The joy of reading a storybook while pretending to study or eagerly counting down the days until the latest edition of comic books arrives will be lost on the new generation of children. Has the rise of technology signaled the end of the world of books? I am pretty sure it hasn’t. Let us pay our respects to the famous author Robert E Howard and transport you to his world of fiction, which has enthralled generations of horror and fantasy enthusiasts for decades. Today, we pull back the veil on the inspiration for his iconic figure “Conan the Barbarian,” which is none other than “Kull the Conqueror.”
Kull’s first story, titled “The Shadow Kingdom,” was published in Weird Tales magazine in August 1929, followed by “The Mirrors of Tuzun Thune,” in September 1929. Another story about Kull, titled “Kings of the Night,” published in November 1930, just before Howard’s untimely death in 1936, but Kull was not the main character. Bran Mac Morn, another heroic character from Howard’s pulp literature, was the protagonist of the narrative. The most astonishing truth is that Kull’s unpublished, rejected story “By This Axe, I Rule” was remade into the first Conan story, “The Phoenix of the Sword,” which was published in Weird Tales in December 1932.
The plots of the stories are strikingly similar, with the only variances in the levels being the time and place. Kull lived during the Thurian Age, which ended with the Great Cataclysm, preparing the way for the Hyborian Age, which is when the Conan stories were written. Both the daring barbarians led uprisings and rose to become rulers of strong nations around the world. During Conan’s reign in Aquilonia, however, Kull succeeded to the throne of Valusia. Despite the similarities between Kull and Conan, Howard clearly distinguished them. “Without question, the most important connection between these two characters is that without Kull of Atlantis, there would never have been the icon known as Conan the Barbarian,” says Douglas Cohen.
The Forgotten Creation Of Robert E. Howard
The adaptation of Conan the Barbarian into comics offered tremendous success to Marvel Comics in 1970. Hence the tales of Kull were also adapted to comics between 1971 and 1985. The artists involved in the drawing of the first series were Marie Severin and her sibling John Severin. Later in 2006, the copyright of Kull was taken over by none other than the Dark Horse Comics, who went on to publish three mini-series on Kull, namely ”Kull”, ”Kull: Hate Witch” and ”Kull: The Cat and the Skull”.
Another commendable achievement by Dark Horse Comics is reorganizing the previous Kull series by Marvel Comics into two different collective volumes. The colored comics were categorized into five volumes titled,” The Chronicles of Kull” while the black and white versions were stored in two volumes called ”The Savage Sword of Kull”. Kull’s unpublished and unfinished tales gained popularity in due time, but its creator was not alive to relish it.
The unfinished stories of Kull were completed by Lin Carter, and he also named some of the stories. If the stories are arranged chronologically, then the first story of Kull would be ”Exile of Atlantis,” and the final story would be ”Kings of the Night”. We will now explore the origin and adventures of Kull, the unsung hero of Atlantis who is overshadowed by the emergence of Conan the barbarian.
Exploring the World and Life of Kull
Kull was born in the Tiger valley of the island nation of Atlantis. A flood destroyed his tribe and valley, leaving him alone in the wild for many years. Later he was captured and adopted by the Sea-Mountain tribe. Once, young Kull killed a woman to save her from a tortured death by a mob and was eventually exiled from Atlantis.
After being exiled from Atlantis, his destination was the continent of Thuria, but he was captured by the pirates, forcing him to work as a galley slave. After he was released, he became a fierce pirate spreading terror in the sea. His life as a pirate was also short-lived as he lost his ship in a battle on the sea, but he managed to survive and reach the Kingdom of Valusia.
However, he was imprisoned in Valusia, and in order to save himself from execution, he accepted to serve as a gladiator. Soon he gained popularity as a powerful and fierce combatant and was freed again. Next, he was appointed as a mercenary in the Royal Army of Valusia. With his effective combat skills, Kull was soon promoted as a general command in the mercenary forces by king Borna. But the despotism and brutality of king Borna led to a civil war where Kull killed Borna and ascended the throne of Valusia.
Soon after ascending the throne, his first enemy was the Skull of Silence, a supernatural being defeated and expelled by Kull. Next, he faced the invasion of the Serpent Man cult. Eventually, Kull met Thulsa Doom, who, like Kull, was an enemy of the serpent man, and took him to his Kingdom. But Thulsa Doom conspired to conquer the throne, but Kull emerged victorious in the conflict of the monarchy.
The closest allies of Kull throughout his reign had been Brule, Tu, and Ka-Nu. Brun, the spear-slayer, was a Pictish warrior and remained a friend, philosopher, and guide for Kull for many years after they fought against the serpent man together. Tu was a trustworthy minister of Kull’s administration and a strict follower of the rules and regulations of Valusia. Ka-Nu was a Pictish emissary who was also an eminent advisor of Kull. The greatest foe to Kull during his reign had been Thulsa Doom, whose conspiracies posed constant threats to Kull’s monarchy.
Kull, throughout his reign, faced innumerable challenges from different neighbors, tribes, and evil characters. Tu also suggested a marriage proposal between Kull and the Atlantean Princess Sereena, to which Kull agreed after he fell in love with her. Unfortunately, Sereena was killed during the wedding ceremony. After Brule returned to his homeland and Tu started advising more minors, Kull became more introspective, and his future remained unknown.
Remembering the Movie – Kull the Conqueror Released in 1997
Interestingly, the film “Kull the Conqueror” was adapted from one of the Conan stories written by Robert E Howard titled ”The Hour of the Dragon”. It was also meant to be the third film on Conan the Barbarian. But Arnold Schwarzenegger refused to do the movie while Kevin Sorbo declined to play the character of Conan.
Thus the only solution was to rename the main protagonist from Conan to Kull, and the film ”Kull the Conqueror” in 1997 came into existence and was directed by John Nicolella. Let us now go back to the prehistoric age and glance at Kull’s sword and sorcery fantasy story.
In the Kingdom of Valusia, Kull is desperate to earn his place in the prestigious Dragon Legion, but General Taligaro warns him that a barbarian from Atlantis, like Kull, would not be allowed to join the legion, which was solely comprised of people with noble blood. Suddenly the news started spreading that the present king Borna had slaughtered his heirs who were to succeed the throne, being grasped by insanity.
But the following combat found Kull emerging victorious as he inflicted a mortal injury to Borna. Before succumbing to his injuries, Borna proclaimed Kull as the next king of Valusia, infuriating general Taligaro and the remaining nobles. Eventually, Kull was introduced to his harem, where he met Zareta. Kull already knew Zareta as he had met her as a fortune teller, and she had correctly predicted his monarchy beforehand.
Kull summoned her to his chamber, where she informed him that only a kiss would determine the fate of the Kingdom. Kull at first wanted to intimidate her but later discarded the idea. Enraged, Taligaro and his cousin made a conspiracy to secretly assassinate Kull during his coronation, but they failed. In the conspiracy against Kull, they were united with the sorcerer Enaros, and they resurrected the Sorceress Queen of Archeron empire, Akivasha.
Actually, the Kingdom of Valusia had developed on the ruins of the Archeron empire, as it was destroyed by God Valka. Taligaro and his men helped Akivasha to rebuild her empire, and with her magical spell, she enchanted Kull and became his queen in no time. With her magic, she put Kull into a death-like sleep and kept him in the temple while putting the entire blame on Zareta. The Valkan priest of the temple was Escalante, who was also Zareta’s brother.
He freed Kull, and then they rescued Zareta as they fled on a ship aided by Juba, Kull’s associate. Their only hope to beat and stop Akivasha was to procure the Breath of Valka. But it was not an easy task for them as Akivasha sent General Taligaro to attack them and prevent them from obtaining the breadth of Valka.
He attacked Kull and his group, and just as Zareta procured the breath, Taligaro reached and injured Escalante mortally, while Kull was left to die. The evil Taligaro had different intentions. He wanted to kill Akivasha with the aid of Zareta and ascend the throne of Valusia. Akasha, in the meantime, transformed into her monstrous form on the day of the eclipse while Taligaro stood powerless before her.
Kull reached Valusia and injured Taligaro, and slaughtered Aneros. While confronting Akivasha, Zareta kissed Kull and passed the breadth of Valka to him while Kull kissed the demonic Akivasha to kill her. Taligaro took Zareta as a hostage to protect himself from the furious Kull, but Kull managed to assassinate him in the final combat.
Thus Kull regained his throne and made Zareta his queen while he destroyed all the tablets containing the prevailing laws of Valusia. He abolished slavery and started his reign as a just and able ruler.
It is disappointing that this fascinating sword and sorcerer tale grossed only $6.1 million in the U.S. The film, compared to its time, was extremely well executed in every way. Big screen debutant actor Kevin Sorbo, a known face playing the legendary Hercules on the TV show ”Hercules: the legendary journeys” portrayed his character pretty well.
The supporting cast like Tia Carrere as Akivasha, Thomas Ion Griffith as General Taligaro, Harve Fierstein as Juba, and Karina Lombard as Zareta have also been magnificent in their roles. The film was mainly shot in different cities of Slovakia and Croatia for the classic ancient look of the film’s storyline. Considering the time of the movie, it is pretty entertaining with action, horror, drama, and comedy. It is high time that these forgotten sword and sorcery fantasies are given the honor and credit they deserve.
Why is Kull of Atlantis not so well known
A lot of theory has been put forward regarding the relation between Kull and Conan. Has Conan descended from Kull, or do they have any link anyway? According to the timeline, Kull belongs to the Thurian age. In the story of ”The Hyborian Age”, Howard described how the Atlanteans escaped to Thuria when their island of Atlantis started to sink.
This event has been referred to by Howard as the Cataclysm. But the constant conflict between the Atlantians and the Picts in Thuria transformed Atlanteans into barbarians within the next 500 years. Another minor cataclysm followed, which again altered the shape of the continent, and 2000 years following this small Cataclysm, it is assumed to be the beginning of the Hyborian Age.
Howard had never mentioned that Conan was a descendant of Kull, but he stated that the Cimmerians, where Conan belonged to, were distant descendants of the Atlanteans who took refuge in Thuria after the Cataclysm. So there might be a possibility that Conan might be distantly related to Kull as he was one of the Atlanteans ascending the throne of one of the powerful Thurian kingdoms.
But why is then Kull not as popular as Conan? I guess sometimes characters are defined by success and not by abilities. Howard himself stopped writing Kull stories after the success of Conan. As Weird Tales magazine also agreed to publish only two Kull stories, Howard was also demotivated to continue the series of Kull the Conqueror.
If Kull had been as famous as Conan, then probably Conan might not have been created by Howard. Again the success of Conan is also responsible for Howard fans to look back into his previous works and bring Kull into the limelight.
Del Rey has published a comprehensive volume of the stories of Kull, titled ”Kull: Exile of Atlantis”, which would be an excellent collection for Howard fans. If you remember the scene from Schwarzenegger starring Conan movie when he tumbled into an ancient tomb and found the skeleton of a dead Atlantean king buried with full armor. He also seemed fascinated with the mighty Atlantean sword in the skeleton’s hand. Who do you think the dead Atlantean king must’ve been? Let us know in the comment section.