The history of The Cimmerian journal is storied, and well worth the perusal at the dedicated section on this site. Some of the very best of Howard scholarship in the last decade — even the best Howard scholarship full stop — can be found locked in those now-rare pages. In August of 2005, over a year after the TC journal’s introduction, Leo saw fit to start an online web log for news, information and contact details for the journal. There started the journey of The Cimmerian blog.

This is the first in a five part series charting the history, growth, and expansion of The Cimmerian web log. Each part will look at the blog over the course of a year since its inception in August 2005, and will concentrate on the highlights that most illustrate the state of the blog at that time.

It is important at this time to note the distinction between The Cimmerian blog and The Cimmerian journal. The journal was always about Robert E. Howard, no question, and the first months of the blog were almost entirely devoted to the Man from Cross Plains. However, The Cimmerian blog evolved into a broader approach: it was centered around Howard, of course, but it was soon expanded to include “J.R.R. Tolkien, & the Best in Heroic Fantasy, Horror, and Historical Adventure.” This change can be seen in evidence in its first year of existence.

The very first post on The Cimmerian was Leo’s “Heart’s Blood,” a passionate and forthright celebration of the author who was the focus of the print journal, and who would be a pillar throughout the blog’s history. The second post, “Sci-Fi Part Deux,” started another Cimmerian tradition: taking the fight to the Howard naysayers, an occasion that the various bloggers of The Cimmerian would rise to in the years to come.

However, as soon as the very fourth post, The Cimmerian began to branch out, with Leo’s “American God.” In this post, Leo tied in a review and analysis of Neil Gaiman’s novel American Gods to Robert E. Howard, with over half of the text devoted to Gaiman’s book and a quote on A.A. Milne. This comparison of two seemingly unrelated authors started a trend that would be followed by many bloggers, as they compare Howard to other aspects of culture, be they popular or high.

For most of 2005, focus would remain on Howard and topics related to him, with two hiatuses (November – December 2005, February 2006). During this time topics would range from the World Fantasy Convention celebrating Howard’s Centennial, REHupa, the Cross Plains fire, and even old grudges. However, June would see some company for Leo on the site: Mark Finn, Steve Tompkins and Rob Roehm made their debuts in June 2006. Steve’s second post, “Miskatonic U.’s Film School,” is devoted to Howard’s epistolary friend H.P. Lovecraft, specifically its cinema: as with “American God,” he ties it in to discussion of cinematic Robert E. Howard “adaptations,” but in this case, the post is almost entirely spent on Lovecraftian films. Clearly, The Cimmerian was starting to grow beyond Howard even from this early date.

July of 2006 is when things really started to amp up. It was just after Howard Days’ Centennial year, so much of the month was devoted to recaps of the festivities and celebrations. In addition, Leo was leading the charge against inaccuracies and misconceptions with an assessment with the Howard page on Wikipedia, as well as a timely reminder that it isn’t only Howard suffering from such indignities, a defense of Howard’s historical accuracy, a cheer for REHupa’s 200th mailing milestone, and a short but devastating destruction of the Romantic Primitive. Mark, Steve and Rob joined in, with Howard topics as broad as his presence on the internet to a quirky celebration of Howard movers-and-shakers, and the Del Reys in the grand scheme of Howard collecting.

Still, there was a sizable portion of material indirectly linked (at best) to Robert E. Howard: Steve Tompkins’ “Above and Beyond the Call of Booty,” which ties Pirates of the Caribbean to Howard’s supernatural piracy adventures, his championing of David Gemmell, and ruminations on the final months of Lovecraft’s life are prime examples. Out of Steve’s six posts in July, only two are unambiguously about Howard: the other four range from discussion of REH and another subject, to not discussing REH at all. Even Mark Finn did a short piece on LibraryThing, setting a precedent for links to sites not directly relevant to Howard.

A year after the blog’s appearance in early August, many of the formative elements of The Cimmerian blog in its current form were in evidence. Discussion of Howard continued, be it in news posts on auctions, award nominations, or essays. In addition to the non-REH posts of July, there were posts such as Tompkins’ now classic tongue-in-cheek parodies, discussions of Howard’s relevence in popular culture in unexpected places, slice-of-life posts by the bloggers, and musings on history. Clearly The Cimmerian was on the way from becoming more than a Shieldwall for REH, but including others in that venerable formation.

Such was the first year of The Cimmerian blog.