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Cimmeria was the barbaric northern land where Conan was born. Its northern neighbors include traditional ally Aesgaard and traditional foe Vanaheim. Its southern neighbor Aquilonia was a more occasional opponent.

Cimmeria was a land of hills and dark forests. It was described as permanently gloomy and grey-skied. Their environment seems to have had an influence on the mentality of Cimmerians, who tend to be moody and somber in spirit. Both the Aesir and Vanir are considered to be more "high-spirited".[1]

History

Elder Cimmeria (Pre-Cataclysmic Age)[]

During the Pre-Cataclysmic Age, the people of "Elder Cimmeria" were barbarians living on the Thurian mainland,[2] divided in tribes.[3] Those tribes existed contemporaneously with Atlantis, and intermarried with Atlantean colonists on Thuria before the Great Cataclysm.[4]*

After the Great Cataclysm[]

After the Great Cataclysm, the Atlantean stock was preserved in the daughter-colony, which devolved into savagery, and became known as few thousand years later as the Cimmerians,[2]

Age of Acheron[]

Circa 13,000 BC, the Kings of Acheron at south fought the Cimmerians but were never able to conquer them.[5][6] Some Cimmerian youths were brought back to Python, where they made up the King's Elite Guard.[6]

Hyborian Age[]

During the Hyborian Age, the Cimmerians were divided into various tribes, which sustain themselves through hunting and foraging.[1]

Circa 10,000 BC, Conan of the Snowhawk Tribe ventured outside Cimmeria, and became a world-renowned warrior, thief, pirate and explorer, became king of the Hyboria kingdom of southern Aquilonia, before abdicating to explorer the world past the Western Ocean.

Circa 9,500 BC, the Cimmerians resisted to the Hyrkanian invaders who stormed the other Hyborian Kingdoms.

The Cimmerians were eventually displaced by the great Nordheimr surge fleeing the advance of the glaciers. Many Cimmerians moved eastward, settling on the southwestern shore of the Vilayet.[4]

Legacy[]

The Cimmerians were ancestors of many people in later history:

  • The Gaels, descendants of pure-blooded Cimmerians. The Gaels were themselves the ancestors of Irish and Highland Scotch. Those pure-blooded clans also gave their name to modern Crimea.
  • The Goths were descendants of a mixed race including Vanir, Aesir, and Cimmerian lineage. They were themselves the ancestors of the other Scandinavian and Germanic tribes (including the Anglo-Saxons).
  • The Cymric tribes of Britain, the Cimri, the Gimmerai, and Gomer were of a mixed race of Nordic and Cimmerian lineage.
  • The Scythians were descended from Cimmerians having mingled with Hyrkanians east of the Vilayet.[7]

Facts[]

Cimmeria from Conan Saga Vol 1 5

The regions of Cimmeria during the Hyborian Age of Conan

Religion, Folklore and superstition[]

The chief deity of the Cimmerians was Crom, a grim god who seats in isolation on a high mountain. When a boy is born, a ritual asks the gods to grant it the "power to strive and slay". This is considered enough of a demand. Their gods are conceived as otherwise indifferent to humanity, and prayer is only to be used on rare occasions. Calling the attention of a cruel and/or indifferent deity to your person is thought foolhardy. The Cimmerians have a similar cheerless view of the afterlife. They believe that all souls are destined to wonder for eternity on a realm of gray clouds, cold mists, and moaning winds,[1] which sounds suspiciously close to depictions of Cimmeria itself.

The creatures of folklore of the Cimmerians includes the Frost Giants, the Kobols, and the Were-Demons.[8]

The Cimmerians always mounted their horses from the left side, as they believed a devil would enter the horse if they did from the right.[9]

Alternate Realities[]

Earth-83600[]

Cimmeria from What If? Vol 1 39 001

Earth-83600's Cimmeria

While Thor, escorted by Conan, was traveling to Cimmeria in the dead of winter to question the god Crom about his true origin, they both were attacked by a pack of ravenous boars.[10]

Points of Interest

Residents

Notes

  • Robert E. Howard named the Cimmerians after a historical Indo-European tribe of the same name, who are recorded to have had conflicts with the Assyrians, Phrygians, and Lydians in the 8th and 7th centuries BC.[11][12]
  • Today most scholars view the historical Cimmerians as closely related to either the Thracians or the Iranians. But at the start of the 20th-century, the dominant theories of the time viewed them as proto-Celts or proto-Germanic. This influenced Howard, who conceived his Cimmerians as proto-Gaels. In his words: "the Gaels, ancestors of the Irish and Highland Scotch, descended from pure-blooded Cimmerian clans,..."
    • "Conan" is a Celtic name, and there are at least two Celtic gods actually named "Crom": Crom Cruach and Crom Dubh. In his stories, Howard has Conan make references to Lir and Mannannan. His notes on the Cimmerian pantheon include references to other Celtic deities, such as the Morrigan.

See Also

Links and References

References

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