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[apart from reformatting, and a few comments styled like this, the entire article is taken from a website; I absolutely detest the popup hell that is Angelfire and lycos.com, but this guy has put a lot of effort in his site, so look around for more on Robert E. Howard’s various stories there.]
The Caesar lolled on his ivory throne
His iron legions came
To break a king in a land unknown,
And a race without a name.
— The Song of Bran
| Bran Mak Morn Men of the Shadows Kings of the Night Worms of the Earth |
Untitled A Song of the Race Untitled Synopsis 1 Untitled Synopsis 2 |
The Dark Man The Lost Race The Little People The Drums of Pictdom |
Robert E. Howard was not the only one to take a fanciful look at the mysterious Picts. If one investigates British belief about this lost race, one encounters many tales. Soon after they vanished (about 900 a.d.), they became the subjects of stories to frighten children with, and I have no doubt that Howard was aware of this when he created his fictional Picts, especially the epic of Bran Mak Morn.
I had thought that they had called themselves Picts, and that the ancient Romans had called them Caledonians, but I was wrong. We don’t know what they called themselves. The Romans called them Picti, “the painted ones”. The Romans categorized them as uncouth barbarians (yay!), whose ancestors lived in tents unclothed and unshod, sharing their mates and bringing up their children together, their bodies tattooed or painted with strange designs.
According to folklore, the first Vikings to reach the Orkneys dared not land because of elf- or troll-like beings (Picts?) who menaced them with shining spears.
Bede’s Ecclesiastical History says the Picts came by sea from Scythia.
A 12th Century, anonymous Norwegian historian wrote: “The Picts were little more than pygmies in stature. They worked marvels in the morning and evening building towns, but at midday they entirely lost their strength and lurked through fear in little underground houses.”
Sir Walter Scott believed that the galleries in the walls of the Brochs were low and narrow because of the small size of the Picts (it was later learned that these prehistoric stone towers pre-dated the Picts).
Robert Louis Stevenson’s ballad “Heather Ale” and John Buchan’s story “No-Man’s Land”, both written in this century, portray the Picts as diminutive and living underground.
The name Picti was first recorded in a Latin poem of 297 a.d., but may have originated (as stated above) among the Roman soldiers along the frontier. Bede, however does not mention them as tattooing or painting their bodies. If they did decorate their bodies in this manner, it may have been with the same designs later carved in stone and subsequently used to decorate clothing and other personal items.
Howard was undoubtedly aware of at least some of this information when he decided to make the Picts his own. We’re familiar with Brule and his war-like tribe from the King Kull stories — that the Picts return as pseudo-Indians in the Conan stories “Beyond The Black River”, “The Black Stranger” and “Wolves Beyond The Border” — that two hundred years after Bran Mak Morn’s time Cormac Mac Art faces this strange people — that a few small bands unabsorbed by the conquering Scots in the tenth century survived into Turlogh O’Brien’s time, the early twelfth century (according to Howard anyway) — that they, or at least the worms they dispise so much, play a part in Howard’s many tales of underground terror — that they appear in some of James Allison’s recollections — and that finally the Picts suffer a similar fate to the hated worms, as their ultimate and tragic fate is displayed in Howard’s “The Little People”.
I rather like David Weber’s introduction to the Baen Bran Mak Morn. He gets a few facts wrong, but his understanding of Howard’s work makes up for this. Howard’s fantasy/adventure really is Dark Fantasy in the fullest sense of the phrase: Material existence is a howling chaos of hostile forces, seeking to drag the protagonist down into red ruin, but the Howardian hero rages against the “dying of the light”. There is no winning of the war, just minor victories to be won here and there, before one goes off to get drunk and forget about the pain and suffering that the material world has to offer. The creeping black chaos can only be held off for a short time, but it always always wins in the end. Weber refers to this as the doom, despair and hopelessness found in Howard’s writing, the struggle against the night, the losing battle.
This is especially true in the Bran Mak Morn and related Pictish stories. Not only is Mak Morn facing individual defeat, but he is the entire high-point of this brief renaissance of his race, so his defeat is their defeat. He is seeking to bring them back, to build them up into what they once were. After his time they descend, both figuratively and literally, to become the underground-dwelling things of “The Little People”. This is what Weber is talking about when he discusses the tragedy of the Picts.
Weber states that Bran may be the least known of Howard’s fantasy heroes. I’d argue with that, but I do feel that the big guns of Howard’s fantasy tales are better known than Mak Morn. Conan, Kull, and Solomon Kane are what one thinks of. Perhaps even the pastiche-laden Cormac Mac Art is better known, but that’s because his adventures were furthered ad nauseam by Offutt and associates. But I would rate Bran’s popularity ahead of the second stringers: the unjustly overlooked Turlogh O’Brien, Agnes de la Fere, de Montour, John Silent, Stephen Costigan (of Skull-Face fame) and the also overlooked James Allison, laying on his death-bed, recalling his previous incarnations.
Weber also comments that the Picts are very important to Howard’s world, and that is also true. As I outlined above, besides the stories under discussion here, the Picts impinge on several series.
As to the origin of the name Howard picked for his Pictish king, Weber comments that ravens (Bran is Gaelic for raven), according to Norse myth, are birds of battle, foretellers of bloodshed, and carrion-eaters. That makes his name seem very appropriate.
From Howard’s letter, that always seems to serve as a “Foreword” to any Bran Mak Morn collection, we learn that Howard was aware of the historical Picts, or at least what was known about them at that time; but that he was also influenced by a fanciful school-boys’ book found in New Orleans.
In creating his own version of the Picts, Howard made them a strong, war-like race of barbarians, gave them an honorable history of past glories, and created for them a great king — one Bran Mak Morn, a pantherish man of medium height, with inscrutable black eyes, black hair, and dark skin. Howard said that he could only think of Bran in terms of that Pict’s struggles with Rome.
Howard also made the typical Pict of Bran’s time be short, stocky, with thick gnarled limbs, beady black eyes, a low retreating forehead, a heavy jaw, and straight coarse black hair.
In other words, to visualize Bran’s saga as we talk of him, imagine him as looking like the title character from the movie, The Indian In The Cupboard; or as Litefoot, the Indian who played Ascalante in Kull The Conqueror. Imagine the rest of the Picts as looking like the most stocky, hunched-over, brutal-looking cavemen you’ve ever seen a pictorial representation of. That is the appearance that Howard gives to Bran and his race time and again throughout this saga.
At the tale end of this letter, Howard gives a synopsis for an unwritten novel of the Picts.
Although, generally speaking, I don’t much intend to include bits of Juvenilia when discussing Howard’ various series and epochs, this piece is indicative of what Howard thought of the Picts at a young age.
The plot, basically, is that Bran has sent a bunch of Picts after some raiders, who escape by boat. The Picts, their blood-lust aroused, butcher some people that Bran was hoping to recruit as allies.
The Picts are savage, bestial, un-united; and Bran Mak Morn desires to bring his nation out of savagery, to bring it back to the civilization (surprising to hear that, isn’t it?) of their fathers.
These same attributes and attitudes are seen in later stories.
By discussing this fragment here, I am in no way implying that it should be included in a collection of Bran Mak Morn, or, more generally, Pictish, stories. Howard’s Juvenilia should generally be left unpublished.
I had never before read “Men Of The Shadows” without first reading “The Lost Race.” I think being prefaced by that story has done harm to “Men Of The Shadows” and caused it to be considered a lesser story than it really is. Given, it is not a great story, but it’s better generally than one remembers it as being.
Beginning with poetry, as it does, gives a nice extra touch to this yarn.
The action begins in the far north, in an area that is now known as the Scottish Highlands. In this story a lone survivor, a Nordic legionnaire of Rome, has escaped massacre and is trying to make his way south to safety. He is eventually captured by the Picts, and witnesses a contest of wills between Bran Mak Morn and the Pictish shaman, Gonar, who later tells the saga of the Pictish race. This contest is fueled by the fact that Gonar wants to perform blood sacrifice with the prisoner, and Bran Mak Morn opposes him. Bran wins the contest.
Living up to the image of the Picts as being tattooed or painted, the Picts in this story have their bodies painted with woad.
Howard describes Bran Mak Morn and his fellow Picts in keeping with the details that were set forth in the “Foreword”.
Bran Mak Morn has a lean dark face, and doesn’t look like other Picts. This is because very few Picts, most likely only members of the nobility, have kept their bloodline pure. Bran Mak Morn is also unmatched in warfare, either with his army, or when fighting alone.
Gonar, the wizard, has tattoos all over his body and wears a long white beard. His only garment is a loincloth.
The other Picts are dwarfish hairy men, bowed and gnarled of limb, with broad shoulders, long and mighty arms, with great mops of coarse hair topping foreheads that slanted like apes, and they have small unblinking eyes. They have massive strength and are as quick as cats. They wear scarcely any clothing, carry small round shields, long spears, and short swords with oval-shaped blades. These are stunted dwarfs whose day has passed. The other tribes fear them as being somehow magical.
In this story we learn that the Picts like to put the heads of their foes on spears (see Frazetta’s painting, Bran Mak Morn).
The history of the Picts, as outlined in this story, is as I covered in my “King Kull” essay, which, with luck, will soon be added to this website. During Brule’s time the Picts lived on an island chain situated about where the Rocky Mountains are today. By Bran’s time, with a few exceptions, the last members of this dying race have taken refuge in what will one day be known as Scotland.
Howard’s fictional pre-history of the world (excluding the Conan tales, which came later in his career) is consistent throughout the Kull, Solomon Kane and Bran Mak Morn series, as well as in the aborted novel, The Isle Of The Eons. This consistency may even extend to Skull-Face, but I haven’t checked it for that yet. What I’m saying here is that he did have a definite framework against which all these stories were set.
According to this framework, the historical Toltecs were descendants of the mythical Lemurians, as stated in this story.
There is an interesting paragraph towards the end of this story:
“The circle without beginning,” droned the wizard. “The circle unending. The Snake with its tail in its mouth, that encompasses the Universe. And the Mystic Three. Beginning, passivity, ending. Creation, preservation, destruction. Destruction, preservation, creation. The Frog, the Egg, and the Serpent. The Serpent, the Egg, and the Frog. And the Elements: Fire, Air, and Water. And the phallic symbol. the Fire-God laughs.”
Now, in his interview with Mrs. Ellis that appeared in Day Of The Stranger: Further Memories Of Robert E. Howard, REHUPA’s own Rusty Burke, along with Mrs. Ellis, stress that Howard’s religious orientation was towards conventional Christianity. If Howard was a Christian when he wrote “Men Of the Shadows”, he was certainly well-versed in Eastern, New Age (though I think it was called “New Thought” back then) and Pagan beliefs. During my REH-reading binge of this pass summer I came across references to both Sidhartha and Gautama (the actual name of Buddha — and please forgive my spelling) in his writings; plus, as revealed in Dark Valley Destiny, we know that Dr. Howard taught Pranayama (yogic breathing) to his patients.
The above quote is full of references to a kind of universal distillation of New Age beliefs, ranging from Alchemy to Tantra. This is all quite impressive. Howard was a lot more than just well read.
In this story, the Romans are marshaling a northern push to increase their territories. Opposing this Bran Mak Morn has gathered a diverse alliance of Picts, Gaels and Britons. Added to this are three hundred northern reavers who, if Bran does not furnish them a foreign king to lead them, will go over to the Romans. Gonar summons from the past Kull of Valusia to lead the northmen. Bran wins the day and Kull disappears into the sunset.
The contrast between Bran Mak Morn and his followers is again made.
Some few of the Picts present are like the king, smooth-limbed and lithe. Bran is further described as trying to lift a race of savages out of the slime into which they have sunk. An odd distinction is made between Kull and Bran Mak Morn. Kull chaffs under his responsibility and says “Tu, chief councilor, would say my life belongs to Valusia, and I have no right to risk it—”. By contrast, the Pictish king embraces this responsibility; he later tells Cormac: “A king belongs to his people, and cannot let either his own feelings or the lives of men influence him.” In drawing distinctions between Howard’s protagonists, this can not be over stressed. Bran’s life is one of self-sacrifice and service. He has a dream, and he has dedicated his life to making that dream come true.
The typical Pict is described as short and uncommonly quiet: “The silence of the Stone Age rested on the souls of these men,” The description continues: Short, crooked of limb, giant dwarfs with no facial hair, barefoot and clad scantily in wolfskin. Their weapons are described as being short, barbed swords of iron, heavy black bows, arrows tipped with flint, iron and copper, and stone-headed mallets. They have shields of hide covered wood.
“Our people have mixed with the savages of an elder age which we drove into the North when we came into the Isles, and now, save for their chieftains, such as thou, Bran, a Pict is strange and abhorrent to look upon.”
At this time the Gaels already had settlements in western Pictland. These settlements eventually spread to give birth to the nation of Scotland.
An interesting aside in this story is that, although Bran won in the contest of wills with Gonar, blood sacrifice is still practiced among the Picts. Bran does not put faith in this mummery though, Gonar does this to impress the lesser chiefs, who are very superstitious.
This story features Bran Mak Morn’s first use of the pseudonym, Partha Mac Othna, as he spies on the Roman settlement of Eboricum (modern York) in the guise of a Pictish ambassador. The commander there puts a Pict to death and Bran swears revenge. To carry this out he summons the worms of the earth, by capturing a sacred relic of theirs, to do his bidding. Needless to say his revenge is fulfilled in rather grisly fashion.
Bran’s sense of duty to his people again plays an important role in this story.
The typical Pict is again described: stocky bodies and massive limbs from a primitive Teutonic race that had been absorbed by the Picts. So now we know more exactly where their deformity comes from.
The strange were-woman whose blood carries a strain of subterranean worm is described as well: black locks, red lips, sharp teeth pointed like fangs, serpentine motions, almost pointed ears, yellow slanted eyes, and mottles on the skin.
Although the worms lurk in darkness their description is hinted at, twice as inhuman looking as the werewoman, with heads more serpentine than human. In fact the sight of them, and traveling with them, had made the Roman commander of Eboricum stark raving mad to the point where his death at Bran’s hands was a mercy.
This story has Lovecrafty overtones as both the words R’lyeh and Dagon are bandied about quite freely. This may have been written at a time in Howard’s career when he was quite influenced by HPL.
This brief piece describes two incidents in the life of Bran Mak Morn, as he is again masquerading under the name of Partha Mac Othna (the pseudonym he used at the beginning of “Worms Of The Earth”).
First, he and a Viking meet each other on the road, lying about their intent and their real names.
Second, he meets a red-haired woman in rocky terrain, who calls him a liar and forces him into a wrestling match.
And that is how the fragment ends. It is intriguing to speculate what Howard had intended for this piece. He drops a pretty obvious clue that the woman could be some kind of witch. She definitely is another in a long line of interesting female characters. Too bad we never find out her name.
The placement of the poems in Howard’s various series is an unusual thing. The three poems in the Solomon Kane series are adventures in his life and have a very definite placement. One would think the same of the King Kull poem, “The King And The Oak”, but it’s always placed at the end of the complete Kull stories — perhaps, “A Song Of The Race” is a different matter all together. It somewhat mirrors “Men Of The Shadows” (hence its placement here) in that there is presented certain historical data on the Picts. We are already familiar with that data from “Men Of The Shadows”, and so won’t discuss that aspect of this poem here.
More is presented, in this poem, about what culture the Picts do have, than appears in any of the Bran Mak Morn stories: Bran actually does have a throne, and a drinking horn. And the Picts do have some kind of culture, for the she-minstrel of this poem does have a lyre, though it could have originated with another people.
This she-minstrel is of interest, because of the way Howard goes on and on about her red lips, one would be surprised if she weren’t the king’s lover, eventually.
And, finally, in her song, is presented the promise of the Moon God, that the last man alive would be a Pict.
There is hope for the race after all!
One of the things the synopsis from Cromlech #3 does is that it helps us date the Bran Mak Morn stories. Readers of Karl Edward Wagner’s Bran Mak Morn pastiche, Legion From The Shadows, may have noted that, aided by David A. Drake, Dr. Wagner dates Howard’s completed Bran Mak Morn tales as happening between 200 and 210 ad. Howard has this synopsis describing events from 296-300 ad. From that fact one can extrapolate that the period of Bran’s active kingship could run from about 275 to 315 AD, give or take a decade here or there. This gives us much more of a handle on the Bran Mak Morn adventures.
This synopsis describes a story that begins with a fight along Hadrian’s Wall, the Pictish fighters are being lead by Bran Mak Morn.
As things progress, Bran becomes allied with one Allectus, but Allectus has other allies, the untrustworthy Northmen. These Nordics dispise all Picts, they insult Bran Mak Morn and eventually kill his “sweetheart”. The Pictish king deceives the Nordics as he leads them into a trap and wipes them out.
It is rather interesting to imagine that the sweetheart of the king who dies in this story would be the she-minstrel from “A Song Of The Race”. Tragic, but fitting into the long history of Howard’s Picts.
So, Bran Mac Morn wasn’t completely asexual.
This brings us to the stories that take place after Bran’s reign.
In the excitement over the found Bran Mak Morn synopsis that appeared in Cromlech #3, I think that Howard’s fans have overlooked the fact that a synopsis also appeared in the letter of Howard’s that has appeared, under the title of “Foreword”, in every single Bran Mak Morn collection ever published.
It may, in fact, be too brief to actually be considered a synopsis:
The Slow crumbling of Roman influence in Britain, and the encroachment of Teutonic wanderers from the East. These, landing on the eastern coast of Caledonia [Scotland], press slowly westward, until they come in violent conflict with the older Gaelic settlements on the west. Across the ruins of the ancient pre-Aryan Pictish kingdom, long pinned between implacable foes, these warlike tribes come to death-grips, only to turn on a common foe, the conquering Saxons. I intend the tale shall be of nations and kings rather than individuals.
He intended it to get novel length treatment.
It does have that sort of sweep of history that his best historical adventures do.
I would appreciate if Howard fans who have a more extensive knowledge of history than myself (and that is probably most of you) would comment on me placing this synopsis here.
The Picts first enter this story when the Irish renegade, Turlogh O’Brien, finds 15 dead Vikings and seven dead Picts in a heap on the Isle of Swords. They had literally fought each other to the death The Picts had apparently been guarding a five foot statue that Turlogh refers to, in reflection, as “The Dark Man”. Though appearing to be made of stone, the statue proves to be quite light as Turlogh picks it up and lashes it into the bow of his boat.
Turlogh finds the island that is his final destination with comparative ease, even though a horrible storm is raging. It is as though the Dark Man were guiding and protecting him.
Upon the island, Turlogh hides his boat, leaving the Dark Man in it, as he heads for the Viking skali. Vikings then find the statue, which is now incredibly heavy, and bring it to the lodge ahead of the renegade.
Once inside Turlogh sees the girl he has come to rescue. Not knowing that help is near, the girl commits suicide rather than marry a Viking lord. Turlogh goes something beyond berserk, attacking the Vikings. Meanwhile, the reavers are attacked from the other side by a band of Picts, who have come to retrieve the Dark Man.
Once the battle is ended, the Pictish chieftain speaks to Turlogh:
“Ages ago we ruled. Before the Dane, before the Gael, before the Briton, before the Roman, we reigned in the western isles . Our stone circles rose to the sun. We worked in flint and hides and were happy. Then came the Celts and drove us into the wilderness. They held the southland. But we throve in the north and were strong. Rome broke the Britons and came against us. But there rose among us Bran Mak Morn, of the blood of Brule the Spear-slayer, who broke the iron ranks of Rome and sent the legions cowering south behind their Wall.
“Bran Mak Morn fell in battle; the nation fell apart. Like wolves we Picts live now among the scattered islands, among the crags of the highlands and the dim hills of Galloway. We are a fading people. We pass. But the Dark Man remains — the Dark One, the great king, Bran Mak Morn, whose ghost dwells forever in the stone likeness of his living self.”
Then an aged shaman, named Gonar (!), lifts the Dark Man, which is again light to the touch and is no burden to its bearer, and carries it worshipfully to the waiting boats. As the Picts leave the burning skali, Howard tells more about this king: “Bran Mak Morn loved his people with a savage love; he hated their foes with a terrible hate.” (Emphasis is, of course, mine.) Even though this is a story from the Turlogh O’Brien series, there is a wealth of information given about Bran Mak Morn and the Picts: The Picts of this story and “The Lost Race” are not the misshapen ape-men that Bran ruled over — those Picts were apparently wiped out after Bran died, Bran did succeed in uniting the tribes, he did keep the Romans south of the wall, he kept the Norse and British out of Pictish territory, he did die in battle, his soul does rest in the statue of the Dark Man, the tribes did split up after his death, and the tribes in this story have to live in remote mountains — but they do not live underground. In fact, the quoted paragraphs above could almost be considered another synopsis, this one of the fall of Bran Mak Morn.
This could also be considered a Lost Race story. The historical Picts were finally defeated and absorbed by the Scots in the early 900s. This story takes place three years after the battle of Clontarf in the early 1100s. I suppose some groups of independent Picts could still have existed. There might have been some isolated tribes that had not been driven underground, but not many.
This story is a wonderful coda to Bran’s life.
The hero, Cororuc, is a Briton who has a bit of Nordic blood in him. He is returning from a mission to Cornwall in extreme southwestern Britain. He saves a wolf from a panther, encounters some outlaws and becomes captured by some Picts. An elderly Pictish chieftain wants to execute the Briton, but another chief, one who is supposedly a werewolf (he was the wolf whose life was previously saved) of some kind, saves the Briton’s life.
This tribe of Picts is pure-blooded, they do not resemble their stocky brethren in the north. They are tattooed from head to foot in ocher and woad, however they are already living underground, they were driven there by the Celts. They are, curiously enough, skilled artisans, as Cororuc deduces by their cave paintings.
In a previous story, it was stated that other clans considered the Picts to be magical. We see it here in the young chief who, simply by donning a wolf’s skin, can turn into a wolf.
The older chief in this story is also of interest. He is immortal for he has been cursed by a witch; yet he hasn’t left that cavern since he was a youth. He plans to commit suicide when the Pictish race is extinct. He obviously has not heard of the Moon God’s promise.
Even though “The Lost Race” is considered a minor story, there are some interesting details here.
The Picts are already living underground, the degeneration has begun!
The young chief’s ability to turn into a wolf and the older chief’s immortality are quite interesting, but I certainly wish that REH had done more with these plot elements.
Whenever Howard discusses suicide in a story, that passage draws attention to itself. The older chieftain has resolved to commit suicide when he is the last Pict, not out of depression or loneliness, but because it will be time to die. How very interesting! Howard has mirrored this attitude in other places, of people committing suicide for reasons other than depression. His thoughts on this go so very deep that I have to wonder what his complete philosophy on suicide was (as a digression, look for instance at the story “The Supreme Moment”).
I feel that this story belongs in this placement because the Britons of this time have Nordic blood, and in Howard’s history of the world Nordic’s were rare in Britain in Bran Mak Morn’s time, also the Picts are living underground in this story. Plus, beginning a Bran Mak Morn volumes with “The Lost Race” and then “Men Of The Shadows”
I am interested if placing the story here is historically impossible. What is the absolutely latest date at which this story could occur?
I had never read this story in conjunction with the Bran Mak Morn series before. What a natural it is to be included with these other Pictish stories: The antagonist are, once again, the worms of the earth, now known as the children of the night; the Picts are conspicuously featured off-stage; the statue of Bran Mak Morn, and the cult that worships it, gets a long passage devoted to it; and, as in “Worms Of The Earth”, Lovecraftian references abound.
The contemporary antagonist is Ketrick, whose blood-line, like the were-woman in “Worms Of The Earth” is tainted by a serpentine strain. He has amber, almost yellow eyes, that appear slightly oblique. He also has a slight and occasional lisp.
The antagonists in the flashback are the worms themselves, whose language is described as resembling the hissing of snakes. The worms have been driven into the forests by the Picts. It is further stated that the Picts drove them into hiding and obscurity. Their homes are earth domes, connected by underground tunnels. That would tend to make this flashback predate “Worms Of The Earth”, as by then they were living completely underground.
A roll-call of Lovecraftian deities is taken: Cthulhu, Yog Sothoth, Tsathoggua and Gol-Goroth. Unless I’m mistaken, one of these names is part of Howard’s addition to the mythos.
Lovecraft gets a tip of the hat as his “Call Of Cthulhu” is hailed as a particularly fine horror story.
The list of books is kept fortunately short, only the Necronomicon and Von Juntz’ Nameless Cults is mentioned. The latter being another of Howard’s contributions to the Mythos.
And now for the revelation about the cult of Bran:
“You remember Von Juntz makes mention of a so-called Bran cult [...] Von Juntz includes this particular cult among those still in existence. [...] the king who rules the Dark Empire, which was a revival of an older, darker empire dating back to the Stone Age; and of the great, nameless cavern where stands the Dark Man — the image of Bran Mak Morn, carved in his likeness by a master-hand while the great king yet lived, and to which each worshipper of Bran makes a pilgrimage once in his or her lifetime. Yes, that cult lives today in the descendants of Bran’s people — a silent, unknown current it flows on in the great ocean of life, waiting for the stone image of the great Bran to breathe and move with sudden life, and come from the great cavern to rebuild their lost empire. [...] who were the people of that empire? [...] Picts.”
It is a sign of Howard’s genius, flexibility and his versatility that he can take the noble, self-sacrificing king of a beleaguered people, and turn that hero into the undead fetish of a horrendous cult.
Imagine Bran’s consciousness stuck inside that stone carving for 1700 years. How could it not go insane? What mad revenge could it want against the rest of humanity?
This would cause the Moon-God’s prophecy to be viewed in a different light, a much more menacing one.
In a small west England inn, an American student, Joan Costigan, slams down a copy of Arthur Machen’s The Shining Pyramid, declaring it to be no more than a fairy tale. In the ensuing conversation with her brother, the following facts about the Little People, upon whom Machen based his tale, are revealed: the Little People, if real, are descendants of the prehistoric people who inhabited Europe before the Celts came down out of the north. This early race is called variously Turanians, Picts, Mediterranians, and Garlic Eaters. These people, whoever they were, are ancestors of the modern day Basques of Spain, the Scotch of Gallway, and the Lapps. (This is Howard’s second mention, in these stories, of the Basques being a tribe of Picts.) The rumors, or legends, about these people are that they fled to caverns under the earth and lived there, coming out only at night to burn, murder, and carry off children for bloody rites of worship (one presumes this worship is to the statue of Bran Mak Morn, but the present story doesn’t say that).
The impulsive young Joan is determined to spend the night amidst some ruins upon the moor. The ghost of a druid wakes her brother and sends him after her. Joan is attacked by grotesque stunted men before her brother can get to her and is rescued by the same ghostly druid that appeared before.
Though the story doesn’t actually say that her attackers are 20th Century Picts, that is the obvious implication. Here is the description of their appearance: Short dwarfish shapes, stunted bodies, gnarled limbs, crooked hands, beady reptilian eyes, and grotesque square faces with inhuman features.
The race has truly fallen. Once the proud, dominant people of Brule’s time, they now are distorted reflections of those they dispised, the worms of the earth! Except for the square faces in the previous description I would think that the antagonists of this piece were the worms themselves, but Howard has painstakingly set up the story so that the Picts play the bad guys.
To try to recap the history of Howard’s fictional Picts seems almost a daunting task because of the wealth of diversity he has written into their history: we begin with them dwelling on islands where the rocky mountains are today, this was the time of Brule; they begin a mainland colony on the Thurian continent that becomes the sole surviving Pictish settlement when the cataclysm comes; by Conan’s time they inhabited the western shores of the main continent (“The Hyborian Age” contradicts details given in “Men Of The Shadows” and other places, but that essay was a later piece, designed to help Howard flesh out Conan’s world, not to add drama to the Pictish tragedy); after the next cataclysm, they roam through most of Europe before being driven off by the invading Æsir, this is the time of the reincarnations recalled by the dying James Allison; during early recorded history they live as isolated lost tribes everywhere but northern Britain, where they have intermarried with Teutonics to take on misshapen forms, this is the time of Bran Mak Morn; the isolated stories that follow show them being driven underground by the invading Celts, the misshapen half-Teutonic members of the clan perhaps dying out, the once-purebred Picts deforming from centuries living underground until they become the monsters described in “The Little People”. During this whole time, they are watched over by the brooding statue of Bran Mak Morn, his soul trapped in an idol of stone, waiting to come alive again so that he can reunite his people and bring the lost empire into glory once again, so that he can fulfill the Moon God’s promise and prophecy that the last man left alive will be a Pict.
Those who want to shrug Howard off as a hack pulp writer are either blind or stupid. There is a consistent background running through all the Pictish tales, a coherent history. This is high dramatic tragedy.
The Man was, and is, a genius!
Although, for years, this poem has been used as a preface to Howard’s “Foreword” to the Bran Mak Morn yarns, I can think of no better way to end a discussion of the Pictish tales (try to read it as though you were reading it for the very first time):
How can I wear the harness of toil
And sweat at the daily round,
While in my soul forever
The drums of Pictdom sound?
Bibliography:
Beyond The Borders, by Robert E. Howard, Baen, October 1996.
Bran Mak Morn, by Robert E. Howard, Baen, January 1996.
Coven 13, Vol. 1, No. 2, January 1970; Arthur H. Landis, Editor.
Cromlech: The Journal Of Robert E. Howard Criticism #3, 1988; Robert M. Price, Guest Editor.
Historical Atlas Of The World, prepared by Oddvar Bjorklund, Haakon Holmboe and Anders Rohr, New York, Barnes & Noble Books, 1970.
Picts, by Anna Ritchie, Edinburgh, HMSO Publications, 1989.