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50-671: Kull may refer to: Arts [ edit ] Kull of Atlantis , a fictional character created by Robert E. Howard Kull the Conqueror , a 1997 fantasy action film based on Howard's character and starring Kevin Sorbo King Kull (DC Comics) , a Fawcett Comics and DC Comics character Kull (Inheritance) , a subspecies of Urgals from the Inheritance Cycle series of novels by Christopher Paolini Kull (collection) ,

100-401: A bigger fleet, ordered that the courts should sentence men to the galleys as often as possible, even in times of peace; he even sought to transform the death penalty to sentencing to the galleys for life (and unofficially did so—a letter exists to all French judges, that they should, if possible, sentence men to life in the galleys instead of death). By the end of the reign of Louis XIV in 1715

150-574: A collection of short stories by Robert E. Howard Other uses [ edit ] Kull (surname) Kull, Punjab , a Union Council in the Punjab province of Pakistan KULL , a US radio station Kull shay , a magazine published in Cairo between 1925 and 1927 Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Kull . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change

200-413: A convertible man. You will see them when they come in, and I suppose you would have been agreeably surprised to have seen me in the midst of the crowd of women that accompany them." Galley-slaves lived in unsavoury conditions, so even though some sentences prescribed a restricted number of years, most rowers would eventually die, even if they survived the conditions, shipwreck and slaughter or torture at

250-630: A criminal condemned to penal servitude . In Italian the word galera is still in use for a prison. A vivid account of the life of galley-slaves in France appears in Jean Marteilhes 's Memoirs of a Protestant , translated by Oliver Goldsmith , which describes the experiences of one of the Huguenots who suffered after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. Madame de Sevigne,

300-601: A dynasty, as Conan does in The Hour of the Dragon , and none of Kull's wise advisors ever mentions this issue. Kull has been adapted to comics by Marvel Comics with three series between 1971 and 1985. The first was drawn by Marie Severin and her brother John Severin . He also appeared several times in The Savage Sword of Conan series and other anthology books. Another graphic novel, Kull: The Vale of Shadow ,

350-596: A galley slave for a number of years. The 1947 French film Monsieur Vincent shows Saint Vincent de Paul taking the place of a weakened slave at his oar. Steven Saylor 's Roma Sub Rosa series (covering a period from 92 B.C. to 44 B.C ) includes a novel Arms of Nemesis , which contains an appalling description of the conditions under which galley slaves lived and worked—assuming that they did exist in Rome at that time (see above). In Mr. Midshipman Hornblower , C. S. Forester writes in detail of an encounter during

400-550: A galley slave in Algiers for five years before he was ransomed). In The Sea Hawk , a 1919 historical fiction novel by Rafael Sabatini , as well as the 1924 film based on the novel , the protagonist, Sir Oliver Tressilian, is sold into galley slavery by a relative. The Sea Hawk (1940) was originally intended to be a new version of the Sabatini novel, but the studio switched to a story whose protagonist, Geoffrey Thorpe,

450-511: A galley-slave is given by the character Farrabesche in "The Village Rector" by Honoré de Balzac . He is sentenced to the galleys as a result of his life as a "chauffeur" (in this case the word refers to a brigand who threatened landowners by roasting them). In one of his ill-fated adventures, Miguel de Cervantes 's Don Quixote frees a row of prisoners sent to the galleys, including Ginés de Pasamonte . The prisoners, however, beat him. (Cervantes himself had been captured in 1575 and served as

500-503: A hundred thousand years as we reckon time." The name Kull was registered as a trademark by Kull Productions in 1985. The trademark is now owned by Robert E. Howard Properties. The Australian site of Project Gutenberg has many Robert E. Howard stories, including several Kull stories. This indicates that, in their opinion, the stories hosted on the site are free from copyright and may be used by anyone, at least under Australian law. Subsequent stories written by other authors are subject to

550-427: A revered French author, wrote from Paris on April 10, 1671 (Letter VII): "I went to walk at Vincennes, en Troche* and by the way met with a string of galley-slaves ; they were going to Marseilles, and will be there in about a month. Nothing could have been surer than this mode of conveyance, but another thought came into my head, which was to go with them myself. There was one Duval among them, who appeared to be

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600-498: Is a fast friend and advisor to Kull. First Councillor Tu is a trusted administrator, but also a constant reminder of the tradition bound laws and customs of Valusia. Ka-Nu (sometimes named Kananu), the Pictish Ambassador to Valusia and wise man, is responsible for the friendship between Kull and Brule despite the ancient enmity between Atlanteans and Picts. The last king of Valusia, a cruel and tyrannical despot who

650-599: Is left lost in contemplations of philosophy . In the Conan story " Shadows of the Skull " by L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter , it is revealed that Conan is a direct descendant of Kull. However, this story was written many years after the death of the original author of Kull and Conan, Robert E. Howard. Brule the spear slayer, a pre-cataclysmic Pict , and friend to Kull. Despite the animosity between Picts and Atlanteans, Brule

700-459: Is their respective attitudes towards women. While Conan is a notable womanizer , finding a new love interest in nearly each of his stories, Kull is repeatedly mentioned as uninterested in having any such attachment. While highly chivalrous and on several occasions helping pairs of star-crossed lovers reach a happy consummation, he is never mentioned as having himself any relationship with a woman. Nor does Kull show any interest in marrying and founding

750-487: The French Revolution did the new authorities officially change the hated name—with all it signified—to forçat ("forced"). The use of the term galérien nevertheless continued until 1873, when the last bagne in France (as opposed to the bagnes relocated to French Guiana ), the bagne of Toulon, closed definitively. In Spain, the word galeote continued in use as late as the early 19th century for

800-530: The Maltese Islands . In 1622, Saint Vincent de Paul , as a former slave himself (in Tunis ), became chaplain to the galleys and ministered to the galley slaves. In 1687 the governor of New France , Jacques-René de Brisay de Denonville , seized, chained, and shipped 50 Iroquois chiefs from Fort Frontenac to Marseille , France, to be used as galley slaves. King Louis XIV of France , who wanted

850-484: The nobility , leading eventually to a civil war . The mercenaries proved more loyal to Kull than any other leader, allowing him to become the leader of their revolt. Kull killed Borna and took the throne while he was still in his early thirties. In " The Shadow Kingdom ", Kull has spent six months upon the Valusian throne and faces the first conspiracy against him. The series continued with Kull finding that gaining

900-486: The ranks . In "The Curse of the Golden Skull" Kull, approaching his thirties, is recruited by King Borna of Valusia in a mission against the ambitious sorcerer Rotath of Lemuria. Kull proves to be an effective assassin . Borna promoted Kull into the general command of his mercenary forces. Borna himself, however, had gained a reputation for his cruelty and despotism . There was discontent with Borna's rule among

950-514: The 16th to 19th centuries used galley slaves , often captured Europeans from Italy or Spain. The Ottoman Sultan in Istanbul also used galley slaves. In Southeast Asia , from the mid-18th to the late-19th centuries, the lanong and garay warships of the Iranun and Banguingui pirates were crewed entirely with male galley slaves captured from previous raids. Conditions were brutal and it

1000-537: The 1790s when a becalmed British convoy is attacked off Gibraltar by two of a small number of galleys retained in service by the conservative Spanish navy. The author notes the stench emanating from these galleys due to each carrying two hundred condemned prisoners chained permanently to the rowing benches. Patrick O'Brian wrote of encounters with galleys in the Mediterranean in Master and Commander emphasising

1050-608: The 5th and 4th centuries BC, Athens generally followed a naval policy of enrolling citizens from the lower classes ( thetes ), metics (foreigners resident in Athens) and hired foreigners. In the drawn-out Second Punic War , Rome and Carthage resorted to slave rowers to some extent, but only in specific cases and often with the promise of freedom after victory was achieved. Only in the Late Middle Ages did slaves begin to be increasingly employed as rowers. It also became

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1100-549: The Christ , Judah is sent to the galleys as a murderer but manages to survive a shipwreck and save the fleet leader, who frees and adopts him. Both films based on the novel— Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925) and Ben-Hur (1959) —perpetuate the historically inaccurate image of Roman galley slaves. In the 1943 epic novel The Long Ships , the protagonist, Orm Tostesson, is captured while raiding in Andalusia and serves as

1150-670: The Conqueror (The King and the Oak) Kull the Conqueror (Vol. 1) #1–9 The 1982 Conan the Barbarian film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger borrowed many elements from Howard's Kull stories. The main villain Thulsa Doom was from the Kull series, as was the serpent cult. Conan's early life as a slave and gladiator in the movie borrows heavily from Kull's origin story and only shares minor details with Conan's literary origins; Conan

1200-604: The French in Canada employed Iroquois and other local indigenous tribes as well. American Revolutionary War navies had row galleys , negro slaves escaped from galleys frequently, and were searched for by slave catchers , deserted slave search advertisements were routinely posted in the American newspapers during the war, typically offering $ 8 to $ 20 reward for bringing an escaped slave back on board . The Barbary pirates of

1250-680: The Marvel magazine format, black and white stories were collected into two volumes titled The Savage Sword of Kull . Additional reprints were published in Robert E. Howard's Savage Sword . In 2017, IDW Publishing got the license and began publishing Kull Eternal , using " The Mirrors of Tuzun Thune " as a story foundation of Kull in a modern setting. The series was cancelled after the third issue. In 2024, Arrow Comics published an adaptation of " The Shadow Kingdom " written by Randy Zimmerman with art by Russ Leach. Conan The Barbarian #10 Kull

1300-478: The Sea-Mountain tribe and eventually adopted by them. In " Exile of Atlantis ", an adolescent Kull grants a woman a quick death so that she will not be burned to death by a mob. For this selfless act, Kull is exiled from Atlantis. Kull attempted to reach Thuria, but was instead captured by Lemurian Pirates. He spent a couple of years as a galley slave before regaining his freedom during a mutiny . He tried

1350-408: The copyright laws of the relevant time. Galley slave A galley slave was a slave rowing in a galley , either a convicted criminal sentenced to work at the oar ( French : galérien ), or a kind of human chattel, sometimes a prisoner of war , assigned to the duty of rowing. In the ancient Mediterranean, galley rowers were mostly free men, and slaves were used as rowers when manpower

1400-476: The crown was easier than securing it. He faces several internal and external challenges throughout the series. The conspiring of his courtiers leaves Kull almost constantly threatened with loss of life and throne. The aging King is ever more aware of the Sword of Damocles that he inherited along with the crown. " The Mirrors of Tuzun Thune " finds Kull becoming progressively more introspective. The former barbarian

1450-464: The custom among the Mediterranean powers to sentence condemned criminals to row in the war-galleys of the state (initially only in time of war). Traces of this practice appear in France as early as 1532, but the first legislative enactment comes in the Ordonnance d'Orléans of 1561. In 1564 Charles IX of France forbade the sentencing of prisoners to the galleys for fewer than ten years. A brand of

1500-473: The freed men row willingly for home to "Strike for the Shores of Dover", the stirring music of score composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold and lyrics by Howard Koch and Jack Scholl. The first verse "Pull on the oars! Freedom is yours! Strike for the shores of Dover!" evoked the recent evacuation from Dunkirk . The sets in the 1940 film appear historically accurate. In Lew Wallace 's novel, Ben-Hur: A Tale of

1550-426: The galley's speed and manoeuvrability compared to sailing ships when there was little wind. In Victor Hugo 's Les Misérables , Jean Valjean was a galley prisoner, and was in danger of returning to the galleys. Police inspector Javert 's father was also a galley prisoner. Robert E. Howard transplanted the institute of galley slavery to his mythical Hyborian Age , depicting Conan the Barbarian as organizing

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1600-473: The galleys, which were moored as hulks in the harbour. Their shore prisons had the name bagnes ("baths"), a name given to such penal establishments first by the Italians ( bagno ), and allegedly deriving from the prison at Constantinople situated close by or attached to the great baths there. All French convicts continued to use the name galérien even after galleys went out of use; only after

1650-578: The hands of enemies or of pirates. Additionally, nobody ensured that prisoners were freed after completing their sentences. As a result, imprisonment for 10 years could in reality mean imprisonment for life because nobody except the prisoner would either notice or care. In North American colonies galleys employed negro slaves as rowers, as did the Portuguese, and the Spanish in Latin America,

1700-691: The letters GAL identified the condemned galley-slaves. Naval forces from both Christian and Muslim countries often turned prisoners of war into galley-slaves. Thus, at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571, 12,000 Christian galley slaves were freed from the Ottoman Turks. Lepanto was the last major battle fought between fleets of oar-powered ships, but Mediterranean navies continued to use the ships for some years thereafter. The Knights Hospitaller made use of galley slaves and debtors ( Italian : buonavoglie ) to row their galleys during their rule over

1750-505: The life of a pirate between his late adolescence and his early twenties. His fighting skills and courage allowed him to become captain of his own ship. Soon, Kull gained a fearsome reputation for himself in the seas surrounding Atlantis and Thuria. Kull lost his ship and crew in a naval battle off the coast of Valusia, but once again survived. He settled in Valusia as an outlaw. However, his criminal career proved to be short-lived as he

1800-518: The link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kull&oldid=1067469269 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Kull of Atlantis His first published appearance was " The Shadow Kingdom " in Weird Tales (August, 1929). Kull

1850-419: The majority of these latter to Toulon , the others to Rochefort and to Brest , where they worked in the arsenal . Convict rowers also went to a large number of other French and non-French cities: Nice , Le Havre , Nîmes , Lorient , Cherbourg , Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue , La Spezia , Antwerp and Civitavecchia ; but Toulon, Brest and Rochefort predominated. At Toulon the convicts remained (in chains) on

1900-466: The most noble action to take. He is uncomfortable with kingship and prefers the life of a general. Kull was born in pre-cataclysmic Atlantis c. 100,000 BC , depicted as inhabited at the time by barbarian tribes. East of Atlantis lay the ancient continent of Thuria, of which the northwest portion is divided among several civilized kingdoms. The most powerful among these was Valusia; others included Commoria, Grondar, Kamelia, Thule, and Verulia. Note that

1950-663: The name of King Kull , a Fawcett Comics supervillain and foe of Captain Marvel , later acquired by DC Comics . This King Kull combines barbarian elements with the bizarre science fiction elements common in Captain Marvel stories of the Golden Age of comic books . In Robert E. Howard's story "Kings of the Night", a character living in the time of the Roman Empire states that a contemporary of Kull's "has been dead

2000-462: The use of the galley for war purposes had practically ceased, but the French Navy did not incorporate the corps of the galleys until 1748. From the reign of Henry IV , Toulon functioned as a naval military port, Marseille having become a merchant port, and served as the headquarters of the galleys and of the convict rowers ( galériens ). After the incorporation of the galleys, the system sent

2050-461: The word "Thuria" never appears in any of the Kull stories. Howard coined the term while tying Kull's world to Conan's in the 1936 essay " The Hyborian Age ". Kull was born into a tribe settled in the Tiger Valley of Atlantis. Both the valley and tribe were destroyed by a flood while Kull was still a toddler, leaving the young Kull to live as a feral child for many years. Kull was captured by

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2100-625: Was in high demand. In the Middle Ages and the early modern period , convicts and prisoners of war often manned galleys, and the Barbary pirates enslaved captives as galley slaves. During the 18th and 19th centuries, pirates in Asia likewise manned their galleys with captives. Ancient Mediterranean navies relied on professional rowers to man their galleys. Slaves were seldom used except in times of pressing manpower demands or extreme emergency. In

2150-598: Was loosely based on Sir Francis Drake , although Drake was never a galley slave. Howard Koch was working on the script when war broke out in Europe , and the final story deliberately draws vivid parallels between Spain and the Nazi Reich . The existence of galley slaves and the misery they endure is set up as a metaphor for life under the Reich. When Thorpe ( Errol Flynn ) liberates a Spanish vessel full of English captives,

2200-506: Was never a slave or a gladiator in Howard's stories, and left Cimmeria of his own free will. The 1997 film Kull the Conqueror stars Kevin Sorbo in the title role. The film was originally intended to be a Conan film and some elements of this remain. The story's basis and several names can be directly traced to the Conan story " The Hour of the Dragon ". Kull may have been the source of

2250-529: Was never completed by Howard. Kull is Conan the Barbarian 's direct literary forerunner. Conan's first story (both as a written piece and a published one), " The Phoenix on the Sword ", is a rewriting of an earlier Kull story " By This Axe, I Rule ". The Conan version has a completely new backstory, less philosophy, more action, and various supernatural elements. Many passages of both stories still match word for word. One notable difference between Kull and Conan

2300-410: Was not uncommon for galley slaves to die on voyages from exhaustion. Slaves were kept bound to their stations and were fed poorly. Slaves who mistimed their strokes were caned by overseers. Most of the slaves were Tagalogs , Visayans , and "Malays" (including Bugis , Mandarese , Iban , and Makassar ). There were also occasional European and Chinese captives. A short account of his ten years as

2350-469: Was overthrown by Kull and his soldiers. Kull's mortal enemy is the sorcerer Thulsa Doom . Thulsa Doom is described by Howard in "The Cat and the Skull" as having a face "like a bare white skull, in whose eye sockets flamed livid fire". He is seemingly invulnerable, boasting after being trampled by one of Kull's comrades that he feels "only a slight coldness" when being injured and will only "pass to some other sphere when [his] time comes". The original story

2400-400: Was portrayed in the 1997 film Kull the Conqueror by actor Kevin Sorbo . Kull is similar to Conan in many ways. He is a fierce warrior, ruthless and courageous on the battlefield, but not tyrannical or cruel. He has a strong sense of chivalry and virtue. Unlike Conan, Kull is philosophical and brooding. He agonizes over decisions that affect the lives of those around him, always looking for

2450-453: Was published in 1989. In 2006, Dark Horse Comics bought the rights to use Kull. The first series, titled Kull , was based on " The Shadow Kingdom ". As of 2012 , three mini-series were published, Kull , Kull: The Hate Witch , and Kull: The Cat and the Skull . Dark Horse also re-published the Marvel stories into two different Kull collections. The Marvel color comics were collected into five volumes titled The Chronicles of Kull , and

2500-548: Was soon captured by the Valusians and imprisoned in a dungeon. His captors offered him a choice: execution or service as a gladiator . He chose the latter. After proving to be an effective combatant and gaining fame in the arenas of the capital, a number of fans helped to regain his freedom. Kull never left Valusia or returned to the life of an outlaw. Instead, he joined the Royal army as a mercenary , pursuing elevation through

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