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[Orius]

Ah, good thread. The Scarlet Citadel is one of my favorite Conan stories. It may not be one of the best written -- Howard's later stories are considered the best of his craft -- but it's still a fun read. There's something about Conan fighting against oppressive rulers who came to power through birth and being a more benevolent ruler than they that resonates with me.

 

[Raven Crowking]

The Tower of the Elephant (Part 1)

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[Raven Crowking]

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[Orius]

So, here we have our youthful Conan, embarrassed, naïve, and bewildered. We also have a beautiful (and, IMHO, true) bit of REH philosophy: Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing.

(A fitting statement about the InterWeb as well: Folks on the InterWeb are more discourteous than in real life, because they know they can be impolite without haveing to deal with face-to-face implications, as a general thing.)

Or as Penny Arcade refers to it, the GIFT (and boy does it keep on giving...) That's probably why I've seen this line from the story quoted in a number of sigs.

 

[Raven Crowking]

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[Raven Crowking]

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[JohnBiles]

society. I've heard many people emphasize the close friendship between Sam and Frodo, but it never seemed to me to be a genuine friendship among equals. Sam was always Frodo's servant, and Sam's virtue was always loyalty. And while Aragorn becomes king, he is just as much trapped in this role as Sam is trapped in the role of servant. I find this much more of a bleak world than one in which a barbarian can become king of a civilized nation.

Keep in mind that Sam eventually gets Frodo's home, becomes the elected Mayor of the Shire repeatedly, and a member of the royal council of the North-Kingdom and his descendents become the leaders of the new Shire colony of Westmarch. (This is all in the appendices which trace out post LOTR events)

And in-universe, we know the whole story because of Sam's line.

Indeed, Tolkien's own explicitly stated goal in his story was to show that you didn't have to be a major noble or king, etc, in order to be important to events. (This is from his letters). Frodo is a man of some wealth in the shire, but he's just Joe Schmoe in the larger world, along with his hobbit friends.

There is a strong element of class structures being accepted rather than challenged, but Tolkien is basically following a lot of his source material in that respect.

 

[JohnBiles]

REH has unjustly been criticized for creating a world where men are cynical, and where betrayal is more common than actual friendship. But, instead, REH created a world in which friendship comes fast among those who deserve it, and who treat each other with mutual respect. And, opposed to Tolkien’s world, those who deserve it come from all walks of life.

Actually, one of the defining characteristics of a fair number of Tolkien's heros is their ability to form friendship with people not of their station. Bilbo, in the Hobbit, is basically nowhere near the stature of Thorin (an exiled king) and his pledged warriors, but emerges as the hero of the tale, forms friendships with kings and Elrond (of vastly higher status than Bilbo), etc, etc.

The same for the Hobbits in LOTR, who might be people of some status in the shire but this is basically being the big fish in the small barrel. Again, they form friendships with ancient beings of power (Treebeard), wizards who are basically demi-gods (Gandalf), ancient high status elves, the future King of Gondor and Arnor (Aragorn), the heir to the current line of rulers of Gondor (Boromir gives his life to save two hobbits), etc.

I think you exaggerate your point.

 

[Raven Crowking]

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[Dausuul]

It is this story that begins

"Know, oh prince, that between the years when the oceans drank Atlantis and the gleaming cities, and the years of the rise of the Sons of Aryas, there was an age undreamed of, when shining kingdoms lay spread across the world like blue mantles beneath the stars – Nemedia, Ophir, Brythunia, Hyperborea, Zamora with its dark-haired women and towers of spider-haunted mystery, Zingara with its chivalry, Koth that bordered on the pastoral lands of Shem, Stygia with its shadow-guarded tombs, Hyrkania whose riders wore steel and silk and gold. But the proudest kingdom of the world was Aquilonia, reigning supreme in the dreaming west. Hither came Conan, the Cimmerian, black-haired, sullen-eyed, sword in hand, a thief, a reaver, a slayer, with gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth, to tread the jeweled thrones of the Earth under his sandalled feet."

– The Nemedian Chronicles.​

This paragraph is one of my favorite bits of fantasy writing ever.