In December 1932, Texan author Robert E. Howard published "The Phoenix on the Sword" in the pulp magazine Weird Tales, introducing the world to Conan the Cimmerian. Writing from his secluded home in Cross Plains, Texas, Howard conceived Conan as a fierce, pragmatic barbarian navigating a richly detailed prehistoric realm known as the Hyborian Age. Howard mapped this fictional era between the cataclysmic destruction of Atlantis and the emergence of recorded human history, filling it with ancient kingdoms, dark magic, and forgotten horrors.
"The Phoenix on the Sword" was adapted from an earlier, unpublished manuscript featuring Howard's previous character, Kull of Atlantis. In Conan, Howard crafted an energetic, visceral prose style characterized by relentless narrative pacing, sensory detail, and existential themes of civilizational decay versus primal vitality. Conan was deliberately distinct from classical fantasy heroes; he was an outsider, mercenary, thief, and king who relied on raw instinct, tactical cunning, and unyielding iron strength to survive in a hostile world.
Howard's publication marked the formal birth of the sword and sorcery subgenre. Unlike the sweeping, mythic high fantasy emerging in Europe, Howard's pulp tales focused on individual survival, gritty realism, and pulpy visceral action. His work laid the foundation for modern dark fantasy and pulp fiction, profoundly shaping comic books, tabletop roleplaying games, and cinematic fantasy for generations.
Why it matters
Robert E. Howard's creation of Conan the Barbarian spawned the sword and sorcery subgenre. It demonstrated that fantasy literature could be gritty, fast-paced, and action-oriented, expanding the genre beyond European high-fantasy tropes and radically influencing 20th-century pop culture, including comics and roleplaying games.
Interesting fact
Robert E. Howard claimed that Conan seemed to stand beside him in his small room in Cross Plains, Texas, dictating his adventures directly to him as he typed.
People
- Robert E. HowardAuthor and creator of Conan the Barbarian
- Farnsworth WrightEditor of Weird Tales who published the story
- Margaret BrundageCover artist for Weird Tales magazine
Quotes
"Hither came Conan, the Cimmerian, black-haired, sullen-eyed, sword in hand, a thief, a reaver, a slayer, with gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth, to tread the jeweled thrones of the Earth under his sandaled feet."
Location
Cross Plains · Cross Plains · United States
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