ABSTRACT
N ot all kings in fantasy are predictably regal. One of the most famous fantasy heroes, Conan the Barbarian, worked his way from thief to king, yet his appeal as a character is certainly not rooted in the traditional hierarchical valuation of kingship based on lineage and virtue that we find in Tolkien, or the utopian impulses of a preordained king in Arthurian legend, or even the ability to reach beyond self to anima and commonwealth, as in the case of Ralph, the king's son. Robert E. Howard reversed the path to the throne by choosing a brute as hero, thereby creating a model of barbaric superman for heroic fantasy, a path to power through muscle and might, with little affirmation of civilization or philosophy along the way. Robert E. Howard is the American prototype for a bottom-up approach to fantasy and one of the strongest influences in defining the modern subgenre known as sword and sorcery.
