“James, who are the most violent mythic heroes out of the epic tradition, in which I would include Howard’s heroes, as he resumed the Arуan tradition after its thousand-year infection by Judeo-Christian lit.”
-Max
Max, we will have some Judeo-Christian heroes in this list, which I will confine to the Western tradition. My heathen friends are going to belly ache about the inclusion of Samson, but Samson was a Dannite, a proto-Greek [Achaean] Arуan tribe [just like the Philistines] that was assimilated by Isrаel. Samson is really the perfect Howardian hero too [the Egyptians called them Denyens and the Trojans called them Danaans], a descendent of refugees from the Trojan War who fought his blood cousins on behalf of his adopted tribe.
Mythic Heroes, from Most to Least Aggressive
This list is a mere sampling of the most well known, neglecting Irish, Germanic, Greek and Latin heroes.
*Indicates a compulsively violent monster.
1. Achilles*
2. Herakles*
3. Samson
4. Roland
5. Beowulf
6. Gilgamesh
7. Enkidu
8. Odysseus
9. Arthur
Howard Heroes, from Most to Least Aggressive
I only included heroes with more than one story or a novel length treatment. I have not read Howard’s boxing stories at this point, nor most of his westerns, so the following list is incomplete.
*Indicates a compulsively violent monster.
1. Turlogh O’Brian [by far]*
2. Dark Agnes*
3. Esau Cairn
4. Solomon Kane
5. Black Vulmea
6. Conn
7. Conan
8. Bran Mak Morn
9. Cormac MacArt
10. Xavier Gordon
11. The Sonora Kid
12. Kirby Buckner
Historic Heroes, from Most to Least Aggressive
*Indicates a compulsively violent monster.
1. Alexander*
2. Hannibal Barca*
3. Harald Hardrada*
4. Shaka Zulu*
5. Genghis Khan
6. Spartacus
7. Nathan Bedford Forest
8. Cortez
9. De Soto*
10. Pizarro
11. Leonidas
12. Horatio Nelson [what a nut—and a little twerp too]
13. Lewis Wetzel*
14. Liver-Eating Johnson*
15. This #15 spot could be filled 1,000 times over by combat infantrymen of WWII from the various combatant nations.
Good Stuff James. We ought to recognize our historical white heroes and bad asses. Here’s are a few more for your list.
-Robert de Hauteville AKA Robert Guiscard (The Cunning) Norman Knight (1015 –1085) Conquered Sicily and Southern Italy. Held his own father-in-law for ransom.
-Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar AKA El Cid (1043 – 1099). See the movie “El Cid” with Charlton Heston in title role.
- Richard I AKA The Lion-Hearted (1157 –1199) King of England, Crusader. At battle of Jaffa 1192 he killed a Muslim emir in single combat with one blow of his sword, cutting off the man’s head, right shoulder and arm.
-Janos Hunyadi (1406 -1456) Killed Dracula’s Daddy, Vlad Dracul (Vlad the Dragon)
-Vlad the Impaler, AKA “Dracula”(Son of the Dragon) (1431 – 1477) Say what you want but he kept Wallachia free.
-Götz von Berlichingen, AKA “Goetz of the Iron Hand” (1480 –1562). Mercenary, robber baron, poet.
-Jonathan R. Davis – California gold fields, December 19, 1854. Davis and his two companions were attacked by a large international gang of robbers and pirates. His friends were killed, but Davis shot down seven bandits with his two Colt revolvers. When he ran out of ammo he killed four more with his Bowie knife. Prospectors who witnessed the fight said some of the bandits were armed with cutlasses. The surviving outlaws fled.
-Simo "Simuna" Häyhä (Simo Hey-Hey) AKA “The White Death” - Finnish Army Sniper, Russo-Finnish War 1939 -1940. Killed 505 Russian soldiers in under 100 days (average of five per day). Highest scoring sniper in history
-Vasily Grigoryevich Zaytsev (1915-1991) Soviet Army Sniper World War II. About 400 kills in four months, including 11 enemy snipers. See “The Enemy at the Gate”.
-Erich Hartmann AKA “The Black Devil” (1922- 1993). German Luftwaffe. Greatest fighter ace in history with 352 aerial kills.
-Michael Whittmann, Waffen SS Tank Ace (22 April 1914 – 8 August 1944). Received the Knight’s Cross with Oak leaves 30 January, 1944 for destroying 117 Soviet tanks. In MKVI Tiger I tank wiped out British tank squadron (14 tanks, 15 armored personnel carriers, and 2 anti-tank guns) in fifteen minutes at Villars-Bocage, France 13 June, 1944.
-Otto Skorzeny AKA “Scarface Skorzeny” (1908 – 1975). SS Commando. Famous for the rescue of Mussolini from captivity and numerous other daring exploits.
-Audie Murphy. (1925 –1971) American soldier and movie actor. The real Rambo. On 14 January, 1945 he personally shot down over 150 German soldiers from atop a burning M-10 tank destroyer, single-handedly defeating German tank /infantry attack, for which he received the Medal of Honor. Most decorated U.S. Serviceman in World War II. See “To Hell and Back”.
-Vasily Mikhailovich Blokhin (1895 -1955) Major General Soviet NKVD. He is recorded as having executed tens of thousands of prisoners by his own hand, including his killing of about 7,000 Polish prisoners of war during the Katyn massacre in spring 1940, making him the most prolific official executioner and mass murderer in recorded world history. Talk about a work ethic! A real Stakhanovite.
Thank you so much for this, Jeremy.
Loved the Heston movie.
Guiscard was probably the guy to do the most with the least, and I am of course, a Vlad fan.
I've got to read up on Davis!
A Russian soldier's view of winter 39-40 could make for a great horror story.
Glad you like it James. Here's a couple more you might enjoy.
-Hastein, Viking Raider. Raided Luna Italy in 859 A.D. believing it to be Rome itself. When he learned it was not Rome he became so disappointed he had the entire male population of the city massacred. Raided across the Mediterranean, France and Britain. The Frankish monk Dudo of St Quentin had this to say about him: “So much does this accursed and headstrong, extremely cruel and harsh, destructive, troublesome, wild , ferocious, infamous , destructive and inconstant, brash, conceited and lawless, death-dealing, rude, suspicious, rebellious traitor and kindler of evil, this double-faced hypocrite and ungodly, arrogant, seductive deceiver, this lewd, unbridled, contentious rascal, aggravate toward the starry height of Heaven an increase of destructive evil and the augmentation of deceit and through such accursed deeds is he more monstrous than the rest (of the Vikings) that he ought not to be marked by ink but by charcoal. He has defiled nations, flying hither and thither, he has claimed their wealth for himself and his followers.” What a bad ass! Gosh, I mean if you were a young Norse warrior eager to make your fortune wouldn’t he be the kind of leader you’d want to sign on with?
-Jim Cirillo – Police Officer, competitive target shooter, gunfighter. In his five years on the NYPD Stakeout Unit, from 1968-1973, he was involved in seventeen gunfights. The Stakeout Unit (SOU) was created to combat an “epidemic of armed robbery” in New York City at the time. The robbers had a nasty habit of killing the merchants in the establishment they hit as well. Many times the robbers resisted arrest and were shot down by the stakeout squad. The activities of the SOU quickly became controversial with Liberals as it was quickly noticed that about 80 per cent of the robbers shot or otherwise apprehended by the SOU were black. The black robbers approached their task with revolutionary zeal. They saw their activity as merely being an extra-legal redistribution of wealth from white oppressors to the oppressed black community. Naturally the white Leftists (the Woman) had the robbers back on this so the SOU was disbanded.
-Timoleon of Corinth (411-337 B.C.) Tyranicide, Freedom Fighter. “Death to Tyrants” wasn’t just a slogan to Timoleon, he lived it. Even when the Tyrant was his own brother. While in his 60’s he liberated Syracuse and the other Greek colonies in Sicily from some particularly nasty and oppressive tyrants, restoring democratic government. He also pushed back the Carthegian hegemony on the west end of the island. Assassins tried to take him out while he was making a public sacrifice; however, his body-guards (in plain clothing) recognized them and took THEM out instead. Lesson learned: the enemies of freedom will target you even when you’re in church, be on guard!
I will compile your lists and those of Paul Kirchner with mine for When White Meant Might
Thanks, Jeremy.
Jim Bowie has GOT to rank somewhere in the Top 10 of your historic heroes.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Bowie
Reading about this guy is like something from Marvel Comics:
carolynyeager.net/book/export/html/93
Yes—he has the very name of a hero!
I read his biography 18 years ago and liked it a lot. the Sandbar Fight was unsurpassed fro American grit.