The darkness hung in the old tomb's nighted halls like tapestries of a ghostly kingdom. Glinting pinpricks of dust flittered to the ground, disturbed for the first time in centuries by some errant gust from a nameless wind. The great jade sarcophagus laid upon a cracked lapiz-lazuli dais untouched for untold years, the silence unbroken since the death of the old dynasty. A thunderstroke cracked; a blast of dust and smoke burst as the sarcophagus lid shuddered open. A withered hand juddered from the gloom: grasping the lid, a skeletal husk heaved into the dim light. A skull wrapped in skin dry and pale as parchment loomed aloft. It gaped and gasped, coughing fitfuls of dessicated beard into the stagnant air like a dandelion clock. The figure looked, squinting its wrinkled eyelids uselessly over the sockets from which eyes once gazed.
"Ach, what are they up to now?"
Picture this: A weathered scroll, its edges crumbling, reveals a tale of a towering barbarian king.
Next to it, a sleek comic book showcases the same warrior, now embroiled in a battle with eldritch horrors.
On a nearby screen, pixels form yet another version of this legendary figure.
Three depictions of Conan the Barbarian – but which one is “real”?
For decades, fans have debated the “true” nature of Conan, arguing over canon and adaptation.
But what if there’s more to this story than meets the eye? What if the very concept of Conan canon is as fluid and unpredictable as the Cimmerian himself?
Join us as we reveal how, in the Hyborian Age, fact and fiction intertwine, and every interpretation adds a new thread to an ever-expanding legendary barbarian.
So spaketh Jo Terry on Conan.com, and... it's worth going over it.
You know, it isn't as if I haven't toyed with the idea of the Conan multiverse myself. In that case, I was interested more in codification, so that folk wouldn't confuse all the disparate elements with one another. This wasn't (just) to make clear what was Howard and what wasn't, but to delineate between what was Milius & what was deCamp, what was Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures and what was that DOS/Amiga game from the 1990s, and the difference between Conan the Adventurer and... Conan the Adventurer.
At that point in my Howard fandom, I had an interest in seeing the intersections of the many conflicting, contradictory, counterintuitive canons, because it seemed very funny to me how Conan's very backstory, supposedly iconic to his character, had about as many evil warlords personally & solely responsible as a DC Rogues Gallery.
Gentlemen, please, you can't all be solely and personally responsible for attacking Conan's village, slaying/petrifying/enslaving his family, and forcing him into slavery when he was a child!
According to one such legend, Conan's village was destroyed & his parents slain by the thousand-year-old snake-worshipping sorcerer warlord Thulsa Doom, his father's sword taken as a trophy, and he himself pressed into slavery for twenty years of pitiless cumber. Another legend has it that a giant lizard transmogrified into a Serpent Man wizard ravaged Conan's village and petrified Conan's family with a Spell of Living Stone, though without taking his sword or enslaving Conan himself. Yet another legend proposes that Conan's parents were slain by Vanir raiders before he was enslaved, while the generally unremarkable wizard Hissah Zul somehow managed to conquer not just Conan's home village, but all of Cimmeria! And that's not even getting to the legend where Khalar Zym sacked his village & his daughter took Conan's father's sword... though at least he wasn't enslaved in that legend.
These legends can't all be true, and indeed, Jo is careful to acknowledge the primacy of the original Robert E. Howard stories:
As Conan’s legend grew beyond Howard’s original tales, it took on a life of its own, evolving into a cultural phenomenon that has captivated audiences for nearly a century. This expansion of the Conan mythos, far from diluting the character’s essence, has instead enriched it, creating a web of stories that both honor and reimagine the original creation.
Still, in the vast and varied world of Conan the Barbarian, one principle stands paramount: Robert E. Howard’s original stories are the only true canon. Everything else – from comics to films, from TV shows to video games – exists in a realm of legend, passed down through the ages with all the malleability and mystery that entails.
I'm very glad to see that while other copyright patrons have very different priorities regarding foundational material, Heroic Signatures continue to uphold the . The question is, at what point do we acknowledge that the many interpretations of Conan cannot be reconciled without either the original Howard stories, or the contradictory "legend," suffering in the process?
As an example, let's look at Mortal Kombat 1 inviting Conan the Barbarian to be a guest character.
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This is of course far from the first time Conan has crossed over into other realms for a good square-go. |
It was to be expected, then, that there would be tons of references to the De Laurentiis Dualogy - a fatality involving green soup, fighting moves taken straight from Kiyoshi Yamazaki's fight choreography,
Where it gets intriguing is when references from elsewhere in the Conan continuum sneak in.
1:32 "Let me live deep while I live; let me know the rich juices of red meat and stinging wine on my palate, the hot embrace of white arms, the mad exultation of battle when the blue blades flame and crimson, and I am content." - Queen of the Black Coast 1:42 “Their present king is the most renowned warrior among the western nations. He is an outlander, an adventurer who seized the crown by force during a time of civil strife, strangling King Namedides *with his own hands*, upon the very throne. His name is Conan, and no man can stand before him in battle." - The Hour of the Dragon 3:28 "“Well,” said Conan harshly, “is it not better to die honorably than to live in infamy? Is death worse than oppression, slavery and ultimate destruction?”" - The Scarlet Citadel 6:52 ""Barbarism is the natural state of mankind," the borderer said, still staring somberly at the Cimmerian. "Civilization is unnatural. It is a whim of circumstance. And barbarism must always ultimately triumph."" - Beyond the Black River 7:23 "“The princess would go with us. She’s supple, but too soft for this work. Anyway, she’ll have to get out of these robes.” Amalric twisted his yellow mustache to hide a grin. Evidently Conan supposed Yasmela intended to strap on a sword and take part in the actual fighting, as the barbarian women often fought. “The women of the Hyborians do not fight like your Cimmerian women, Conan,” he said."" - Black Colossus 7:44 "“I was born in the midst of a battle,” he answered, tearing a chunk of meat from a huge joint with his strong teeth. “The first sound my ears heard was the clang of swords and the yells of the slaying. I have fought in blood-feuds, tribal wars, and imperial campaigns.”" - Black Colossus 8:06 "“I have no royal blood,” ground Conan. “I am a barbarian and the son of a blacksmith.”" - The Hour of the Dragon 8:18 "“Lead me into a trap and I’ll pile the heads of your kinsmen at your feet!”" - The Frost-Giant's Daughter 8:44 "What do I know of cultured ways, the gilt, the craft and the lie?; I, who was born in a naked land and bred in the open sky. The subtle tongue, the sophist guile, they fail when the broadswords sing; Rush in and die, dogs – I was a man before I was a king." - The Phoenix on the Sword 8:50 “Hide from me and I’ll tear apart the mountains to find you!” - The Frost-Giant's Daughter 9:30 "“You black dog!” A red mist of fury swept across Conan’s eyes. “Were I free I’d give you a broken back!”" - The Scarlet Citadel 10:24 "“In the old free days all I wanted was a sharp sword and a straight path to my enemies. Now no paths are straight and my sword is useless."" - The Phoenix on the Sword 10:33 “Let teachers and priests and philosophers brood over questions of reality and illusion. I know this: if life is illusion, then I am no less an illusion, and being thus, the illusion is real to me. I live, I burn with life, I love, I slay, and am content.” - Queen of the Black Coast 10:40 “But you civilized men are soft; your lives are not nailed to your spines as are ours.” - A Witch Shall Be Born 11:07 "The gods of yesterday become the devils of tomorrow." - Black Colossus 12:05 “A great poet is greater than any king. His songs are mightier than my scepter; for he has near ripped the heart from my breast when he chose to sing for me. I shall die and be forgotten, but Rinaldo’s songs will live for ever.” - The Phoenix on the Sword 12:12 "With bare boughs rattling in the lonesome winds, And the dark woodlands brooding over all, Not even lightened by the rare dim sun Which made squat shadows out of men; they called it Cimmeria, land of Darkness and deep Night." - Cimmeria 12:40 “I am no dog,” the barbarian muttered. “I keep my word.” - The God in the Bowl 13:34 "Had you seen what he and I saw,” growled the king, sitting up despite the protests of the leeches, “you had not wondered." - The Phoenix on the Sword 13:44 “I found Aquilonia in the grip of a pig like you – one who traced his genealogy for a thousand years. The land was torn with the wars of the barons, and the people cried out under oppression and taxation. Today no Aquilonian noble dares maltreat the humblest of my subjects, and the taxes of the people are lighter than anywhere else in the world." - The Scarlet Citadel
So in addition to the inevitable mentions of snakes and lamentations and steel, the Mortal Kombat 1 developers actually went to the extra effort of combing the original Robert E. Howard stories for quotes. This extends to his gear - several customisation options, such as costume pallettes, are named for the original stories (along with some Lin Carter ones, which I'm sure will be a delight for his fans). On top of that, the 2011 film gets some love, as the swords of Conan the Momoan and Khalar Zym can be used to chop up otherworldly ninjas: even the 1997 TV series is referenced, as the Sword of Aquilonia is very similar to the big blade Ralph Moeller wielded. I wish I could figure if the Swords of Khitai, the Usurper, the Conqueror, and the Avenger are explicit references to comics or games - they may be homages to Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures or Conan Exiles, but I haven't played those games enough to tell offhand.
But they saved the biggest surprise for the ending cinematic, which nominally explains how Conan came to the Mortal Kombat Universe:
"From the time he encountered the mysterious Yog-Kosha, my master has known other worlds and other planes of existence. Long has he dreamed of visiting them and availing himself of their pleasures. So when he learned that one of these worlds faced an unimaginable evil, he did not hesitate to he need it call for aid - but even his wildest imaginings could not prepare him for these gigantic hideous beasts! If not annihilated, they would consume this world, and after that, fill their bellies with ours. Pleased with his new allies and eager for the adventure this new world afforded, Conan chose to stay here. Once the battle was won, many wars did he fight: honor and fear were heaped upon his name. In time, it became... Legend."
- Conan's Chronicler, who... evidently followed him to Outworld?
I have... thoughts.
First of all, the fact the unnamed resembles-but-is-legally-distinct-from-Mako narrator calls the being Yog-Kosha as opposed to Yag-Kosha is simply too elementary to be a mistake. I refuse to believe someone misread "The Tower of the Elephant" & didn't catch it, especially given the deep cuts the script makes elsewhere. For another, Yag-Kosha (if this is indeed he) appears in "The Tower of the Elephant" - a story which quite profoundly contradicts the events of Conan the Barbarian:
At Vanarium(sic) he was already a formidable antagonist, though only fifteen. He stood six feet and weighed 180 pounds, though he lacked much of having his full growth... There was the space of about a year between Vanarium and his entrance into the thief-city of Zamora.
- Robert E. Howard, Letter to P.S. Miller, 1936
A touch on his tunic sleeve made him turn his head, scowling at the interruption. He saw a tall, strongly made youth standing beside him.
- "The Tower of the Elephant," The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian, p68
"I remember days like this when my father took me to the forest and we ate wild blueberries. More than twenty years ago. I was just a boy of four or five. The leaves were so dark and green then. The grass smelled sweet with the spring wind. Almost twenty years of pitiless cumber! No rest, no sleep like other men."
- Conan, Conan the Barbarian (1982, extended cut)
This is one of many, many reasons why Milius's Conan cannot be the Conan created by Robert E. Howard - because the stories cannot be reconciled as they are without significant recontextualisation, which means one has to take precedence.
If you prioritise the film, then you must place it as a sequel due to the nature of the narrative - "The Tower of the Elephant" can't be a prequel (not least because when Subotai asks Conan if he'd ever seen civilisation before, he replies with an awed "no" - which wouldn't make sense if he'd already been to Zamora as a youth), nor there is there sufficient room to make it work as a minor adventure between acts. So you have to "age-up" Conan in TToTE from a youth of 16 or 17 years or so, to his late 20s at the earliest - in which case his naivete and sensitivity seems incongruous with the film's character development, and you have to alter several important pieces of context. For instance, in the film, Conan encounters an elephant as he walks into while walking with Subotai into Zamora: in TTotE, Conan had explicitly never seen an elephant, only knowing its general shape from Shemite descriptions, & Howard even points out that there were no elephants in Zamora. Ergo, since you're prioritising the film, that detail has to change, since according to the film, Conan has in fact seen an elephant, and there were indeed elephants in Zamora.
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| "But..." |
But if you prioritise the story, then you have to explain how Conan could take a break from the Wheel of Pain for an adventure in the City of Thieves in a way that makes sense, and I don't think it overly harsh to say such an explanation would be contrived (to say the least). More importantly, it would be a terrible idea to even consider breaking up the Wheel of Pain, since it is of such enormous thematic importance to the character of Milius's Conan - the "twenty years of pitiless cumber" informed his dehumanisation and conditioning to be a pit fighter and warrior-slave, and you fatally undermine that if you have him even briefly relieved from the endless hard graft of the Wheel. Even the de Camp-Carter adaptation of the film didn't try to reconcile it with the stories (given the film contradicted their Conan origin as much as it did Howard's) so much as expand upon the film's narrative.
This might surprise long-time readers, but I don't like the idea of undermining Milius's Conan in order to accomodate Howard's Conan any more than I like altering Howard's Conan to better fit with Milius's Conan. So what is it? Simple: it's a reboot. New continuity with bits & pieces from the original stories, which might be completely different in every way except name. Which is perfectly fine - so long as you're honest about it, & not trying to pretend this is Howard's Conan, or that your Conan is the "real" one (insofar as a fictional character can be "real"). This is irrespective of the quality of any new story - there are several incredible adaptations of Frankenstein, and there are many elements introduced in those adaptations which became linked to the character in the public consciousness - but even though the copyright for the original work is long gone, nobody would argue that Mary Shelley is Frankenstein's creator. Similarly, even though folk have argued John Carpenter's The Thing is a superior work to John W. Campbell's "Who Goes There?" absolutely nobody suggests trying to reconcile the two, or rewriting Campbell's story. Conan has reached a similar level of cultural apotheosis to Frankenstein, Dracula, Sherlock Holmes, Zorro, Arsène Lupin, and Tarzan - and so, while the original stories took a while to get out there without alterations or inclusions with other works, they are freely available to a degree previously impossible. Howard's legacy is secure, which means that we can reappraise our relationship with pastiches.
Which brings me all the way back to "Yog"-Kosha. With all this in mind (and it's entirely possible I'm reading far too much into it), I think that this a deliberate misspelling to indicate that Yog-Kosha is a reference to Yag-Kosha, rather than a direct adaptation. This is certainly not the only time we've seen the 1982 film universe take bits & pieces from Howard's stories as inspiration for something else - Thulsa Doom is the most notable example, while Pat Roach's "Toth-Amon" borrows the name & general sorcery vocation from one character and the monstrous scarlet-caped ape form of another.
Visually, this Yog-Kosha is an uncanny recreation of Mark Schultz's depiction of Yag-Kosha from the The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian, right down to the runic symbols on the throne - but there are a few differences between this illustration, & Howard's description. As with the work of Frank Frazetta, I am perfectly happy with "thematic" illustrations, but as a pedantic nerd I also crave fidelity to descriptions - it's a pain that never ends.
- For one, Yog-Kosha is chained to stone throne, not the "sort of marble couch" Yag-Kosha sat upon.
- Yog-Kosha's eyes are brilliant blue jewels. Howard describes Yag-Kosha's eyes as "topaz": while topaz can come in a variety of hues, topaz eyes tend to describe rich golden-brown eyes - interestingly, like those of an elephant. While it's entirely possible Howard was thinking of blue topaz for Yag-Kosha, in the specific context of eyes, golden-brown is at least as likely.
- Howard describes the head of Yag-Kosha with terms like "nightmare," "madness," with "no attributes of humanity," and notes that his heart "differed curiously from any he had ever seen" - this does not necessarily mean that Yag-Kosha's head was an alien monstrosity only vaguely similar to that of an elephant, but it does indicate that it is not quite a dead ringer for a Loxodonta, as seen with Yog-Kosha.
- Less ambiguous is Yag-Kosha's colouration, where he is described as green-skinned, an important indicator of his alien nature; Yog-Kosha is the familiar pachyderm gray we associate with elephants.
- Yag-Kosha has small golden orbs tipping his tusks: these are absent on Yog-Kosha.
- While some wounds are visible on Yog-Kosha, mostly light abrasions on trunk & ear, there's no evidence of the "ruined deformities" of Yag-Kosha's limbs on him that left even Conan "aghast."
Barry Smith's and Cary Nord's interpretations in the Marvel and Dark Horse comic adaptations have more elements that Howard provides, as does Alejandro Villen's cover for the Mongoose RPG supplement Conan and the Tower of the Elephant:
So we can imagine that Milius's Conan may have had an adventure resembling-but-legally-distinct-from Howard's "The Tower of the Elephant," featuring an otherworldly being evocative of Yag-Kosha, perhaps at the end of an adventure that's sufficiently different from the Tower of the Serpent sequence in the 1982 film. The 1997 "Conan the Adventurer" took the basic idea of Yag-Kosha as an elephant-headed magical being, and retained the Final Enchantment, but eschewed the cosmic origin for a human one.
(It's worth noting that Conan seems to have hopped timestreams, if not whole dimensions, through "other worlds and other planes of existence." Mortal Kombat's Earthrealm is explicitly Earth, with other realms like Outworld, Edenia, & so forth being different planes of reality - though the recent reboot has resulted in much time nonsense, so it's arguable what the series' relationship to "our" Earth is anymore. The Hyborian Age could thus be an alternate Earthrealm timeline's prehistory, given that Earthrealm's prehistory involves gods & civilisations that don't match up with Howard's prehistoric world. It's just unfortunate that it could be misinterpreted to mean the Hyborian Age is actually fantasy world called "Hyboria," separate from Earth)
Conan has become a multi-media franchise, and much as I would be happy to see Conan enter the public domain to join A.A. Milne's Winnie the Pooh & spar with Captain Hook in Alan Moore's next League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, we have a while to wait for that. One hopes that like Tarzan, John Carter, & Sherlock Holmes, public domain status won't prevent high-quality, high-budget adaptations - and that prospective indy filmmakers will have higher aspirations than rote slasher flicks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaNWnsoM0eA
Besides, The Two Ronnies beat them to it... nearly 40 years ago!
And I'm obviously not against pastiches, or legends (how very Star Wars) in and of themselves: I've already writiten my personal meditations on how I imagine the birth, early life, and death of a certain Cimmerian may have happened - knowing that these are my own, and that everyone else will have their own "legend" or "story" themselves. That's the beauty of the situation we find ourselves in.
So we'll see if Milius's Conan making a guest appearance in Mortal Kombat 1 will be an indicator of the future. I'd long thought that some form of King Conan: Crown of Iron needed to be made for the sake of closure that fans of the film have waited over 40 years for: who knows if that'll get the ball rolling as Hollywood finds itself running out of classic '80s properties. In this age of the internet, at least folk will know what's what.
It's a great time to be a Conan fan, a Howard fan, and a Sword-and-Sorcery fan. Let's hope we keep the great times going.
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