Larry.
There's a good reason he used the initial instead.
Solomon Kane's Middle Name
Started by Taran, Apr 29 2010 09:24 PM
31 replies to this topic
#21
Almuric
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Posted 04 July 2011 - 07:48 PM
"It is more than a mortal sea. Your hands are red with blood and you follow a red sea-path, yet the fault is not wholly with you. Almighty God, when will the reign of blood cease?"
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--- The Dark Man, by Robert E. Howard
Turlogh shook his head. "Not so long as the race lasts."
--- The Dark Man, by Robert E. Howard
#22
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Posted 09 November 2012 - 09:23 PM
I like all of these possibilities, but perhaps SLK doesn't stand for his name at all but something entirely different? 
Perhaps a reference to something from the bible, like a certain quote, passage or character?
Perhaps a reference to something from the bible, like a certain quote, passage or character?
#23
Ironhand
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Posted 11 November 2012 - 06:55 AM
Solomon El Kane?I like all of these possibilities, but perhaps SLK doesn't stand for his name at all but something entirely different?
Edited by Ironhand, 11 November 2012 - 06:55 AM.
"Did you deem yourself strong, because you were able to twist the heads off civilized folk, poor weaklings with muscles like rotten string? Hell! Break the neck of a wild Cimmerian bull before you call yourself strong. I did that, before I was a full-grown man...!" - Conan, in "Shadows in Zamboula", by Robert E. Howard
"... you speak of Venarium familiarly. Perhaps you were there?"
"I was," grunted [Conan]. "I was one of the horde that swarmed over the hills. I hadn't yet seen fifteen snows, but already my name was repeated about the council fires." - "Beyond the Black River", by Robert E. Howard
Read my Conan screenplays at The Scrolls of Ironhand (in particular my transcription of THE FROST GIANT'S DAUGHTER in Act II of "The Snow Devil") at
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"... you speak of Venarium familiarly. Perhaps you were there?"
"I was," grunted [Conan]. "I was one of the horde that swarmed over the hills. I hadn't yet seen fifteen snows, but already my name was repeated about the council fires." - "Beyond the Black River", by Robert E. Howard
Read my Conan screenplays at The Scrolls of Ironhand (in particular my transcription of THE FROST GIANT'S DAUGHTER in Act II of "The Snow Devil") at
http://www.scrollsof...d.us/index.html or at
http://www.delicious...ic=ConanProject
#24
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Posted 11 November 2012 - 10:45 AM
“I think the real reason so many youngsters are clamoring for freedom of some vague sort, is because of unrest and dissatisfaction with present conditions; I don't believe this machine age gives full satisfaction in a spiritual way, if the term may be allowed. ”
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“Do you try to write like the guys who write for the magazines you write for?” Clyde asked.
“Hell, no,” Bob was emphatic about that. “I let them try to write like me.”
From One Who Walked Alone by Novalyne Price Ellis
Robert E Howard
“Do you try to write like the guys who write for the magazines you write for?” Clyde asked.
“Hell, no,” Bob was emphatic about that. “I let them try to write like me.”
From One Who Walked Alone by Novalyne Price Ellis
#25
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Posted 18 November 2012 - 12:08 AM
"Lived" - because this semi-palindrome holds connotations of repelling hell-spawn .
Don't ask me for references, I made that up.
Don't ask me for references, I made that up.
Edited by cromsblood, 18 November 2012 - 12:13 AM.
#26
deuce
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The OG of "Psychotic Maladjustment"
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Posted 20 November 2012 - 08:39 AM
Could be a christening or confirmation name, or mother's maiden name. Our middle name practice is fairly recent. http://en.wikipedia....iki/Middle_name
Edit: "Englishmen do not have middle names, as a rule. Middle names are in general found only in Europe, especially in Germany and Spain, until the 17th century. Where we find them in some lists, the odds are good that the records from which they were taken were contradictory, illegible, or wrong. "
Sauce: http://www.elizabeth...pendium/42.html
While that source is right in asserting that middle names in Elizabethan England were rare, we don't really know what Howard knew/believed about the topic. I'd have to go back and see what there is in Westward Ho!, which was obviously something of a guide and inspiration to him. Since middle names were popular with the English in later centuries, REH might've thought that was the case in the 1500s as well.
I'd suggest "Laban" as a possibility, for various reasons: http://en.wikipedia....ki/Laban_(Bible)
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#27
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Posted 21 November 2012 - 01:45 AM
Haven´t read much Kane but in the recent movie he was of noble birth. So maybe it his secret familyname? Just a theory.
#28
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Posted 21 November 2012 - 02:29 AM
How about Lucas?
https://en.wikipedia...starting_with_L
http://www.behindthe.../names/letter/l
A big objection would be that Calvinists/Puritans/Pilgrims don't seem to have named their children after New Testament figures (much). Never doubt that the possibility occurred to me.
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#29
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Posted 21 November 2012 - 02:34 AM
I like all of these possibilities, but perhaps SLK doesn't stand for his name at all but something entirely different?
Well, why would SK insert such a thing into his own name? Seems a bit prideful/hubristic. On a practical level, how the hell would anyone know what he intended? A "true" christening/middle name seems more likely.
Not being malicious here, just taking all the Howardian factors into account.
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#30
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Posted 21 November 2012 - 09:40 PM
Lovecraft? 
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#31
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Posted 26 November 2012 - 11:17 AM
How about Lucas?
https://en.wikipedia...starting_with_L
http://www.behindthe.../names/letter/l
A big objection would be that Calvinists/Puritans/Pilgrims don't seem to have named their children after New Testament figures (much). Never doubt that the possibility occurred to me.
I will admit that my reason for choosing Lucas was mostly phonetic. Solomon Lucas Kane just seems to trip so nicely from the tongue...
“I think the real reason so many youngsters are clamoring for freedom of some vague sort, is because of unrest and dissatisfaction with present conditions; I don't believe this machine age gives full satisfaction in a spiritual way, if the term may be allowed. ”
Robert E Howard
“Do you try to write like the guys who write for the magazines you write for?” Clyde asked.
“Hell, no,” Bob was emphatic about that. “I let them try to write like me.”
From One Who Walked Alone by Novalyne Price Ellis
Robert E Howard
“Do you try to write like the guys who write for the magazines you write for?” Clyde asked.
“Hell, no,” Bob was emphatic about that. “I let them try to write like me.”
From One Who Walked Alone by Novalyne Price Ellis
#32
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Posted 06 March 2013 - 02:08 PM
It's a good point -- about when did middle names become common, that is. I've gathered from the internet that middle names were hardly ever used in England in the sixteenth century. A couple of dozen cases at most are recorded, mostly of nobles. So Nephron (11th May 2010) is very likely right. It's probably an abbreviation of SoLomon Kane. But if against probability the L does stand for a middle name ... Luther, as in Martin Luther, is a strong possibility, and another is Lemuel, meaning "God's own". Kane was, if I estimate correctly, born in 1554, in the reign of Mary Tudor, when Protestants were going to the stake in England in batches. His parents might have taken the uncommon measure of giving him a middle name, in the hope that "Lemuel" would gain him divine protection.
