Sword & Sorcery is a unique American art form! Conan the Barbarian, Kull, Robert Howard

[@LawrenceCaldwellAuthor]

Oh, and don't forget Fitz Lieber, who actually named the genre and who was also an American.

[@LawrenceCaldwellAuthor]

I enjoyed this. You said a couple things I've never hard before when describing the genre of sword-and-sorcery.

[@rpgclubnet]

Thanks my friend. I'm glad to contribute something new. That's hard in the world of the internet. I'll put together some additional S&S content soon 🙂

[@LawrenceCaldwellAuthor]

@@rpgclubnet I'm looking forward to it!

[@KulturPioniere]

Dope! Provocative standpoint, nicely executed. Subscribed👌

[@jimhoward7624]

Hear ye, hear ye, come to REH days in Cross Plains Texas, it's the S&S Mecca; hope to see you there.

[@mr_reborn]

It's deeply rooted in european folklore, specifically northern, scandic and greek myth.

[@rpgclubnet]

Fantasy, absolutely. Sword and Sorcery I’d argue is a very specific American literary style that emerged in the 1920s. Those other concepts, very influential, but those are more heroic mythic tales than. And regardless, it doesn’t matter who’s right because it’s all awesome. Glad you’re here 🔥

[@nicholascauton9648]

You're not wrong. Sword and Sorcery takes a lot of influence from European folklore and on occasion, Asian and other mythologies as well. But I like to think America simplified the fantasy genre with Sword and Sorcery with the primary aim of entertaining the reader.

[@mr_reborn]

@@nicholascauton9648 Robert E Howard, yes. He was an avid study of history and anthropology. Hyperborea is northern europe.

[@ramseyrosario3126]

Great video, thanks

[@SBMOTION-dw5lj]

Boom...subbed after the 1st sentence!Great and truthful video!!! I bring Conan to life via stop motion!After reading Howards and other versions for over 40 yrs....it's an honor to bring them to life by Crom!Great job thanks ⚔⚔⚔

[@TrebizondMusic-cm6fp]

Umberto Eco reacted to the Sword and Sorcery phenomenon with some condescending bemusement in the 1970s; as a European, he didn't know what to make of it.

[@RocketRaccoon-g9v]

Yeah I agree with this, however the UK created Fantasy

[@rpgclubnet]

Thanks my friend. I make no argument for the US creation of fantasy (especially high fantasy). There's a much longer/deeper tradition in Europe for that genre that's very well established. Let me know if there are any videos you'd find interesting on these topics!

[@ciaranmeeks9431]

When you consider the time and place Howard lived in, and the real-life characters whose yarns influenced him - by his own admission ex-gunslingers, oilmen, boxers, cowboys, former slaves, and local toughs - you could easily argue that his brand of Pulp S&S was essentially a corruption of the classic Western. Pretty much any of the Conan stories could easily be rewritten as Westerns, and many Western classics (take the Sergio Leone/Clint Eastwood Man With No Name series as a perfect example) could easily become Conan stories with just a few changes. So yeah, your thesis definitely has some merit. One just has to remember that S&S is not the same as the sort of LOTR-style High Fantasy that's so in vogue right now. It's a different animal, with different characteristics, and while there are certain elements that definitely crossover, the two genres are not the same.

[@rpgclubnet]

^ all of this. 🔥

[@Dehumanizer3000]

the Greek myths and King Arthur are heroic fantasy. some Celtic and Icelandic Saga/Norse Sagas and Beowulf/Germanic myths are very close to Sword and Sorcery but are not, the Icelandic Sagas sometimes deal with normal people and happen upon odin or magic, or going to distant lands which were unknown, or slaying trolls etc its close to Sword and Sorcery because it was a key influence on Howard, Howard made the genre and its all his, The Grey God Passes or The Cairn on the Headland deals with Odin, its a great tale, it kinda turns Odin into an eldritch god and apart of the cthulhu mythos. Howard: "Out of the cairn he rose, and the northern lights played terribly about him. And the Grey Man changed and altered in horrific transmutation. The human features faded like a fading mask; the armour fell from his body and crumbled to dust as it fell; and the fiendish spirit of ice and frost and darkness that the sons of the North deified as Odin, stood nakedly and terribly, in the stars. About his grisly head played lightnings and the shuddering gleams of the aurora. His towering anthropomorphic form was dark as shadow and gleaming as ice; his horrible crest reared colossally against the vaulting arch of the sky."

[@erikwaag6438]

Agreed. I take my primary inspiration from American authors. Also, Amazon lumping in just about anything into it's S&S category makes finding real S&S more difficult.

[@ShieldiceStudio]

Interesting take! As an Englishman, I’d agree that Arthurian tales and the such are ‘heroic’, rather than S&S. Howard is indeed the father of Sword & Sorcery, but I’d say Lord Dunsany might be the grandfather! 😉 (See ‘The Fortress Unvanquishable, Save for Sacnoth’ and ‘The Distressing Tale of Thangobrind the Jeweller’ for examples). Howard and Clark Ashton Smith have been my personal favourites since childhood, so Sword & Sorcery definitely falls more on the American side in my mind (and the fantastic Fritz Lieber coined the term!) Love the thoughts in this video!

[@ethankly12]

I consider Edgar Rice Burroughs to be the true originator of Sword & Sorcery. Both Tarzan and John Carter, yes he created Tarzan, were loin cloth wearing chads that murdered fantastical beasts. Sorcery was never a direct thing, but science fantasy elements were - including things like dinosaurs and psychic powers and such. As I understand it, these characters were written and published a decade before Conan in 1912! But yes, he was an American. Awesome video, and they say Americans have no culture. Well buff shirtless morally ambiguous men are our culture damn you.

[@hyperguyver2]

John Carter is Sword and Planet and Tarzan is Heroic Fantasy they are missing a critical element that makes S&S what it is, horror. Sword and Sorcery unlike other forms of fantasy really leans in to the weird and eldritch horror more than the other genres of fantasy. except in S&S you don't become a mess with a feeling of dread and doom, you stab it in the face and then you go plow the girl you just saved.

[@chameleondream]

You're right! But it goes deeper than that, otherwise Howard would have written nothing but Westerns (which he did do). I think key to understanding Sword & Sorcery is that America is ultimately a nation of immigrants. Everyone came from some place else, a place that largely only existed in their dreams. This separation gave them the freedom to get it wrong. Europeans, living near cities with libraries and museums and the crumbling remains of the past, are too close to the truth to be inventive about it. Meanwhile out in desolate places like Cross Plains, Texas you could mix Hercules with King Arthur, Grimm's Fairy Tales and the Old Testament to create something completely new, something called Sword & Sorcery.

[@BanjoSick]

Like that European dude, Tolkien, way too close. His stories are not inventive…

[@mizukarate]

If you don't know REH.......your no friend of mine!!!!!⚔️🗡️🏹⚒️

[@BanjoSick]

The big difference between greek and british legends and Sword&Sorcery is that S&S is a genre of fiction that was written as that by a single author.

[@BanjoSick]

Micheal Moorcook, #2 in S&S is british… .

[@rpgclubnet]

Yep (he’s amazing btw, love his Elric series). And he wrote about 40-50 years after REH.

[@WarDogMadness]

Yes ! , but no not entirely, but i like the thesis and agree mostly.

[@johncolitti8009]

Your thesis is weak. However, if the goal of this video is to say American as often as possible you have succeeded. American 🇺🇸.

[@rpgclubnet]

What would be your critique? . And yes. American 🇺🇸 there…got another one in.

[@gameexplorert]

You haven't read any of the Gilgamesh stories, right?

[@rpgclubnet]

I would call that more a heroic/religious mythos than Sword and Sorcery entertainment. But its a great tale for sure. Regardless, I'm glad you're here. 😀

[@gameexplorert]

@@rpgclubnet Given enough time, any good story will become myth. It's a pleasure being here. By the way, the reason I got here is that I'm making a sword and sorcery retro video game, based in part on the ancient Mesopotamian culture.

[@rpgclubnet]

@@gameexplorert for sure my friend, great point. And the video game project, that is so freeking cool, I love it. 🔥🔥

[@jeffsmith40]

I love sword and sorcery, don't ruin it by bringing nationalism into it

[@rpgclubnet]

Did you watch the video? What do you think of my perspective regarding REH?

[@jeffsmith40]

@@rpgclubnet I'm sure there's some truth to it, but dor me, sword and sorcery are about escapism. I enjoy the fantasy lands because they're not the countries that I'm familiar with. I don't want to think about the USA when I'm reading about Hyboria