Albino Giants

[DrSkull]

In the newest Conan comic, the Hyperboreans appear as very tall (around 7 to 8 feet tall) and white-blue of skin.

This is not at all what one would expect from Howard's Hyborian Age essay, where they are simply Hyborians with a mixture of Aesir. I'd expect them to look like Germans or Englishmen perhaps.

Yet somewhere I've heard of the Hyberboreans described as "albino giants", but I can't place where. Where does this description or notion about the Hyperboreans come from?

 

[Mythos]

There are a couple of things to consider about the current issue of Conan.

1, Were seeing only a single Hyperborean city. It is possible that the "albino giants" are a race that lives only in this single city.

2, In various places it is indicated that the people of this city have skill in altering different lifeforms. The Gurnakhi, the giant pale skinned warriors from the current and past issue, are said to be created from those slaves that were still strong, but not quick to learn. Later, a griffin appears as part of the background creatures during a party.

3, The Hyperboreans are described as an immortal race. Tword the end of the issue we see a male of their race. His appearence seems to be that of a someone who looks almost like a form of undead. An almost skeletel air seems to be the way that the artist chose to depict the members of the city.

4, We are told that the Hyperboreans live off of the souls given to the magics and the machines that lay hidden beneath the city.

All this leads me to belive that we are not seeing true Hyperboreans. What we are seeing,IMO, are a group of 'boreans that either found the remains of the machines and magic when they settled in the area. Or, they are the remains of a race that interbreed with the early Hyperboreans.
Either way I feel that the Hyperboreans seen in issue 4 are not true members of the Hyperborean race. They are the results of arcane magic and science that has altered their bodies and minds over the last several thousand years. through their power they have enslaved their race and country.

 

[tarkhan bey]

I dont currently have a copy of "The witch of the mists" which is one of two carter/de camp pastiches that feature the Hyperboreans but I do have a copy of "legions of the dead".
In it the young Conan has infiltrated a Citadel of the Witchmen and the writers describe them as devils from a lightless hell,long jawed faces as white as fungi,pale amber eyes and hair described as colorless and flaxen.
Maybe this is what you are looking for.
There are other references elsewhere including the excellent Signs and Portents articles which describe them as tall and gaunt.
In his book on the 30yrs war,C V Wedgewood describes the Finnish contingent of Gustavus of Swedens army as lean and colourless,children of a wintry land.

 

[cornelius]

I'm sure I've read in the background in the rulebook that part of the continent was originally occupied by a race of giants , who were destroyed / subsumed by the coming of the human race . Maybe the illustrator was thinking of this ?

 

[slaughterj]

The new issue (on the stands yesterday) expands on the initial introduction of the "albino giants" and seems to address things as already mentioned herein.

 

[charliebananas]

hay i don't know if this helps but i was re-reading the tower of the elephant last week and when i read this post, remembered this passage from the story,

" There was a giant hyperborean renegade, taciturn and dangerous, with a broadsword strapped to his great gaunt frame - for men wore steel openly in the maul."

howard loved irish folk lore so it would come as no surprise to find a race of giant folk in he's stories, it all depends on how you define giant really,
7 to 8 foot tall would be an exceptional human, 10 to 15 foot is in the realms of d&d monster.IMO.