If there was ever a story meant to be read aloud, it’s J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit. Tolkien intended the tale to be delivered orally, and inserted an authorial voice into the text which imbues it with a lively, conversational quality. He himself read The Hobbit aloud for the Inklings, and countless parents have read it to their children.

If you could name someone perfectly suited to read The Hobbit, who would it be? Boomed by the deep-throated Orson Welles, perhaps, or intoned by the inimitable Christopher Lee? Narrated by the smoky-voiced John Huston, he of Gandalf fame from the Rankin/Bass animated film of The Hobbit? Sung by Hansi Kürsch of German power metal band Blind Guardian?

While all of the above are great choices, arguably the perfect-sounding version already exists, delivered by veteran stage and screen actor Nicol Williamson. Originally released as a four LP vinyl record set by Argo Records in 1974 (now rare and expensive to obtain), you can listen to the entire recording courtesy of Youtube. It’s split up into 23 parts and is obviously a direct recording from the vinyl. There’s crackly record static, but that only adds to its wonderful atmosphere.

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Hot on the heels of the release of the fourth Imaro novel, Charles R. Saunders has revisited a non-fiction essay on the historical kingdom of Kush, specifically, its short time as ruler of Ancient Egypt. Saunders was inspired to excavate this gem by the February 2008 issue of National Geographic, with the cover story dedicated to the Kushite kings of Egypt’s twenty-third dynasty. In the thirty years since his original essay, much more is known about Kush, particularly the further reaches of its influence on Egypt: still, “The Epoch of Kush” remains a valuable and fascinating read on a turbulent time in Egyptian history.

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2009 will go down as an eventful year for Howardom, Tolkiendom, Sword-and-Sorcery, fantasy, history, and The Cimmerian itself. A year of final print runs and new releases, sub-literary hackwork and excellent scholarship, terrible losses and welcome debuts, bad omens and promising news, and all manner of excitement. Following  fellow blogger Brian Murphy’s top five reads of 2009, mine is more an overview of all that was noteworthy this year, concentrating on the best the past twelve months had to offer.

Let’s have a look back on the year’s highlights.

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Craig Clarke, proprieter of the literary blog, Somebody Dies, has been a busy man the last two years. Since the final week of December, 2007, Clarke has posted over two hundred entertaining and insightful reviews of genre novels ranging from westerns to hard-boiled noir to horror.

That was all well and good, but then last May Clarke discovered REH by way of Del Rey’s The Horror Stories of Robert E. Howard. Clarke became a born-again, hard-core Howard-head and posted two more REH book reviews in fairly short order. In a mere six months, REH is now lodged in the midst of Clarke’s “Favorite Authors” list, right there amongst Lawrence Block, Ed McBain and Westlake. Clarke has also given Howard due honor by placing REH in his “Favorite Reads of 2009″ list.

Here’s what Craig Clarke had to say about Robert E. Howard in his review of Crimson Shadows:

As a final note, I would just like to mention that, before being introduced to the work of Robert E. Howard, I was under the impression that fantasy was a tired genre with nothing to offer me. Also, short stories held no appeal. These two perceptions were turned on their ears upon entering Howard’s world. After only one book, The Horror Stories of Robert E. Howard, I was an instant enthusiast, and Crimson Shadows has given me all the more reason to remain that way. It confirms my opinion (formed by the Horror Stories) that Robert E. Howard was a Great Writer and one who deserves to be reevaluated by those who feel that men who do their best communicating with swords, guns, and large fists are not to be taken seriously. This collection strongly suggests otherwise.  

I would welcome Clarke into the fold, but considering he’s now a Howard fan, I’ll just say, “Welcome to the pack.”

Howardian publisher and Cimmerian-awarded anthologist Dennis McHaney fired up a new blog entirely devoted to the bard of Cross Plains in November, where interesting news can be found.

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Imaro versus Bohu

The Cimmerian just heard the word via the Drums of Nyumbani: the long-awaited fourth novel in Charles R. Saunders’ Imaro series is now available from lulu.com. Imaro: The Naama War brings to a close the epic first chapter in the life of CRS’ iconic Sword-and-Sorcery hero, Imaro.

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In the wake of the Robert E. Howard navy’s sinking of the U.S.S. Van Ostrand, Conan.com forum veteran Mark Singleton has proposed an award dedicated to those who propagate myths, misconceptions and downright lies about the Man From Cross Plains.

Like most of you, I was outraged by Maggie Von Ostrand’s article on REH, by far the the most incindiary piece thing ever written about the man IMO. As REH continues to gain popularity through film adaptations and whatnot, my fear is that the lies and misinformation is going to continue to be perpetuated. As Mark Twain said, “A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes”. As a way of fighting back, I propose an annual award, the DeCampista Award, given out to a single individual who did the most in the calender year to set back the progress of REH studies, both in terms of the man himself and his literary creations. It could be voted on by a panel of REH scholars (Mark, Rusty Patrice, etc).

Mark provides a fairly strong list of contenders, ranging from the ignorant to the willfully misrepresentative, from scriptwriters and authors, to journalists and editors. An eclectic collection, to be sure. I have put together my own thoughts on Mark’s nominees, and pull no punches in the process. You have been warned!

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Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser by Mike Mignola

Science fiction and Fantasy writer Neil Gaiman, author of the famous Sandman comics, has recorded introductions for the audio editions of Fritz Leiber‘s Lankhmar Sword-and-Sorcery series.

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UK fans are in for a treat–Mike Chivers, moderator of the Official Robert E. Howard forum, has alerted us to a new troika of books by the Weird Tales Trinity coming soon from PS Publishing:

Of course, it’s now less than six months to the World Horror Convention, to be held this year in the delightful southern England coastal town of Brighton (for which, I’m sure, you have already booked, yes?!). Well, as usual, we’re going to be launching some great new books there and we’ll pass along progress updates as soon as we have them.

But the big news is that we’re aiming to add a poetry imprint to the PS stable, and we’ll be doing a second launch event specifically for those. The flagship book will be Jo Fletcher’s as yet untitled anthology, a baker’s dozen celebrating the dark side of the seaside.

This will be supported by a triptych of volumes compiled and edited by Steve Jones and containing the complete Weird Tales poetry of H. P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard and Clark Ashton Smith… and all of them priced at just £9.99 each. Watch this space!

Exciting news: the prose of Howard, Smith and Lovecraft is well represented in the UK, but I always felt the poetry could use a little more exposure. There’s certainly no dearth of material, in fact, I can only guess how many poems they could fit in to three books! The fact that Steve Jones is editing is just the icing on the cake, and I’ve no doubt he’ll do a fine job.

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Chiron (shown here tutoring a young Achilles)

noun

1. the wise centaur who tutored Achilles, Hercules and Asclepius

[origin: Greek Mythology]

HOWARD’S USAGE:

For man still wears, from birth to dust,
The seal of Chiron’s neighing foal
And fires of Molloch’s darksome lust
Still light the windows of the soul.

[from “Astarte’s Idol Stands Alone”; to read the complete poem see The Collected Poetry of Robert E. Howard, p. 154 and A Rhyme of Salem Town, p. 65]

and

I stood at a shrine and Chiron died,
A woman laughed from the bawdy roofs,
And he burned and lived and rose in his pride
And shattered the tiles with clanging hoofs.

[from “Futility 1. golden goats on a hillside"; to read the complete poem see The Collected Poetry of Robert E. Howard, p. 165 and Always Comes Evening, p. 42 Also published under the name “Moonlight on a Skull” in Echoes from an Iron Harp, p. 55. The two poems are nearly identical; for explanation see The Collected Poetry of Robert E Howard Note, p. 688]