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82-718: [REDACTED] Look up dragonborn in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Dragonborn may refer to: Gaming [ edit ] Dragonborn ( Dungeons & Dragons ) , a Draconic race from the Dungeons & Dragons role playing game Dragonborn, a player character in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim who has the blood and soul of a dragon The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – Dragonborn , an expansion set for Skyrim Music [ edit ] Dragonborn, musician who performed

164-415: A "Conan yarn without sex interest." In another novel twist, Conan and the other protagonists have, at best, a pyrrhic victory ; this was rare for pulp magazines. This was followed by another experimental Conan story, " The Black Stranger ", with a similar setting. The story was, however, rejected by Weird Tales , which was rare for later Conan stories. Howard's next piece, " The Man-Eaters of Zamboula ",

246-501: A Conan novel that later became Drums of Tombalku . The third attempt at writing the novel was more successful, resulting in Howard's only Conan novel The Hour of the Dragon , which was probably started on or around March 17, 1934. This novel combines elements of two previous Conan stories, "Black Colossus" and "The Scarlet Citadel", with Arthurian myth and provides an overview of Conan and

328-457: A bimonthly publication and pulps such as Fight Stories , Action Stories , and Strange Tales all folded. Howard was further hit when his savings were wiped out in 1931 when the Farmer's National Bank failed , and again, after transferring to another bank, when that one failed as well. Early 1932 saw Howard taking one of his frequent trips around Texas. He traveled through the southern part of

410-542: A boxer called Kid Allison. Howard wrote ten stories for this series but Sport Story only published three of them. With solid markets now all buying up his stories regularly, Howard quit taking college classes, and indeed would never again work a regular job. At twenty-three years of age, from the middle of nowhere in Texas, he had become a full-time writer; he was making good money and his father began bragging about his success, not to mention buying multiple copies of his work in

492-438: A boxing-related ghost story published in the magazine Ghost Stories . In July of the same year, Argosy finally published one of Howard's stories, "Crowd-Horror", which was also a boxing story. Neither developed into ongoing series, however. After several minor successes and false starts, he struck gold again with a new series based on one of his favorite passions: boxing. July 1929 saw the debut of Sailor Steve Costigan in

574-467: A coma from which she was not expected to wake, he walked out to his car parked outside his kitchen window and shot himself in the head while sitting in the driver's seat. He died eight hours later. Howard was born January 22, 1906, in Peaster, Texas , the only son of a traveling country physician, Dr. Isaac Mordecai Howard, and his wife, Hester Jane Ervin Howard. His early life was spent wandering through

656-543: A couple's romance and created a new one with a supernatural element; the story was re-titled " The Phoenix on the Sword ", an element from this new subplot. Howard immediately went on to write two more Conan stories. The first of these was " The Frost-Giant's Daughter ", an inversion of the Greek myth surrounding Apollo and Daphne, set much earlier in Conan's life. The last of the initial trio

738-642: A house in the town with a cash down payment and made extensive renovations. That same year, sitting in a library in New Orleans while his father took medical courses at a nearby college, Howard discovered a book concerned with the scant fact and abundant legends surrounding an indigenous culture in ancient Scotland called the Picts . In 1920, the Vestal Well within the limits of Cross Plains struck oil and Cross Plains became an oil boomtown. Thousands of people arrived in

820-533: A job writing oil news for the local newspaper Cross Plains Review at $ 5 per column. It was not until July 1925 that Howard received payment for his first printed story. Howard lost his job at the newspaper in the same year and spent one month working in a post office before quitting over the low wages. His next job, at the Cross Plains Natural Gas Company, did not last long due to his refusal to be subservient to his boss. He did manual labor for

902-508: A letter dated March 10, 1932, Farnsworth Wright rejected "The Frost-Giant's Daughter" but noted that "The Phoenix on the Sword" had "points of real excellence" and suggested changes. "The God in the Bowl" would also be rejected and so a potential fourth Conan story concerning Conan as a thief was abandoned at the synopsis stage. Instead of abandoning the entire Conan concept, as had happened with previous failed characters, Howard rewrote "The Phoenix on

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984-410: A literary course but was not allowed to take one. The reason for this is undocumented, however biographer Mark Finn suggests that his father refused to pay for such a non-vocational education. In the week of Thanksgiving that year, and after years of rejection slips and near acceptances, he finally sold a short caveman tale titled "Spear and Fang", which netted him the sum of $ 16 and introduced him to

1066-513: A natural talent for prose writing and the encouragement of teachers, created in Howard an interest in becoming a professional writer. From the age of nine he began writing stories, mostly tales of historical fiction centering on Vikings , Arabs , battles , and bloodshed. One by one he discovered the authors who would influence his later work: Jack London and his stories of reincarnation and past lives, most notably The Star Rover (1915); Rudyard Kipling 's tales of subcontinent adventures;

1148-516: A new style of tale that ultimately became known as " sword and sorcery ". Featuring Kull , a barbarian precursor to later Howard heroes such as Conan , the tale hit Weird Tales in August 1929 and received fanfare from readers. Weird Tales editor Farnsworth Wright bought the story for $ 100, the most Howard had earned for a story at this time, and several more Kull stories followed. However, all but two were rejected, convincing Howard not to continue

1230-580: A prominent role in the fantasy video game franchise The Elder Scrolls . Other examples of reptilian humanoids in fantasy games include the Man-Serpents from the game Elden Ring and the Naga from World of Warcraft . In works of science fiction , aliens are often depicted as closely resembling animals , with reptilian aliens being no exception. An early appearance was in the story " The Lizard-Men of Buh-Lo " (1930) by Francis Flagg . Other examples include

1312-534: A race called the Rulons , of which some individuals were reptilian humanoids, that served as the main antagonist to the protagonist Valorians upon which the series is based. Merchandise based on the series included several series of toys, among which they included replicas of the reptilian Rulons. Examples of reptilian races in fantasy games are the Lizardmen from Warhammer as well as Lizardfolk, Dragonborn and Kobolds of

1394-692: A result of this apprenticeship, his stories increasingly took on the aura of "prose-poems" filled with hypnotic, dreamy imagery and a power lacking in most other pulp efforts of the time. Further story sales to Weird Tales were sporadic but encouraging, and soon Howard was a regular in the magazine. His first cover story was for " Wolfshead ", a werewolf story published when he was only twenty. On reading "Wolfshead" in Weird Tales Howard became dismayed with his writing. He quit his stenographer's job to work at Robertson's Drug Store, where he rose to become head soda jerk on $ 80 per week. However, he resented

1476-540: A self-created regimen of exercise, including cutting down oak trees and chopping them into firewood every day, lifting weights, punching a bag and springing exercises, eventually building himself from a skinny teenager into a more muscled, burly form. Howard spent his late teens working odd jobs around Cross Plains, all of which he hated. In 1924, Howard returned to Brownwood to take a stenography course at Howard Payne College , this time boarding with his friend Lindsey Tyson instead of his mother. Howard would have preferred

1558-517: A series in print beyond just two stories, with seven Kane stories printed from 1928 to 1932. As the magazine published the Solomon Kane tale before Kull, this can be considered the first published example of sword and sorcery. 1929 was the year Howard broke out into other pulp markets, rather than just Weird Tales . The first story he sold to another magazine was "The Apparition in the Prize Ring",

1640-593: A surveyor for a time before beginning a job as a stenographer for an oil company. In conjunction with his friend Tevis Clyde Smith , he dabbled heavily in verse, writing hundreds of poems and getting dozens published in Weird Tales and assorted poetry journals. With poor sales, and many publishers recoiling from his subject matter, Howard ultimately judged poetry writing a luxury he could not afford, and after 1930 he wrote little verse, instead dedicating his time to short stories and higher-paying markets. Nevertheless, as

1722-502: A variety of Texas cowtowns and boomtowns: Dark Valley (1906), Seminole (1908), Bronte (1909), Poteet (1910), Oran (1912), Wichita Falls (1913), Bagwell (1913), Cross Cut (1915), and Burkett (1917). During Howard's youth his parents' relationship began to break down. The Howard family had problems with money, which might have been exacerbated by Isaac Howard investing in get-rich-quick schemes. Hester Howard, meanwhile, came to believe that she had married below herself. Soon

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1804-407: A variety of series characters. Soon he was submitting stories to magazines such as Adventure and Argosy . Rejections piled up, and with no mentors or instructions of any kind to aid him, Howard became a writing autodidact , methodically studying the markets and tailoring his stories and style to each. In the fall of 1922, when Howard was sixteen, he temporarily moved to a boarding house in

1886-491: A vigorous correspondence that would last for the rest of Howard's life. By virtue of this, Howard quickly became a member of the "Lovecraft Circle", a group of writers and friends all linked via the immense correspondence of H. P. Lovecraft (who wrote over 100,000 letters in his lifetime ), who made it a point to introduce his many like-minded friends to one another and encourage them to share stories, utilize each other's invented fictional trappings, and help each other succeed in

1968-459: A writer of adventure fiction but did not have real success until he was 23. Thereafter, until his death by suicide at age 30, Howard's writings were published in a wide selection of magazines, journals, and newspapers, and he became proficient in several subgenres. His greatest success occurred after his death. Although a Conan novel was nearly published in 1934, Howard's stories were never collected during his lifetime. The main outlet for his stories

2050-524: Is G. K. Chesterton 's The Ballad of the White Horse and Chesterton's concept that "it is the chief value of legend to mix up the centuries while preserving the sentiment." By March, Howard had recycled an unpublished Kull story called " By This Axe I Rule! " into his first Conan story. The central plot remains that of a barbarian having become king of a civilized country and a conspiracy to assassinate him. However, he removed an entire subplot concerning

2132-443: Is Howard's earliest surviving boxing story known to exist; it is told in the first person, uses elements of a traditional tall-tale and is a fictionalized account of Howard (as "Steve") and his friend Lindsey Tyson (as "Spike") training for a fight. This story and the elements it uses would also be important in Howard's literary future. In May 1927, after having to return home due to contracting measles and then being forced to retake

2214-679: Is another. The " Distant Origin " episode of Star Trek: Voyager then features the Voth, a race descended from the dinosaurs that had escaped extinction by leaving Earth and relocating to the Delta Quadrant . On the television series Doctor Who , there are also races of reptilian humanoids, such as the Silurians and Ice Warriors . The reptilian conspiracy theory alleges that shape-shifting reptilian aliens control Earth. Belief in reptilians sometimes references anti-Semitic texts. For example,

2296-449: Is regarded as the father of the sword and sorcery subgenre. Howard was born and raised in Texas . He spent most of his life in the town of Cross Plains , with some time spent in nearby Brownwood . A bookish and intellectual child, he was also a fan of boxing , eventually taking up amateur boxing, and spent some time in his late teens bodybuilding . From the age of nine, he longed to become

2378-565: The Dungeons & Dragons tabletop role-playing game . The Dragonborn in particular – based on the Draconians of Dragonlance , which in that game were uniformly evil – were originally introduced in the Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 supplement book Races of the Dragon , published by Wizards of the Coast in 2006. In 4th Edition, dragonborn are available as one of the core player character races in

2460-478: The Player's Handbook . The dragonborn were introduced to the core rules in an attempt to reflect contemporary trends in fantasy fiction and appeal to newer players. In addition, it reflected a perception among the game's designers that it should be possible to play dragon-like creatures in a game with "Dragons" in the title. Richard Baker , who helped design 4th Edition, noted that the introduction of dragonborn to

2542-562: The Gorn from Star Trek and the Dracs from the film Enemy Mine (1985). The television franchise V features the Visitors , a lizardlike alien race who disguise themselves as humans. The Cardassian race featured in multiple Star Trek series, is another example of reptilian humanoids in that particular science fiction universe. The "Tosk" people, featured on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine ,

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2624-452: The Middle Ages and the early Renaissance , tales that rival even his best Conan stories for their historical sweep and splendor. In addition to series characters such as Turlogh Dubh O'Brien and Cormac Fitzgeoffrey , Howard sold a variety of tales depicting various times and periods from the fall of Rome to the fifteenth century. The magazine eventually ceased publication in 1934 due to

2706-669: The Nāga are semi-divine creatures which are half-human and half- snakes . Claims of sightings of reptilian creatures occur in Southern United States , where swamps are common. In the late 1980s, there were hundreds of supposed sightings of a " Lizard Man " in Bishopville, South Carolina . Anthropomorphic reptilian races or beings commonly appear in fantasy and science fiction . They can be based on various reptiles, like lizards , crocodiles , alligators , snakes , dinosaurs , and

2788-513: The Border ". This was the first Conan tale to have an explicit ( Robert W. Chambers -influenced) American setting, although American themes had appeared earlier, and the only one in which Conan himself does not appear. His next story was based on his unfinished material and became " Beyond the Black River ", which not only used the different American-frontier setting but was also, in Howard's own words,

2870-531: The Depression, leaving several of Howard's stories aimed at this market unsold. In August 1930 Howard wrote a letter to Weird Tales praising a recent reprint of H. P. Lovecraft 's " The Rats in the Walls " and discussing some of the obscure Gaelic references used within. Editor Farnsworth Wright forwarded the letter to Lovecraft, who responded warmly to Howard, and soon the two Weird Tales veterans were engaged in

2952-506: The Depression. Also in this period, Howard wrote the first of the James Allison stories, "Marchers of Valhalla". Allison is a disabled Texan who begins to recall his past lives, the first of which is in the later part of Howard's new Hyborian age. In a letter to Clark Ashton Smith in October 1933, he wrote that its sequel "The Garden of Fear" was "dealing with one of my various conceptions of

3034-498: The Headland ", " The Children of the Night " and " The Fire of Asshurbanipal "). He also corresponded with other "Weird Tale" writers such as Clark Ashton Smith , August Derleth , and E. Hoffmann Price . The correspondence between Howard and Lovecraft contained a lengthy discussion on a frequent element in Howard's fiction, barbarism versus civilization. Howard held that civilization

3116-470: The Hyborian age for the new British audience. Howard sent his final draft to Denis Archer on May 20, 1934. He had worked exclusively on the novel for two months, writing approximately 5,000 words per day, seven days a week. Although he told acquaintances that he had little hope for this novel, he had put a lot of effort into it. However, the publisher went into receivership in late 1934, before it could print

3198-536: The Hyborian and post-Hyborian world." In May 1933, a British publisher, Denis Archer, contacted Howard about publishing a book in the United Kingdom. Howard submitted a batch of his best available stories, including "The Tower of the Elephant" and " The Scarlet Citadel ", on June 15. In January 1934 the publisher rejected the collection but suggested a novel instead. Though the publisher was "exceedingly interested" in

3280-712: The Picts in their struggle against the invading Romans , and introduced readers to Howard's king of the Picts, Bran Mak Morn . Howard followed up this tale with the now-classic revenge nightmare " Worms of the Earth " and several other tales, creating horrific adventures tinged with a Cthulhu -esque gloss and notable for their use of metaphor and symbolism. With the onset of the Great Depression , many pulp markets reduced their schedules or went out of business entirely. Howard saw market after market falter and vanish. Weird Tales became

3362-453: The Sword" based on Wright's feedback and including material from his essay. Both this revision and the next Conan story, " The Tower of the Elephant ", sold with no problems. Howard had written nine Conan stories before the first saw print. Conan first appeared to the public in Weird Tales in December 1932 and was such a hit that Howard was eventually able to place seventeen Conan stories in

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3444-412: The character of Conan . Later, in 1935, Howard claimed in a letter to Clark Ashton Smith that Conan "simply grew up in my mind a few years ago when I was stopping in a little border town on the lower Rio Grande." However, the character actually took nine months to develop. Howard had originally used the name "Conan" for a Gael reaver in a past-life-themed story he completed in October 1931, which

3526-461: The citizenry by so-called 'civilized' leaders. Howard initially deferred to Lovecraft but gradually asserted his own views, even coming to deride Lovecraft's opinions. In 1930, with his interest in Solomon Kane dwindling and his Kull stories not catching on, Howard applied his new sword-and-sorcery and horror experience to one of his first loves: the Picts . His story "Kings of the Night" depicted King Kull conjured into pre-Christian Britain to aid

3608-482: The classic mythological tales collected by Thomas Bulfinch . Howard was considered by friends to be eidetic , and astounded them with his ability to memorize lengthy reams of poetry with ease after one or two readings. In 1919, when Howard was thirteen, Dr. Howard moved his family to the Central Texas hamlet of Cross Plains , and there the family would stay for the rest of Howard's life. Howard's father bought

3690-606: The combination of a traditional tall tale and slapstick comedy. Stories sold to Fight Stories provided Howard with a market just as stable as Weird Tales . Due to his success in Fight Stories , Howard was contacted by the publisher Street & Smith in February 1931 with a request to move the Steve Costigan stories to their own pulp Sport Story Magazine . Howard refused but created a new, similar series just for them based on

3772-572: The core rules allowed them to "grow the D&;D world by allowing the mix of characters to evolve in the new edition." Jonathan Bolding of The Escapist noted that the inclusion of the dragonborn in the 5th edition Player's Handbook does "push the 'traditional D&D' mold a bit, but this is a greatest hits of D&D player races and powers from the last fifteen years of the game." Anthropomorphic reptilians are also shown in video games, especially in fantasy games. The lizardlike Argonian race takes

3854-618: The course, Howard passed his exams. While waiting for the official graduation in August, he returned to writing, including a re-write of "The Shadow Kingdom". He rewrote it again in August and submitted it to Weird Tales in September. This story was an experiment with the entire concept of the "weird tale" horror fiction as defined by practitioners such as Edgar Allan Poe , A. Merritt , and H. P. Lovecraft , mixing elements of fantasy, horror and mythology with historical romance , action and swordplay into thematic vehicles never before seen,

3936-421: The drug store and, in September, returned to Brownwood to complete his bookkeeping course. It was during this August that he began working on the story that would become " The Shadow Kingdom ", one of the most important works of his career. While at college, Howard wrote for their newspaper, The Yellow Jacket . One of the short stories printed in this newspaper was a comedy called "Cupid vs. Pollux". This story

4018-648: The fictional dragons . They are often depicted as powerful warriors, though their relative intelligence to humans varies – as with other anthropomorphic races, a greater resemblance to humans often denotes more "civilized" behavior. Some anthropomorphic reptilians such as lizards and snakes are often associated with jungles, swamps, and other tropical biomes, and as such are seen with cultural elements of similar regions, including Mesoamerican cultures. The Serpent Men , reptilian humanoids who can project illusions of human form, appeared as villains throughout Robert E. Howard 's King Kull stories starting in 1929 as well as in

4100-508: The final version. " Rogues in the House " is the only Conan story to be completed in a single draft. These stories sold easily and they include the first and second Conan stories to feature on the cover of Weird Tales , " Black Colossus " and " Xuthal of the Dusk ". Howard's motivation for quick and easy sales at this time was influenced by the collapse of some other markets, such as Fight Stories , in

4182-491: The genre of sword and sorcery grew up around Howard's masterwork, with dozens of practitioners evoking Howard's creation to one degree or another. In spring 1933, Howard started to place work with Otis Adelbert Kline , a former pulp writer, as his agent. Kline encouraged him to try writing in other genres in order to expand into different markets. Kline's agency was successful in finding outlets for more of Howard's stories and even placed works that had been rejected when Howard

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4264-512: The job itself and worked such long hours every day of the week that he became ill. He relaxed by visiting the Neeb Ice House, to which he was introduced by an oil field worker befriended at the drug store, to drink and began to take part in boxing matches. These matches became an important part of his life; the combination of boxing and writing provided an outlet for his frustrations and anger. In August 1926, Howard quit his exhausting job at

4346-501: The linked Cthulhu Mythos . Edgar Rice Burroughs ' Pellucidar series featured primitive dinosaur-descended humanoids living in the Hollow Earth called the Horibs or snake-men in his 1929–1930 crossover Tarzan at the Earth's Core . These almost simultaneous inventions originated the modern reptilian humanoid trope. In the 1980s, the animated television series Dino-Riders feature

4428-523: The magazine between 1933 and 1936. Howard then took a short break from Conan after his initial burst of stories, returning to the character in mid-1933. These stories, his "middle period", are routine and considered the weakest of the series. Stories, such as " Iron Shadows in the Moon ", were often simply Conan rescuing a damsel in distress from a monster in some ruins. While earlier Conan stories had three or four drafts, some in this period had only two including

4510-641: The nearby city of Brownwood to complete his senior year of high school, accompanied by his mother. It was in Brownwood that he first met friends his own age who shared his interest not only for sports and history but also writing and poetry. The two most important of these, Tevis Clyde Smith and Truett Vinson, shared his Bohemian and literary outlook on life, and together they wrote amateur papers and magazines, exchanged long letters filled with poetry and existential thoughts on life and philosophy, and encouraged each other's writing endeavors. Through Vinson, Howard

4592-400: The novel. The story was briefly held as part of the company's assets before being returned to Howard. It was later printed in Weird Tales as a serial over five months, beginning with the December 1935 issue. Howard may have begun losing interest in Conan in late 1934, with a growing desire to write westerns. He began to write, although never finished, a Conan story called " Wolves Beyond

4674-456: The omnipresence of evil and enemies in the world, and taught him the value of physical strength and violence. As the son of the local doctor, Howard had frequent exposure to the effects of injury and violence, due to accidents on farms and oil fields combined with the massive increase in crime that came with the oil boom . Firsthand tales of gunfights, lynchings , feuds , and Indian raids developed his distinctly Texan, hardboiled outlook on

4756-541: The opening theme song "The Words" on the television show Dicte "Dragonborn" (song) , a song by Jeremy Soule as the theme song for Skyrim "Dragonborn", a cover of the Jeremy Soule song by Headhunterz from the album Sacrifice "Dragonborn", a 2023 song by Twilight Force from At the Heart of Wintervale Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with

4838-460: The pages of Fight Stories . A tough-as-nails, two-fisted mariner with a head of rocks and occasionally a heart of gold, Costigan began boxing his way through a variety of exotic seaports and adventure locales, becoming so popular in Fight Stories that the same editors began using additional Costigan episodes in their sister magazine Action Stories . The series saw a return to Howard's use of humor and ( unreliable ) first-person narration, with

4920-659: The pair were actively fighting. Hester did not want Isaac to have anything to do with their son. She had a particularly strong influence on her son's intellectual growth. She had spent her early years helping a variety of sick relatives, contracting tuberculosis in the process. She instilled in her son a deep love of poetry and literature, recited verse daily and supported him unceasingly in his efforts to write. Other experiences would later seep into his prose. Although he loved reading and learning, he found school to be confining and began to hate having anyone in authority over him. Experiences watching and confronting bullies revealed

5002-629: The people who came with it. He was already poorly disposed towards oil booms as they were the cause of the constant traveling in his early years but this was aggravated by what he perceived to be the effect oil booms had on towns. "I'll say one thing about an oil boom; it will teach a kid that Life's a pretty rotten thing as quick as anything I can think of." —Robert E. Howard in a letter to Weird Tales editor Farnsworth Wright, Summer 1931. At fifteen Howard first sampled pulp magazines , especially Adventure and its star authors Talbot Mundy and Harold Lamb . The next few years saw him creating

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5084-516: The perpetrator of the 2020 Nashville bombing was influenced by the writings of David Icke , who in turn referenced 1903 anti-Semitic fabricated text The Protocols of the Elders of Zion . Robert E. Howard Robert Ervin Howard (January 22, 1906 – June 11, 1936) was an American writer who wrote pulp fiction in a diverse range of genres. He created the character Conan the Barbarian and

5166-661: The pulp field. In time this circle of correspondents has developed a legendary patina about it rivaling similar literary conclaves such as The Inklings , the Bloomsbury Group , and the Beats . Howard was given the affectionate nickname "Two-Gun Bob" by virtue of his long explications to Lovecraft about the history of his beloved Southwest , and during the ensuing years he contributed several notable elements to Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos of horror stories (beginning with " The Black Stone ", his Mythos stories also included " The Cairn on

5248-641: The pulps. Howard's " Celtic phase" began in 1930, during which he became fascinated by Celtic themes and his own Irish ancestry. He shared this enthusiasm with Harold Preece , a friend made in Austin in the summer of 1927; Howard's letters to both Preece and Clyde Smith contain much Irish-related material and discussion. Howard taught himself a little Gaelic , examined the Irish parts of his family history and began writing about Irish characters. Turlogh Dubh O'Brien and Cormac Mac Art were created at this time, although he

5330-559: The readers of a struggling pulp called Weird Tales . Now that his career in fiction had begun, Howard dropped out of Howard Payne College at the end of the semester and returned to Cross Plains. Shortly afterwards, he received notice that another story, "The Hyena", had been accepted by Weird Tales . During the same period, Howard made his first attempt to write a novel, a loosely autobiographical book modeled on Jack London 's Martin Eden and titled Post Oaks & Sand Roughs . The book

5412-607: The research necessary for a purely historical setting was too time-consuming for him to engage in on a regular basis and still earn a living. The Hyborian Age, with its varied settings similar to real places and eras of history, allowed him to write fantastical historical fiction without such problems. He may have been inspired in the creation of his setting by Thomas Bulfinch 's 1913 edition of his Bulfinch's Mythology called The Outline of Mythology , which contained stories from history and legend, including many that were direct influences on Howard's work. Another potential inspiration

5494-407: The series. In March 1928, Howard salvaged and re-submitted to Weird Tales a story rejected by the more popular pulp Argosy , and the result was " Red Shadows ", the first of many stories featuring the vengeful Puritan swashbuckler Solomon Kane . Appearing in the August 1928 issue of Weird Tales , the character was a big hit with readers and this was the first of Howard's characters to sustain

5576-496: The state with his main occupation being, in his own words, "the wholesale consumption of tortillas, enchiladas and cheap Spanish wine." In Fredericksburg , while overlooking sullen hills through a misty rain, he conceived of the fantasy land of Cimmeria , a bitter hard northern region home to fearsome barbarians. In February, while in Mission , he wrote the poem Cimmeria . It was also during this trip that Howard first conceived of

5658-447: The stories, the rejection letter explained that there was a "prejudice that is very strong over here just now against collections of short stories." The suggested novel, however, could be published by Pawling and Ness Ltd in a first edition of 5,000 copies for lending libraries. In late 1933 Howard returned to Conan, starting again slightly awkwardly with " The Devil in Iron ". However, this

5740-474: The third following a few days later. With these three completed he created an essay called " The Hyborian Age " in order to flesh out his setting in more detail. There were four drafts of this essay, starting with a two-page outline and finishing as an 8,000-word essay. Howard supplemented this with two sketched maps and an additional short piece entitled "Notes on Various Peoples of the Hyborian Age." In

5822-522: The title Dragonborn . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dragonborn&oldid=1188484869 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Dragonborn (Dungeons %26 Dragons) In South Asian and Southeast Asian mythology,

5904-417: The town looking for oil wealth. New businesses sprang up from scratch and the crime rate increased to match. Cross Plains' population quickly grew from 1,500 to 10,000, it suffered overcrowding, the traffic ruined its unpaved roads and vice crime exploded but it also used its new wealth on civic improvements, including a new school, an ice manufacturing plant, and new hotels. Howard hated the boom and despised

5986-434: The world. Sports, especially boxing , became a passionate preoccupation. At the time, boxing was the most popular sport in the country, with a cultural influence far in excess of what it is today. James J. Jeffries , Jack Johnson , Bob Fitzsimmons , and later Jack Dempsey were the names that inspired during those years, and he grew up a lover of all contests of violent, masculine struggle. Voracious reading, along with

6068-574: Was Weird Tales , where Howard created Conan the Barbarian. With Conan and his other heroes, Howard helped fashion the genre now known as sword and sorcery, spawning many imitators and giving him a large influence in the fantasy field. Howard remains a highly read author, with his best works still reprinted, and is one of the best-selling fantasy writers of all time. Howard's suicide and the circumstances surrounding it have led to speculation about his mental health . His mother had been ill with tuberculosis her entire life, and upon learning she had entered

6150-400: Was " The God in the Bowl ", which went through three drafts and has a slower pace than most Conan stories. This one is a murder mystery filled with corrupt officials and serves as Conan's introduction into civilization, while showing that he is a more decent person than the civilized characters. Before the end of the month, he sent the first two stories to Weird Tales in the same package, with

6232-460: Was followed with the beginning of the latter group of Conan stories that "carry the most intellectual punch," starting with " The People of the Black Circle ". Howard probably began to work on the novel in February 1934, starting to write Almuric (a non-Conan, sword and planet science fiction novel) but abandoned it half way. This was followed by another abortive attempt at a novel, this time

6314-432: Was inherently corrupt and fragile. This attitude is summed up in his famous line from " Beyond the Black River ": "Barbarism is the natural state of mankind. Civilization is unnatural. It is a whim of circumstance. And barbarism must always ultimately triumph." Lovecraft held the opposite viewpoint, that civilization was the peak of human achievement and the only way forward. Howard countered by listing many historic abuses of

6396-524: Was introduced to The Tattler , the newspaper of the Brownwood High School. It was in this publication that Howard's stories were first printed. The December 1922 issue featured two stories, "'Golden Hope Christmas" and "West is West", which won gold and silver prizes respectively. Howard graduated from high school in May 1923 and moved back to Cross Plains. On his return to his home town he engaged in

6478-409: Was more formulaic and was accepted by the magazine with no problems. Howard only wrote one more Conan story, "Red Nails", which was influenced both by his personal experiences at the time and an extrapolation of his views on civilization. The character of Conan had a wide and enduring influence among other Weird Tales writers, including C. L. Moore and Fritz Leiber , and over the ensuing decades

6560-465: Was not able to sell the latter's stories. When Farnsworth Wright started a new pulp in 1930 called Oriental Stories , Howard was overjoyed—here was a venue where he could run riot through favorite themes of history and battle and exotic mysticism. During the four years of the magazine's existence, he crafted some of his very best tales, gloomy vignettes of war and rapine in the Middle and Far East during

6642-468: Was otherwise of middling quality and was never published in the author's lifetime, but it is of interest to Howard scholars for the personal information it contains. Howard's alter ego in this novel is Steve Costigan, a name he would use more than once in the future. The novel was finished in 1928, but not published until long after his death. Weird Tales paid on publication, meaning that Howard had no money of his own at this time. To remedy this, he took

6724-466: Was published in the magazine Strange Tales in June 1932. Although the character swears by the god "Crom", that is his only link to the more famous successor character. Going back home he developed the idea, fleshing out a new invented world—his Hyborian Age —and populating it with all manner of countries, peoples, monsters, and magic . Howard loved history and enjoyed writing historical stories. However,

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