Art by Any Hillhouse.
The day dawned so sunny it looked like summer, though the temperature was in the 30s. But by the time I hit the woods, heavy, leaden clouds had rolled over the peaks of the Cascades and lowered over the high desert. By noon a heavy wind was moaning through the pines.
A fey day that led down the darkling path to Fennario.
*
The first stop on the trail was a video essay on The Darkness of Robert E. Howard.
Presenter Michael K. Vaughan casts some torchlight on an important fragment of Howard’s work, a late story titled Nekht Semerkeht, set in the American Southwest and featuring an aging conquistador named Hernando de Guzman, wandering alone in the desert.
De Guzman is despondent, convinced that “the game is not worth the candle” and that only pure animal instinct keeps a man faced with futility from the rational choice to put a pistol to his head and blow out his brains. The fact that REH would soon do exactly that makes Nekht Semerkeht especially poignant.
Howard has suffered at the hands of adaptations that lack the weight of his original writing, a weight and power that Vaughan correctly assesses as being inseparable from Howard’s dark outlook and historical pessimism. As he notes, his most famous character, Conan of Cimmeria, is not just out and about having a good ol’ time slaying and swiving — though there’s plenty of that. He is subject to “gigantic melancholies” as well as gigantic mirth; the undercurrent is dark and brooding as the Cimmerian strives to live as fully he can in a grim world.
*
Devoted some time to a newly-arrived tome, William Walker’s Wars, which is a key research item for the forthcoming Frontier Partisans Podcast on filibustering. The 1850s fever-dream of empire in Latin America, which ended in front of a firing squad for the “grey-eyed man of destiny,” certainly fit right into the mood of the day.
*
In the late afternoon the trail led, as it so often does, to the muirs, woods and crags of Scotland. As with so many trips to Fennario, I cannot be sure how I got there — I just suddenly found myself confronted by the Brown Man of the Muirs.
Art by Allan Lee.
A few years back I recounted the dark tale of William de Soules, Lord of Liddesdale, keeper of the Hermitage Castle, “the guardhouse of the bloodiest valley in Britain.”
Turns out I missed a yarn.
Seems the Cout of Keeldar (or Keilder), a borderlord named Sir Richard Knout, had bad blood with Lord de Soules, feuding, raiding and hunting being the main occupations of borderlords of the era. The Cout (which means colt) was an avid huntsman and a general badass, believed to be invincible because his helmet was made of sand touched by mermaids and bore a plume made of mystical rowan and holly. He may have been a bit overconfident about that invincibility business.
The story, along with another yarn, is recounted here:
The short version is that the Cout’s hunting horn disturbed the Brown Man, a faerie creature who tolerated no one hunting on his muirs without permission. So he tipped Lord de Soulis off that the Cout’s magical armor could not withstand immersion…
*
One tale tends to lead to another, as you know, so Marilyn and I found ourselves enthralled by the Youtube channel of one Liath Wolf, devoted to Scottish Folklore. Marilyn, being a caninophile on the order of Lane Batot, selected the tale of Cù-sìth: The Faerie Dog of Scotland.
We both agreed to risk an encounter with Baobhan Sith: Vampiric Beauty of the Highlands
And I, of course, picked up the trail of the most badass borderlord of them all, The Black Douglas.
I’ll allow that for some it may seem strange in these dark times to actually take solace in the gloomy trails blazed by the likes of Robert E. Howard and the singers of the old Border Ballads. But I have ever been bent thus. Somehow, such tales keep us grounded, aware that “there are always more wolves,” and girding us with the courage and strength to struggle on, whether or not the game is worth the candle.
In any case, look out for the Brown Man when you venture onto the muirs, and don’t invite green-clad women into your hunting cabin at night — no matter how beautiful. And when you hear the first howl of the Cù-sìth…
Run.
*
David Wrolson says
Yeah, right. Like any man would not invite said woman into the hunting cabin. Consequences be damned.
JimC says
It is known.
Matthew says
Watched three of the videos: The Howard one, the Cuth Sith, and the Baobhan Sith. They were pretty good.
The video about the Baobhan Sith said the tales made up by wives to keep their husbands from straying. That’s possible, but I wonder if they weren’t really made up by men. Whether it is Baobhan Sith, the vampire, the succubus, the lamia or whatever like creatures exist in various mythologies. I think it might say something about male sexuality because it is one, if not the, greatest weaknesses of men the way we can unfortunately be controlled by it. (Not that excuses cheating or anything.)
lane.batot says
Nice wolfhound/deerhound type pictured with the Conquistadores, and it would be quite accurate for them to have acquired such a dog in the time period. Just sayin’…..Due to my limited ability to watch any videos on my home computer(severely limited gigabite ability….), I did watch, at least, the one about the Cu Sith–excellent! I’ll havta watch the rest on the work computer during lunchtimes–I’m especially interested to hear about the “brown man”–I may have some characteristics in common with him! Anyhoo–AGAIN–Sink-wren-awe-city! I just recently finished a great book by a Scottish Naturalist/author named Jim Crumley, titled “The Last Wolf”, about the history of wolves in Scotland, and the possible reintroduction of the same. Very interesting and well-written book, but more philosophical than actually historical, as the author pointed out, there just isn’t much in written record of actual wolves in Scotland! It was amusing to learn that there are QUITE A FEW claims for the “last wolf” killed in various places in Scotland! Also read another superb book on the extinct mega-fauna of the British Isles, as well as historical extinctions(such as with wolves, bears, and Eurasian Lynx) titled “The Missing Lynx”–also going into the possibility of reintroductions–Eurasian beaver have already been successfully reintroduced! Anyhoo–the ACTUAL presence of many former formidable great creatures of the Ice Age, may very well live on in the folk memory of the people, in tales such as this…..
lane batot says
Got through the rest–great folk stories! Thanks for sharing them! And yeah, I think me and the brown man would get along just fine–I could interest him, I think, in my tales of my two-legged wolverine days, pillaging the traplines of neglectful, callous trappers!
JimC says
Glad you enjoyed em.
David Wrolson says
Matthew>>>”I think it might say something about male sexuality because it is one, if not the, greatest weaknesses of men the way we can unfortunately be controlled by it. (Not that excuses cheating or anything.)”<<<<
It is a standing joke in my house how I would never say no to any girls back in the day.
For a girl that I had no romantic chance with-"Oh, you want me to leave Fargo at midnight, drive you 2 hours so you can catch a ride, then drive 2 hours back to Fargo. OK, where do I sign up?"
Matthew says
That’s funny.
Matthew says
I don’t have any stories like yours but just the other day at the shop I work at an extremely gorgeous Eastern European woman came in. We sell dog food and rent out tubs for people to clean their dogs. She and her daughter brought in their Great Pyrenees.
She came in in a thick coat and I just barely notice her, but I was keeping watched over the tubs. She took off her coat and revealed the kind of body that if you saw it in comic book you’d call it unrealistic wish fulfillment. As she cleaned her dog, I spent the time trying to concentrate on my work and not just stare at her. I think she caught me staring at her.
Anyway, after she was done cleaning her dog their were little tumble weeds of hair in the stall. She asked if she had to clean up. I told her what I tell anyone that she can clean up if she wants to but I would have to clean up after her no matter what. Thing is most of the time I say that I hope they do clean up because it is easier for me. This time I was happy to do it all.
Liath Wolf says
Hey JimC. I just noticed on youtube this website was sending traffic my way, so I thought I would investigate lol. Really enjoy the tales you put up here and thanks a lot for linking to my channel, I am glad you enjoyed the videos.
Slàinte Mhath
Liath Wolf
JimC says
Welcome to the campfire! My wife and I are loving the videos and are going to load up on merch. Great stuff.