The influences behind Conan the Barbarian

1982

Conan the Barbarian

Film by John Milius

New Hollywood. United States. In English.

John Milius's 1982 sword-and-sorcery epic, co-written with Oliver Stone, follows a Cimmerian enslaved as a boy who grows into a warrior and takes revenge on the serpent-cult leader Thulsa Doom. It builds its episodes from Robert E. Howard's Weird Tales stories, opens with an epigraph from Nietzsche, and stages its battles with the Kurosawa films Milius admired in mind.

Where it came from

Where to watch

Stream Netflix
Free YouTube
Rent Amazon $3.99, Google Play $2.99, Apple TV $3.99, Fandango at Home $3.99
Buy Amazon $12.99, Google Play $9.99, Apple TV $12.99, Fandango at Home $12.99

In the US, as of October 12. Prices and services change.

Find “Conan the Barbarian” on Amazon

1934

Queen of the Black Coast

Robert E. Howard

American pulp era. United States. Written in English.

Conan becomes the lover and fellow raider of the pirate queen Bêlit, who dies in a ruined jungle city and returns from death to save him.

What it handed down

To Conan the Barbarian (1982)

Direct source, well documented.

Valeria is modeled on the pirate queen Bêlit: a fighting woman who becomes Conan's lover, dies, and returns from beyond death to save him in battle, as Bêlit had vowed she would. Conan's speech about Crom, a god who gives men courage and nothing else, is drawn from his talk with Bêlit, and Valeria's funeral pyre answers Bêlit's burning ship.

Where it came from

The Tower of the Elephant, Robert E. Howard 1933

Find “Queen of the Black Coast” on Amazon

1933

The Tower of the Elephant

Robert E. Howard

American pulp era. United States. Written in English.

A young Conan, working as a thief, breaks into a sorcerer's tower to steal a jewel and finds an enslaved alien being from another star.

What it handed down

To Queen of the Black Coast (1934)

Thematic kinship, probable.

Tower fixed the young Conan as a wandering barbarian thief moving through corrupt cities, the outlaw Howard carried into Queen of the Black Coast when Conan turns pirate. The film's own middle section, a theft from a serpent tower with a giant snake guarding it, draws on Tower and reaches the film through this phase of Howard's cycle.

Where it came from

Find “The Tower of the Elephant” on Amazon

The Distressing Tale of Thangobrind the JewellerLord Dunsany

1912

The Distressing Tale of Thangobrind the Jeweller

Lord Dunsany

Edwardian. Ireland. Written in English.

A story from The Book of Wonder in which a master thief steals a great gem from a spider-idol's temple and meets a grim end.

What it handed down

To The Tower of the Elephant (1933)

Disputed link, probable.

Dunsany's tale of a thief who steals a great jewel from a guarded temple and is destroyed by its spider-god has been proposed as a model for Conan's theft of the Heart of the Elephant. Howard admired Dunsany, but no direct statement of this debt is known.

Where it came from

The Gods of Pegāna, Lord Dunsany 1905

Find “The Distressing Tale of Thangobrind the Jeweller” on Amazon

1905

The Gods of Pegāna

Lord Dunsany

Edwardian. Ireland. Written in English.

Dunsany's first book, an invented scripture of gods and prophets.

What it handed down

To The Call of Cthulhu

Thematic kinship, probable.

Lovecraft read Dunsany in 1919 and called him a decisive influence. Dunsany's invented pantheon of indifferent gods shaped Lovecraft's own made-up cosmic deities and their cults.

To The Distressing Tale of Thangobrind the Jeweller (1912)

Stylistic influence, probable.

Dunsany carried the cadences and invented gods of Pegāna into the shorter, ironic tales of The Book of Wonder. Thangobrind's spider-idol Hlo-hlo belongs to the same imaginary religion-making.

Where it came from

The Bible (King James Version), Anonymous 1611

Find “The Gods of Pegāna” on Amazon

The BibleAnonymous

1611

The Bible (King James Version)

Anonymous

Jacobean. England. Written in English.

The English translation of the Bible made under James I.

What it handed down

To The Gods of Pegāna (1905)

Stylistic influence, well documented.

Dunsany said his prose style came from the King James Bible he read as a child. Pegāna imitates its parallel clauses, 'and' openings and prophetic tone.

Where it came from

The line stops here: a translation of Hebrew and Greek scripture; its descent through earlier English versions is not followed here.

Find “The Bible (King James Version)” on Amazon

Where it came from

What it handed down

To Conan the Barbarian (1982)

Where it came from

What it handed down

To Queen of the Black Coast (1934)

Where it came from

What it handed down

To The Tower of the Elephant (1933)

Where it came from

What it handed down

To The Call of Cthulhu

To The Distressing Tale of Thangobrind the Jeweller (1912)

Where it came from

What it handed down

To The Gods of Pegāna (1905)

Where it came from

Share this