| rdfs:comment
| - The Hyborian Age is the epoch of history from about 16,000 BC to 8,000 BC, a time in-between the Stone Age and the Bronze Age, which emerged after the sinking of Atlantis but was itself subsequently destroyed by another great catastrophe. As a result of this latter catastrophe, much of the history of the Hyborian Era was forgotten by humanity. Although it is a 'vanished age', vestigial memories and other traces of the customs and culture of the Hyborian Era did remain in people's minds, and were passed on to the later Bronze Age civilizations. Thus, for example, the people of the Hyborian Era nation Stygia became in post-Bronze Age centuries the Egyptians.
- The Conan stories take place on Earth, but in the mythical (created by Howard) Hyborian Age, between the time of the sinking of Atlantis and the rise of the known ancient civilizations. According to Howard himself (in "The Phoenix on the Sword"): "...between the years when the oceans drank Atlantis and the gleaming cities, and the years of the rise of the Sons of Aryas..."
|
| abstract
| - The Hyborian Age is the epoch of history from about 16,000 BC to 8,000 BC, a time in-between the Stone Age and the Bronze Age, which emerged after the sinking of Atlantis but was itself subsequently destroyed by another great catastrophe. As a result of this latter catastrophe, much of the history of the Hyborian Era was forgotten by humanity. Although it is a 'vanished age', vestigial memories and other traces of the customs and culture of the Hyborian Era did remain in people's minds, and were passed on to the later Bronze Age civilizations. Thus, for example, the people of the Hyborian Era nation Stygia became in post-Bronze Age centuries the Egyptians.
- The Conan stories take place on Earth, but in the mythical (created by Howard) Hyborian Age, between the time of the sinking of Atlantis and the rise of the known ancient civilizations. According to Howard himself (in "The Phoenix on the Sword"): "...between the years when the oceans drank Atlantis and the gleaming cities, and the years of the rise of the Sons of Aryas..." Howard devised the Hyborian Age to fit in with his previous and less-well-known tales of Kull, which were set at the time of Atlantis. The name "Hyborian" is a contraction of the Greek concept of the land of "Hyperborea", literally "Super-North-Land". This was a mythical place far to the north that was not cold and where things did not age. Howard's Hyborian age, described in detail in his essay "The Hyborian Age", is a mythical time before any civilization known to anthropologists. Its setting is Europe and North Africa – with some curious geological changes that were thought up prior to the ascendancy of the geologic theory of plate tectonics, though somewhat similar to what geologists theorize. They consider that during the Ice Age, Europe was quite different. The Mediterranean Sea formerly dried out intermittently, alternating with floods over the Straits of Gibraltar. Once there was a land-bridge across the English Channel between England and the Low Countries (but not across the Irish Sea) such that the Thames once flowed into a northern extension of the Rhine. And both the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea were once fresh-water lakes, the former (renamed the Ancylus Sea, after a fresh-water clam) covering much of the eastern half of what is now Sweden. On a map Howard drew detailing it, his vision of the Mediterranean Sea is also dry. The Nile, which he re-named the River Styx, takes a westward turn at right angles just beyond the Nile Delta, plowing through the mountains so as to be able to reach the Straits of Gibraltar. Although his Black Sea is also dry, his Caspian Sea, which he renames the Vilayet Sea, extends northward to reach the Arctic Ocean, so as to provide a barrier to encapsulate the settings of his stories. Not only are his Baltic Sea and English Channel dry, but most of the North Sea and a vast region to the west, easily including Ireland, are too. Meanwhile, the west coast of Africa on his map lies beneath the sea. There are also a few islands, reminiscent of the Azores, but his stories are not about naval tactics.
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)