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| "Snakes. Why did it have to be snakes?" |
I'm
currently reading The Scarlet Citadel, a Conan “novelette”
(so Wikipedia calls it) by Robert E. Howard. Its part of a Complete
Collection edition I got cheap on Kindle because I realised that, as
much as I loved the original Arnie movie, I'd never actually read any
of this absolutely foundational fantasy series.
The fact
that Conan not only knows the word “genealogy” but can use it
correctly was a moment almost as brain-breaking as all those times
Holmes and Watson would ejaculate towards each other after one
knocked the other up.
No, I'm not
kidding, those two phrases turn up again and again in the Doyle
stories.
So, anyway,
Conan knows about genealogy which surprised me but probably
shouldn't. The thing is, the Conan I'm used to is the young
adventurer of the Arnie film and the relatively decent '90s cartoon
but the Conan presented here (and so far exclusively in the
collection) is the older Conan, Conan The King.
The thing
is, even from my limited knowledge of the character, I know that
Conan is a smart guy and by this point in his timeline he's been king
for a while and so, naturally, he would learn about kingly things
like bloodlines and genealogy. In fact, he uses the word in a middle
of a rant about how earned his throne in blood whilst the kings
holding him captive simply inherited the thrones their fathers bled
for.
I'm very
much looking forward to see how else Howard is going to surprise me.
