Think of a Sword & Sorcery film or book. You're probably thinking of one already thanks to the picture below.
Conan the Barbarian (aka Conan the Cimmerian, Conan the Conqueror, etc) is one of the best known Sword & Sorcery characters of all time, which was created by Robert E. Howard. It revolved around a strong and stoic male lead, Conan, and the often strong and willful women who Conan frequently met. Eg. Belit and Valeria.
It basically defined the genre.
But it is not the only Sword & Sorcery character of its type. There are many other characters to speak of like Elric of Melniboné (created by Michael Moorcock), who was the main character in a large series of books from the 1960s onwards.
Now you may have noticed a trend already. Sword & Sorcery characters tend be the strong masculine types... Which explain why it is a very male dominated subgenre of fantasy literature.
But there are exceptions.
Marion Zimmer Bradley also wrote a number of Sword & Sorcery type books, including "Warrior Woman".
The book in question didn't really have any magic or sorcery in it, but it featured a strong female protagonist who had a thing for other women in her life (Marion Zimmer Bradley's books tended towards a lot of lesbianism), which made her more popular with the LGBTQ community.
Unfortunately... Marion Zimmer Bradley's career was later marred when it was revealed that she was sexually abusing her daughter and that her husband was a confessed pedophile and ... wow. Her career went down the tubes in a hurry.
There are other examples of female Sword & Sorcery authors (you can find a list of them on the wiki page for Sword and Sorcery), and male authors who still appeal to women.
Unfortunately to find stories like that you have to fast forward to the 2010s when Charles Moffat arrived on the scene with a series of short stories about a character called "Wulfric the Wanderer" and titles like:
Shifting Shadows in Iztark
and
Black Monoliths of Al-Kazar
The books feature an older male protagonist, Wulfric, who is middle aged but still quite capable in a fight as he journeys around the world in search of adventure and riches.
In Shifting Shadows in Iztark he allies himself with a woman in a harem so he can assassinate the wizard who owns the harem, but her character is depicted as being a survivor eager to escape with a level of wokeness we expect to see in the era of MeToo and Black Lives Matter.
Plus the writing style is very similar to Robert E. Howard, which veteran Sword & Sorcery lovers will appreciate. Robert E. Howard has been dead since 1936 so it isn't like he is writing any new books.
In Black Monoliths of Al-Kazar the character is depicted as mourning his dead wife when he is captured and magically enslaved. This is a surprisingly realistic set of circumstances and it is rare to see an author depicting a character like this in a state of mourning.
Race relations figures heavily in these stories as the title character is from a land far to the north, Korovia, and Wulfric is wandering the land of Al-Kazar, which has a 1001 Arabian Nights feel to it. Still you won't find any racist depictions however, and it is indicated that Wulfric's wife Tahira (an Arabic name meaning virginal or pure) is Al-Kazarian.
So he is wandering in a foreign land, mourning his Al-Kazarian wife, when he is enslaved by sorcerers. Yep, sounds like a great premise for a realistic Sword & Sorcery story.
That realism blends into the combat too. Realistic depictions of swordsmanship, archery, etc.
And check out the architecture in the background of Shifting Shadows in Iztark... That is serious use of vaginal openings in the artwork. Clearly the author/artist is not afraid to use vagina symbolism in the book cover. If anything it is pretty deliberate. When you see anything like that in a Disney film the makers will deny doing it on purpose and then censor the scene from the film.
UPDATE 2021
Moffat has been adding more stories to the Wulfric the Wanderer series, including:
- Portal of Destiny
- The Cult of the She-Bear
- The Unbreakable Arrow
The 1st and 2nd entries explore Wulfric's life when he was younger, before he met his wife Tahira, and the third entry when he time travels to Korovia's Dark Ages.
Oh did I fail to mention that earlier? Wulfric the Wanderer is a time traveler. He wanders around Korovia and other kingdoms, but he also wanders from era to era via time portals depicted in the first story.
For the reader this means they get to enjoy a broad spectrum in the type of Sword & Sorcery books you can read in the story, with respect to culture, eras, geography, etc.
You can also browse Moffat's other books that are available, which includes a James Bond-esque spy thriller called Hunting Hitler, a heroic fantasy series about a character called Wrathgar (who is revealed to be the son of Wulfric and Tahira), and other books by the author.
Check out the book cover for Hunting Hitler below. Who doesn't want to kill Hitler???
