These fierce warriors play a role in the pivotal battle of Pelargir during the siege of Minas Tirith. But little is known of Umbar itself. It was in fact much older than all of Gondor’s cities save Pelargir, and its own people had no less Numenorean blood in them than the Gondor men. Yet of…

It is a well-known and seeming contradiction that the late J.R.R. Tolkien expressed complex and idiosyncratic political views, seeming to embrace both monarchy and anarchism at the same time. How these themes are woven into the history of Middle Earth has been much examined. But what of the nobility or peerage and the role they…

Throughout his long career, Conan was well known for his fear and hatred of sorcerers and mages of all types, an attitude rooted deeply in his Cimmerian heritage. And indeed, Conan was responsible for toppling many of the world’s most dangerous and powerful sorcerers, even the dreaded Toth-Amon of Stygia. But what if Conan found…

Fans of the original Conan stories and the de Camp/Carter pastiches inspired by them will be familiar with the character of Sigurd of Vanaheim, a boastful, red-haired and bearded slayer and reaver wielding a deadly double-bladed battle axe. He was one of Conan’s few friends of long-standing even though their respective peoples, the Vanir and…

Many fans of The Lord of the Rings will know that after Saruman the White's fall, he was known not only as Saruman the Many-Coloured, but also as Saruman the Traitor. But while his treason in latter days seems clear, what caused him to fall into treachery? Was it simply moral corruption on his part,…