The Hyborian Age

Introduction

“The Hyborian Age” is an essay by Robert E. Howard pertaining to the Hyborian Age, the fictional setting of his stories about Conan the Cimmerian. It was written in the 1930s but only partly published during Howard’s lifetime. Its purpose was to maintain consistency within his fictional setting.

The essay sets out in detail the major events of Howard’s pseudohistorical prehistory, both period before and after the time of the Conan stories. In describing the cataclysmic end of the Thurian Age, the period described in his Kull stories, Howard links both sequences of stories into one shared universe. The names he gives his various nations and peoples of the age borrow liberally from actual history and myth. The essay also sets out the racial and geographical heritage of these fictional entities, making them progenitors of modern nations. For example, Howard makes the Gaels descendants of his own Cimmerians.

In addition to its use as underpinning to his Kull and Conan stories, Howard drew on his invented prehistory in tales with later settings. For instance, “Kings of the Night” brings King Kull forward in time to fight the Roman legions, while “The Haunter of the Ring,” set in the modern age, makes use of a Hyborian artifact.

REH did three known drafts of his essay The Hyborian Age. These three were presented by The Robert E. Howard Foundation in a chapbook presented to the Legacy Circle members. Drafts A through C are from REH’s original typescripts, furnished by Glenn Lord, and sent to the REH Foundation by Patrice Louinet.

See also:

DRAFT A, DRAFT B, and DRAFT C.

Published in:

L. Sprague de Camp edited this to include his timeline. It appears in the following places:

The Hyborian Age – Wikipedia