THE CIMMERIAN BLOG CLOSED ON JUNE 11, 2010.

For details on why we decided to call it quits after six years, click here.

It was a bittersweet night for the Cimmerian bloggers that were on hand for Howard Days 2010. On the final day of this site’s existence as an active blog, TheCimmerian.com received the The Stygian Award for the best website at the Robert E. Howard Foundation Awards ceremony. There is something fitting about going out at the top of your game in Howardom. On behalf of all the TC bloggers past and present, thank you all so very much.

LEO SAYS: And with that announcement, we’ll bring this blog to a close. Thanks to everyone who made it such a going concern for all these years, and be sure to check out all of the other REH sites and blogs on the sidebar for all of your REH/JRRT/fantasy needs.

I admit I was a bit taken aback a few months ago when Deuce Richardson approached me about writing for The Cimmerian. My first impulse was to turn him down.

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I came across Robert E. Howard’s writings during my early adolescence. Probably like many other readers, the barbarian with gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth was first, but thanks to a public library shelving NéO books translated in French by François Truchaud (some Clark Ashton Smith volumes from the same collection were on the shelves too); I found out early that Howard had written in other genres. I read these books voraciously and was hooked. JRR Tolkien came next –The Silmarillion being my introduction to the professor’s œuvre. Also, like Howard, I ‘m fond of historical adventures. His vivid stories probably were a part in my early interest in history, which I studied later.

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Roads go ever on, but I’m sad to see this one reach its end. 

It’s been a privilege and a pleasure writing for The Cimmerian.

Farewell we call to hearth and hall!
Though wind may blow and rain may fall,
We must away ere break of day
Far over wood and mountain tall.

To Rivendell, where Elves yet dwell
In glades beneath the misty fell,
Through moor and waste we ride in haste,
And whither then we cannot tell.

With foes ahead, behind us dread,
Beneath the sky shall be our bed,
Until at last our toil be passed,
Our journey done, our errand sped.

We must away! We must away!
We ride before the break of day!

–J.R.R. Tolkien, Farewell Song of Merry and Pippin

Damon C. Sasser just picked up the latest issue of the Robert E. Howard: Two-Gun Raconteur journal from the printer. It will be available at Howard Days 2010 on June 11.

Since the announcement of the fourteenth issue of the TGR journal on TC last April, Damon has posted some updates on its contents, which will be detailed below.

Above, you can see Michael L. Peters’ cover featuring El Borak. Two of his drawings from a four-plate Solomon Kane portfolio based on “The Hills of the Dead” are also illustrating this blog entry.

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Like many people, I felt a sense of great loss on reading that Frank Frazetta had died. The impulse to post something right away faded before the feeling that nothing I could say would be adequate, and the need to get my thoughts in order (and the words halfway right) before I wrote anything. But now, in the face of other significant news (that the Shieldwall is coming down) I had better get on with it while I can still say something on The Cimmerian.

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I’ve often lamented that, despite there being no less than four films released which claim to be based on his work, none could truly be considered an adaptation. The world of television was not much better, with the three Conan programs virtually unrecognizable as Howard’s creation. It would seem that despite the hundreds of stories and eighty years’ worth of influence on many genres of fiction, there hadn’t been a single professional adaptation of a Robert E. Howard story.

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Like many people who’ve been part of The Cimmerian weblog for longer than I, I’m saddened to the point at which it’s hard for me to find words at its closing.  It was a privilege to write and post on the same weblog as Steve Tompkins, Deuce Richardson, Brian Murphy, Al Harron, Barbara Barrett, Morgan Holmes, Miguel Martins and so many others.  I’ve learned a lot from their articles and enjoyed them all hugely; they were welcoming when I came aboard and helpful all the time I was part of the blog.

Robert E. Howard was always a favourite writer of mine and one of the world’s great story-tellers, but I didn’t realise how very little I really knew about him until I started following this website and other REH-oriented ones.  I’ve encountered more cogent thinking and perceptive criticism here than you’d be likely to find, I suspect, in the average university lit lecture room.  And a lot less academic pretentiousness.

I think I’ll take fresh insights away with me, and fresh motivation for my own writing.  That’s quite a bit more than I was able to give, but if people enjoyed my posts, I’m very glad.  And thank you.

And all I’ve done for want of wit, to memory now I cannot recall.
So fill to me the parting glass. Goodnight and joy be with you all.

- Keith Taylor

Although The Cimmerian’s days are numbered, the legacy and works of Robert E. Howard will live on and on. The TC print journal and its accompanying blog did their part to preserve his legacy, and I was proud to be a part of it, but we were literally laboring in the shadow of a giant who will continue be read for as long as the world exists.

With my days as a TC blogger winding down I thought I’d get back to the reasons why I (and perhaps if I may be so bold, extend that to the plural we) love the life and works of REH—and why he continues to enthrall us.

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