CONAN

from Fancyclopedia 2

Easily the most indomitable of fantasy heroes, in RE Howard's series built around him this redoubtable barbarian from Cimmeria adventures around the world of the Hyborian Age and in the process raises himself from a blacksmith's son to a king. Unlike the Lensman, Barsoom, and Oz sagas relatively few characters and place-names from the Conan stories have entered general fannish mythology. On the other hand, it has given rise to the Hyborian Legion, a group rather like the Sherlock Holmes fans' Baker Street Irregulars and not quite comparable to anything else in fandom. This group, including Marty Greenberg, Sprague deCamp, Dave Kyle, Poul Anderson, George Scithers and others, celebrates the exploits of their hero and subjects their canonical literature to exhaustive analysis.