Doctoral Thesis History in Robert E. Howard's Fantastic Stories: from An
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Doctoral Thesis History in Robert E. Howard’s Fantastic Stories: From an Age Undreamed of to the Era of the Old West and Texas Frontier Dierk Clemens Günther April 2019 Acknowledgements For all the generous help, advice, and support received, I would like to thank the following: Prof. Dr. Shinsuke Ohchi (University of Hiroshima) and Prof. Dr. Reiko Nitta for their all their support, their valuable advice given for this thesis, and their endless patience to bring out the best in me. Lee Breakiron has been of an immense help for having been so gracious to open his archive for me and to provide me with many articles and papers that are not publicly available anymore. Words cannot express my gratitude for this generous support. Also, for always being there, answering many of my question, thanks go out to Bobby Derie, Patrice Louinet and Jeffrey Shanks. I also want to thank the members of Project Pride of Cross Plains, Texas, the staff of the Robert E. Howard Museum, Cross Plains, Texas, and the Public Library, Cross Plains, Texas for all their help in my research for this thesis. Cross Plains is a community of wonderful and kind people, all of whom deserve my thanks but too many to name them here. Nonetheless I would like to give very special thanks for all their help with my research and their friendship to Arlene and Tom Stephenson, Cross Plains, and Ann and Kennith Beeler, Cross Plains. Finally, immense gratitude goes to all my aunts, Claudia Bollacher, Luitgard Reiter, and Barbara Ecker, who always believed in me and without whom I would not be who I am today. Who would have thought that those Conan paperbacks brought back from business trips about 40 years ago would have led to this? Last, but definitely not least, I want to thank my wife Chie for all her love and endless support through all the years. Contents Preface ....................................................................................................1 Part I: Robert E. Howard’s Creation of an Authentic Pseudo-History Introduction ..................................................................................................... 3 Chapter I: Robert E. Howard’s Alternative History of the Picts 1. Introduction ...................................................................................... 5 2. Howard’s Discovery of the Picts as a Medium to Connect with Ancient Times ................................................................................ 6 3. Howard’s Creating of an Alternative History of the Picts .......... 10 (a) “The Lost Race”: Outlining an Alternative History of the Picts ................................................................................ 10 (b) “Men of the Shadows”: Enhancing the Picts’ Fictive History to an Alternative History ..................................................... 13 4. Bran Mak Morn: The Tragic King of Howard’s Alternative History of the Picts .................................................................................... 19 (a) Bran Mak Morn’s Role in the Alternative History of the Picts ................................................................................ 20 (b) Mirroring the Pictish History: Bran Mak Morn’s Loss of Humanity ......................................................................... 22 5. Howard’s Connecting the Picts’ Alternative History with the 20th Century ......................................................................... 29 6. Conclusion .................................................................................. 34 Chapter II: Atlantis and Its Influence on Howard’s Creation of a Pseudo-History 1. Introduction .................................................................................... 36 2. The Age of Atlantis as Alternative Reality for Howard to Address Personal Issues with His Real-Life Environment ......................... 37 3. The Impact of Classic and Occult Sources on Howard’s Depiction of Atlantis ....................................................................................... 46 4. Anthropology and Atlantis: Lewis Spence’s Influence on Howard’s Portrayal of Atlantis ....................................................................... 49 5. Populating the Age of Atlantis and Connecting It with the Alternative History of the Picts ......................................................................... 53 6. Conclusion ...................................................................................... 59 Chapter III: Robert E. Howard’s Historical Short Stories 1. Introduction .................................................................................... 61 2. Howard and History ....................................................................... 61 3. Robert E. Howard and Historical Fiction in the American Pulps ..... 63 4. Harold Lamb’s Influence on Howard’s Historical Fiction ........... 68 5. Howard’s Creation of Authentic Characters ................................. 72 6. Howard’s Realization of the Importance of Realism for His Historical Fiction ............................................................................................. 78 7. Conclusion ...................................................................................... 81 Chapter IV: “The Hyborian Age”: Creating a Fictive Age and Pseudo-History 1. Introduction .................................................................................... 83 2. Conan of Cimmeria: A Barbarian Adventurer and His World ..... 83 3. Creating Pseudo-History: “The Hyborian Age” Essay ................. 88 (a) Draft A ...................................................................................... 91 (b) Draft B ...................................................................................... 94 (c) Draft C ....................................................................................... 95 (d) The Final Draft ......................................................................... 97 4. From Mythology to a Multi-Ethnic Pseudo-History ..................... 98 (a) Howard’s Naming Process to Evoke Mythological Times ..... 98 (b) Anthropology and Multi-Ethnicity in Howard’s “The Hyborian Age” .............................................................. 101 5. Conclusion .................................................................................... 106 Chapter V: Howard’s Pseudo-History in the Context of Secondary World Building in Fantastic Literature 1. Introduction .................................................................................. 107 2. William Morris’ Fictive Medieval Setting .................................. 108 3. “Static Time” ................................................................................ 112 (a) Lost Worlds ............................................................................. 112 (b) History Repeating Itself: E. R. Eddison’s The Worm Ouroboros .............................................................................. 117 4. Planetary Romances: The Martian Stories of E. R. Burroughs ...... 124 5. Tolkien’s Middle-earth and Howard’s World of the Hyborian Age ............................................................................... 129 6. Conclusion .................................................................................... 136 Part II: Robert E. Howard and the History of Texas Introduction ................................................................................................. 138 Chapter I: Robert E. Howard and His Relation to the Old West and Modern Texas 1. Introduction .................................................................................. 139 2. Howard’s Image of the Old West and View of Modern Texas ...... 140 3. The End of the Texas Frontier in Howard’s Work ..................... 152 (a) “Old Garfield’s Heart” ............................................................ 154 (b) “Wild Water” .......................................................................... 160 4. Conclusion ........................................................................................ 164 Chapter II: Texas History in Robert E. Howard’s Fantastic Stories 1. Introduction .................................................................................. 166 2. Aspects of the Frontier in Howard’s Fantastic Fiction ............... 167 (a) Howard’s Taking the Texas Frontier into the Hyborian Age .... 167 (b) The Frontier and Barbarism in Howard’s Southern Gothic Horror Tales ....................................................................................... 172 3. Historic Texas Violence in Howard’s Work ............................... 185 (a) Violence in Howard’s Work and Its Relation with Texas History .................................................................................... 185 (b) Historic Texas Violence and Howard’s Hyborian Age ......... 190 4. Connecting Texas History with the Hyborian Age ..................... 201 5. Conclusion .................................................................................... 205 Conclusion .................................................................................................... 206 Notes ....................................................................................................... 209 Works Cited ................................................................................................ 221 Preface Robert E. Howard (1906-1936) is mostly known for two contributions that had significant impact on the literary genre of fantasy. First, he is the creator of the fantasy subgenre Sword