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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THE SHIPS OF HY-BRASIL

Part 2 of 2

In Part 1 of “The Ships of Hy-Brasil” we learned that Howard’s poem “The Isle of Hy-Brasil” is more than a historical narration of this island and its myth. As stated previously, “Isle” essentially describes the many types of ships anchored along its shores. To envision the beauty of this ancient island shoreline when lined with these ships, pictures of each ship type as well as a description have been added below. The ships discussed in Part 1 include the galleon, the coracle, the trireme, the galley, an ancient barge-boat, and the pirate ships: the brigantine, the caravel, the carrack and finally the frigate. Part 2 begins with the bireme.

And there’s a sturdy bireme that sailed to the Holy Land.

The Bireme

The Bireme is a galley type ship with two bank of oars that was especially used by the Greeks and Phoenicians. The ship had a hull of wood and was used for both shipping and naval warfare possibly as early as 350 bc It was configured with a single square rigged sail, short mast. The two banks of oars provided man-powered propulsion in case of calm waters or for better control in battles. The bronze armored ram on the bow of the ship was designed to be driven deep into an enemy ship. In addition to the small number of crew required, there could hold as many as 45 sailors during combat as well as additional fighting men on the main deck who were ready to board enemy vessels that had been rammed. Top speed was approximately seven knots.

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The Word of the Week Blog has appeared on The Cimmerian Blog each Monday since August 3, 2009. In May 2010, the format was slightly changed to include a monthly theme.  In the May introduction, it was mentioned the theme in June would be ships. Unfortunately, WotW will only post once this month. However, to fulfill that promise here is a two-part article on “The Ships of Hy-Brasil” from my February 2010 REHupa mailing based on the Robert E. Howard poem, “The Isle of Hy-Brasil.”  These will be the last two postings for Word of the Week on TC. Enjoy!

THE SHIPS OF HY-BRASIL
Part 1 of 2

In his poem, the “Isle of Hy-Brasil,” Robert E. Howard brings to life the fabled isle that existed even when the pre-historical islands of Atlantis and Lemuria were still afloat in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The isle, also known as Brazil, Hy-Brazil, and several other variants, is steeped in Irish myth. According to legend, it is a phantom island cloaked in mist, except for one day each seven years when it becomes visible but still unattainable. Similar in myth to that of St. Brendan’s Island [spelled Brandon in the poem], it is shown as being circular, often with a central strait or river running east-west across its diameter. Despite failure in the attempts to find Hy-Brasil/St. Brendan’s Island, it appeared regularly on maps lying southwest of Galway Bay from 1325 until 1865.

Howard’s poem “The Isle of Hy-Brasil” is more than a historical narration of this island and its myth. It essentially describes the many types of ships anchored along its shores. To envision the beauty of this ancient island shoreline when lined with these ships, pictures of each ship type as well as a description have been added below.

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Previous Posts In This Series:

1. “Uther Was A Black-Bearded Madman” Part 1

2. “Uther Was A Black-Bearded Madman” Part 2

3. “Uther Was A Black-Bearded Madman” Part 3

4. A Bloodstained Map of Britain

5. “Uther Was A Black-Bearded Madman” Part 4

(This is the final post in a series about the possible career of Uther Pendragon. I base it on hints and references, and rather derogatory comments by Gaelic pirate Cormac Mac Art, concerning Uther in REH’s stories of Cormac, “Tigers of the Sea” and “The Temple of Abomination”. The previous posts can be linked above. All of it is speculation and guesswork by this writer, extrapolating from statements in REH’s stories and fragments. Wherever any part of REH’s background, or the personages, conflict with accepted history, I’ve taken the Howard version as being correct in this context.

At the end of the previous article, Uther had established himself in Britain, though none too securely. His base was the region known as Dorset today. Immediately to the east of him lay the realm of Cerdic in southern Hampshire, and to the west, Dumnonia, the kingdom ruled by Gorlois. Uther had made an enemy of Gorlois already by sacking Isca (Exeter) upon arriving in Britain, and then at what was putatively a peace conference, he had bedded Gorlois’ young queen, Igraine. Now, as they say, read on … )

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I am still puzzled as to how far the individual counts: a lot, I fancy, if he pushes the right way.

– T.E. Lawrence

The First World War smashed the heroic ideal of the individual warrior under massed artillery barrages, chopped it down on the Somme and drowned it in the mud of Passchendaele.

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The Dark Man, vol. 5, no. 1

The most recent issue of The Dark Man (vol. 5, no. 1), the peer-reviewed journal of Robert E. Howard studies is now available from Gavinicuss Books and Mike Chomko Books. This issue contains three articles from REH scholars Charles Hoffman, Jeffrey Kahan, and Philip Emery as well as several reviews by Hoffman and Morgan Holmes. This week I would like to take a closer look at the three main articles in this issue and add a few comments of my own.

The first article, “’The Shadow of the Beast’: A Closer Look,” by Hoffman discusses one of the more unseemly sides of Howard’s work in analyzing the theme of miscegenation in “Shadow” and some of the other “Piney Woods” horror stories. The subject of Howard’s views on “race” is certainly a touchy one and often evokes passionate responses on the part of his fans (see for example this 17-page thread from the official REH forums). Trying to decipher the personal views of someone who lived and died nearly a century before is always a dangerous game, even when one has access to numerous writings and personal correspondence. To paraphrase Mark Finn, Howard’s views on race were complicated. Whatever his personal views, it is undeniable that Howard, like many pulp writers (as well as creators from other media), did make use of a number of the often-demeaning racial stereotypes of his day.

In this article, Hoffman unflinchingly discusses one of these stereotypes — the sexually aggressive black male who lusts after white women — and looks at how Howard made use of it in certain of his stories in order to play on the fears of his readers. For Hoffman, the fear of miscegenation in white America was “at the root of horrific violence committed against blacks” (TDM 5.1, p. 8). This is something of a generalization, but there is probably a lot of truth there. Consider the incredible popularity of the film Birth of a Nation (1915), in which the ‘heroic’ Ku Klux Klan rides to the rescue of a helpless white woman in the clutches of a lustful black man, or the intense hatred directed at heavyweight champion Jack Johnson, who dared to cross the color-line not only in the ring, but also in the bedroom.

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Previous Posts In This Series:

1. “Uther Was A Black-Bearded Madman” Part 1

2. “Uther Was A Black-Bearded Madman” Part 2

3. “Uther Was A Black-Bearded Madman” Part 3

4.  A Bloodstained Map of Britain

(As with other posts in this series, I am taking the brief mentions of Uther Pendragon by the Gaelic pirate Cormac Mac Art, in REH’s “Tigers of the Sea” and “Temple of Abomination”, as a basis for further speculation, and treating them as fundamental.  Tie-ins with actual history are being treated as secondary to Howard’s fictional background.)

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Previous Posts on Uther Pendragon:

1. “Uther Was A Black-Bearded Madman” Part 1

2. “Uther Was A Black-Bearded Madman” Part 2

3. “Uther Was A Black-Bearded Madman” Part 3 

In three previous posts I’ve been conjecturing, guessing, and generally filling in gaps concerning the early life and career of Uther Pendragon – based on the comments made about him in the “Cormac Mac Art” stories by REH, set in the fifth century. At least one takes place during Uther’s reign in southern Britain, and one other in the time of his successor, Arthur.

I’ve supposed Uther spent the first thirty years of his violent life in Gaul, from his birth in 440 A.D. until he crossed the Channel to Britain with the fixed purpose of winning a kingdom — and maybe, in the end, an empire. The details can be found in the three posts hyperlinked above. This post doesn’t concern Uther directly. It only describes the kingdoms and power balance in Britain during Uther’s lifetime, particularly in the years to 470, when he left Gaul for Britain, having made the former too hot to hold him.

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Previous Posts in this Series:

“Uther Was A Black-Bearded Madman” Part 1

“Uther Was A Black-Bearded Madman” Part 2

“Buyer Beware” Notice:  What follows is speculation only, based on certain references to Uther Pendragon in REH’s Cormac Mac Art stories and fragments, such as Cormac’s comment that Uther was “more Roman than Briton and more Gaul than Roman” (the title of this series is taken from a passage in the Cormac Mac Art fragment, “The Temple of Abomination“).  It’s also based on certain facts of history, but even these could, from a different point of view, be given a very different interpretation.  As Mark Twain wrote in his preface to Huckleberry Finn, “Persons attempting to find a motive in this … will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot.”

At the conclusion of last week’s posting, Uther (still living in Gaul and still known as Eutherius to most) had reached the age of twenty-five or -six with many battles and at least two important murders under his belt. He’d killed his former master, Aegidius, the Rex Romanorum of Soissons, in an ambush on the Loire which he successfully blamed on the Visigoths. Aegidius’s most loyal henchman and best general, Count Paul, had no idea Uther was responsible. Neither did the son of Aegidius, Syagrius, who had become the new Rex Romanorum with Count Paul’s support.

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It is one of the goriest and most bizarre episodes in the bizarre and gory history of Central Asia. In the chaos of the Russian Civil War, a White Russian warlord, descendant of German Baltic Crusaders, arose in Mongolia to build an empire on a foundation of human skulls.

His name was Baron Roman Federovich von Ungern-Sternberg — partisan warrior, mystic and madman.

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