The Barbarian Swordsmen


The Barbarian Swordsmen is an anthology of sword and sorcery stories edited by Peter Haining under the pseudonym of Sean Richards, cover-billed as "the original sword and sorcery adventures." It was first published in paperback by Star Books in 1981.
The book collects eight novelettes and short stories by various early authors of sword and sorcery or pre-sword and sorcery, together with an introduction by the editor and a concluding letter from Robert E. Howard to H. P. Lovecraft of June 1934, recast as an essay.

Contents

  • "Introduction"
  • "The War of Fire"
  • "The Sword of Welleran" •
  • "The Tower of the Elephant"
  • "Brachan the Kelt"
  • "Jirel Meets Magic"
  • "Spawn of Dagon"
  • "The Thief of Forthe"
  • "The Two Best Thieves in Lankhmar"
  • "The Man Who Influenced Robert E. Howard"

Reception

Morgan Holmes, reviewing the volume on castaliahouse.com, calls it "n interesting anthology of sword and sorcery" and "a good little book as an introduction to foundational sword and sorcery fiction" for which "he making of Conan the Barbarian movie in the early 1980s appears to be the stimulus." He notes that "My main quibble... is it could have been bigger. The addition of a Clark Ashton Smith and Nictzin Dyalhis story would have gotten it over the 200 page mark. There is even a Robert Bloch sword and sorcery story that keeps eluding anthologers that could have been used." In addition to comment on the individual stories, he observes that "Peter Haining’s nine page introduction is a good one with some discussion on what sword and sorcery is, and information on the stories and authors."