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?

I've been reading & rereading Howard quite a good deal lately, initially for Conan of Caledonia, but also for a certain Secret Project (edging close to 100,000 words now), as well as a wee tabletop roleplaying campaign using the new Monolith Conan RPG. And, of course, I'll read purely for my own joy of reading. 

This year was particularly important for me, as after a self-imposed exile for a decade in the wilderness, I decided the time was right to turn back to Howard. A fortuitous series of circumstances brought me to Fantasy Con Scotland, & I delivered a presentation on Scotland's influence on Howard, and Howard's on Scotland.

I've been working away at making the entire presentation available to watch online, but for now, here's a 15 minute preview of some of the many subjects that I discussed:

"I’m writing a book which doubtless would make you tired and would sound like a lot of fool stuff to most folks, but as I am writing it for my own amusement, the opinion of other people about it don't interest me, as I know of... Some of the characters are Ammon the Amalekite, who was a famous swordsman, Swift-Foot, the tree-man, Tostig the Mighty, a viking and something of a villain, Hakon, a Norseman and crafty as a fox, Bran Mak Morn, who was the greatest chief the Picts ever had, and many others too numerous to mention."

- Robert E. Howard, letter to Tevis Clyde Smith, 5 October 1923

In addition to putting up bits & pieces from the presentation (the full thing will be online one way or another by the end of the month!) I'm also going to have a look at all the times Scotland & the Scots (& Picts & Celts) were mentioned in Howard's work or letters, from entire stories set in Caledonia, to poems, to singular offhand references.

And then, next year, another Fantasy convention is coming to Scotland... & there are open applications for panels... dare I?

To paraphrase a certain great Scots poet, the number of references to Scotland in Howard's literature can hardly be considered small - & there's no better way to prove it than to show it.

Scotland small? Our multiform, our infinite Scotland small?
Only as a patch of hillside may be a cliché corner
To a fool who cries ‘Nothing but heather!’ where in September another
Sitting there and resting and gazing around
Sees not only the heather but blaeberries
With bright green leaves and leaves already turned scarlet,
Hiding ripe blue berries; and amongst the sage-green leaves
Of the bog-myrtle the golden flowers of the tormentil shining;
And on the small bare places, where the little Blackface sheep
Found grazing, milkworts blue as summer skies;
And down in neglected peat-hags, not worked
Within living memory, sphagnum moss in pastel shades
Of yellow, green, and pink; sundew and butterwort
Waiting with wide-open sticky leaves for their tiny winged prey;
And nodding harebells vying in their colour
With the blue butterflies that poise themselves delicately upon them;
And stunted rowans with harsh dry leaves of glorious colour.
‘Nothing but heather!’ ̶ How marvellously descriptive! And incomplete!
 - Hugh MacDiarmid, excerpt from Dìreadh I, 1974