Solomon Kane

Solomon Kane is a fictional character created by the pulp-era writer Robert E. Howard. A 17th century Puritan, Solomon Kane is a somber-looking man who wanders the world with no apparent goal other than to vanquish evil in all its forms. His adventures, published mostly in the pulp magazine "Weird Tales", often take him from Europe to the jungles of Africa and back.

Howard describes him as a somber and gloomy man of pale face and cold eyes, all of it shadowed by a slouch hat. He is dressed entirely in black and his weaponry consists of a rapier, a dagger, and a couple of flintlock pistols. During one of his latter adventures his friend N'Longa, a black African shaman, gave him a juju staff that served as a protection against evil, but could easily be wielded as an effective weapon. It is revealed in another story, "The Footfalls Within," that this is the mythical Staff of Solomon, a talisman older than the Earth and unimaginably powerful, much more so than even N'Longa knew. In the same adventure with N'Longa, Kane is seen using a musket as well.

tories

Most of the Solomon Kane stories were first published in "Weird Tales". Note: the order of publication does not coincide with the order in which the stories were written.

"Red Shadows"

First published in "Weird Tales", August 1928. Also known as "Solomon Kane." This was the first Solomon Kane story ever published. In France Kane finds a girl attacked by a gang of brigands led by a villain known as "Le Loup". As she dies in his arms, Kane determines to avenge her death, and the trail leads from France to Africa, ending with Kane's first meeting with "N'Longa".

"Skulls in the Stars"

First published in "Weird Tales", January 1929. In England Kane is on his way to the hamlet of Torkertown, and must choose one of two paths, a route that leads through a moor or one that leads through a swamp. He is warned that the moor route is haunted and all travelers who take that road die, so he decides to investigate.

"Rattle of Bones"

First published in "Weird Tales", June 1929. In Germany Kane meets a traveller named Gaston L'Armon, who seems familiar to Kane, and together they take rooms in the Cleft Skull Tavern. They discover the bones of a sorcerer chained in a secret room, and Kane faces threats from both the innkeeper and L'Armon.

"The Moon of Skulls"

First published in "Weird Tales", Part 1, June 1930; Part 2, July 1930. In Africa Kane comes to Negari on the trail of an English girl named Marylin Taferal, kidnapped from her home and sold to Barbary pirates by her cousin. When he finds the hidden city of Negari, he encounters "Nakari", "the vampire queen of Negari".

"Hills of the Dead"

First published in "Weird Tales", August 1930. In Africa again, Kane's old friend N'Longa (the witch doctor from "Red Shadows") gives the Puritan a magic wooden staff, "the Staff of Solomon", which will protect him in his travels. Kane enters the jungle and finds a city of vampires.

"The Footfalls Within"

First published in "Weird Tales", September 1931. In Africa again, Kane encounters Arab slave-traders busily engaged driving slaves to market. He rushes to save a girl whom the slavers are mistreating but is himself overwhelmed and taken prisoner.

"Wings in the Night"

First published in "Weird Tales", July 1932. In Africa again, Kane comes across an entire village wiped out, and all of the roofs have been ripped off, as if by something was trying to get inside from above.

"Blades of the Brotherhood"

First published in "Red Shadows", Grant, 1968. Also known as "The Blue Flame of Vengeance." On the English coast Kane battles "The Fishhawk" and his fellow pirates in a historical action tale with no fantasy elements.

"The Right Hand of Doom"

First published in "Red Shadows". Kane plays a minimal role in this story, a condemned wizard seeks revenge on the man who betrayed him.

Fragments

"Death's Black Riders"

First published in "The Howard Collector #10", Spring 1968. Just a few lines completed. Kane meets a shadowy ghost rider on the road.

"The Castle of the Devil"

First published in "Red Shadows", Grant, 1968. In the Black Forest Kane tells John Silent, an English mercenary, that he cut down a boy from the local Baron's gibbet. Both men head to the Baron's castle for a reckoning.

"The Children of Asshur"

First published in "Red Shadows". Kane comes across a lost city of Assyrians.

"The Hawk of Basti"

First published in "Red Shadows". Kane's old acquaintance, Jeremy Hawk, was once the king of an African lost civilization, and want to re-assume that role.

Other authors who completed these fragments

* Ramsey Campbell has completed Howard's three sizable fragments, and several compilations contain some of these collaborations.

* Javier Martin Lalanda has completed Howard's fragments in "Las Aventuras De Solomon Kane", the complete Spanish edition of the Kane stories.

Poems

"The One Black Stain"

Wherein Solomon Kane speaks out to Sir Francis Drake, objecting to his execution of Sir Thomas Doughty in 1578 Patagonia, South America (actual historical people and events)

"The Return of Sir Richard Grenville"

Kane fights side-by-side with the ghost of Sir Richard Grenville, at whose 1591 death Kane had been present.

"Solomon Kane's Homecoming"

After years of wandering, Kane comes back to England "to live forever in my place." Then he hears "the howling of the ocean pack" and leaves again. This work contains a dialog exchange between Kane and a local man: "Where is Bess? Woe that I caused her tears."/"In the quiet churchyard by the sea she has slept these seven years." Most fans of the character have assumed that Bess is Queen Elizabeth I of England and consequently date the incident to 1610 [Campbell, J. Ramsey, "The Mystery of Solomon Kane," "Solomon Kane: The Hills of the Dead", Bantam Books, March 1979, pp. ix-xii.] but this is wrong. In the Howard fragment, "Hawk of Basti," Kane says of this monarch, "She herself has lied to and betrayed the folk of my faith...," an historian described Elizabeth as "a huge boulder in the path of Puritanism, unavoidable, insurmountable, immovable," and she is buried in Westminster Abbey which does not fit the description of Bess' burial place. ["ibid".]

Some fans consider "Bess" to be the love interest of Solomon Kane. There is no other mention of Bess in the stories, but given the character of Kane, a story has been read between the lines: Bess and Kane have shared a love, but the way-faring nature of Kane has forced him to pursue his adventures. Perhaps he has planned to come home to start a family with Bess, but upon hearing of her death, breaks all connections to home and leaves again without returning. [" [http://www.conan.com/invboard/lofiversion/index.php?t4013.html The REH Forum] ".]

The Staff of Solomon

An incredibly ancient staff that N'Longa presented to Kane to aid him in his adventures, which is described as sharp-pointed on one end and with the head of a cat on the other, made of a wood that exists on earth nowhere today. The staff is covered with ancient hieroglyphics which themselves were added a very long time after the staff was created. Using the staff Kane can communicate over distances with N'Longa, and it has also been used to slay vampires.

When Kane is taken prisoner by slavers, one of their party "Yussef the Hadji" recognises the staff for what it is. He says the staff is older than the world itself and holds mighty magic. The cat-head is a representation of Bast, and the priests of Bast used the staff in ancient Egypt. With the staff Moses (known as "Musa" in Arabic) did wonders before the Pharaoh, and carried it with him when his people fled Egypt. For centuries it was the Scepter of Israel (mentioned in Numbers 24:17), and Solomon used it to combat magicians and capturing genii. The staff may be related to Aaron's rod, Moses' rod or the Rod of Asclepius.

Before this, when the world was young, Atlantean, pre-Adamite, priests in silent cities beneath the seas used the staff to fight evil, millions of years before mankind was born. The cat-head is a later addition to the staff and in ancient times the pommel has a different design, but it was altered by the Egyptian priests.

Characters

N'Longa

He is an ancient African shaman, who is driven to study magic. He has travelled the world in ancient times as a slave, secretly studying under various sorcerers and holy men of the Middle and Near East. In Judea he acquired the Staff of Solomon, which he later gave to Solomon Kane to aid him in his wanderings. N'Longa's magical powers derive from his ability to send his spirit out of his body. He can take over the bodies of the living and dead through this method, to communicate with Solomon Kane through the Staff of Solomon, and also summons the vultures by sending his spirit to parley with them.

Le Loup

A French criminal mastermind whom Kane spent several years tracking down Le Loup to avenge the murder of a dying girl he found, and her whole village. Kane eventually tracks Le Loup to Africa, where he first meets N'Longa, and justice is done.

The Fishhawk

His real name is Jonas Hardraker and he is known on all coasts of the civilized world as a ruthless pirate. He is a tall, rangy, broad-shouldered man, with a lean hawk-like cruel face. Solomon Kane hunted him for two years after Hardraker sank a ship that was carrying the daughter of an old friend of Kane, the old friend having gone mad after hearing of his daughter's death. Kane finally confronted and killed Hardraker in England where Hardraker was smuggling alcohol with Sir George Banway.

Adaptations

Film

At the 2006 San Diego Comic Con, it was announced that a feature film based upon the character of Solomon Kane was in development at Davis Films, with Michael J. Bassett writing and directing. The film will be produced by Sammuel Hadida and Paul Berrow, and reportedly began shooting in Eastern Europe in January 2008, with James Purefoy playing the role of Kane. The film will also star Max von Sydow as Josiah Kane, Solomon's father, and Ian Whyte as Reaper.

Comics

Marvel Comics has published several comic books featuring Solomon Kane in the 1970s and 1980s. It was announced at the 2006 Comic Con that Paradox Entertainment has completed a publishing deal with Dark Horse Comics for a "Solomon Kane" comic series, to be written by Scott Allie, drawn by Mario Guevara, and colored by Dave Stewart. [ [http://www.comicbookresources.com/news/newsitem.cgi?id=11655 Robert E. Howard's Solomon Kane Returns at Dark Horse] , August 18, 2007, Comic Book Resources] .

Roleplaying game

Pinnacle Entertainment Group has published a role-playing game based on the character and utilizing the "Savage Worlds" rules system, titled "The Savage World of Solomon Kane". In addition to game rules, the book features a background and summaries of Howard's original stories and an original adventure campaign featuring a group of wanderers following the path of Kane and revisiting places changed by Solomon's actions.

Copyright and trademark

The name Solomon Kane and the names of Robert E. Howard's other principal characters are trademarked by Paradox Entertainment of Stockholm, Sweden, through its US subsidiary Paradox Entertainment Inc. Paradox also holds copyrights on the stories written by other authors under license from Solomon Kane Inc. Since Robert E. Howard published his Solomon Kane stories at a time when the date of publication was the marker, the owners had to use the copyright symbol, and they had to renew after a certain time to maintain copyright, the exact status of all of Howard's Solomon Kane works are in question. [ [http://www.copyright.cornell.edu/training/Hirtle_Public_Domain.htm Copyright Term and the Public Domain in the United States at Cornell University] ]

The Australian site of Project Gutenberg has many Robert E. Howard stories, including several Solomon Kane stories [ [http://gutenberg.net.au/plusfifty-a-m.html#letterH A - M, Project Gutenberg Australia free ebooks ebook etext etexts ] ] . This indicates that, in their opinion, the stories are free from copyright and may be used by anyone, at least under Australian law.

Subsequent stories written by other authors are subject to the copyright laws of the relevant time.

olomon Kane stories by other authors

Tales of the Shadowmen

Tales of the Shadowmen is an anthology series edited by Jean-Marc Lofficier and Randy Lofficier, where characters from French adventure literature exist in the same universe. Tales of the Shadowmen, Volume 3: Danse Macabre includes a story entitled "The Heart of the Moon" by "Matthew Baugh" which features Solomon Kane as one of a group of adventurers visiting Féval's vampire metropolis, Selene. Tales of the Shadowmen, Volume 4: Lords of Terror includes a story entitled "The Anti-Pope of Avignon" by "Micah Harris" featuring Solomon Kane as the central protagonist supporting the Huguenot cause in Avignon.

The Wold Newton Family

In Philip José Farmer's , Farmer identifies Solomon Kane as being a direct ancestor of adventurer Doc Savage. This book is part of a larger literary concept that the (real) meteorite which fell in Wold Newton, Yorkshire, England, on December 13, 1795 was radioactive and caused genetic mutations in the occupants of a passing coach. As luck would have it many of these occupants were also already of heroic stock. See the [http://www.pjfarmer.com/woldnewton/savage_tree.gifSavage Family Tree] .

Book editions

Howard's stories, poems, and fragments featuring Solomon Kane have been published several times as a collection in book form. Not every publication has been a complete collection.
* "Red Shadows", Donald M. Grant, 1968 (all but "Death's Black Riders", assembled in an internal chronological order by the Howard estate's literary agent, Glenn Lord).
* Three volume set, all but "Death's Black Riders"::* "The Moon of Skulls", Centaur Press, November 1969.:* "The Hand of Kane", Centaur Press, October 1970.:* "Solomon Kane", Centaur Press, February 1971.
* Two volume set, all but "Death's Black Riders", with introductory essays by Ramsey Campbell, who also completed the three sizable fragments for this collection::* "Solomon Kane: Skulls in the Stars", Bantam, December 1978.:* "Solomon Kane: The Hills of the Dead", Bantam, March 1979.
* "Solomon Kane", Baen, November 1995. (ISBN 0-671-87695-3)
* "The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane", Wandering Star, November 1998.
* "The Right Hand of Doom & Other Tales of Solomon Kane", Wordsworth Editions, 2007. (ISBN 978-1-184022-611-9)
* "Las Aventuras de Solomón Kane", Ultima Thule, Ed. Anaya, Spain, November 1994. (A complete collection of stories, poems, and fragments featuring Solomon Kane in Spanish translation).

Further reading

* "The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane" (2004) Howard, Robert E.; Illus. Gianni, Gary (First American ed.). New York: Ballantine Books. ISBN 0-345-46150-9.

References

External links

* [http://www.pjfarmer.com/woldnewton/Solomon.htm The Solomon Kane Chronology]
* [http://www.wanderingstarbooks.com/sk/stosk_reading.html Poetry Reading: The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane]
* [http://www.geocities.com/ratmmjess/kane.html Solomon Kane in Marvel Comics]