I've been on a search to identify the moment when Sword & Sorcery actually existed as a genre -- that ah-ha moment when Robert E. Howard created S&S. The closest I can get is the writing of "The Shadow Kingdom" (Weird Tales, August 1929). Howard's influences are well-known, in many cases being obvious: H. P. Lovecraft, Harold Lamb, Sax Rohmer, Jack London, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Talbot Mundy but in these cases you can usually point to a story and say "Skull-Face" was ripped off from Sax Rohmer or Steve Allison's time-travel memories are taken from London's The Star Rover or Almuric is ERB-esque. It becomes harder to do this as you approach the S&S stuff. Reading "The Shadow Kingdom" you can't do this. Howard was now approaching something new, something more his own.
These authors certainly influenced his choices when writing but deeper down I think he may have been more influenced by historical (or semi-historical) books like those written by Standish O'Grady (1846-1928). The Coming of Cuculain (1920) and Early Bardic Literature, Ireland (1917) . It was books of this sort that turned Howard into a Celtophile and a history nut. The backdrop against which he places his stories are a fictionalized version of history.
Did REH plan to create S&S? I rather doubt it. He had no formula to work from. What he did want to do was: 1) create a pseudo-historical backdrop, 2) tell a story of individual adventure, 3) include monsters of a Lovecraftian nature. The end result is Sword &Sorcery.
Now for some quibbling. Was Kull first? No. Solomon Kane actually appeared in Weird Tales earlier. Why haven't I picked that point then? I think because the Kane stories while pure Howard are not pure S&S. They are almost more proto-S&S. The major stumbling block is the lack of a mythical kingdom, though you can argue his Africa is not actually historical but as mythcal as Edgar Rice Burroughs'.
What of other authors? Tom Shippey makes a very good argument for Lord Dunsany as an influence. The spider in "The Fortress Unvanquishable Save for Sacnoth" does resemble the one Howard created in "Tower of the Elephant".
To further complicate matters are the discussiuons about what is S&S versus other types of Fantasy such as Epic Fantasy (Tolkien). Is there really a separate sub-genre for Howard and his barbarians? I believe so, but the lines are not drawn with iron bars but soft sand.
GW
G. W. Thomas has been published since 1987. He has appeared in over 400 publications including Writer's Digest, The Writer and Black October Magazine. His website is www.gwthomas.org
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