Mongoose Publishing

Yuan-Ti · Posted: Tue Apr 13, 2004 9:47 pm Post subject: Cormac Mac Art

Okay, I just picked up this book -- Cormac Mac Art, published by Baen in 1995 with an introduction by David Drake. The following stories are in the book:

The Land Toward Sunset
Tigers of the Sea
Swords of the Northern Sea
The Night of the Wolf
The Temple of Abomination
The Temple of Abominatin (outline)

The "Notes on the Text" by Drake says that "Swords fo the Northern Sea" and "Night of the Wolf" are entirely written by Howard (although not published during his lifetime) and "Land Toward Sunset" is "entirely pastiche"... presumably by Drake? Meanwhile, "Tigers of the Sea" is apparently a story written by Howard and completed by Drake. The last two are apparently entirely by Howard although the first one is incomplete and the second one simply gives an idea of how Howard would have finished it.

So, I have two questions:
1. How many Cormac Mac Art stories did Howard write and can anyone direct me to a list of them?
2. Why the F did Baen publish a book called Cormac Mac Art with only two lousy Howard stories in it?
2a. Why did I buy such a book? Rolling Eyes

Edit: As an interesting side note for those who care about such things... in the introduction Drake says that his first published novel, Dragon Lord, was actually a Cormac Mac Art novel he was asked to write but which never got published. For those who have read it, as I have, you might even notice that it sticks much closer to the pulp concept (if that is a useful term) than any of Drake's later work -- with the possible exception of his early Hammer's Slammers stories.
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VincentDarlage · Posted: Wed Apr 14, 2004 2:57 am Post subject: Re: Cormac Mac Art

Yuan-Ti · Posted: Wed Apr 14, 2004 3:13 am Post subject:

Great answers! Thanks, Mr. Darlage!

I was sure Baen had robbed me because I have always heard about the Cormac Mac Art character, so I just assumed there had been more than just two complete stories.
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"An uprising? Maybe we'd better hang a few citizens before we start--" Conan in "Black Colossus"

Yokiboy · Posted: Wed Apr 14, 2004 10:19 am Post subject:

So what about Bran Mak Morn then? Excuse an uneducated question, but what type of characters are Bran Mak Morn and Cormac Mac Art?

TTFN,

Yokiboy
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DrSkull · Posted: Wed Apr 14, 2004 11:34 am Post subject:

Cormac is an exiled Irish pirate in the 5th century A.D., sailing around Britain fighting Saxons and Northmen of various sorts, running into supernatural horrors. He has a Northman buddy named Wulfhere.

Bran is king of the Picts of Caledonia duing the Roman empire (sometime after 100 A.D., judging from the fact that there is a Tower of Trajan in "Worms of the Earth"). There aren't many more Bran stories than there are Cormac ones (2-3). There is one that is a King Kull, Bran MacMorn crossover though (through some sort of dream-time travel).
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Yokiboy · Posted: Wed Apr 14, 2004 12:37 pm Post subject:

terryallenuk · Mongoose Joined: 01 Mar 2004 Posts: 141

Anyone with queries relating to Howard's stories should find this resource very useful http://www.howardworks.iwarp.com/howard.htm

Terry
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Yokiboy · Posted: Wed Apr 14, 2004 2:31 pm Post subject:

Yuan-Ti · Posted: Wed Apr 14, 2004 2:32 pm Post subject:

Yes, good stuff. I have actually read a couple of Bran Mak Morn stories -- in the Nameless Cults book put out by Chaosium -- and felt like I was reading a Conan story with a different name. Wink

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"An uprising? Maybe we'd better hang a few citizens before we start--" Conan in "Black Colossus"

Yokiboy · Posted: Wed Apr 14, 2004 2:47 pm Post subject:

Yuan-Ti · Posted: Wed Apr 14, 2004 3:34 pm Post subject:

Nameless Cults has:

Worms of the Earth
The Little People
The Children of the Night

There are some very good stories in it, although not all are terrific. But in general I really enjoyed that book.
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"An uprising? Maybe we'd better hang a few citizens before we start--" Conan in "Black Colossus"

Faraer · Banded Mongoose Joined: 19 Feb 2004 Posts: 254

2a: Also because it's cheap, and will probably go out of print soon like the rest of the Baen Howards.

Also,
http://www.gentzel.com/reh/check.html
http://www.rehupa.com/fiction_timeline.htm

cornelius · Stoat Joined: 29 Mar 2004 Posts: 63

Nameless Cults also has " Black Eons " a Howard fragment completed by Robert M . Price . The Howard section mentions that the fictional book Nameless Cults ( or Unaussprechlichen Kulten in its original German form ) contains info on the hyborian age ie. that's where our modern knowledge of Conan's world comes from . This would also seem to intimate that some form of Hyborian documents have survived until the present day ( or the 1920's at least ) . Nameless Cults was invented as one of the tomes for the Cthulhu Mythos stories Howard wrote - How's that for crossover potential for CoC / Conan games ! It also settles the debate on whether the Conan and Cthulhu stories were related in any way , although Cthulhu Mythos fans have pretty much taken this as read for a while now . Also , the Night Weirds that appear in the Conan stories are obviously Nightgaunts ( from Lovecraft's fiction ) .
Chaosium also used to publish Scroll of Thoth , a biblical - era Cthulhu Mythos anthology by Richard Tierney which mentions Conan as a legendary hero of the past , which could be of interest to the pastiche-friendly Conan fans . And to return to the initial subject of this thread , Andrew J Offut wrote a Cormac novel called Sword of the Gael , but this could be difficult to track down these days , and Tierney wrote a Bran Mak Morn novel entitled For the Witch of the Mists ( also quite rare now ) .
Hope some of this helps ,
Cornelius
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Yuan-Ti · Posted: Wed Apr 14, 2004 7:27 pm Post subject:

cornelius · Stoat Joined: 29 Mar 2004 Posts: 63

I didn't know about any of that , but if anyone tries to find a copy it was published under Offut's name by Sphere and Ace Books in '75 , as were The Undying Wizard , The Mists of Doom and The Sign of the Moonbow ( all featuring Cormac ) . And if anyone knows where I can find all but the first , please let me know .
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"Spoken like a true messiah ! Simple , direct , quotable , and it doesn't answer the question unless someone takes the time to think carefully about it . " - Don Shimoda .