Sunday, 7 September 2025

Cimmerian September 2025: A Scotalogue


In researching Conan of Caledonia, I scoured through my collections of Robert E. Howard's work for anything even vaguely related to Scotland & the Scots. Obviously the Bran Mak Morn tales, several historical adventures, the Pictish Conan adventures, & certain individual stories sprang to mind immediately. But the more I pored over the collections, the more of Scotland I found. Some of them are oblique references, perhaps even a single word or name - but once I get started on something, well, "Wha wul ti Cupar maun ti Cupar." For completeness' sake, I am indeed including the Picts of every time period, for the simple reason that Brule, Kelka, Zogar-Sag, & all the other Picts can ultimately claim their literary ancestry back to the Picts of Scotland. Howard himself does in "Kings of the Night," after all.

I've arranged the following catalogue in general written order, with Rusty Burke's essential Fiction & Verse Timeline & Paul Herman's indespensible Howard Works to sort them as best as I can.

Monday, 1 September 2025

I’ the Licht o’ September Sleepin’ (Cimmerian September 2025)

But on they came, driven by the implacable will of Suleyman, and now in September, 1529, over the ruins of Hungary, the Turk swept on Europe, with the Akinji—the Sackmen—ravaging the land like the drift ahead of a storm.
 - Robert E. Howard, "The Shadow of the Vulture," The Magic Carpet Magazine, Volume 4 Number 1, January 1934

It's September... so why not?