Working The Trapline — Warpaths & A Cimmerian September

The Scotsman describes Alistair Moffat’s new book as trailing “ghosts and deep courage on the War Paths of the Scottish Highland Clans.” These are the spirits we invoke here at Frontier Partisans, and ye can be sure that this tome will be in my possibles as soon as it lands upon these shores on October 3:

Acclaimed historian Alistair Moffat sets off in the footsteps of the Highland clans. In twelve journeys he explores places of conflict, recreating as he walks the tumult of battle. As he recounts the military prowess of the clans – surely the most feared fighting men in western Europe – he also speaks of their lives, their language and culture before it was all swept away. The disaster at Culloden in 1746 represented not just the defeat of the Jacobite dream but also the unleashing of merciless retribution from the British government which dealt the Highland clans a blow from which they would never recover.

From the colonisers who attempted to ‘civilise’ the islanders of Lewis in the 16th century through the great battles of the 18th century – Killiekrankie, Dunkeld, Sheriffmuir, Falkirk and Culloden – this is a unique exploration of many of the places and events which define a country’s history.

Locations included are: Prestonpans • Glenfinnan • The Isle of Lewis • Edinburgh • Inverlochy • Tippermuir • Mulroy • Killiecrankie • Dunkeld • Sherriffmuir • Falkirk • Culloden Moor • Arisaig & Morar

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This month, we do honor to a man who knew something of ghosts and the deep courage of the Gael…

I had a notion that I would attempt to evade the current campaign that has invaded the Hyborean lands of the Internet, but such a notion could not be more foolish and futile. When the online promoter of pulpy goodness Michael K. Vaughan proposed Cimmerian September, I thought to meself, ‘Ye have WAY too much reading to do to delve again into the ancient scrolls of the Nemedian Chronicles’ to encounter…

Conan, the Cimmerian, black-haired, sullen-eyed, sword in hand, a thief, a reaver, a slayer, with gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth, (who will) tread the jeweled thrones of the Earth under his sandalled feet.

I owe too much to the bard, by Crom. I cannot insult his shade by letting this ceremony of remembrance go unmarked. So, out come the Del Reys.

Here Vaughan reads from a letter REH wrote to HP Lovecraft, a salvo in their ongoing debate over  Civilization vs. Barbarism. Note that REH invokes Sam Houston, Davy Crockett and Bigfoot Wallace in his defense of the strenuous life…

I shall not, my faithful Dog Brothers, neglect my duties. Emiliano Zapata will get his due in the coming days, and I will hang on the trail of the Sierra Madre Apaches with the tenacity of Ben Lilly’s hounds. But reading a Conan story a night before the lights go out can only stir the ghosts to active life, can only set fire to the pen and sharpen the blade.