The Monsters of Conan the Barbarian

Books
Written By Chris Well

The world of Conan is packed with various horrors…

“He beats the crap out of Conan. He’s ripped to shreds by this thing.”

Over the course of his adventures, Conan the Barbarian has grappled with many kinds of threats—including wicked sorcerers and bloodthirsty savages, snow giants and burning demons—and more. In this episode of the official Conan podcast, they explore the monsters the Cimmerian has crossed blades with over the years. But which of these threats was the deadliest?

Host Shawn Curley of Heroic Signatures talks with guests Jeff Shanks (archeologist and board member with the Robert E. Howard Foundation) and John C. Hocking (winner of the 2009 Harper’s Pen Award for Sword & Sorcery fiction, and author of Conan: City of the Dead).

The Monsters of Conan | Legends of Conan Podcast

Monsters discussed in the episode include the serpent Satha (from Howard’s stories “The Scarlet Citadel” and “The Valley of the Worm”), extraterrestrial prisoner Yag-Kosha (from Howard’s novelette “The Tower of the Elephant”), and the gray apes (from Howard’s story “Iron Shadows in the Moon” AKA “Shadows in the Moonlight” and novel “The Hour of the Dragon”).

As part of the larger discussion, Hocking was also asked about his own process when writing “Conan and the Emerald Lotus” (found in his book Conan: City of the Dead):

“A bunch of ideas came together. I wanted to create a unique sorceress menace. And I wanted to have a reason to get Conan involved in the story. And I wanted to have something that the sorcerers would fight over. It wouldn't be a magic sword or a magic ring—there would be something a little more realistic.”

Conan the Barbarian and Robert E. Howard

Classic sword-wielding thief, mercenary, and hero, Conan the Cimmerian AKA Conan the Barbarian was created in 1932 by Robert E. Howard—who’s actually credited with inventing “sword & sorcery” fiction altogether. REH wrote 21 Conan stories, most of them published in the legendary Weird Tales magazine.

Howard actually wrote lots of short stories. In addition to Conan, REH’s characters also include Texas gunfighter El Borak, short-tempered sword woman Dark Agnes, somber Puritan Solomon Kane, the philosophical warrior Kull of Atlantis, police detective Steve Harrison, Pict king Bran Mak Morn, and more.

Personally, I want to call attention to REH’s stories about sailor and boxer Steve Costigan. Told in the first person by an unreliable narrator, these stories are hilarious. (Monster Complex® will be talking more about the adventures of Costigan in upcoming posts.)

As for Conan, in the decades since the death of his original author, the sword-wielder has appeared many more times—in books, comic books, movies, and more.

Find more online about Conan and Robert E. Howard

More from Monster Complex®

Chris Well

Chris Well been a writer pretty much his entire life. (Well, since his childhood.) Over the years, he has worked in newspapers, magazines, radio, and books. He now is the chief of the website Monster Complex, celebrating monster stories in lit and pop culture. He also writes horror comedy fiction that embraces Universal Monsters, 1960s sitcoms, 1980s action movies, and the X-Files.

https://chriswell.substack.com/
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