The Hyborian Age - an essay by Robert E. Howard on the Conan the Barbarian setting

[Stɪdʒia], no [Stɪgia]

I know it's been a solid while since this has been posted, and I am fairly late to the party, but my Hyborian Age itch came back full force and then I found this. Well done sir, and may Crom be with you!

Thank you so much for this. I quit life for an hour, dusted off my Hyborian Age map and had a great time following along.

Clearly, the guy knew a lot of real History.

Rule number 1 of empire building: never teach a potential enemy how to effectively attack you
Rule number 2 of empire building: never attack your allies
Rule number 3 of empire building: never over-tax your populace
Rule number 4 of empire building: never overextend your armies

Good job.

Because of this video I just bought the first Conan book.

This is very appreciated and appealing to the ear. The story is epic and worthy of telling. Thanks for the videos.👍

Brilliant I haven't read this since i was a kid in the 70's thanx!🤘🤔

Howard was very well educated and knowledgeable about other cultures even non-Western ones.....surprising for someone who grew in rural Texas in the 1920s....

Love Robert e Howard. Your narration was perfect! Felt like an actual history, but very engaging.

Really awesome presentation.

One thing I did not quite understand until reading 400 pages of Conan stories, is that "Hyborian", although gives the name to the Age and the Supercontinent that the stories are set in, is actually a word which refers to the people of the West, the Hyborians, which includes Nordheim, Cimmeria, Aquilonian, Hyperborea, Kosh, Nemedia, Zingara, Argos, Zamora and many more. Hyborian basically means European or white people. In Khauran it's explained that the royalty and nobility are Hyborian, described with white European traits, while the commoner population are not, they are local aboriginals and described as more swarthy. Stygia, Turan and Shem are obviously not Hyborians.

In the context of Conan, this is like Howard's "Silmarilian", or "War of the Ring" book.

I like the Conan stories a lot however as I'm not a native speaker I do find it hard to read them as they are full of difficult words .The images his writing conjures in your head though while reading is excellent and the world is just as fascinating if not more. I listened to this while looking at maps of the world found on google and it made it even better. Its very immersive and I cant wait to explore it more through Howards stories. I just love the idea of different races in war/alliances, Dangerous jungles full of savage's/deserts etc. Are there any other books that have as immersive worlds like Howard's?

56:43 - So in this fiction, if the Cimmerian lands became what we know as England, Ireland, and Scotland, then in a broad sense that would make Conan pre-Celtic?

Truth is stranger than fiction.

I love your videos, but could you please make some playlists? Like Lovecraft, Conan, Essays, Warhammer 40k etc? Because sometimes the title is not enough to clearly separate the different worlds or to distinguish the videos. I would really appreciate it!

He exposed esoteric history to the masses in a way that they could handle

Kull of Atlantis. Bran Mac Morn, chief king of the Picts. Then there is Solomon Kane.
But Conan the Cimmerean of Hyborea, is the toughest of his characters.

Good work.