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Savage Scrolls: Volume One: Scholarship from the Hyborian Age
From Sword to Scroll
Winner of the 2018 Atlantean Award from the Robert E. Howard Foundation!
Robert E. Howard's swashbuckling heroes strove mightily against fantastic foes and strode boldly across lands steeped in ancient sorcery, court intrigue, and fabulous wealth. In this vibrant traveler's guide, historian Fred Blosser chronicles the people, flora, fauna, and politics of REH's universe.
No Howard creation looms larger than Conan, and there's plenty of Conan in this book, but there's also much-needed coverage of Howard's other square-jawed heroes, including such equally bold though lesser-known adventurers as Kull, Solomon Kane, Bran Mak Morn, Black Vulmea, and Kirby O'Donnell.
In addition, Blosser examines Howard's wide oeuvre of pulp fiction, from horror and western tales, to his less successful detective yarns.
From Hyborian Age weaponry, justice, medicine, and mercenaries, to the beasts, villains, and nameless horrors of the African jungles, Central Asian mountain passes, and the haunted Texas town of Lost Knob in our own world, you'll experience anew the genius of Robert E. Howard through the tapestry from which he created his pulp masterpieces.
224 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 31, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
December 22, 2025
I read this back in 2017, but I didn't review it, so when I decided to read and review the Fred Blosser works that I have, I decided to reread this and give it a proper review. As I have said in prior Blosser reviews this year, I have been a fan of his since he was writing essays in The Savage Sword of Conan.
Part One is "The Savage Barbarian's World." It starts out with an article on "Cimmerian Heritage: Conan's Forebears." This covers what REH wrote about Conan's youth, given that he never wrote what would be considered an origin story. Blosser revisits an old essay he had written concerning Conan's parents that perhaps his mother was born in Nordheim, and re-examines his old theory and finds it still holds water, and doesn't negate REH's comment that Conan is a pure-blooded Cimmerian. Personally, I agree with him.
Next is "A Natural History of the Hyborian Age: The World Around Conan." He covers the basic geography, and goes into some of the more exotic trees and plants that existed in Hyborian Age, such as Upas Trees and lotus. He covers insects mentioned in the Saga, reptiles, birds, wild and domestic animals, and the anthropoids and hominids found in the stories. Not a lot new here, or a lot of analysis, but it does gather the information into one place.
"By Sword, Axe, and Knife: The Weapons of Conan" is next. Blosser covers the basic broadsword favored by Conan, but he also talks about the sabers, scimitars, and tulwars used the stories. Maces and axes are covered next, followed by knives and daggers, including poniards. He concludes this section with the magic swords seen in the series, such as the magic Yuetshi blade that could defeat Khosatral Khel. Again, not a lot of analysis, but useful information gathered into one place.
"Dungeon, Gibbet, and Axe: Justice in Conan's Time" explores how Conan was acquainted with professional thievery, and how bribery was part and parcel of the experience in the Hyborian Age. There was some interesting analysis here, but overall this section was a bit sparse but it's good to have all this information collected into one place as a reference.
"Is There a Doctor in the Hyborian House: Medicine in the Hyborian Age" is interesting in showing the difference between a fundamentally realistic world (but with sorcery) and more high-fantasy worlds, where people suffered injuries and either got better, lingered, or died. Not a lot here, but it was interesting, nonetheless, with commenting on how injury and disease was handled by Robert E. Howard, giving some food for thought for future writers of the genre.
"Hyborian Super-Science: The Radium Age in Three Lost Cities" explores a concept under-appreciated in the literature regarding Conan and the Hyborian Age. This section covers Xuthal, Xuchotl, and Gazal, and how they manufactured their own food out of primal elements, fruit that obtained nourishment from the air, and so on. The science of aeroponics is discussed, as well as destructive devices from these cultures. I really enjoyed this section. It gave me a lot to think about. Titan isn't about to let me write a Conan book, but if they did... this section would give me some ideas not explored by most of the pastiche authors.
"Kosala and Khitai: Mysterious Realms of Conan's World" gives some details about both nations, but I found this section underwhelming, especially given Dale Rippke's "The Blue East" analysis of these nations. I had hoped Blosser would have mentioned Rippke's research and conclusions, but he does not. I was really disappointed by this section.
The final section of part one was "A Race of Uncertain Origin: The Ghouls of Hyboria," which, while using the "Hyboria" label I so despise, I enjoyed this section. I liked how he connected the Hyborian Age ghouls with Vathek and the Arabian Nights.
Part Two: Conan's Foes and Friends is the next major section of the book. The Picts are first up in "The People of the Black River: Conan and the Picts." Blosser covered the history of the Picts, from the pre-Cataclysmic times to the Hyborian Age. He adequately covers the history in a couple of pages to the time of Zogar Sag and how Thandara was unique among the frontier provinces. I thought this was a good summary of the situation about the Picts in the Hyborian Age. I hold some bias here, as I wrote Conan: Across The Thunder River, which built upon the Picts and the Aquilonian frontier. I wonder if there would be a market if I rewrote that book, removing the RPG elements, just as a resource for Hyborian Age Picts and the Westermark...
"Knights of Anarchy: Conan and the Free Companions" discussed the armies of the Hyborian Age and the rise of mercenary armies. This section was short but well-covered. I thought this was excellent information. As someone who loves roleplaying games set in the Hyborian Age, this is MUST-READ material. Top-notch, no complaints.
"Raiders of the Red Zaporoska: Conan's Kozaki" was another great section. There was actually so much information in this section that I find it difficult to summarize it adequately. Seriously, if you want to play a roleplaying game in this arena, or write a novel regarding the kozaks, please read this. It puts everything in summary for you. It's phenomenal. Again, top marks, no complaints. He left no stone unturned. It's stuff like this that makes me love Fred Blosser essays.
"Beauty and the Blade: Conan and the Warrior Women" covers characters like Valeria of Aquilonia, Yasmina, Devi of Vendhya, and (of course), Bélit. It even covers the comics with Red Sonja. All in all, a good section, if all too brief. Fortunately, Fred Blosser covers all of these in his Silken Swords: An Informal Guide to the Women in the Fiction of Robert E. Howard, so this is just a brief prelude to that.
"Golden Sister of the Red Brotherhood: Valeria's Marvel-ous Saga" is all about Valeria from "Red Nails," covering the Marvel version of her character and her story. I enjoyed this section, a fan of the Marvel era of the Hyborian age. If you aren't interested in the Marvel Comics version of this character, you might not find it as fascinating as I did.
"Mages, Monsters and Conan: Wizardry in the Hyborian Age" sorts the various types of sorcery found in the Hyborian Age by categories. Not a lot here, really, but it does make sound arguments in terms of category. Of course, this is an author really conversant with Mongoose's RPG magic system which already categorizes these spells similarly. It would have been interesting if Blosser had decided to compare and contrast his choices with Mongoose's, or even Modiphius' system.
Next up is "Unearthing the Treasure: Conan and the Secret of Tranicos" which goes into a lot of detail about how "The Black Stranger" became "Swords of the Red Brotherhood," and an argument about which actually came first, then became "The Treasure of Tranicos" by L. Sprague de Camp. It's a great read, and informative.
Part Three: Savage Sword Bearers begins with "Barbarian on the Topaz Throne: King Kull." This is pretty general information, but moves on to "Home of the Barbarians: Atlantis in the Age of Kull" which is pretty informative. I liked this section, but it was all too short. Next up was "Black Flame of Vengeance: Solomon Kane." This gave a pretty concise chronology of Solomon Kane, but lacked in the analysis I usually expect from Fred Blosser. If you've read the stories, there isn't a lot new here. Next was "The Shadow from Below: Bran Mak Morn and the People of the Dark." If you are interested in REH's inspirations for these stories, this will be good, but, again, as a long-time REH fan, nothing was really new here. Good for a new fan, but a little lacking for the experienced fan. I wanted more. It'd be interesting to read a review from an REH novitiate: I feel like I already knew all of this information.
From here, he moved onto "Barbarians in Tattered Chainmail: Cormac Fitzgeoffrey and the Knights" which covered the stories about Cormac Fitzgeoffrey and his heritage of hate and his publication history. Seriously, from here to the end of the book, the publication histories were most interesting to me, with little analysis or extrapolation offered about the stories or the characters. It was around this point that my interest in this book started to wane. Blosser was, at this point, not adding much more context than could be gleaned from reading the stories, and offered little analysis beyond that. "Cutlasses and Cimmerians: Black Vulmea's Buccaneers" goes into the history of REH's Black Vulmea stories, including how one of them was a re-write of "The Black Stranger." Again, nothing new for the experienced REH fan, and why I'd love to see a review from someone new to the fandom.
Part Four: Secret Scolls: Yeah, he misspelled "scrolls" here, one of the bugaboos of the self-publishing era, but we know what he meant. The first section here is "Iskander's Monstrous Road: Howard, High Adventures, and Horrors." He discusses the history of "King of the Forgotten People," which was interesting, and "The Fire of Asshurbanipal." He even includes the Marvel adaptations of these stories, which I liked. Next up was "Victory to the Swift: El Borak of Arabia," which was, unsurprisingly, about the publishing history of the El Borak stories. It's a nice compilation of the history of these stories, but I'm not really sure what the point of these essays were. This history has been covered before. This is followed by "Hawks of the Crags: The Adventures of Kirby O'Donnell," which was little more than publication history and story summary. Disappointing for a Blosser essay. This is followed by "Revenge of the Skull: Kathulos of Atlantis," which was much more interesting than the last few essays. He even revisits his old reviews of the stories. I liked this portion. Next up is "The Nemesis of Erlik Khan: Steve Harrison, Two-Fisted Sleuth," which discussed the stories, put them into context, and added a lot of information that I didn't really have in one place. Not a bad essay at all, but it doesn't really extrapolate much beyond what is in the stories. This is followed by "The Rats Feast at Lost Knob: Steve Harrison in the Post Oaks," which really does not offer much new information that can't be gleaned from the stories themselves and a decent biography of REH. I felt a little bored here.
There's a few more sections, but none of it really rises to the point of excellence like Part One reached. Part One is where this volume excels, and reaches the heights of what I expect from Fred Blosser. Reading anything past Part One is probably not worth the time unless you are new to REH, but Part One has insights that even a jaded fan like myself can find a lot of value.
This is named "Savage Scrolls: Volume One" and so I hope there is a Volume Two in the future. I like reading Fred Blosser essays. I have enjoyed his essays since I was thirteen years old and discovered "The Savage Sword of Conan," so I want more. I hope this isn't a one-off, but a first volume of many. If Fred Blosser reads this review, please know I really, really, really want more. He is an REH-Scholar hero of mine, and I hope he finds plenty more to explore.
I don't know if he has the rights to do so, but I'd love a collection of his Savage Sword of Conan and Conan the Barbarian essays. Due to financial issues in the late 2000s, I sold my collection and I'd love to have his essays back.
Part One is "The Savage Barbarian's World." It starts out with an article on "Cimmerian Heritage: Conan's Forebears." This covers what REH wrote about Conan's youth, given that he never wrote what would be considered an origin story. Blosser revisits an old essay he had written concerning Conan's parents that perhaps his mother was born in Nordheim, and re-examines his old theory and finds it still holds water, and doesn't negate REH's comment that Conan is a pure-blooded Cimmerian. Personally, I agree with him.
Next is "A Natural History of the Hyborian Age: The World Around Conan." He covers the basic geography, and goes into some of the more exotic trees and plants that existed in Hyborian Age, such as Upas Trees and lotus. He covers insects mentioned in the Saga, reptiles, birds, wild and domestic animals, and the anthropoids and hominids found in the stories. Not a lot new here, or a lot of analysis, but it does gather the information into one place.
"By Sword, Axe, and Knife: The Weapons of Conan" is next. Blosser covers the basic broadsword favored by Conan, but he also talks about the sabers, scimitars, and tulwars used the stories. Maces and axes are covered next, followed by knives and daggers, including poniards. He concludes this section with the magic swords seen in the series, such as the magic Yuetshi blade that could defeat Khosatral Khel. Again, not a lot of analysis, but useful information gathered into one place.
"Dungeon, Gibbet, and Axe: Justice in Conan's Time" explores how Conan was acquainted with professional thievery, and how bribery was part and parcel of the experience in the Hyborian Age. There was some interesting analysis here, but overall this section was a bit sparse but it's good to have all this information collected into one place as a reference.
"Is There a Doctor in the Hyborian House: Medicine in the Hyborian Age" is interesting in showing the difference between a fundamentally realistic world (but with sorcery) and more high-fantasy worlds, where people suffered injuries and either got better, lingered, or died. Not a lot here, but it was interesting, nonetheless, with commenting on how injury and disease was handled by Robert E. Howard, giving some food for thought for future writers of the genre.
"Hyborian Super-Science: The Radium Age in Three Lost Cities" explores a concept under-appreciated in the literature regarding Conan and the Hyborian Age. This section covers Xuthal, Xuchotl, and Gazal, and how they manufactured their own food out of primal elements, fruit that obtained nourishment from the air, and so on. The science of aeroponics is discussed, as well as destructive devices from these cultures. I really enjoyed this section. It gave me a lot to think about. Titan isn't about to let me write a Conan book, but if they did... this section would give me some ideas not explored by most of the pastiche authors.
"Kosala and Khitai: Mysterious Realms of Conan's World" gives some details about both nations, but I found this section underwhelming, especially given Dale Rippke's "The Blue East" analysis of these nations. I had hoped Blosser would have mentioned Rippke's research and conclusions, but he does not. I was really disappointed by this section.
The final section of part one was "A Race of Uncertain Origin: The Ghouls of Hyboria," which, while using the "Hyboria" label I so despise, I enjoyed this section. I liked how he connected the Hyborian Age ghouls with Vathek and the Arabian Nights.
Part Two: Conan's Foes and Friends is the next major section of the book. The Picts are first up in "The People of the Black River: Conan and the Picts." Blosser covered the history of the Picts, from the pre-Cataclysmic times to the Hyborian Age. He adequately covers the history in a couple of pages to the time of Zogar Sag and how Thandara was unique among the frontier provinces. I thought this was a good summary of the situation about the Picts in the Hyborian Age. I hold some bias here, as I wrote Conan: Across The Thunder River, which built upon the Picts and the Aquilonian frontier. I wonder if there would be a market if I rewrote that book, removing the RPG elements, just as a resource for Hyborian Age Picts and the Westermark...
"Knights of Anarchy: Conan and the Free Companions" discussed the armies of the Hyborian Age and the rise of mercenary armies. This section was short but well-covered. I thought this was excellent information. As someone who loves roleplaying games set in the Hyborian Age, this is MUST-READ material. Top-notch, no complaints.
"Raiders of the Red Zaporoska: Conan's Kozaki" was another great section. There was actually so much information in this section that I find it difficult to summarize it adequately. Seriously, if you want to play a roleplaying game in this arena, or write a novel regarding the kozaks, please read this. It puts everything in summary for you. It's phenomenal. Again, top marks, no complaints. He left no stone unturned. It's stuff like this that makes me love Fred Blosser essays.
"Beauty and the Blade: Conan and the Warrior Women" covers characters like Valeria of Aquilonia, Yasmina, Devi of Vendhya, and (of course), Bélit. It even covers the comics with Red Sonja. All in all, a good section, if all too brief. Fortunately, Fred Blosser covers all of these in his Silken Swords: An Informal Guide to the Women in the Fiction of Robert E. Howard, so this is just a brief prelude to that.
"Golden Sister of the Red Brotherhood: Valeria's Marvel-ous Saga" is all about Valeria from "Red Nails," covering the Marvel version of her character and her story. I enjoyed this section, a fan of the Marvel era of the Hyborian age. If you aren't interested in the Marvel Comics version of this character, you might not find it as fascinating as I did.
"Mages, Monsters and Conan: Wizardry in the Hyborian Age" sorts the various types of sorcery found in the Hyborian Age by categories. Not a lot here, really, but it does make sound arguments in terms of category. Of course, this is an author really conversant with Mongoose's RPG magic system which already categorizes these spells similarly. It would have been interesting if Blosser had decided to compare and contrast his choices with Mongoose's, or even Modiphius' system.
Next up is "Unearthing the Treasure: Conan and the Secret of Tranicos" which goes into a lot of detail about how "The Black Stranger" became "Swords of the Red Brotherhood," and an argument about which actually came first, then became "The Treasure of Tranicos" by L. Sprague de Camp. It's a great read, and informative.
Part Three: Savage Sword Bearers begins with "Barbarian on the Topaz Throne: King Kull." This is pretty general information, but moves on to "Home of the Barbarians: Atlantis in the Age of Kull" which is pretty informative. I liked this section, but it was all too short. Next up was "Black Flame of Vengeance: Solomon Kane." This gave a pretty concise chronology of Solomon Kane, but lacked in the analysis I usually expect from Fred Blosser. If you've read the stories, there isn't a lot new here. Next was "The Shadow from Below: Bran Mak Morn and the People of the Dark." If you are interested in REH's inspirations for these stories, this will be good, but, again, as a long-time REH fan, nothing was really new here. Good for a new fan, but a little lacking for the experienced fan. I wanted more. It'd be interesting to read a review from an REH novitiate: I feel like I already knew all of this information.
From here, he moved onto "Barbarians in Tattered Chainmail: Cormac Fitzgeoffrey and the Knights" which covered the stories about Cormac Fitzgeoffrey and his heritage of hate and his publication history. Seriously, from here to the end of the book, the publication histories were most interesting to me, with little analysis or extrapolation offered about the stories or the characters. It was around this point that my interest in this book started to wane. Blosser was, at this point, not adding much more context than could be gleaned from reading the stories, and offered little analysis beyond that. "Cutlasses and Cimmerians: Black Vulmea's Buccaneers" goes into the history of REH's Black Vulmea stories, including how one of them was a re-write of "The Black Stranger." Again, nothing new for the experienced REH fan, and why I'd love to see a review from someone new to the fandom.
Part Four: Secret Scolls: Yeah, he misspelled "scrolls" here, one of the bugaboos of the self-publishing era, but we know what he meant. The first section here is "Iskander's Monstrous Road: Howard, High Adventures, and Horrors." He discusses the history of "King of the Forgotten People," which was interesting, and "The Fire of Asshurbanipal." He even includes the Marvel adaptations of these stories, which I liked. Next up was "Victory to the Swift: El Borak of Arabia," which was, unsurprisingly, about the publishing history of the El Borak stories. It's a nice compilation of the history of these stories, but I'm not really sure what the point of these essays were. This history has been covered before. This is followed by "Hawks of the Crags: The Adventures of Kirby O'Donnell," which was little more than publication history and story summary. Disappointing for a Blosser essay. This is followed by "Revenge of the Skull: Kathulos of Atlantis," which was much more interesting than the last few essays. He even revisits his old reviews of the stories. I liked this portion. Next up is "The Nemesis of Erlik Khan: Steve Harrison, Two-Fisted Sleuth," which discussed the stories, put them into context, and added a lot of information that I didn't really have in one place. Not a bad essay at all, but it doesn't really extrapolate much beyond what is in the stories. This is followed by "The Rats Feast at Lost Knob: Steve Harrison in the Post Oaks," which really does not offer much new information that can't be gleaned from the stories themselves and a decent biography of REH. I felt a little bored here.
There's a few more sections, but none of it really rises to the point of excellence like Part One reached. Part One is where this volume excels, and reaches the heights of what I expect from Fred Blosser. Reading anything past Part One is probably not worth the time unless you are new to REH, but Part One has insights that even a jaded fan like myself can find a lot of value.
This is named "Savage Scrolls: Volume One" and so I hope there is a Volume Two in the future. I like reading Fred Blosser essays. I have enjoyed his essays since I was thirteen years old and discovered "The Savage Sword of Conan," so I want more. I hope this isn't a one-off, but a first volume of many. If Fred Blosser reads this review, please know I really, really, really want more. He is an REH-Scholar hero of mine, and I hope he finds plenty more to explore.
I don't know if he has the rights to do so, but I'd love a collection of his Savage Sword of Conan and Conan the Barbarian essays. Due to financial issues in the late 2000s, I sold my collection and I'd love to have his essays back.
November 8, 2017
OK, anyone that knows me knows that I am a huge Robert E. Howard fan, well Ok fanatic some say. While I do NOT like people messing with his original work by editing or assisting in completing them, I did enjoy these analysis articles on the his works. Good detailed work that raises some nice what if questions and poses some interesting insights into the stories. Very recommended
April 17, 2018
Enjoyed the broad overview this book brings to all of the Howard worlds. Blosser gives a great overview of the interconnections between the Hyborian Age and the settings before and after. Summaries of characters, weapons, worlds, plants, etc... highlight this book. I appreciated how Blosser threaded the pieces to show the complex tapestry of Howard's imagination.
Savage Scrolls isn't a commentary on the stories or author, but it does a great job of stepping away from the trees to see how massive and detailed the forest is.
Savage Scrolls isn't a commentary on the stories or author, but it does a great job of stepping away from the trees to see how massive and detailed the forest is.
April 12, 2021
Four stars, but really only for fans. Maybe a good place for new fans to start.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews