbors by having been the first people to tame the horse.

  In +XIX, scholars discovered the relation of the speech of Iran and northern India on one hand and of Europe on the other, and also came upon this word Arya. They called this family of languages Indo-European or, sometimes, "Aryan." Since then, "Aryan" has been used in several senses: (a) the Indo-European family of languages; (b) the Indo-Iranian or eastern branch of this family; (c) the original Indo-European-speaking, horse-taming nomads; (d) the descendants of these nomads; or (e), loosely, anybody of the Caucasoid or white race speaking an Indo-European language. Strictiy speaking, the term has no racial meaning and is avoided by most scientists because of its equivocality.

  In addition, in the late +XIX and early +XX, "Aryan" was used by a number of writers, cultists, demagogues, and politicians (notably Gobineau, Chamberlain, and Hitler) who built up a pseudo-scientific cult about the supposedly pure, superior Aryan race. They used the term as a vague equivalent of "Nordic," which describes the tall, blond, longheaded type of the Caucasoid race found most commonly in northern Europe. Actually, there is no reason to think that the original horsemen were Nordics. Since the Alpine type predominates in their land of origin, it is most likely that they were Alpines. And, whatever their racial type, it soon disappeared by mterrnixture with those whom they conquered.

  Although, like other pulp writers of his time, Howard was given to national and racial stereotypes, he was as far as I can tell no crackpot Aryanist. In his introduction to The Hyborian Age," he was careful to state that the essay was a mere fictional background for his stories and not to be taken as a serious theory of prehistory. And some of the most vigorous peoples in his pseudohistory are racially mixed. Ascalante La PS, BN, an Aqudonian oudaw, formerly count of Thune; in the Kull story "Exfle of Adantis," a minor character alluded to—an Adantean once enslaved in Valusia. From Escalante, a town in Spain near Santander. Howard probably took the name from Father Sdvestre Velez de Escalante, a missionary of + XVIII who explored the country that became the southwestern United States and whose name is borne by several places (towns, a river, a mountain range) in Colorado and Utah.

  -

  Asgalun, Askalon — In QC, HS, JG, the capital of Pelishtia, a Shemitish city-state. From Ascalon or Ashkelon, an ancient city of Palestine.

  Asgard — In LD, FD, PS, &c, a northern land (cf. Æsir). From Asgarđ, in Norse mythology the home of the Æsir or principal gods.

  Ashkhaurian Dynasty — In WB, the ruling famdy of Khauran (q.v.).

  Ashtoreth — In QC, a Shemitish deity. (See Ishtar.)

  Aslda — In DT, a black wizard, servant of King Sakumbe. From Askia Muhammad or Askia the Great, king of the Songhoi Negroes, who ruled the Songhoi Empire from Timbuktu, 1492-1529.

  Asshuri — In BC, RE, WB, Shemitish mercenary soldiers. From Asshur (Assur, Ashur, Aššur), the original name of Assyria, of one of its capital cities, and of its patron gods.

  Astreas — In WB, a Nemedian phdosopher. Possibly from the Greek name Asterios, borne by the mythical Minotaur among others.

  Asura — In PC, CC, a god of an eastern religion flourishing secretly in Aquilonia. In Indian mythology, a term for a god, spirit, or demon, cognate with the Persian ahura.

  Atali — In FD, the daughter of Ymir. Possibly from Attila the Hun, who appears in the Volsungd Saga as Atli.

  Atalis — In HN, a philosopher of Yaralet in Turan. Probably from the Greek name Attalos or the Hunnish Attila.

  Athicus — In RH, a prison guard. From Æthicus, a Byzantine geographer.

  Atlaia, Atlaians — In DT and The Hyborian Age," a Negro nation far to the south. Possibly from Atlas (cf. Atlantis).

  Atlantis — An imaginary sunken continent in the Atlantic Ocean, conceived by Plato for his dialogues Timaios and Kritias and named for the demigod Atlas; used by Howard (along with many fantasy writers, geographical speculators, and cultists) as part of the background for his King Kull stories and mentioned in TE, PC, the prolegomenon to CC, &c.

  Attalus — In PS, CC, an Aquilonian barony. From Attalos, a common Macedonian personal name, borne in Roman times by three kings of Pergamon in Asia Minor.

  Attelius — In BB, a baron of the Westermarck. Possibly from Attila, or Attalus, or both.

  Auzakia — In CS, one of the seven sacred cities of Meru.

  Ayodhya — In FK, PC, CA, the capital of Vendhya. From Ayuthya, the former capital of Thadand, and Ayodha, the legendary capital of India in the Golden Age of King Rama.

  Aztrias Petanius — In GB, a Nemedian noble. "Az-trias" is probably from the same source as Astreas (q.v.); "Petanius" may be from any of several Classical names like Petines and Prytanis.

  Azweri — In CS, a people of Meru.

  -

  Baal — In CC, a minion of Xaltotun; (also =Baal-Pteor, discarded). From ba'al, Hebrew-Phoenician for "lord." Cf. Be
l, Baal-Pteor.

  Baal-Pteor — In SZ, a Kosalan strangler. From Baal-Peor, a place in Moab (Num. 25). Cf. Pteor. In Howard's preliminary drafts, this character was called Baal or Bel.

  Badb — In PS, a Cimmerian deity. An Irish goddess, more exactly Badhbh (pronounced BAHV, BAHDHV).

  Bajujh — In VW, the Negro king of Bakalah. There was a piratical tribe of Borneo, the Bajau, but the derivation is dubious.

  Bakalah — In VW, a Negro village and tribe of Kush. From a Central African tribe, the Bakalai or Bakalei.

  Bakhariot, Bakhauriot — In WB, PC, CA, an adjective describing a land of broad belt. From Bokhara, Turkestan.

  Bakhr — In BN, a Stygian river, an affluent of the Styx. From the Arabic bahr, "river."

  Bakra — In HN, a Turanian general. Baksh See Aram. Probably from bakshi, bakshish, used in the Near East and India for "giver" and "gratuity" respectively (from the Persian bakhshi, bakhshish, or the Arabic baqshish).

  Balardus — In BN, the king of Koth, successor to Strabonus. A pseudo-Latin name.

  Balash — In RK, chief of the Kushafi tribe in the Ilbars Mts. A Persian name (Balas, Valash, Valagash, &c.) of Parthian and Sassanid times.

  Balthus — In BR, a young Tauranian settler in Conajohara. Possibly from Baltia, a Latin name for Scandinavia (whence the Baltic Sea).

  Bamula — In VW, CT, a Kushite tribe. Possibly from Bambuba, an existing Negro tribe near Lake Edward; or from Bambara, a tribe on the upper Niger; or from bamboula, for which see Amboola.

  Baraccus — In CA, an exiled Aquilonian nobleman. From Galaccus, in TT.

  Baracha — In PO, GT, JG, &c, an archipelago in the Western Ocean, used as a pirate base. From Barataria, Louisiana, used as a base by Jean Lafitte, a pirate of the early +XIX.

  Bardiya — In FK, an official of Kobad Shah's court. An ancient Persian name (Greek, Smerdis).

  Barras — In SK, a henchman of Count Rigello. A French place name; the Comte de Barras was a French Revolutionary and Napoleonic politician.

  Bel — In TE, QC, BC, &c, the Shemitish god of thieves. An Assyro-Babylonian word meaning "lord" (cognate with the Hebrew-Phoenician ba'al) applied originally to En-lil, an old Babylonian earth god, and later to Marduk, the Babylonian Zeus. A discarded name for Baal-Pteor (q.v.) in the first draft of SZ.

  Belesa, Beloso — Respectively, the Zingaran heroine of TT and a Zingaran man-at-arms in CC. Origin uncertain; remote possibilities are Belesis, a Babylonian priest of -VII mentioned by Ktesias; a Belesa River in Ethiopia; and Berosos (or Berossus, &c), a Hellen-ized Babylonian priest and writer of early -III.

  Bêlit — In QC, CI, a Shemitish woman pirate. Assyro-Babylonian for "goddess."

  Belverus — In CC, the capital of Nemedia. Possibly from Belverde, Italy.

  Bhalkhana — In PC, an adjective describing a breed of horse. Probably from the Balkans or from Balkh, a city in Afghanistan,

  Bhambar Pass — In PS, a pass in Hyrkania.

  Bhunda — In PC, Bhunda Chand is king of Vendhva. From various Indian names: Bundelkhand, Bhandar-kar, &c.

  Bigharma — In DT, Howard's manuscript spoke of "the Baghirmi, the Mandingo, and the Bornu" as peoples of the Tombalku Empire. All are modem: the Baghirmi, a Negro tribe near Lake Chad; the Man-dingo, a Sudanic people widely spread about West Africa; Bornu, a province of northern Nigeria, once an independent sultanate. I changed the sentence to "the Bigharma, the Mindanga, and the Borni," thinking that the use of so many well-known, modern tribal and geographical names, unmodified, would put too great a strain on the reader's sense of illusion.

  Bit-Yakin — In JG, a Pelishti wizard. In Assyrian times, the capital of Chaldea (Kaldi) or, sometimes, Chaldea (modern southern Iraq) itself.

  Black River — In BR, BB, a river on the western Aquilonian frontier. Probably from the Black River in upstate New York, mentioned in the frontier stories of Robert W. Chambers.

  Bombaata — In HS, a Kushite captain in Asgalun. A pseudo-Bantu name.

  Bori — In "The Hyborian Age," the deified eponymous ancestor of the Hyboreans or Hybori; from Hyper-borea (qq.v.).

  Borni — In DT, a people of the Tombalku Empire. See Bigharma.

  Borus — In GT, the first mate of Captain Gonzago's Hawk. From Boros, an uncommon Greek name.

  Bossonian Marches — In GB and all the stories from BR to CC, the western frontier province of Aquilonia. Possibly from Bossiney, a former Parliamentary borough in Cornwall, England, which included Tinta-gel Castle, connected with the Arthurian legends.

  Bragi — In FD, a chief of the Vanir. The Norse god of poetry.

  Bragoras — In DT, a former Nemedian king.

  Brant — In BB, Brant Drago's son is the elected governor of Thandara. "Brant" is probably from Joseph Brant, the English name of Theyendanegea, a Mohawk chief of American Revolutionary times.

  Brocas — In MB, BB, the baron of Torh, lord of Conawaga. Possibly from the Roman cognomen Brocchus, borne by several relatively obscure Romans of the Senatorial class.

  Brythunia — In TE, SM, DI, &c, an easterly Hyborian land. From the Welsh Brython, "Briton," derived from the same root as the Latin Brito, Britannia.

  Bubastes — In BN, the Styx is crossed at the Ford of Bubastes. From Bubastis (ancient Egyptian, Per-baste), a city in ancient Egypt, near modern Zagazig.

  Bwatu — In CB, a man of Juma's tribe. A pseudo-Bantu name.

  Byatis — In RZ, a deity of the serpent-men of Valusia. From "serpent-bearded Byatis," an entity in Robert Bloch's Cthulhuvian tales.

  -

  Caranthes — In GB, a priest of Ibis. See Kalanthes.

  Castria — In RZ, an Aquilonian barony. From various European places named Castra (ancient Roman), Castries (French), and Kastri (Greek).

  Catlaxoc — In CI, a harlot of Ptahuacan. A pseudo-Mayan name.

  Cenwulf — In BN, a captain of Bossonian archers. From the Anglo-Saxon names Cenric and Ceolwulf.

  Cernunnos — In BN, a god invoked by Diviatix. A stag-horned Gaulish god.

  Chabela — In CB, BN, the daughter of King Ferdrugo of Zingara. The common Spanish nickname for Isabel. Since Isabel is Spanish for Elizabeth, Chabela is the exact equivalent of Betty.

  Chaga — In SD, one of the ruling caste of the Kushite capital of Jumballa, of mixed Stygian-Negroid ancestry. From the Chaga or Chagga, an advanced, progressive Negro tribe of Tanzania.

  Chakan — In BB, one of the race of Pithecanthropoid sub-men dwelling in the Pictish wilderness. Possibly from the same source as Chaga (q.v.) or from Chaka or Tshaka, the Zulu emperor, 1783-1828.

  Chand — See Bhunda. An Indian proper name, also spelled Cand, Chund.

  Chelkus — In VW, the Ophirean famdy to which Livia belongs. Possibly from Chelkias, a Judaean mercenary soldier and a favorite of Queen Kleopatra III of Egypt at the end of -II.

  Chengir Khan — In CA, a Vendhyan nobleman. From Chiang Kai-shek (or from Jengis, Genghis, or Chingiz) t+ Khan (q.v.).

  Cherkees — In WB, an adjective designating a broad, curved knife. From Cherkess, a name for the Circassians or Adighe of the Caucasus.

  Chicmec — In RN, a man of Xuchoti. From the Chichimecs, a tribe of Mexican Indians.

  Chiron — In CC, a minion of Xaltotun. A wise centaur (Cheiron) of Greek myth. Howard may also have been thinking of Charon, in Greek mythology the supernatural boatman who ferried souls across the Styx.

  Chunder — In PC, Chunder Shan is the governor of Peshkauri. A common Indian proper name, also spelled Chandra or Candra.

  Cimmeria, Cimmerians — In all the Conan stories, a land and people north of the Hyborian nations, from whom the Gaels or Celts are descended. Historically, the Gimirai or Cimmerians were a nomadic people who invaded Asia Minor in -VII; the modern Armenian language descends from theirs. In Homer, a people (the Kimmerioi) living in a foggy western land. Howard may have had in mind a once proposed but now discredited connection between the Kimmerioi and the Cymry or Welsh.

  Codrus — In FK, a lieutenant of Conan. From
Kod-ros, a legendary king of Athens.

  Colchian Mts. — In CA, a range south of the Vilayet Sea. From Colchis, a Caucasian land of Classical times (modern Georgia).

  Commoria — In TE, a kingdom of Atlantean times. From Commotion, the capital of Hyperborea in Clark Ashton Smith's stories "The Testament of Athammaus," "The Seven Geases," &c; or from the probable source of these, Comoria or Comorin, the cape at the southern tip of India.

  Conajohara — In BR, BB, MB, a province on the Aquilonian frontier between the Black and Thunder Rivers. From Canajoharie, a town on the Mohawk River, New York State. Upstate New York also has a Black River, and Howard probably derived both town and river from Robert W. Chambers's stories.