John Kirowan

Professor John Kirowan is a fictional character from Robert E. Howard's contributions to H.P. Lovecraft's story cycle "the Cthulhu Mythos".

Kirowan is often partnered with the character John Conrad, to the extent that these stories are often referred to under the group title Conrad & Kirowan. Professor Kirowan is a younger son of a titled Irish family and a scholar of the Mythos who travelled widely in search of forbidden knowledge. His ancestor, Sir Michael Kirowan was a medieval knight famous for killing a particularly fierce and notorious villain, whose ghost Kirowan will meet and escape from.^[1]

In Budapest he studied with a man called Yosef Vrolok but refused to "descend to the foul depths of forbidden occultism and diabolism to which [he] sank".^[2] In revenge, Vrolok used his "vile arts" to turn" the only woman Kirowan ever loved", against him and "debauched" her. In order to have his own revenge, Kirowan travelled the world seeking greater knowledge of the occult but became sickened by what he learned and renounced this knowledge.

In later life he joined the Wanderer's Club, "which is composed of the drift of the world, travelers, eccentrics, and all manner of men whose paths lie outside the beaten tracks of life."^[2]

The story The Haunter of the Ring provides much of Kirowan's background as well as establishing a link to Howard's Conan stories. The ring of the title is Thoth-Amon's Serpent Ring of Set, first mentioned in the short story The Phoenix on the Sword. Kirowan states that it has been "handed down by foul cults of sorcerers since the days of forgotten Stygia."

Stories

The Children of the Night: First printed in Weird Tales (Apr-May 1931)
The Thing on the Roof: First printed in Weird Tales (Feb 1932)
The Haunter of the Ring: First printed in Weird Tales (June 1934)
Dig Me No Grave: First printed in Weird Tales (Feb 1937)
Dermod's Bane: First printed in The Magazine of Horror (Fall 1967)
The Dwellers Under the Tombs: First printed in 1976
Dagon Manor: First printed in 1986, fragment completed by C. J. Henderson

References

↑ As stated in Dermod's Bane
1 2 The Haunter of the Ring by Robert E. Howard

External links

Works by Robert E. Howard

Adventure

El Borak	"Blood of the Gods" "The Coming of El Borak" "The Country of the Knife" "The Daughter of Erlik Khan" "Hawk of the Hills" "The Lost Valley of Iskander" "North of Khyber" "Son of the White Wolf" "Three-Bladed Doom"

Fantasy

Conan	"Beyond the Black River" "Black Colossus" "The Black Stranger" "Cimmeria" "The Devil in Iron" "Drums of Tombalku" "The Frost Giant's Daughter" "The God in the Bowl" "The Hall of the Dead" "The Hand of Nergal" "The Hour of the Dragon" "Iron Shadows in the Moon" "Jewels of Gwahlur" "The People of the Black Circle" "The Phoenix on the Sword" "The Pool of the Black One" "Queen of the Black Coast" "Red Nails" "Rogues in the House" "The Scarlet Citadel" "Shadows in Zamboula" "The Snout in the Dark" "The Tower of the Elephant" "The Vale of Lost Women" "A Witch Shall be Born" "Wolves Beyond the Border" "Xuthal of the Dusk"

Solomon Kane	"The Right Hand of Doom"

Kull	"By This Axe, I Rule" "Exile of Atlantis" "The Mirrors of Tuzun Thune"

Bran Mak Morn	"The Children of the Night" "Worms of the Earth"

Comedy

Sailor Steve Costigan	"Alleys of Peril" "Blow the Chinks Down!" "Breed of Battle" "The Bull Dog Breed" "Champ of the Forecastle" "Circus Fists" "Dark Shanghai" "Fist and Fang" "General Ironfist" "Night of Battle" "The Pit of the Serpent" "Sailor's Grudge" "The Sign of the Snake" "The Slugger's Game" "Sluggers on the Beach" "Texas Fists" "The TNT Punch" "Vikings of the Gloves" "Waterfront Fists" "Winner Take All"

Breckinridge Elkins	"A Gent from Bear Creek"

Horror

John Kirowan	"The Children of the Night" "The Haunter of the Ring" "The Black Stone"

Other

Other stories	"Almuric" "Black Canaan" "Pigeons from Hell" "Post Oaks & Sand Roughs" "The Shadow of the Vulture" "Skull-Face" "The Sowers of the Thunder" "The Twilight of the Grey Gods"

Other characters	Cormac Fitzgeoffrey James Allison Red Sonya Dark Agnes de Chastillon Steve Harrison Turlogh Dubh O'Brien Kirby O'Donnell The Sonora Kid

See also	List of works by Robert E. Howard List of poems by Robert E. Howard "The Hyborian Age"

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