Though I enjoy a variety of genres, Sword and Sorcery holds a special place in my heart. While the first fantasy I was familiar with is The Chronicles of Narnia and like many people I was highly affected by The Lord of The Rings, I tend to come back to S&S. I have written this essay in order to explain why.

First one has to ask, what is Sword and Sorcery and how is it different from other fantasy? Unlike epic fantasy, in which a story typically spans a series of books, S&S stories are either short stories or short novels like Hour of the Dragon or The Swords of Lankhmar. Its heroes are outsiders and usually rogues. Conan is a barbarian wanderer and the Grey Mouser a thief. It typically takes place in a fantasy world though you can make a case for some historical fantasy being sword and sorcery. It, however, is more interested fast action and adventure than deep world building. The supernatural is usually sinister in nature.

Genre definitions should be, of course, descriptive rather than prescriptive. There is some debate on how roguish its protagonist has to be, for example. I don’t want to get in a debate on what is and is not S&S but some works that are called S&S are not. The Lord of Rings, as wonderful as it is, is not S&S but epic fantasy.

It can be hard to pin down what the first S&S story was, however, it usually considered to be “The Shadow Kingdom” by Robert E. Howard though it has its precedents in certain Lord Dunsany stories. Howard, in fact, could be said to be the inventor of Sword and Sorcery. It probably evolved out of his love of both horror fiction and historical swashbucklers. The name, however, comes from Fritz Leiber, creator Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser. Howard and Leiber are the two most important writers in the genre. Michael Moorcock would be a close third.

I came to S&S somewhat backwards. While I can’t remember whether I read Moorcock or Leiber first, I know I read both before Howard. It was Leiber’s Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser stories that made me a fan and to want to write it. I read his story “Ill Met in Lankhmar” in a Barnes and Noble. It made me decide to buy the book it was in. While I would later view Leiber’s stories as varying extraordinarily in quality, the best of Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser stories were a mix gothic horror, humor, and high adventure.

When I discovered Howard years later, it was also watershed moment. Few writers had the raw power he did. I first read his famed Conan stories in a Lancer book I probably found in a used book store. The stories by Howard, particularly “The Tower of the Elephant,” were fantastic. (The stories by L. Sprague De Camp and Lin Carter not so much.) I eventually got a hold of the Del Rey Collections of Howard’s work. The first was The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane. While the Kane stories may not be Sword and Sorcery as a much as proto-Sword and Sorcery, they were where Howard first mixed swashbuckling adventure and horror. Later came the Kull and Conan stories.

The Conan stories are what most people think of when they think of Sword and Sorcery. They should. Stories like “The Tower of the Elephant,” “Queen of the Black Coast,” and “Beyond the Black River” were extraordinary. Even the lesser stories were entertaining. (The only really bad story of Howard’s Conan was “Vale of the Lost Women” and even it had its moments.)

So Howard and Leiber were the titans of the field. Among other writers worth reading are Michael Moorcock, Clark Ashton Smith, C. L. Moore, and Karl Edward Wagner. Smith’s work ranged from S&S to horror to dark fantasy but was always a master of style and atmosphere. Moore created the first female protagonist of S&S Jirel of Joiry whose stories are also rich in atmosphere. Wagner’s Kane stories prefigured grimdark fantasy. Michael Moorcock created Elric which alone is worthy of praise.

There are various things about S&S that appealed to me but a big one is the outsider protagonists. When I was young I did not always get along with the other kids, particularly in grade school. While this got better as I got older, I have always felt like outsider. As such outsider protagonists appeal to me. Conan is often alone against a dangerous world. That feeling is something I understand.

The other thing I like about it is the sense of adventure. As Conan travels through the Hyborian Age he becomes in time a thief, a soldier, a pirate, and eventually a king. Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser, while always thieves, travel over the strange and wondrous world Nehwon. A sense of adventure and a sense of wonder are rare in our modern society.

The fact that Sword and Sorcery tends to be short stories also appeals to me. You can read a great story in one sitting. It does mean that sometimes you don’t get the in depth worldbuilding you get from a fantasy trilogy, but the story moves faster and is tighter. On the worldbuilding front the two most developed worlds are probably Howard’s Hyborian Age and Leiber’s Nehwon. The Hyborian Age was originally a conceit to allow him to write historical adventure without having to do research. (Howard did not mind research but good sources were often hard to find in Cross Plains Texas in the early 20th Century.) However, this freed up Howard to write up a variety of tales where Conan could be a frontiersman (as in “Beyond the Black River”), adventure into a fantastical version of India (as in “People of the Black Circle) or be a pirate (as in “Queen of the Black Coast”). Howard also did write an essay titled “The Hyborian Age” which helped give depth to his world. Nehwon is one of the most creative and strange worlds in fantasy fiction and contains the greatest city of fantasy fiction, Lankhmar. Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser adventure in Lankhmar and elsewhere and encounter wonders and horrors which they survive by their wits and their swords.

I also tend to think Sword and Sorcery promotes certain virtues like courage and competency. Yes, the heroes are rogues but even rogues can have some virtues. Our current society tends to promote tolerance and compassion (which I am all for) but they are not the only virtues. The example of courage that Conan or Jirel shows are much needed in today’s world. Competency is a virtue because without it you will fail no matter how well intentioned you are. Even Kane, who is definitely the darkest of the characters mentioned in this essay, has these virtues. Without these virtues all are other virtues are null.

Yet at the same time their flaws make them more relatable. They are complex. Contrary to what a lot of critics say Conan was a fairly complex character with good and bad traits.

There are complaints about the genre. People often accuse it of low literary quality. This is true of some of the stories but every genre has its good and bad stories. Not every western is Lonesome Dove or every mystery The Big Sleep. One should not judge the quality of a story by the genre it belongs to. Then there are people who complain about the quality of the prose and characterization. Again it depends on the story. Clark Ashton Smith and Jack Vance (writer of The Dying Earth) were amazing wordsmiths. Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser have distinct personalities.

There is also a complaint of sexism and racism. It is certainly true that the writers of a previous era held certain attitudes, but again it varies from story to story. Charles R. Saunders created a black S&S hero in his Imarro stories. Jirel of Joiry was a warrior woman decades before Xena. It is worth noting that supposedly sexist Robert E. Howard praised the first Jirel story, the classic “Black God’s Kiss.” Perhaps it is more complicated than often thought.

If you are new to Sword and Sorcery there are recommendations I can make. Definitely, read Conan and other Howard stories. The best source for Conan are the Del Rey volumes The Coming of Conan, The Bloody Crown of Conan, and The Conquering Sword of Conan. I personally read the Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser series in the White Wolf volumes with Michael Mignola covers, but those can be very expensive. There are other, cheaper versions. I particularly recommend Swords Against Death which is the strongest collection in the Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser series. Paizo’s imprint Planet Stories released a volume, Black God’s Kiss, with all the Jirel of Joiry stories. They are slow on action but rich in weird atmosphere. There are so many volumes of Michael Moorcock’s work that I don’t know what to suggest, but I do think reading Stormbringer is a must. There are various multi-author anthologies which include DMR Books’ own Die By the Sword which I recommend.

In the end, sword and sorcery may not always be the trendy sub-genre, but it is one with a lot to offer.