Robert E. Howard Readers discussion

Has reading Robert E. Howard added a word to your vocabulary? Share it here.

Cestus: He flung aside the the dagger-wielder with his left arm, and smashed his broken hilt like a cestus into the swordsman's temple. The man's brains spattered in his face. - The Phoenix on the Sword: The Complete Chronicles of Conan: Centenary Edition

A cestus was an ancient Greek battle glove, made of strips of leather wound around the forearm and fist. Used in boxing matches as well as combat, unlike modern boxing gloves the cestus was designed to inflict damage, not soften the blow. The cestus was sometimes made more fearsome by the addition of metal plates or spikes, and in ancient Rome was often used in gladiatorial games.

I should have known this without having to look it up as I'm pretty sure they're mentioned in The Golden Fleece by Robert Graves. 30 years sure do dim the memory, though!

Interesting i have thought he does write like pseudo-old english style that some words must be new to me. Will check next reading session.

Thews: something Conan seems to have a lot of because it's used in EVERY Conan story. Not sure what a thew is, though. (Yeah, I could look it up, but I don't want to spoil the mystery.)

Thew = muscle

Thew is so common in the stories of heroic fantasy master. Conan uses his thews alot to hack at monsters,people.

You dont see that word in new fiction.

REH does use that word a lot - he was obviously an en-thew-siast ;-D

God, that's terrible, but I couldn't resist!

;-)

A word-list topic like this would be excellent in an H.P. Lovecraft Readers group.

Or Clark Ashton Smith - I usually have the dictionary standing by when I read CAS! Howard wasn't quite so obscure, but there's the occasional word that I need to look up.

Michael wrote: "REH does use that word a lot - he was obviously an en-thew-siast ;-D

God, that's terrible, but I couldn't resist!"

Bad, Michael, bad. That one hurts.

Can't wait to see what happens with 'shagreen.' As in, "his scabbard was of shagreen," "her shagreen belt," and "the weapon's shagreen handle." Lots of shagreen about.

Much to my chagrin, harhar.

sha·green
   /ʃəˈgrin/[shuh-green]
1. an untanned leather with a granular surface, prepared from the hide of a horse, shark, seal, etc.

Peregrine 12 wrote: "...Much to my chagrin, harhar...."

Ouch! Another stinker.
;-)

"Lapis Lazuli" - it's some kind of color or gem stone. I forgot what R.E.H. story I saw the word in.

Lapis & Lazuli are what Lazurus Long named his cloned sisters in Time Enough for Love by Robert A. Heinlein.

Jim wrote: "Lapis & Lazuli are what Lazurus Long named his cloned sisters in Time Enough for Love by Robert A. Heinlein."

I'll be damned. That's interesting, Jim. Can you imagine someone introducing one of these sisters: "And this, this is Lazuli Long, sister of Lapis and Lazurus Long..."

Ha, I love the mellifluousness of it!

Lapis Lazuli is a deep blue semi-precious stone, which was particularly prized in Mesopotamia. Used for jewellery and architectural decoration.

I thought shagreen was specifically shark skin - didn't know it could be horse or seal skin. It's grainy surface makes it less likely to slip in the hand, so it's often used for hand grips.

Chagrin! Makes me look like Oscar Wilde ;-)

I think the folks here would love Barbara Barrett's "REH Word of the Week" on The Cimmerian and REHupa websites.

Michael wrote: "REH does use that word a lot - he was obviously an en-thew-siast ;-D

God, that's terrible, but I couldn't resist!"

Funny thing about thews: it's one of those words that REH didn't actually use all that often, but because of its relative obscurity, it tended to get repeated by pasticheurs when they wrote their Conan stories.

I made a word count of every time REH used "thew" or "thews" in the Conan stories. The result? A mere 37. Guess it had a hell of an impact. And for those counting: he used "mighty thews" exactly once, and it didn't even refer to Conan's.

Could you post a link to that, Taranaich?

Taranaich wrote: "I think the folks here would love Barbara Barrett's "REH Word of the Week" on The Cimmerian and REHupa websites.

Michael wrote: "REH does use that word a lot - he was obviously an en-thew-siast ;-..."



Very interesting! Thanks for the post, Taranaich.

Michael wrote: "Could you post a link to that, Taranaich?"

Instead of being completely lazy, I just googled it myself! ;-)

The Cimmerian Word of the Week

REHupa Word of the Week

I don't propose that our thread in any way seeks to duplicate these fine web pages, but if there's a word you come across that you needed to look up or research, then you can share and discuss it here.

I wonder how often ERB used 'thews'. Seems to me someone used it a lot.

According to ERB List, he used it just once in all of the Barsoom books, so I'm guessing it was not a particularly common word for him in the rest of his works.

Hmmm... Maybe it was just all the knock-offs. Maybe Lynn Carter?

Michael wrote: "Michael wrote: "Could you post a link to that, Taranaich?"

Instead of being completely lazy, I just googled it myself! ;-)

The Cimmerian Word of the Week

REHupa Word of the Week

I don't propose..."


Very cool. Thanks for the links, Michael.

Woundy: "By Allah!" he swore, smiting his saddlebow, "these Kharesmians are woundy fighters! They ride like Tatars and slay like Turks! Right well would I lead them into battle! I had rather fight beside them than against them" - The Sowers of the Thunder The Sowers of the Thunder

Can mean "extremely" or "excessively", but the sense in this case is "very great".

I'm not sure when I'm going to be able to drop this one into conversation. Maybe it'll pop up in one of our discussions here ;-)

'Tulwar.' In the story 'The People of the Black Circle' (1934), one of the main co-characters wields a tulwar. Let's see... I'd always imagined that as something like a big, fat scimitar. Let's see if I'm right.

Getting the dictionary...

tul·war-
tʌlwɑr, tʌlˈwɑr [tuhl-wahr, tuhl-wahr] n. any of several Indian sabers.
Origin: 1825–35; < Hindi talwār, tarwār < Sanskrit taravāri

Well, gosh. Ain't no scimitar at all - it's a sabre. And you even learned a little Sanskrit today. Crom take it all.

Michael wrote: "Chagrin! Makes me look like Oscar Wilde ;-) "

Oscar Wilde indeed. You're so clever, Michael, I bet sometimes even you don't know what you're saying.
(misquote, I know, but Wilde was woundy funny...)

(nah, you're right - the new word doesn't really work that well.)

Jim wrote: "I wonder how often ERB used 'thews'. Seems to me someone used it a lot."

Lin Carter used it a lot.

Thongor & Jandar?

Thongor particularly. I'm reading young Thongor now.

I think the only Thongor story I read was in a short story anthology. Fantastic Swords, maybe. It's been years.

Jim wrote: "I think the only Thongor story I read was in a short story anthology. Fantastic Swords, maybe. It's been years."

I read pretty much all of them when I was young, but it's been a good long while since I read one.

My favorite REH word is tigerish.

His phrase "Steel springs and whalebone" is a favorite of mine. But man he could use words

Hi Peregrine. Just read your post dated Feb 12, 2012 regarding the Tulwar sword. For another adventure in defining REH words, I thought you might enjoy a couple of articles on REH’s sword collection in which types of swords are defined.

Robert E. Howard: The Sword Collector and His Poetry which incidentally carries a great photo of the Tulwar sword. Each of the sword types he mentions in his poetry is defined, an example of how it’s used in his poetry is given plus a photo. Here is the link:
http://www.blackgate.com/2010/08/09/r...


Robert E. Howard: The Sword Collector’s Sword Collection which has great information and photos of the yataghan sword, plus other swords and knives that were found in the description of his sword collection:
http://www.blackgate.com/2012/07/27/r...

He had a fascinating knowledge of edged weapons, quite of few of which weren’t included in his poetry.
BB

I'd say Howard's writing is a big reason I have a fairly large vocabulary today.