BoD: The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian

If you’re like me, you only knew Arnold Schwarzenegger’s version of Conan. The muscle-bound, grunting misanthrope who famously uttered the response “To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of the women!” when asked the meaning of life.

But the actual Conan stories, written by Robert E. Howard in the thirties, are much more than what we saw in the movie. In the stories collected in The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian, the character is portrayed as a middle-aged king of Aquilonia, a young barbarian in the northern fringes of the world, a leader of a marauding pirate band, and in other stages of his development as hero and legend. Far more than the portrayal Arnold showed us in the film version, the pulp Conan displayed much more range and emotion.

Check out this great throwback to the adventure stories of yesteryear here.