海伯利安时代

罗伯特·霍华德著

The Hyborian Age By Robert E. Howard

[古腾堡计划抄录员注：此电子文档的原文，首次发表于 1936 年 2 、8 、 10 和 11 月的《幻象》The Phantagraph杂志。经充分调查后，未发现任何证据表明，该出版物的美国版权已被续签。这本电子书可供任何人在任何地方免费使用，基本没有限制。]

UP写在开头：罗伯特·霍华德笔下的“海伯利安时代”，是一个包含了人类早期历史和神话的架空时代，也是《野蛮人柯南》系列故事发生的背景时代。

“海伯利安”Hyborian这个词，来源于古希腊神话的终北大陆希柏里尔Hyperborea. 海伯利安时代始于传说大陆亚特兰蒂斯沉没之后，落幕于人类文明史的开端。霍华德没有给出一个具体的断代年份，之后续写这个世界观的奇幻小说家、漫画家们，大多数使用公元前1万年的设定。也有作者认为，这个时代应该发生于公元前32500年前的末次冰盛期。当然，使用哪个设定，纯看个人创作需要。

后世西方奇幻作家将霍华德奉为“剑与魔法”Sword & Sorcery文学流派的开山鼻祖，无数知名系列作品都受到过“野蛮人柯南”的影响。霍华德非常喜欢读历史，海伯利安时代可以看作是他对历史的一次大规模玩梗。

本文的创作目的主要还是捋清背景思路，撇开流水账式的“历史记录”不谈，霍华德通过构建一个架空时代，杂糅与现实历史相似的名词，从而在柯南故事中避免了一系列历史地理交代，减少冗长的背景叙述，直奔他永恒的冒险主题：猛男、美人、暴力、恶魔和征服。

引子

本文的意图并非推翻既定历史，以此推动任何一种理论，它仅为一系列小说故事提供一个虚构的背景。几年前，我开始写柯南，构想出了他那个时代的“历史”和那个时代的种族，以此赋予这个人物和他的传奇更多的真实性。在创作这些故事时，我发现坚持“事实”和“历史”更容易想象（因此去描绘）他是一个有血有肉的人物，而不仅仅把他当做一个角色。在创作这个人物并构思他在那个时代各个国家的历险记时，我从未违反“事实”，也没有违背以下所设的“历史”精神，而是一直遵循这个历史线路。正如真正的历史小说家遵循真实历史路线一样。在我所写的这一系列故事中，我一直遵循“历史”。

Nothing in this article is to be considered as an attempt to advance any theory in opposition to accepted history. It is simply a fictional background for a series of fiction-stories. When I began writing the Conan stories a few years ago, I prepared this 'history' of his age and the peoples of that age, in order to lend him and his sagas a greater aspect of realness. And I found that by adhering to the 'facts' and spirit of that history, in writing the stories, it was easier to visualize (and therefore to present) him as a real flesh-and-blood character rather than a ready-made product. In writing about him and his adventures in the various kingdoms of his Age, I have never violated the 'facts' or spirit of the 'history' here set down, but have followed the lines of that history as closely as the writer of actual historical-fiction follows the lines of actual history. I have used this 'history' as a guide in all the stories in this series that I have written.

正文

对于尼米迪亚编年史家称之为前巨变的那个时代，我们只了解其后期的情形，此外知之甚少，即便后期那段历史也笼罩在传说的迷雾之中。已知的历史开始于前巨变文明的衰落期，主要有卡梅利亚、瓦卢西亚、维鲁利亚、格隆达尔、图勒和科摩利亚等王国主宰。这些人使用相似的语言，有着共同的起源。那时候还有其他已经开化的王国，但那些王国的住民是更为古老的异族。

Of that epoch known by the Nemedian chroniclers as the Pre-Cataclysmic Age, little is known except the latter part, and that is veiled in the mists of legendry. Known history begins with the waning of the Pre-Cataclysmic civilization, dominated by the kingdoms of Kamelia, Valusia, Verulia, Grondar, Thule and Commoria. These peoples spoke a similar language, arguing a common origin. There were other kingdoms, equally civilized, but inhabited by different, and apparently older races.

* 图瑞安大陆地图

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尼米迪亚：Nemedian，杂糅了神圣罗马帝国和拜占庭风格的国度。名字原型爱尔兰神话中的斯基泰英雄Nemed，也可能源于古希腊神话尼米亚巨狮的故乡Nemean，还可能是“德国”在斯拉夫语中的称呼Německo.

前巨变文明：图瑞安大陆有七个伟大的帝国，是霍华德笔下另一位主人公库尔王活跃的时代，那个时候，亚特兰蒂斯还没沉没。卡梅利亚Kamelia，被猛虎女王伊莱娜征服的国度；瓦卢西亚Valusia，图瑞安最伟大的帝国，曾被蛇人统治；维鲁利亚Verulia，这里生活着一支古老的有翼人形种族；格隆达尔Grondar，位于图瑞安大陆东部，生活着一支有狭长黄眼睛的黑人种族；图勒Thule，失落之地，诺德海姆的前身、北欧文明的起源，后引入克苏鲁神话世界；科摩利亚Commoria，与扎法哈纳Zarfhaana、法尔桑Farsun，组成三国联盟对抗瓦卢西亚，最后都被库尔王消灭。

皮克特人居住在深入西海的群岛上；亚特兰蒂斯人居住在位于皮克特岛和图瑞安大陆之间一块较小的大陆上；利莫里亚人居住在东半球一系列群岛上。在那个时代，他们都是野蛮人。

The barbarians of that age were the Picts, who lived on islands far out on the western ocean; the Atlanteans, who dwelt on a small continent between the Pictish Islands and the main, or Thurian Continent; and the Lemurians, who inhabited a chain of large islands in the eastern hemisphere.

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皮克特人：Picts，名字源于同名的苏格兰地区先民，属于凯尔特分支。在海伯利安时代，他们生活在皮克特群岛的荒野上，艺术形象取材自前殖民地时期的北美印第安人，杂糅了易洛魁、阿尔冈昆等部族的元素。

那时，大片地区尚未开垦。已开化的王国虽然面积很大，但仅占据了整个星球相对很少的一部分。图瑞安大陆最西部的王国是瓦卢西亚，最东部的是格隆达尔。格隆达尔东部是绵延无边、广阔荒芜的沙漠，那儿的人民比起邻国来说，远没有那么高的文明程度。在沙漠地带较好的地方，在丛林中，在群山里，零零散散地分布着原始野人的氏族和部落。遥远的南方有一个神秘的文明国度，与图瑞安文明互不相干，而且那是个前人类王国。遥远的大陆东海岸住着另一个人类种族，他们很神秘，而且是非图瑞安人，时常与利莫里亚人交流联系。他们发源于利莫里亚群岛东部某个阴暗的无名岛。

There were vast regions of unexplored land. The civilized kingdoms, though enormous in extent, occupied a comparatively small portion of the whole planet. Valusia was the western-most kingdom of the Thurian Continent; Grondar the eastern-most. East of Grondar, whose people were less highly cultured than those of their kindred kingdoms, stretched a wild and barren expanse of deserts. Among the less arid stretches of desert, in the jungles, and among the mountains, lived scattered clans and tribes of primitive savages. Far to the south there was a mysterious civilization, unconnected with the Thurian culture, and apparently pre-human in its nature. On the far-eastern shores of the Continent there lived another race, human, but mysterious and non-Thurian, with which the Lemurians from time to time came in contact. They apparently came from a shadowy and nameless continent lying somewhere east of the Lemurian Islands.

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利莫里亚：Lemuria，原型是地摊文学三大沉没大陆之一，传说古老的印度洋还不是大海的时候，那里有一片大陆，叫利莫里亚。

图瑞安文明逐渐瓦解，其军队很大一部分是由野蛮人组成的雇佣军。皮克特人、亚特兰蒂斯人和利莫里亚人担任将领、政治家，甚至是国王。大地上四处都能听到有关王国间的战争、瓦卢西亚和科摩利亚之战，以及亚特兰蒂斯人得以在大陆建立王国的征服传说，传说的数量比历史上真实的战争要多得多。

The Thurian civilization was crumbling; their armies were composed largely of barbarian mercenaries. Picts, Atlanteans and Lemurians were their generals, their statesmen, often their kings. Of the bickerings of the kingdoms, and the wars between Valusia and Commoria, as well as the conquests by which the Atlanteans founded a kingdom on the mainland, there were more legends than accurate history.

后来，大灾难震撼了世界。亚特兰蒂斯和利莫里亚沉没了，皮克特群岛被抬高形成了新大陆的山峰。部分图瑞安大陆消失在海浪里，有的则下沉形成大的内陆湖和内海。喷发的火山、可怕的地震，摧毁了帝国光辉灿烂的城市，一个个国家消失了。

Then the Cataclysm rocked the world. Atlantis and Lemuria sank, and the Pictish Islands were heaved up to form the mountain peaks of a new continent. Sections of the Thurian Continent vanished under the waves, or sinking, formed great inland lakes and seas. Volcanoes broke forth and terrific earthquakes shook down the shining cities of the empires. Whole nations were blotted out.

野蛮人比开化的种族幸运一些。皮克特群岛的居民被灭绝，但他们的大殖民地（即为抵挡侵略而建立在瓦卢西亚南部边境群山中的缓冲地带）却毫发未损。亚特兰蒂斯大陆王国同样幸免于难，因而成千上万的族人乘船从沉没地来到这里避难。不少利莫里亚人逃到了受损相对较轻的图瑞安大陆东部海岸。他们被那儿的远古种族所奴役，从此，开始了一段长达数千年被奴役的屈辱史。

The barbarians fared a little better than the civilized races. The inhabitants of the Pictish Islands were destroyed, but a great colony of them, settled among the mountains of Valusia's southern frontier to serve as a buffer against foreign invasion, was untouched. The Continental kingdom of the Atlanteans likewise escaped the common ruin, and to it came thousands of their tribesmen in ships from the sinking land. Many Lemurians escaped to the eastern coast of the Thurian Continent, which was comparatively untouched. There they were enslaved by the ancient race which already dwelt there, and their history, for thousands of years, is a history of brutal servitude.

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东方远古种族：所谓图瑞安大陆东部海岸的远古种族，在其它作品里，就是契泰人的祖先，他们奴役了利莫里亚遗民数千年。契泰人Khitai的原型是中国人，与“契丹”谐音，在霍华德的作品里，是一个拥有强大术士的东方帝国。

在大陆西部，由于发生巨变，产生了很多奇异的动植物。浓密的丛林覆盖了平原，河流冲开道路汇入大海，雄伟的群山拔地而起，湖泊掩盖了古城的断壁残垣，使之成为肥沃的河谷。从下陷区到大陆上的亚特兰蒂斯王国，到处都涌聚着野兽和野人——猿和猿人。尽管不得不为了生存而经常开战，但他们还是保留了早期高度蛮族化王国的遗址。由于被剥夺了金属和矿藏的所有权，他们成了石场工人，就像远古的祖先一样。当他们这种奋斗挣扎的精神与强有力的皮克特王国相遇时，就发展出了真正的艺术水准。皮克特人重新回到了钻木取火的时代，不过在人口和作战方面却发展得更为迅速。他们丝毫没有亚特兰蒂斯人的艺术细胞，他们是更凶悍、更实际、更多产的种族。他们不像敌人一样在象牙上绘制、雕刻图案，却留下了大量有效的燧石武器。

In the western part of the Continent, changing conditions created strange forms of plant and animal life. Thick jungles covered the plains, great rivers cut their roads to the sea, wild mountains were heaved up, and lakes covered the ruins of old cities in fertile valleys. To the Continental kingdom of the Atlanteans, from sunken areas, swarmed myriads of beasts and savages—ape-men and apes. Forced to battle continually for their lives, they yet managed to retain vestiges of their former state of highly advanced barbarism. Robbed of metals and ores, they became workers in stone like their distant ancestors, and had attained a real artistic level, when their struggling culture came into contact with the powerful Pictish nation. The Picts had also reverted to flint, but had advanced more rapidly in the matter of population and war-science. They had none of the Atlanteans' artistic nature; they were a ruder, more practical, more prolific race. They left no pictures painted or carved on ivory, as did their enemies, but they left remarkably efficient flint weapons in plenty.

这些石器时代的王国冲突不断，一系列血腥的战争使人口最多的亚特兰蒂斯人退回到原始时代，皮克特人的进化进程也被迫中断。巨变之后过了五百年，原始王国消失了。现在是由野蛮人构成的国家——皮克特，他们与亚特兰蒂斯的野蛮部落不断开战。前者拥有人口数量和团结一致的优势，而后者则是一些松散的族群。这就是当时西方的情况。

These stone-age kingdoms clashed, and in a series of bloody wars, the outnumbered Atlanteans were hurled back into a state of savagery, and the evolution of the Picts was halted. Five hundred years after the Cataclysm the barbaric kingdoms have vanished. It is now a nation of savages—the Picts—carrying on continual warfare with tribes of savages—the Atlanteans. The Picts had the advantage of numbers and unity, whereas the Atlanteans had fallen into loosely knit clans. That was the west of that day.

在遥远的东方，拔地而起的高山和连绵的湖泊隔断了人们与外界的联系。在那儿，利莫里亚人在远古统治者的管制下像奴隶一样劳作。遥远的南方依然是个谜。由于未受巨变的破坏，南方仍然是前人类状态。在图瑞安大陆，一个非瓦卢西亚国家的种族幸存下来，他们居住在东南方的低山中，是一支已开化的种族，名叫哲米瑞人。世界各地都散居着类猿人的野蛮种族，他们对伟大文明的起起落落全然不知。不过，有一个民族正在遥远的北方悄然成形。

In the distant east, cut off from the rest of the world by the heaving up of gigantic mountains and the forming of a chain of vast lakes, the Lemurians are toiling as slaves of their ancient masters. The far south is still veiled in mystery. Untouched by the Cataclysm, its destiny is still pre-human. Of the civilized races of the Thurian Continent, a remnant of one of the non-Valusian nations dwells among the low mountains of the southeast—the Zhemri. Here and there about the world are scattered clans of apish savages, entirely ignorant of the rise and fall of the great civilizations. But in the far north another people are slowly coming into existence.

* 海伯利安时代地图

巨变时期，一群类似穴居人的野蛮人逃到北方避难。他们发现，在这冰雪覆盖的地方只居住着一个物种，那就是凶残的雪猿。雪猿是一种巨型动物，毛发浓厚，它们是当地的土著，早已适应了那种气候。于是他们攻击雪猿，把雪猿赶到北极圈以北，任其自生自灭。然而，后者适应了新的艰难环境，并且出乎意料地开始在那儿繁衍生息。

At the time of the Cataclysm, a band of savages, whose development was not much above that of the Neanderthal, fled to the north to escape destruction. They found the snow-countries inhabited only by a species of ferocious snow-apes—huge shaggy white animals, apparently native to that climate. These they fought and drove beyond the Arctic circle, to perish, as the savages thought. The latter, then, adapted themselves to their hardy new environment and throve.

皮克特–亚特兰蒂斯之战把一个潜在的新文明扼杀在了摇篮里。在那之后，另一场破坏程度较轻的灾难再度改变了原始大陆的面貌，使原来的湖泊连接成了一个广阔的内海，进一步把东方和西方分离开来。伴随而来的地震、洪水以及火山爆发加剧了原始人的消亡。之后，部落战争开始了。

After the Pictish-Atlantean wars had destroyed the beginnings of what might have been a new culture, another, lesser cataclysm further altered the appearance of the original continent, left a great inland sea where the chain of lakes had been, to further separate west from east, and the attendant earthquakes, floods and volcanoes completed the ruin of the barbarians which their tribal wars had begun.

此次灾难过后一千年里，西方世界是一个丛林密布、湖泊成群、河流汹涌的荒凉国度。在西北部树木覆盖的山林中，生活着游牧不定的猿人，他们没有语言，也没有使用火或其他工具的知识。他们是亚特兰蒂斯人的后代，现在又退回到了狂风呼啸的混乱丛林中。很多年以前，他们的祖先就在此地艰难地爬行，不能直立行走。西南部零零散散地分布着退化的野人族群，他们居住在洞穴里，只能说一些简单、原始的语言。然而，他们仍然保留着皮克特人的名号，不过这个名字作为一个称呼，仅仅是为了表明他们是人类，以此来区分他们为生存和食物而对抗的真正兽类。这个称号是他们与前一阶段仅有的联系了。无论是肮脏的皮克特人还是类猿人亚特兰蒂斯人，都与其他部落或民族没有任何联系了。

A thousand years after the lesser cataclysm, the western world is seen to be a wild country of jungles and lakes and torrential rivers. Among the forest-covered hills of the northwest exist wandering bands of ape-men, without human speech, or the knowledge of fire or the use of implements. They are the descendants of the Atlanteans, sunk back into the squalling chaos of jungle-bestiality from which ages ago their ancestors so laboriously crawled. To the southwest dwell scattered clans of degraded, cave-dwelling savages, whose speech is of the most primitive form, yet who still retain the name of Picts, which has come to mean merely a term designating men—themselves, to distinguish them from the true beasts with which they contend for life and food. It is their only link with their former stage. Neither the squalid Picts nor the apish Atlanteans have any contact with other tribes or peoples.

在东方的遥远土地上，利莫里亚人经受了长年累月的残酷奴役，逐渐野蛮凶狠起来，最终发展到几乎可以称为兽性的程度，他们的力量不断壮大并推翻了压迫他们的主人。他们是野蛮人，却昂首阔步走在一个异族文明的残迹上。那个文明的幸存者惧怕这群满腔愤怒的奴隶，纷纷逃往西方。这些野蛮人袭击并推翻了南方那个神秘的前人类王国，通过与这个前人类文明的接触，他们改变并最终代替了自己原有的文化。新的王国取名为斯泰吉亚。当作为一个完整的种族被消灭后，旧有民族的一部分人幸存下来，反而倍受崇拜。

Far to the east, the Lemurians, levelled almost to a bestial plane themselves by the brutishness of their slavery, have risen and destroyed their masters. They are savages stalking among the ruins of a strange civilization. The survivors of that civilization, who have escaped the fury of their slaves, have come westward. They fall upon that mysterious pre-human kingdom of the south and overthrow it, substituting their own culture, modified by contact with the older one. The newer kingdom is called Stygia, and remnants of the older nation seemed to have survived, and even been worshipped, after the race as a whole had been destroyed.

在世界的各个角落，小群野蛮人正显示出向前发展的趋势；这些迹象是零散的，没有规律的。在北方，有个部落正在兴起。这些人叫海伯利安人（Hyborians/Hybori）。他们信仰的神是伯利——伟大的领袖。在巨变时期，当国王率队进入北方时，古老传说中的伯利在人们的脑海中已经很模糊了，部落人民对伯利仅存的记忆，就是那些夸张的民间故事。

Here and there in the world small groups of savages are showing signs of an upward trend; these are scattered and unclassified. But in the north, the tribes are growing. These people are called Hyborians, or Hybori; their god was Bori—some great chief, whom legend made even more ancient as the king who led them into the north, in the days of the great Cataclysm, which the tribes remember only in distorted folklore.

海伯利安人遍布北方，现在开始轻松悠闲地向南方开进。目前，他们尚未与其他种族产生联系，其征战都是自己种族的内战。在北方生活了一千五百年之后，他们成了身材高大的种族，有黄褐色头发和灰色眼睛，精力旺盛而好战，并且早已显示出明显的艺术才能和诗情。他们大部分仍然靠狩猎为生，但南方部落饲养牛已有几个世纪之久了。他们中的一个氏族与众不同，至今仍完全与其他氏族隔离。一个游荡者去过遥远的北方，并带回消息说，那块被认为荒无人烟的冰原有大片类人猿的人类部落。他发誓说，这些人的祖先正是被海伯利安人的祖先从宜居土地上驱逐出去的兽类。这个游荡者极力主张派遣大部队越过北极圈根除这些兽类。他发誓说，这些畜生正在进化成真正的人类。然而，他被大家当成笑料，仅有一小队具有冒险精神的年轻战士跟随他去了北方，但再也没有回来。

They have spread over the north, and are pushing southward in leisurely treks. So far they have not come in contact with any other races; their wars have been with one another. Fifteen hundred years in the north country have made them a tall, tawny-haired, grey-eyed race, vigorous and warlike, and already exhibiting a well-defined artistry and poetism of nature. They still live mostly by the hunt, but the southern tribes have been raising cattle for some centuries. There is one exception in their so far complete isolation from other races: a wanderer into the far north returned with the news that the supposedly deserted ice wastes were inhabited by an extensive tribe of ape-like men, descended, he swore, from the beasts driven out of the more habitable land by the ancestors of the Hyborians. He urged that a large war-party be sent beyond the arctic circle to exterminate these beasts, whom he swore were evolving into true men. He was jeered at; a small band of adventurous young warriors followed him into the north, but none returned.

而海伯利安部落却向南方迁移，随着人口的增长，这种移动的规模变得越来越大。随后便是游荡与征服的岁月。在整个世界历史的演变过程中，部落与部落迁移处在不断变化中。

But tribes of the Hyborians were drifting south, and as the population increased this movement became extensive. The following age was an epoch of wandering and conquest. Across the history of the world tribes and drifts of tribes move and shift in an everchanging panorama.

看看五百年后的世界吧。黄褐色头发的海伯利安人已经转移到南部和西部，征服并摧毁了众多小规模的无名部落。由于融入了被征服种族的生活，前期游荡者的后代已经开始显现出变化的种族特征。这些混合的种族又遭到新来的、血统更纯正的迁移者的袭击，如同扫帚不偏不倚地扫清一切废墟，他们遭到大肆扫荡。周而复始，在混乱的种族废墟与种族末代人中，他们变得更为复杂。

Look at the world five hundred years later. Tribes of tawny-haired Hyborians have moved southward and westward, conquering and destroying many of the small unclassified clans. Absorbing the blood of conquered races, already the descendants of the older drifts have begun to show modified racial traits, and these mixed races are attacked fiercely by new, purer-blooded drifts, and swept before them, as a broom sweeps debris impartially, to become even more mixed and mingled in the tangled debris of races and tag-ends of races.

然而，征服者完全割断了与先前种族的联系。至于东南方的哲米瑞人后代，他们与无名部落逐渐融合，在种族融合带来的全新生机和活力下，他们尝试着重振自己没落的古老文明。西方的类人猿亚特兰蒂斯人开始了漫长的演变过程，他们已经经历了一个轮回，早已忘记了之前作为人的时代，并且对先前的生存状态一无所知。因此，他们的进化无法借助人类记忆的帮助，也不会受到人类记忆的阻碍。在他们的南方，皮克特人仍然停滞于野蛮的状态，这显然违背了自然规律（要么进化要么退化）。再往南，远古的斯泰吉亚王国依然像谜一般，靠着它东部边界的是游牧野人的氏族，也就是闪族人的后代。

As yet the conquerors have not come in contact with the older races. To the southeast the descendants of the Zhemri, given impetus by new blood resulting from admixture with some unclassified tribe, are beginning to seek to revive some faint shadow of their ancient culture. To the west the apish Atlanteans are beginning the long climb upward. They have completed the cycle of existence; they have long forgotten their former existence as men; unaware of any other former state, they are starting the climb unhelped and unhindered by human memories. To the south of them the Picts remain savages, apparently defying the laws of Nature by neither progressing nor retrogressing. Far to the south dreams the ancient mysterious kingdom of Stygia. On its eastern borders wander clans of nomadic savages, already known as the Sons of Shem.

与皮克特人居住地相邻的宽广的辛河谷，四周群山围绕，易守难攻。这群原始人没有名字，暂且把他们归类于闪族人吧，这些人已经拥有了先进的农业制度和生活方式。

Next to the Picts, in the broad valley of Zingg, protected by great mountains, a nameless band of primitives, tentatively classified as akin to the Shemites, has evolved an advanced agricultural system and existence.

促使海伯利安人迁移的还有另一个因素：其中一支部落发现石头可以用在建筑上。于是，第一个海伯利安王国——希柏里尔诞生了。这是一个凶残野蛮的王国，最初只是一个简陋的巨石碉堡，该碉堡是为了抵御部落袭击而堆积起来的。见识到碉堡的威力后，这个部落的人立刻放弃了马皮帐篷，改建石屋。石屋虽然简陋，但非常结实，因此起到了保护作用，他们也得以变得强大。该王国的人突然从游牧状态变成了定居者，他们居住在用石块建成的房屋里，在周围立起巨大的石墙。石器时代刚刚开始，他们却抓住这次偶然的机会崛起，迅速掌握了农业的首要法则——当然是很简陋的农业。希柏里尔王国的崛起太富有戏剧性了，可以说是历史上绝无仅有的事件。

Another factor has added to the impetus of Hyborian drift. A tribe of that race has discovered the use of stone in building, and the first Hyborian kingdom has come into being—the rude and barbaric kingdom of Hyperborea, which had its beginning in a crude fortress of boulders heaped to repel tribal attack. The people of this tribe soon abandoned their horse-hide tents for stone houses, crudely but mightily built, and thus protected, they grew strong. There are few more dramatic events in history than the rise of the rude, fierce kingdom of Hyperborea, whose people turned abruptly from their nomadic life to rear dwellings of naked stone, surrounded by cyclopean walls—a race scarcely emerged from the polished stone age, who had by a freak of chance, learned the first rude principles of architecture.

由于在交战中失利，或拒绝成为城堡居民的附庸，很多部落由于该王国的崛起而被驱逐。不少氏族长途跋涉，走过了大半个世界。更北部的部落则不断受到强壮的金发野人的侵扰——虽然这些野人并不比猿人更先进。

The rise of this kingdom drove forth many other tribes, for, defeated in the war, or refusing to become tributary to their castle-dwelling kinsmen, many clans set forth on long treks that took them halfway around the world. And already the more northern tribes are beginning to be harried by gigantic blond savages, not much more advanced than ape-men.

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希柏里尔：克苏鲁神话小说作者克拉克·阿什顿·史密斯，创作了著名的终北大陆神话系列作品，故事背景就发生在希柏里尔。有兴趣的同学可以找来看看。不过这两个希柏里尔除了名字以外，关联不大。

此后的一千年，海伯利安人的崛起主导了历史的发展。这个好战的部落支配了整个西方世界，原始的野蛮人王国形成了。黄褐色头发的入侵者遇到了皮克特人，并把皮克特人驱逐到贫瘠的西部土地上去了。而在西北方，亚特兰蒂斯人的子孙凭借自己的努力，从猿人慢慢直立起来，向原始野蛮的状态进化。他们尚未遇到任何征服者。在遥远的东方地区，利莫里亚人正衍变着自己怪异的初级文明。在南方，海伯利安人已建立了科斯王国，毗邻一些游牧国家，也就是闪族之域。闪族境内的野人们，部分通过与海伯利安人的接触，部分通过与蹂躏了他们几个世纪之久的斯泰吉亚人接触，正从蒙昧中崛起。北方的金发野人不仅是天生的大力士，而且人数众多，因此海伯利安部落开始向南挺进，驱逐着他们的兄弟氏族。古希柏里尔王国就被这样一支北方部落推翻，但征服者沿用了这个王国的名字。在希柏里尔东南部，哲米瑞人的王国初具规模，取名为萨莫拉。在西南方，皮克特人的一支部落侵入了肥沃的辛河谷，征服了那里的农耕居民，并定居下来。这个混合的种族后来被海伯利安人的一支游民部落征服。从这些杂居的部落中，辛格拉王国诞生了。

The tale of the next thousand years is the tale of the rise of the Hyborians, whose warlike tribes dominate the western world. Rude kingdoms are taking shape. The tawny-haired invaders have encountered the Picts, driving them into the barren lands of the west. To the northwest, the descendants of the Atlanteans, climbing unaided from apedom into primitive savagery, have not yet met the conquerors. Far to the east the Lemurians are evolving a strange semi-civilization of their own. To the south the Hyborians have founded the kingdom of Koth, on the borders of those pastoral countries known as the Lands of Shem, and the savages of those lands, partly through contact with the Hyborians, partly through contact with the Stygians who have ravaged them for centuries, are emerging from barbarism. The blond savages of the far north have grown in power and numbers so that the northern Hyborian tribes move southward, driving their kindred clans before them. The ancient kingdom of Hyperborea is overthrown by one of these northern tribes, which, however, retains the old name. Southeast of Hyperborea a kingdom of the Zhemri has come into being, under the name of Zamora. To the southwest, a tribe of Picts have invaded the fertile valley of Zingg, conquered the agricultural people there, and settled among them. This mixed race was in turn conquered later by a roving tribe of Hybori, and from these mingled elements came the kingdom of Zingara.

五百年之后，世界上王国鼎立的格局已经确定：海伯利安人的众多王国统治了西方世界。这些王国包括阿奎洛尼亚、尼米迪亚、布列松尼亚、希柏里尔、科斯、俄斐、阿戈斯、科林斯以及边境王国。这些王国的东部是萨莫拉，西南部是辛格拉，这两个王国的人民在肤色上很相似，较黑，习惯也与其他的王国不同，除此之外，两国人民丝毫没有共同点。斯泰吉亚位于这些王国的南部，未受外族侵略，但闪族人自己将斯泰吉亚的枷锁换成了较为温和的科斯统治。土灰色的奴役者被驱逐到冥河，或称尼罗河（从幽暗的腹地由南至北，几乎呈直角急转而下，朝正西方向穿过闪族田园般的草原汇入大海）之南。在阿奎洛尼亚以北是北方极地的西米里亚，其人民是西米里人。他们是一群凶残的野蛮人，未被入侵者驯服，但由于与入侵者交流接触而迅速发展。他们是亚特兰蒂斯人的后代，现在比宿敌皮克特人更稳定地进步着，而这时的皮克特人正生活在阿奎洛尼亚西部的荒原中。

Five hundred years later the kingdoms of the world are clearly defined. The kingdoms of the Hyborians—Aquilonia, Nemedia, Brythunia, Hyperborea, Koth, Ophir, Argos, Corinthia, and one known as the Border Kingdom—dominate the western world. Zamora lies to the east, and Zingara to the southwest of these kingdoms—people alike in darkness of complexion and exotic habits, but otherwise unrelated. Far to the south sleeps Stygia, untouched by foreign invasion, but the peoples of Shem have exchanged the Stygian yoke for the less galling one of Koth. The dusky masters have been driven south of the great river Styx, Nilus, or Nile, which, flowing north from the shadowy hinterlands, turns almost at right angles and flows almost due west through the pastoral meadowlands of Shem, to empty into the great sea. North of Aquilonia, the western-most Hyborian kingdom, are the Cimmerians, ferocious savages, untamed by the invaders, but advancing rapidly because of contact with them; they are the descendants of the Atlanteans, now progressing more steadily than their old enemies the Picts, who dwell in the wilderness west of Aquilonia.

又过了五百年，海伯利安民族的文明逐渐强大起来。他们的文明无比强大，以至于凡是它接触过的部落都会摆脱野蛮的泥沼。该文明中最为强大的是阿奎洛尼亚王国，不过其他的王国在武力和种族融合方面也不甘落后。冈德兰是阿奎洛尼亚北部的一个省，这里的冈德人是最接近海伯利安远古起源的部族。种族融合并没有削弱种族的力量，即便荒原里的野人正在壮大，他们在西方仍然所向披靡、无坚不摧。

Another five centuries and the Hybori peoples are the possessors of a civilization so virile that contact with it virtually snatched out of the wallow of savagery such tribes as it touched. The most powerful kingdom is Aquilonia, but others vie with it in strength and mixed race; the nearest to the ancient root-stock are the Gundermen of Gunderland, a northern province of Aquilonia. But this mixing has not weakened the race. They are supreme in the western world, though the barbarians of the wastelands are growing in strength.

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冈德兰：Gunderland，名字原型是汪达尔领袖冈德里克。

在北方，北极野人的后代演变成了金发蓝眼的野蛮人，他们把残余的海伯利安部落从雪国驱逐了出去。然而，古老的希柏里尔王国坚强不屈，他们顽强地抵抗住了野蛮人的进攻。这些野蛮人的王国取名为诺德海姆，包括两个分支：华纳海姆红发的华纳族和阿斯加德金发的阿萨族。

In the north, golden-haired, blue-eyed barbarians, descendants of the blond arctic savages, have driven the remaining Hyborian tribes out of the snow countries, except the ancient kingdom of Hyperborea, which resists their onslaught. Their country is called Nordheim, and they are divided into the red-haired Vanir of Vanaheim, and the yellow-haired Æsir of Asgard.

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北欧神族：诺德海姆原型就是北欧，这里生活的华纳和阿萨两族，直接用了北欧神话的设定。

如今，利莫里亚人变成了赫卡尼亚人，并再次登上历史舞台。过去的几个世纪里他们一直稳定地西进。现在，位于内陆海——维拉耶特海最南端的一支部落在西南海岸建立了图兰王国。从内陆海到王国的东部边界之间是连绵广袤的干草原，极北和极南地区则是沙漠。在这片领土上散居着非赫卡尼亚人，以放牧为生。极北地区的部落尚未归类定义，极南地区则一直由土著闪族人占据，他们的体内从游牧的征服者那里留下了稀少的海伯利安血脉。到了这个时期的后半段，其他赫卡尼亚氏族也开始西进，围绕着内陆海的最北边缘，他们与希柏里尔东部的边远村落兵戎相见。

Now the Lemurians enter history again as Hyrkanians. Through the centuries they have pushed steadily westward, and now a tribe skirts the southern end of the great inland sea—Vilayet—and establishes the kingdom of Turan on the southwestern shore. Between the inland sea and the eastern borders of the native kingdoms lie vast expanses of steppes and in the extreme north and extreme south, deserts. The non-Hyrkanian dwellers of these territories are scattered and pastoral, unclassified in the north, Shemitish in the south, aboriginal, with a thin strain of Hyborian blood from wandering conquerors. Toward the latter part of the period other Hyrkanian clans push westward, around the northern extremity of the inland sea, and clash with the eastern outposts of the Hyperboreans.

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赫卡尼亚：Hyrkania，名字源于古波斯神话里的地名，那里居住着巫师、恶魔、女巫、精灵、狼和吸血鬼。

图兰：Turan，名字源于古代对使用乌拉尔-阿尔泰语系的民族所占据的欧亚大陆地区的称呼。海伯利安时代的图兰，风格杂糅了突厥和阿拉伯文明。

我们来简单地看看那个时期的民族。海伯利安人数最多的种族已不再是清一色的黄褐色头发和灰色眼睛，他们已与其他种族融合。科斯人中有一支特别强悍的部族，有着闪族人甚至斯泰吉亚人的特征。同样，阿戈斯也有一支较强的部族，与闪族人不断融合，不过与之融合最多最广的还要算辛格拉人。东部的布列松尼亚人与深肤色的萨莫拉人相互通婚，南部的阿奎洛尼亚人与棕色皮肤的辛格拉人融合，最终，最南部省份珀伊腾的人多数都是黑发褐眼的样子了。与这些相比，古王国希柏里尔似乎有些疏远，但它的血液里也有很多外族因素，主要是通过俘虏外国女人（赫卡尼亚人、阿萨人以及萨莫拉人）实现的。冈德兰是唯一没有奴隶的地方，因此这个省的人民有着纯正的海伯利安血统。相比之下，野蛮人的血统保持得很好。西米里人有着深色头发和蓝色或灰色眼睛，身材高大，强壮有力；诺德海姆人与西米里人身材相仿，但肤色白皙，眼睛是蓝色的，头发呈金黄色或是红色。皮克特人一如既往地保持着原来的样子：身材矮小，皮肤黝黑，有着黑色的眼睛和头发；赫卡尼亚人肤色深暗，多数人都高大修长，不过矮胖、斜眼的人越来越多，这是他们与一个奇怪种族融合的结果。那个种族是当地土著，虽然身材矮小，但是智力发达，他们本来生活在维拉耶特海东部的群山中，在赫卡尼亚人西进时被征服。闪族人总体上身材中等，但因为与斯泰吉亚人融合，有些人变得高大、粗犷和强健，有着鹰钩鼻、深色眼睛和蓝黑色头发。斯泰吉亚人身材高大，体型匀称，皮肤暗黑，挺拔笔直——看上去就像是统治阶层。下层民众包括被蹂躏、杂交的群氓，以及黑人、斯泰吉亚人、闪族人甚至海伯利安人的混血。斯泰吉亚以南是由亚马逊人、库希特人和阿特莱亚人组成的广阔黑色王国，以及赞巴布韦的混合帝国。

Glance briefly at the peoples of that age. The dominant of Hyborians are no longer uniformly tawny-haired and grey-eyed. They have mixed with other races. There is a strong Shemitish, even a Stygian strain among the peoples of Koth, and to a lesser extent, of Argos, while in the case of the latter, admixture with the Zingarans has been more extensive than with the Shemites. The eastern Brythunians have intermarried with the dark-skinned Zamorians, and the people of southern Aquilonia have mixed with the brown Zingarans until black hair and brown eyes are the dominant type in Poitain, the southern-most province. The ancient kingdom of Hyperborea is more aloof than the others, yet there is alien blood in plenty in its veins, from the capture of foreign women—Hyrkanians, Æsir and Zamorians. Only in the province of Gunderland, where the people keep no slaves, is the pure Hyborian stock found unblemished. But the barbarians have kept their bloodstream pure; the Cimmerians are tall and powerful, with dark hair and blue or grey eyes. The people of Nordheim are of similar build, but with white skins, blue eyes and golden or red hair. The Picts are of the same type as they always were—short, very dark, with black eyes and hair. The Hyrkanians are dark and generally tall and slender, though a squat slant-eyed type is more and more common among them, resulting from mixture with a curious race of intelligent, though stunted, aborigines, conquered by them among the mountains east of Vilayet, on their westward drift. The Shemites are generally of medium height, though sometimes when mixed with Stygian blood, gigantic, broadly and strongly built, with hook noses, dark eyes and blue-black hair. The Stygians are tall and well made, dusky, straight-featured—at least the ruling classes are of that type. The lower classes are a down-trodden, mongrel horde, a mixture of negroid, Stygian, Shemitish, even Hyborian bloods. South of Stygia are the vast black kingdoms of the Amazons, the Kushites, the Atlaians and the hybrid empire of Zembabwe.

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珀伊腾：Poitain，充满了中世纪骑士的地区，杂糅了法国普瓦图和阿基坦的风格。

阿奎洛尼亚与皮克特荒原之间是博松尼亚，那儿居住着一支土著种族的后代，他们是在海伯利安游荡的初期被海伯利安人的一支部落征服的。这个混合的民族从未有过血统纯正的海伯利安人那样的文明，他们被海伯利安人驱逐到文明世界的边缘地区。博松人身材和肤色中等，眼睛是黄褐色或灰色，中等头型。他们主要以务农为生，住在高墙村庄中，属于阿奎洛尼亚王国的一部分。他们从北部的边境王国到西南的辛格拉驻军，构成了阿奎洛尼亚对抗西米里亚和皮克特人的堡垒。他们是顽强的戍卒，与北方及西方种族几百年的征战已经把他们打造成了一支无法直接攻破的防御队伍。

Between Aquilonia and the Pictish wilderness lie the Bossonian marches, peopled by descendants of an aboriginal race, conquered by a tribe of Hyborians, early in the first ages of the Hyborian drift. This mixed people never attained the civilization of the purer Hyborians, and was pushed by them to the very fringe of the civilized world. The Bossonians are of medium height and complexion, their eyes brown or grey, and they are mesocephalic. They live mainly by agriculture, in large walled villages, and are part of the Aquilonian kingdom. Their marches extend from the Border Kingdom in the north to Zingara in the southwest, forming a bulwark for Aquilonia against both the Cimmerians and the Picts. They are stubborn defensive fighters, and centuries of warfare against northern and western barbarians have caused them to evolve a type of defense almost impregnable against direct attack.

五百年之后，海伯利安文明土崩瓦解。它衰败的原因很特殊，不是毁于内部衰败，而是由于野蛮民族和赫卡尼亚的崛起。正在海伯利安文明处于鼎盛时期的时候，海伯利安民族被推翻了。

Five hundred years later the Hyborian civilization was swept away. Its fall was unique in that it was not brought about by internal decay, but by the growing power of the barbarian nations and the Hyrkanians. The Hyborian peoples were overthrown while their vigorous culture was in its prime.

尽管不是直接被阿奎洛尼亚人推翻，但阿奎洛尼亚人依然是罪魁祸首。阿奎洛尼亚国王想要拓展疆域，因此便对邻国征战。辛格拉、阿戈斯、俄斐被完全霸占，闪族的西部城市也没能幸免，而这些城市刚刚才与其东部的血脉兄弟联手摆脱了科斯的统治。科斯、科林斯以及其他东部的闪族部落被迫向阿奎洛尼亚进贡，并在战争中提供援助。阿奎洛尼亚与希柏里尔是世仇，因此希柏里尔开始发动大军迎战这个西方敌国的军队，一场大规模的野蛮战争在边境王国的平原上开始了。在这场战争中，北方军队被完败，撤退到冰雪覆盖的要塞里，而胜利者阿奎洛尼亚没有继续追击。几个世纪以来成功抵挡了西方王国进攻的尼米迪亚拉笼布列松尼亚、萨莫拉组成有望摧毁正在崛起的帝国的同盟，并把科斯也秘密地拉进了同盟里来。但他们的军队还没来得及加入战争，东方就出现了一个新的敌人：赫卡尼亚人初次闯入了西方世界。图兰的骑士们从维拉耶特海东部区域的历险中壮大了势力，横扫萨莫拉，摧毁了东部的科林斯，在布列松尼亚平原上遇到了阿奎洛尼亚人，被后者击溃，在驱赶中飞也似的逃往东方。同盟的中坚被摧毁，尼米迪亚在后来的战场上只能处于守势，时不时得到布列松尼亚与希柏里尔的援助，而且，如往常一样，有科斯的秘密支持。此次赫卡尼亚的溃败向各国显示了这个西方王国的真正实力，它威风的军队由于雇佣军而更为壮大，这些雇佣军很多是从外族的辛格拉人、野蛮的皮克特人以及闪族人雇佣而来的。萨莫拉在经历了赫卡尼亚人后，再次被征服。但人们发现，他们只不过是送走了一个东方统治者又迎来了一个西方统治者而已。阿奎洛尼亚士兵驻扎在那里，不仅是保卫被破坏了的国家，也确保那里的人民臣服于统治之中。赫卡尼亚不甘心，又在萨莫拉边境以及闪族发动了三次袭击。图兰铁骑越过内陆海的最南部冲出东方，虽然军队力量不断壮大，但还是败给了阿奎洛尼亚。

Yet it was Aquilonia's greed which brought about that overthrow, though indirectly. Wishing to extend their empire, her kings made war on their neighbors. Zingara, Argos and Ophir were annexed outright, with the western cities of Shem, which had, with their more eastern kindred, recently thrown off the yoke of Koth. Koth itself, with Corinthia and the eastern Shemitish tribes, was forced to pay Aquilonia tribute and lend aid in wars. An ancient feud had existed between Aquilonia and Hyperborea, and the latter now marched to meet the armies of her western rival. The plains of the Border Kingdom were the scene of a great and savage battle, in which the northern hosts were utterly defeated, and retreated into their snowy fastnesses, whither the victorious Aquilonians did not pursue them. Nemedia, which had successfully resisted the western kingdom for centuries, now drew Brythunia and Zamora, and secretly, Koth, into an alliance which bade fair to crush the rising empire. But before their armies could join battle, a new enemy appeared in the east, as the Hyrkanians made their first real thrust at the western world. Reinforced by adventurers from east of Vilayet, the riders of Turan swept over Zamora, devastated eastern Corinthia, and were met on the plains of Brythunia by the Aquilonians who defeated them and hurled them flying eastward. But the back of the alliance was broken, and Nemedia took the defensive in future wars, aided occasionally by Brythunia and Hyperborea, and, secretly, as usual, by Koth. This defeat of the Hyrkanians showed the nations the real power of the western kingdom, whose splendid armies were augmented by mercenaries, many of them recruited among the alien Zingarans, and the barbaric Picts and Shemites. Zamora was reconquered from the Hyrkanians, but the people discovered that they had merely exchanged an eastern master for a western master. Aquilonian soldiers were quartered there, not only to protect the ravaged country, but also to keep the people in subjection. The Hyrkanians were not convinced; three more invasions burst upon the Zamorian borders, and the Lands of Shem, and were hurled back by the Aquilonians, though the Turanian armies grew larger as hordes of steel-clad riders rode out of the east, skirting the southern extremity of the inland sea.

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阿奎洛尼亚：Aquilonia，名字源于意大利南部同名城镇。

但正是在这混乱中的西方，有一支力量正在壮大，它注定要将阿奎洛尼亚从高高在上的地位推翻。在北方的西米里亚边境，黑发战士和诺德海姆人之间口角不断。阿萨人在与华纳人的战争中袭击了希柏里尔，并将边界逐步后移，城市一个接一个地遭到破坏。西米里人也不偏不倚地对抗皮克特人和博松人，有几次突袭到阿奎洛尼亚，但他们的战争与其说是侵略，不如说是纯粹的抢劫。

But it was in the west that a power was growing destined to throw down the kings of Aquilonia from their high places. In the north there was incessant bickering along the Cimmerian borders between the black-haired warriors and the Nordheimir; and the Æsir, between wars with the Vanir, assailed Hyperborea and pushed back the frontier, destroying city after city. The Cimmerians also fought the Picts and Bossonians impartially, and several times raided into Aquilonia itself, but their wars were less invasions than mere plundering forays.

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博松尼亚：Bossonia，原型是威尔士人。

但是皮克特人的人口和力量都以惊人的速度增长。由于命运的安排，他们最终走上了帝国的道路。这主要归功于一个人，一个外国人——阿鲁斯。阿鲁斯是尼米迪亚的祭司，一个天生的改革家。是什么使他的头脑转向了皮克特人不得而知，人们所知道的只有以下几点：他决定到西部荒原中宣传密特拉神，通过对密特拉的信仰来教化那些异教徒，改变他们粗鲁的行为。在他之前来过许多贸易者和开拓者，但他并未被那些人经历的可怕传说吓倒。命运鬼使神差地把他送到了他想去的人们中间，孑然一人，赤手空拳，但并没有立刻遭受当地人的刺杀。

But the Picts were growing amazingly in population and power. By a strange twist of fate, it was largely due to the efforts of one man, and he an alien, that they set their feet upon the ways that led to eventual empire. This man was Arus, a Nemedian priest, a natural-born reformer. What turned his mind toward the Picts is not certain, but this much is history—he determined to go into the western wilderness and modify the rude ways of the heathen by the introduction of the gentle worship of Mitra. He was not daunted by the grisly tales of what had happened to traders and explorers before him, and by some whim of fate he came among the people he sought, alone and unarmed, and was not instantly speared.

皮克特人接触了海伯利安文明并从中受益，但他们自始至终都极力抵触这种接触。也就是说，他们学会了简单地混合使用铜和锡。铜和锡是在他们国家发现的稀有矿藏，为了获得锡，他们劫掠了辛格拉的群山，用来交换皮革、鲸牙、海象长牙等野蛮人所需的少数物品。他们不再居住在洞穴和有树木庇护的地方，而是模仿博松人搭起兽皮帐篷和简陋的小屋。由于荒野里的猎物应有尽有，河海里鱼类丰富，所以他们仍然靠狩猎为生。但同时，他们也学会了种植谷物，但只是偶尔种植，因为他们更倾向于从邻居博松人和辛格拉人那里偷。他们以氏族聚居，但氏族通常彼此间世代结仇，对于文明人，比如尼米迪亚的阿鲁斯，皮克特人的传统就是嗜杀成性、难以言表的。他们与海伯利安人没有直接冲突，因为博松人在两者中间起缓冲作用。但阿鲁斯坚信，这些野蛮人能够进步。后来的事件也证明了阿鲁斯的断言，虽然进步的方式并不像他所说的一样。

The Picts had benefited by contact with Hyborian civilization, but they had always fiercely resisted that contact. That is to say, they had learned to work crudely in copper and tin, which were found scantily in their country, and for which latter metal they raided into the mountains of Zingara, or traded hides, whale's teeth, walrus tusks and such few things as savages have to trade. They no longer lived in caves and tree-shelters, but built tents of hides, and crude huts, copied from those of the Bossonians. They still lived mainly by the chase, since their wilds swarmed with game of all sorts, and the rivers and sea with fish, but they had learned how to plant grain, which they did sketchily, preferring to steal it from their neighbors the Bossonians and Zingarans. They dwelt in clans which were generally at feud with each other, and their simple customs were blood-thirsty and utterly inexplicable to a civilized man, such as Arus of Nemedia. They had no direct contact with the Hyborians, since the Bossonians acted as a buffer between them. But Arus maintained that they were capable of progress, and events proved the truth of his assertion—though scarcely in the way he meant.

阿鲁斯是幸运的，他遇到了具有非凡智慧的首领——格姆。格姆出生于一片光秃秃的土地上，生长在一群未受教化的野蛮人当中。和人类历史上其他赫赫有名的人物（如成吉思汗、奥斯曼、阿提拉)一样，格姆是无从解释的，然而他却拥有征服者和建立帝国的天性。作为博松人的私生子，阿鲁斯使这个首领明白了他的来意。虽然格姆极为困惑不解，但最终还是允许阿鲁斯毫发未伤地留在他的部落里——这在他们种族的历史上是极为罕见的。阿鲁斯学会了他们的语言，然后便着手消除皮克特人生活中的阴暗面，如人祭、血仇、活活烧死俘虏等。他详细地对格姆高谈阔论，因为他发现后者是一位饶有兴趣的听众，虽然并不做出什么反应。就让我们的想象力重构一下当时的场面吧：黑发的首领披着虎皮，戴着人牙项链，蹲在板条小屋肮脏的地面上，专心致志地倾听着祭司的雄辩；祭司大概坐在精雕细刻、铺有兽皮的红木板上，而木板正是出于对阿鲁斯的尊敬铺设的。阿鲁斯身着尼米迪亚祭司常穿的丝质长袍，滔滔不绝地阐释密特拉的真理——永恒的权利和公正，并不时用纤细白嫩的双手比划着。他坚定而充满厌恶地指向装饰小屋墙壁的一排头颅，敦促格姆宽恕他的敌人，而不是把他们惨白的残躯做此用处。阿鲁斯来自一个具有内在艺术性的高端种族，被几百年的文明所熏陶、完善；与之相比，格姆身后的历史是长达十几万年惊人的野蛮的历史——匍匐的脚步似老虎的肉垫，黑指甲的手宛如大猩猩的利爪，眼中燃烧着豹子般的火焰。

Arus was fortunate in being thrown in with a chief of more than usual intelligence—Gorm by name. Gorm cannot be explained, any more than Genghis Khan, Othman, Attila, or any of those individuals, who, born in naked lands among untutored barbarians, yet possess the instinct for conquest and empire-building. In a sort of bastard-Bossonian, the priest made the chief understand his purpose, and though extremely puzzled, Gorm gave him permission to remain among his tribe unbutchered—a case unique in the history of the race. Having learned the language Arus set himself to work to eliminate the more unpleasant phases of Pictish life—such as human sacrifice, blood-feud, and the burning alive of captives. He harangued Gorm at length, whom he found to be an interested, if unresponsive listener. Imagination reconstructs the scene—the black-haired chief, in his tiger-skins and necklace of human teeth, squatting on the dirt floor of the wattle hut, listening intently to the eloquence of the priest, who probably sat on a carven, skin-covered block of mahogany provided in his honor—clad in the silken robes of a Nemedian priest, gesturing with his slender white hands as he expounded the eternal rights and justices which were the truths of Mitra. Doubtless he pointed with repugnance at the rows of skulls which adorned the walls of the hut and urged Gorm to forgive his enemies instead of putting their bleached remnants to such use. Arus was the highest product of an innately artistic race, refined by centuries of civilization; Gorm had behind him a heritage of a hundred thousand years of screaming savagery—the pad of the tiger was in his stealthy step, the grip of the gorilla in his black-nailed hands, the fire that burns in a leopard's eyes burned in his.

阿鲁斯是个务实的人。他激起了野蛮人对于物质利益的向往，他指出海伯利安王国的力量和宏伟，把这作为密特拉力量的例子，明确指出是神的教导和安排，把这些王国提升到了如此高的地位。他谈到了城市、肥沃的平原、大理石墙、钢铁战车、装满珠宝的高塔，以及穿着闪闪发亮的战甲的骑士奔赴战场等等。于是，格姆，凭着野蛮人准确无误的直觉，下令敬神，听从神的教导，并将注意力集中到阿鲁斯所描述的物质力量上。也就是在那里，在那泥土地面的板条小屋里，身着丝质长袍的祭司坐在红木板上，深皮肤的首领身着虎皮蹲坐着，帝国的根基就这么奠定起来了。

Arus was a practical man. He appealed to the savage's sense of material gain; he pointed out the power and splendor of the Hyborian kingdoms, as an example of the power of Mitra, whose teachings and works had lifted them up to their high places. And he spoke of cities, and fertile plains, marble walls and iron chariots, jeweled towers, and horsemen in their glittering armor riding to battle. And Gorm, with the unerring instinct of the barbarian, passed over his words regarding gods and their teachings, and fixed on the material powers thus vividly described. There in that mud-floored wattle hut, with the silk-robed priest on the mahogany block, and the dark-skinned chief crouching in his tiger-hides, was laid the foundations of empire.

正如刚才所说，阿鲁斯是个务实的人。他住在皮克特人之中，发现一个智慧的人对人类能够做出很大贡献，即使这个人类披着虎皮、戴着人牙项链。和所有的密特拉祭司一样，他掌握了很多知识。他发现皮克特山上有丰富的铁矿石，他教会当地人开采、熔炼并将其制成工具——也就是他天真地认为的农业工具。他还开展了其他改革，不过最主要的贡献就是：他在格姆的头脑中灌输了目睹世界文明地区的渴望，教会了皮克特人如何利用铁矿，为皮克特人与文明世界的接触搭建了桥梁。在首领的要求下，阿鲁斯指导格姆，并在向博松行进的过程中指挥部分士兵。老实巴交的村民们进入令人眼花缭乱的外部世界时，无不惊奇地瞪大了眼睛。

As has been said, Arus was a practical man. He dwelt among the Picts and found much that an intelligent man could do to aid humanity, even when that humanity was cloaked in tiger-skins and wore necklaces of human teeth. Like all priests of Mitra, he was instructed in many things. He found that there were vast deposits of iron ore in the Pictish hills, and he taught the natives to mine, smelt and work it into implements—agricultural implements, as he fondly believed. He instituted other reforms, but these were the most important things he did: he instilled in Gorm a desire to see the civilized lands of the world; he taught the Picts how to work in iron; and he established contact between them and the civilized world. At the chiefs request he conducted him and some of his warriors through the Bossonian marches, where the honest villagers stared in amazement, into the glittering outer world.

阿鲁丝毫不怀疑他正在扭转乾坤，因为皮克特人聆听他的教诲，也没有用铜斧伤害他。他劝诫皮克特人宽恕敌人，放弃战争，走上正直劳作的道路。但是，皮克特人并没有严肃认真地倾听他的布道。据他所说，皮克特人缺乏艺术意识，本性促使他们投身战争和杀戮。当祭司讲到文明国家时，他深皮肤的听众会立刻聚精会神，但不是关注宗教思想，而是阿鲁斯在描述富饶的城市和闪耀的土地时顺便提到的战利品。当他向皮克特人讲述，密特拉是如何庇佑一些国王战胜敌人时，他们很少关注于密特拉所创造的奇迹，而是回味于他对战线、登上马背整装待发的骑士以及长枪兵和弓箭手的技术策略的描述。在倾听布道时，他们的黑色眼睛热切激动，努力思考，但不加评论。他们用谄媚似的关注力听取他对铁矿和相似技术利用的阐释。

Arus no doubt thought that he was making converts right and left, because the Picts listened to him, and refrained from smiting him with their copper axes. But the Pict was little calculated to seriously regard teachings which bade him forgive his enemy and abandon the warpath for the ways of honest drudgery. It has been said that he lacked artistic sense; his whole nature led to war and slaughter. When the priest talked of the glories of the civilized nations, his dark-skinned listeners were intent, not on the ideals of his religion, but on the loot which he unconsciously described in the narration of rich cities and shining lands. When he told how Mitra aided certain kings to overcome their enemies, they paid scant heed to the miracles of Mitra, but they hung on the description of battle-lines, mounted knights, and maneuvers of archers and spearmen. They harkened with keen dark eyes and inscrutable countenances, and they went their ways without comment, and heeded with flattering intentness his instructions as to the working of iron, and kindred arts.

在他来之前，皮克特人从博松人和辛格拉人那里偷来了钢制武器和盔甲，也从黄铜和青铜中锤击出自己原始粗糙的武器。如今，一个崭新的世界在他们面前展开了，大锤的叮当声响彻在整片土地上。通过这个新技艺，格姆开始确立他对其他氏族的统治，其手段一部分是通过战争，一部分是通过策略和外交。而在外交方面，格姆比其他任何野蛮人都要高超得多。

Before his coming they had filched steel weapons and armor from the Bossonians and Zingarans, or had hammered out their own crude arms from copper and bronze. Now a new world opened to them, and the clang of sledges re-echoed throughout the land. And Gorm, by virtue of this new craft, began to assert his dominance over other clans, partly by war, partly by craft and diplomacy, in which latter art he excelled all other barbarians.

皮克特人在完全无误的指导下到达阿奎洛尼亚，长驱直入该国。返回时了解了更多锻造盔甲和铸造刀剑的信息。另外，随他们进入阿奎洛尼亚的雇佣军——强健的博松人对此有着难以言表的厌恶。阿奎洛尼亚国王玩味着一个想法，那就是让皮克特人攻打西米里人，这样就能消除这两个威胁。但皮克特人忙于南方和东方的战事，无暇顾及他们不甚了解的西方领土。不过，在西方土地上有越来越多的壮实士兵加入雇佣军。

Picts now came and went freely into Aquilonia, under safe-conduct, and they returned with more information as to armor-forging and sword-making. More, they entered Aquilonia's mercenary armies, to the unspeakable disgust of the sturdy Bossonians. Aquilonia's kings toyed with the idea of playing the Picts against the Cimmerians, and possibly thus destroying both menaces, but they were too busy with their policies of aggression in the south and east to pay much heed to the vaguely known lands of the west, from which more and more stocky warriors swarmed to take service among the mercenaries.

这些士兵服役期满后，回到他们原来的荒原，对于文明的战术有了更好的理解和妙用，与此同时，在熟悉了文明之后，他们也产生了对它的鄙视。山野上战鼓雷鸣，高地上燃起了熊熊烽火，野蛮的铸剑人在上千个铁砧上锤炼钢铁。格姆成了首领中的首领，这是皮克特人几千年以来第一个最像国王的人。而这是通过密谋和劫掠实现的，密谋和劫掠太多、太曲折而无法一一列举。他等了很久，如今已过中年，但现在他向边疆行进，不是以贸易的方式，而是征战。

These warriors, their service completed, went back to their wilderness with good ideas of civilized warfare, and that contempt for civilization which arises from familiarity with it. Drums began to beat in the hills, gathering-fires smoked on the heights, and savage sword-makers hammered their steel on a thousand anvils. By intrigues and forays too numerous and devious to enumerate, Gorm became chief of chiefs, the nearest approach to a king the Picts had had in thousands of years. He had waited long; he was past middle age. But now he moved against the frontiers, not in trade, but in war.

阿鲁斯意识到自己的错误时已经太晚了。他并没有接触到异教徒的灵魂——他们的灵魂里潜伏着所有时代里最顽固的蛮性。他高谈阔论的劝诫在皮克特人的良知中没有激起丝毫涟漪。格姆现在不是披着虎皮，取而代之的是丝质盔甲，但骨子里他并没有改变——永远的野蛮人，不受理论或哲学动摇，他的直觉屡试不爽地集中于劫掠。

Arus saw his mistake too late; he had not touched the soul of the pagan, in which lurked the hard fierceness of all the ages. His persuasive eloquence had not caused a ripple in the Pictish conscience. Gorm wore a corselet of silvered mail now, instead of the tiger-skin, but underneath he was unchanged—the everlasting barbarian, unmoved by theology or philosophy, his instincts fixed unerringly on rapine and plunder.

皮克特人在博松边境上点燃烽火，与敌人针锋相对。如今，他们不是穿着虎皮大衣，不是挥舞着昔日的铜斧，而是穿戴薄盔甲，挥舞着钢铁武器。而阿鲁斯在挣扎着最后一次阻止他无意间闯下的祸时，被一个喝醉的皮克特人打破了脑袋。格姆当然对他是心怀感激的，他砍下凶手的头颅置于祭司的石冢上，这也是世界上最严酷的讽刺之一：覆盖阿鲁斯残躯的石冢竟然是他临死之前还妄想要教化的野蛮人给堆积起来的——就盖在这么一个厌恶暴力、痛恨血腥复仇的人身上。

The Picts burst on the Bossonian frontiers with fire and sword, not clad in tiger-skins and brandishing copper axes as of yore, but in scale-mail, wielding weapons of keen steel. As for Arus, he was brained by a drunken Pict, while making a last effort to undo the work he had unwittingly done. Gorm was not without gratitude; he caused the skull of the slayer to be set on the top of the priest's cairn. And it is one of the grim ironies of the universe that the stones which covered Arus's body should have been adorned with that last touch of barbarity—above a man to whom violence and blood-vengeance were revolting.

但是新式武器和盔甲并不足以攻破防线。几年来，博松人先进的装备和坚定的勇气一直牵制着入侵者，必要时会从阿奎洛尼亚军队寻得援助。在此期间，赫卡尼亚人几次入侵都被击退，而萨莫拉则被帝国收入囊中。

But the newer weapons and mail were not enough to break the lines. For years the superior armaments and sturdy courage of the Bossonians held the invaders at bay, aided, when necessary, by imperial Aquilonian troops. During this time the Hyrkanians came and went, and Zamora was added to the empire.

然而，始料未及的背叛打破了博松防线。将这次背叛载入历史之前，有必要看一下阿奎洛尼亚帝国的情况。该帝国一直是个奢侈的帝国，数不清的财富随着征服滚滚而来，华丽辉煌已经取代了艰苦朴素的生活。但堕落并没有吞噬掉国王和他的人民。虽然穿着丝绸衣服和金线织物，他们仍然是一个强大的种族。不过傲慢正取代着先前的单纯，他们越来越瞧不起弱势群体。并且对被征服者征收越来越多的贡品。阿戈斯、辛格拉、俄斐、萨莫拉以及闪族国家都被当做附庸对待，这对骄傲的辛格拉人来说尤其难以忍受，因此他们经常叛乱，但每次都会遭到报复打击。

Then treachery from an unexpected source broke the Bossonian lines. Before chronicling this treachery, it might be well to glance briefly at the Aquilonian empire. Always a rich kingdom, untold wealth had been rolled in by conquest, and sumptuous splendor had taken the place of simple and hardy living. But degeneracy had not yet sapped the kings and the people; though clad in silks and cloth-of-gold, they were still a vital, virile race. But arrogance was supplanting their former simplicity. They treated less powerful people with growing contempt, levying more and more tributes on the conquered. Argos, Zingara, Ophir, Zamora and the Shemite countries were treated as subjugated provinces, which was especially galling to the proud Zingarans, who often revolted, despite savage retaliations.

科斯几乎沦为附庸国，在阿奎洛尼亚的“保护”下对抗赫卡尼亚人。但尼米迪亚这个西部帝国从不投降，虽然后者的胜利只是防御上的胜利，而且大体上来说是得益于希柏里尔军队的援助。在这个阶段，阿奎洛尼亚的失败之处有：没能吞并尼米迪亚，派遣到西米里亚的军队的大溃败，还有几乎被阿萨人彻底消灭的军队。赫卡尼亚人发现自己承受不了攻打阿奎洛尼亚高昂的骑兵军费，同样，后者侵入雪国却因北方人赤手空拳的反击而败北。阿奎洛尼亚的征服战争一直到了尼罗河才取得胜利。在那儿，斯泰吉亚的一支军队被击败并被屠杀。斯泰吉亚国王奉上贡品（至少一次），以转移对方对自己国家的侵略。布列松尼亚在一系列旋风式的战争中逐渐缩小。一举消灭尼米迪亚这个宿敌的条件已经成熟了。

Koth was practically tributary, being under Aquilonia's 'protection' against the Hyrkanians. But Nemedia the western empire had never been able to subdue, although the latter's triumphs were of the defensive sort, and were generally attained with the aid of Hyperborean armies. During this period Aquilonia's only defeats were: her failure to annex Nemedia; the rout of an army sent into Cimmeria; and the almost complete destruction of an army by the Æsir. Just as the Hyrkanians found themselves unable to withstand the heavy cavalry charges of the Aquilonians, so the latter, invading the snow-countries, were overwhelmed by the ferocious hand-to-hand fighting of the Nordics. But Aquilonia's conquests were pushed to the Nilus, where a Stygian army was defeated with great slaughter, and the king of Stygia sent tribute—once at least—to divert invasion of his kingdom. Brythunia was reduced in a series of whirlwind wars, and preparations were made to subjugate the ancient rival at last—Nemedia.

随着雇佣军的增加，阿奎洛尼亚辉煌的军队有了极大的扩增，他们把目标移到宿敌尼米迪亚上，其冲击仿佛要将后者独立自主的最后一道影子粉碎。但阿奎洛尼亚与其附庸博松尼亚发生了冲突和战争。

With their glittering hosts greatly increased by mercenaries, the Aquilonians moved against their old-time foe, and it seemed as if the thrust were destined to crush the last shadow of Nemedian independence. But contentions arose between the Aquilonians and their Bossonian auxiliaries.

阿奎洛尼亚人变得高傲自大、心胸狭窄，这是帝国扩张带来的不可避免的结果。他们嘲笑更粗鲁、不谙世故的博松人，两者之间的不和情绪与日俱增——阿奎洛尼亚人轻视博松人，而后者对这些“统治者”的态度怀恨在心（阿奎洛尼亚人现在已经狂妄地自诩为“统治者”）。他们像对待被征服的臣民一样对待博松人，对他们过度征税，招募他们服役以满足扩张疆域的需求，而博松人从这种征战中几乎没有得到任何好处。边疆地区留下的少数士兵远不足以守卫领土。当博松人得知皮克特人在家乡发动暴乱时，整个博松军团放弃了向尼米迪亚的进军，转向西部边界。在那儿，他们在一场大战中击溃了黑肤色的侵略者。

As the inevitable result of imperial expansion, the Aquilonians had become haughty and intolerant. They derided the ruder, unsophisticated Bossonians, and hard feeling grew between them—the Aquilonians despising the Bossonians and the latter resenting the attitude of their masters—who now boldly called themselves such, and treated the Bossonians like conquered subjects, taxing them exorbitantly, and conscripting them for their wars of territorial expansion—wars the profits of which the Bossonians shared little. Scarcely enough men were left in the marches to guard the frontier, and hearing of Pictish outrages in their homelands, whole Bossonian regiments quit the Nemedian campaign and marched to the western frontier, where they defeated the dark-skinned invaders in a great battle.

然而，这种反戈一击直接导致了阿奎洛尼亚被孤注一掷的尼米迪亚击败。帝国统治者对此勃然大怒（他们向来一成不变地不容异己、目光短浅），博松人也因此受到无情的打击。阿奎洛尼亚军队被秘密调到驻军所在的边疆地区，并邀请博松首领参加一次秘密会议，借着对付皮克特人远征的幌子，一群野蛮的闪族士兵被派遣驻扎在丝毫未起疑心的村民当中。结果是，毫无戒备的首领被屠杀；闪族人挥舞着火炬和利剑冲向他们惊讶的主人；全副武装的帝国主义者无情地残杀了单纯的村民。由北至南，逃兵被追赶蹂躏。之后，阿奎洛尼亚军队便从边疆返回，留下身后一片废墟和惨象。

This desertion, however, was the direct cause of Aquilonia's defeat by the desperate Nemedians, and brought down on the Bossonians the cruel wrath of the imperialists—intolerant and short-sighted as imperialists invariably are. Aquilonian regiments were secretly brought to the borders of the marches, the Bossonian chiefs were invited to attend a great conclave, and, in the guise of an expedition against the Picts, bands of savage Shemitish soldiers were quartered among the unsuspecting villagers. The unarmed chiefs were massacred, the Shemites turned on their stunned hosts with torch and sword, and the armored imperial hosts were hurled ruthlessly on the unsuspecting people. From north to south the marches were ravaged and the Aquilonian armies marched back from the borders, leaving a ruined and devastated land behind them.

后来，皮克特人在那些边界地区发起全力侵略。这次不仅仅是突袭，而是整个民族齐心协力的攻击。他们由曾在阿奎洛尼亚军队服役的众多首领们带头，由格姆策划指挥。格姆如今虽已垂老，但他的雄心壮志却从未消减。往日在他们的征途中遇到的村庄有高墙壁垒和强健的弓箭手保卫，因而牵制了突袭，直到帝国军队来援助获胜。而这次经过的村庄则没有这些优势，因此攻打比较容易。博松人的残余势力被彻底扫除。在军队还没到西部之前，血腥疯狂的野蛮人蜂拥至阿奎洛尼亚，烧杀抢掠，而此时的军团正在与尼米迪亚人交战。辛格拉抓住机会，挣脱束缚和奴役，科林斯、闪族也纷纷效仿辛格拉。雇佣军及附庸的整个军团发动兵变，返回到自己的国家，一路烧杀抢掠。皮克特人一路向东，所向披靡，他们战胜了一支又一支军队。阿奎洛尼亚人发现，少了博松弓箭手他们根本无法抗击野蛮人可怕的火箭。帝国各地的军团都被召回以抵御突击，一群一群的军队从荒原中集中起来，其力量补充仿佛源源不断。在这场混乱中，西米里人从山上横扫而下，使这场摧毁达到了最高潮。他们劫掠城市，破坏乡村，然后满载战利品凯旋回到山上。皮克特人占领了他们蹂躏过的土地，而阿奎洛尼亚帝国则在战火和流血中衰败。

And then the Pictish invasion burst in full power along those borders. It was no mere raid, but the concerted rush of a whole nation, led by chiefs who had served in Aquilonian armies, and planned and directed by Gorm—an old man now, but with the fire of his fierce ambition undimmed. This time there were no strong walled villages in their path, manned by sturdy archers, to hold back the rush until the imperial troops could be brought up. The remnants of the Bossonians were swept out of existence, and the blood-mad barbarians swarmed into Aquilonia, looting and burning, before the legions, warring again with the Nemedians, could be marched into the west. Zingara seized this opportunity to throw off the yoke, which example was followed by Corinthia and the Shemites. Whole regiments of mercenaries and vassals mutinied and marched back to their own countries, looting and burning as they went. The Picts surged irresistibly eastward, and host after host was trampled beneath their feet. Without their Bossonian archers the Aquilonians found themselves unable to cope with the terrible arrow-fire of the barbarians. From all parts of the empire legions were recalled to resist the onrush, while from the wilderness horde after horde swarmed forth, in apparently inexhaustible supply. And in the midst of this chaos, the Cimmerians swept down from their hills, completing the ruin. They looted cities, devastated the country, and retired into the hills with their plunder, but the Picts occupied the land they had over-run. And the Aquilonian empire went down in fire and blood.

之后，赫卡尼亚人从沉闷的东方而来，其导火索是帝国军团从萨莫拉的撤退。萨莫拉的陷落如探囊取物，然后赫卡尼亚国王在该国最大的城市建立了都城。这场侵略是内陆海海岸边上古老的赫卡尼亚王国——图兰发动的，但另一次更为野蛮的赫卡尼亚突击则来自北方。披坚执锐的成群骑士活跃于内陆海最北端，穿越冰雪沙漠，进入干草原，驱赶土著居民，对抗西方王国。这些新来的军队起初并不是图兰的同盟，而是与其征战的对手，就像对付海伯利安人一样。东部新来的勇士不断争吵、打斗，直到在一个伟大首领的领导下得以统一。这个首领来自东部海洋的海岸国家。由于没有阿奎洛尼亚军队的对抗，他们无往不胜。他们横扫并征服布列松尼亚，摧毁了南方的希柏里尔和科林斯。他们进入西米里亚山区，驱赶黑发野蛮人。但在群山中，骑兵并不如在平原上挥洒自如，因此西米里人能够反击他们。在一天的血战后，他们狼狈无序地撤退了，这样，赫卡尼亚军队免于全军覆没。

Then again the Hyrkanians rode from the blue east. The withdrawal of the imperial legions from Zamora was their incitement. Zamora fell easy prey to their thrusts, and the Hyrkanian king established his capital in the largest city of the country. This invasion was from the ancient Hyrkanian kingdom of Turan, on the shores of the inland sea, but another, more savage Hyrkanian thrust came from the north. Hosts of steel-clad riders galloped around the northern extremity of the inland sea, traversed the icy deserts, entered the steppes, driving the aborigines before them, and launched themselves against the western kingdoms. These newcomers were not at first allies with the Turanians, but skirmished with them as with the Hyborians; new drifts of eastern warriors bickered and fought, until all were united under a great chief, who came riding from the very shores of the eastern ocean. With no Aquilonian armies to oppose them, they were invincible. They swept over and subjugated Brythunia, and devastated southern Hyperborea, and Corinthia. They swept into the Cimmerian hills, driving the black-haired barbarians before them, but among the hills, where cavalry was less effectual, the Cimmerians turned on them, and only a disorderly retreat, at the end of a whole day of bloody fighting, saved the Hyrkanian hosts from complete annihilation.

当这些事件发生时，闪族王国征服了他们远古的统治者——科斯，却在试图入侵斯泰吉亚时遭到挫败。他们尚未完全摧毁科斯就遭到赫卡尼亚人的袭击，很快被这些比自己更残酷的统治者所征服。与此同时，皮克特人已经完全征服并统治了阿奎洛尼亚，几乎完全消灭了那儿的居民。他们越过辛格拉边境，成千上万的辛格拉人为躲避屠杀而逃往阿戈斯，使自己处于横扫西方的赫卡尼亚的保护下。赫卡尼亚人把辛格拉人安置在萨莫拉作为臣民。在他们逃亡之后，阿戈斯被皮克特人的战火和杀戮所包围。那些屠杀者还扫荡了俄斐，并与西进的赫卡尼亚人交战。后者征服闪族后，在尼罗河粉碎了一支斯泰吉亚军队，随后南下进攻远在亚马逊的黑色王国，并占领了这些国家。他们把亚马逊成千上万的人民带回去做奴隶，将其安置在闪族人之中。倘若不是皮克特人对其西部征服区进行猛烈的进攻，赫卡尼亚人可能会完成对斯泰吉亚的征服并将他们纳入日益扩大的帝国中。

While these events had been transpiring, the kingdoms of Shem had conquered their ancient master, Koth, and had been defeated in an attempted invasion of Stygia. But scarcely had they completed their degradation of Koth, when they were over-run by the Hyrkanians, and found themselves subjugated by sterner masters than the Hyborians had ever been. Meanwhile the Picts had made themselves complete masters of Aquilonia, practically blotting out the inhabitants. They had broken over the borders of Zingara, and thousands of Zingarans, fleeing the slaughter into Argos, threw themselves on the mercy of the westward-sweeping Hyrkanians, who settled them in Zamora as subjects. Behind them as they fled, Argos was enveloped in the flame and slaughter of Pictish conquest, and the slayers swept into Ophir and clashed with the westward-riding Hyrkanians. The latter, after their conquest of Shem, had overthrown a Stygian army at the Nilus and over-run the country as far south as the black kingdom of Amazon, of whose people they brought back thousands as captives, settling them among the Shemites. Possibly they would have completed their conquests in Stygia, adding it to their widening empire, but for the fierce thrusts of the Picts against their western conquests.

海伯利安人不能征服尼米迪亚，后者夹在东方骑兵与西方剑士之间腹背受敌，而这时，阿萨人的一支部落从他们白雪皑皑的土地曲折而下，来到这个王国，加入雇佣军；事实证明，他们是非常勇猛的战士，不仅打败了赫卡尼亚人，还牵制了皮克特人东进的计划。

Nemedia, unconquerable by Hyborians, reeled between the riders of the east and the swordsmen of the west, when a tribe of Æsir, wandering down from their snowy lands, came into the kingdom, and were engaged as mercenaries; they proved such able warriors that they not only beat off the Hyrkanians, but halted the eastward advance of the Picts.

那时的世界呈现出这么一幅画面：一个幅员辽阔的皮克特帝国，粗鲁、无礼、野蛮，从北方的华纳海姆海岸一直延伸到辛格拉最南端的海岸。它向东绵延，囊括了除最北端的冈德兰之外的全部阿奎洛尼亚。冈德兰在山岭中是一个独立的王国，在帝国陷落时存留了下来，至今仍然保持独立。皮克特帝国还包括阿戈斯、俄斐、科斯的西部地区，以及闪族的最西部。与这个野蛮帝国相对立的是赫卡尼亚，其北部边境是被破坏的希柏里尔防线，往南是闪族的南方沙漠。萨莫拉、布列松尼亚、边境王国、科林斯、科斯的大部分疆土，以及闪族最东部的领土都在帝国疆域之内。西米里亚边境完好无损，无论是皮克特人还是赫卡尼亚人都无法征服这些好战的野蛮人。尼米迪亚在阿萨雇佣军的统治下，挡住了所有的入侵。在北方，诺德海姆、西米里亚以及尼米迪亚在地域上分割了征服者的种族，但在南方，科斯成了皮克特和赫卡尼亚旷日持久的战场。东方勇士们有时会把野蛮人从王国中全部驱逐出去，有时平原和城市又落在西方入侵者的手中。在遥远的南方，斯泰吉亚由于赫卡尼亚的侵略而摇摇欲坠，如今正遭受黑色王国的步步逼近。在遥远的北方，北方民族蠢蠢欲动，与西米里人不断地征战，横扫了希柏里尔边境地区。

The world at that time presents some such picture: a vast Pictish empire, wild, rude and barbaric, stretches from the coasts of Vanaheim in the north to the southern-most shores of Zingara. It stretches east to include all Aquilonia except Gunderland, the northern-most province, which, as a separate kingdom in the hills, survived the fall of the empire, and still maintains its independence. The Pictish empire also includes Argos, Ophir, the western part of Koth, and the western-most lands of Shem. Opposed to this barbaric empire is the empire of the Hyrkanians, of which the northern boundaries are the ravaged lines of Hyperborea, and the southern, the deserts south of the lands of Shem. Zamora, Brythunia, the Border Kingdom, Corinthia, most of Koth, and all the eastern lands of Shem are included in this empire. The borders of Cimmeria are intact; neither Pict nor Hyrkanian has been able to subdue these warlike barbarians. Nemedia, dominated by the Æsir mercenaries, resists all invasions. In the north Nordheim, Cimmeria and Nemedia separate the conquering races, but in the south, Koth has become a battle-ground where Picts and Hyrkanians war incessantly. Sometimes the eastern warriors expel the barbarians from the kingdom entirely; again the plains and cities are in the hands of the western invaders. In the far south, Stygia, shaken by the Hyrkanian invasion, is being encroached upon by the great black kingdoms. And in the far north, the Nordic tribes are restless, warring continually with the Cimmerians, and sweeping the Hyperborean frontiers.

格姆被尼米迪亚裔阿萨人的首领赫尔玛杀害。他年纪已经很大了，有一百岁左右。在七十五岁的时候，他第一次从阿鲁斯的嘴里听说了帝国的故事——在一个人的生命中那是一段很长的时间，而在国家的历史中，那却只是一段短暂的时期——他把漂泊的众多野蛮氏族整合成一个帝国，并粉碎了一个文明。他出生于一个泥墙围成的用板条做屋檐的小茅屋里，而到了老年，曾经贵为国王之女如今却赤身裸体的女奴为他呈上金盘牛肉，他却端坐在黄金宝座上，安然嚼着美味。征服与财富的积累并没有改变皮克特人，被摧毁文明的废墟上并没有像凤凰那样涅槃出新的文化。他们的双手震撼了被征服地区的艺术光辉，但却从未想过要学习、复制那种文明。对于皮克特人来说，江山易改本性难移。即使坐在摇摇欲坠的宫殿废墟上，即使强硬的身体裹着被消灭王国的绫罗绸缎，他们仍然没有改变野蛮的本性，凶狠、原始，只对赤裸裸的原始生活准则感兴趣，其直觉一如既往地准确，但这种直觉仅仅适用于战争和抢掠，在艺术和人类文明进步方面毫无用武之地。与之相反的是定居在尼米迪亚的阿萨人。他们强劲的异国文化强有力地改变了文明盟邦的生活，而他们仍然迅速吸收了同盟的很多生活方式。

Gorm was slain by Hialmar, a chief of the Nemedian Æsir. He was a very old man, nearly a hundred years old. In the seventy-five years which had elapsed since he first heard the tale of empires from the lips of Arus—a long time in the life of a man, but a brief space in the tale of nations—he had welded an empire from straying savage clans, he had overthrown a civilization. He who had been born in a mud-walled, wattle-roofed hut, in his old age sat on golden thrones, and gnawed joints of beef presented to him on golden dishes by naked slave-girls who were the daughters of kings. Conquest and the acquiring of wealth altered not the Pict; out of the ruins of the crushed civilization no new culture arose phoenix-like. The dark hands which shattered the artistic glories of the conquered never tried to copy them. Though he sat among the glittering ruins of shattered palaces and clad his hard body in the silks of vanquished kings, the Pict remained the eternal barbarian, ferocious, elemental, interested only in the naked primal principles of life, unchanging, unerring in his instincts which were all for war and plunder, and in which arts and the cultured progress of humanity had no place. Not so with the Æsir who settled in Nemedia. These soon adopted many of the ways of their civilized allies, modified powerfully, however, by their own intensely virile and alien culture.

在较短的一段时期内，皮克特人和赫卡尼亚人针对他们所征服的世界相互怒骂。冰河世纪开始，他们开始了北方民族的大迁移。北方部落在冰雪地南移之前开始迁移，驱赶着其兄弟氏族。阿萨人粉碎了古老的希柏里尔王国，在其废墟上开始与赫卡尼亚人争斗。尼米迪亚已经成为一个维京王国，受阿萨雇佣军后代的统治。西米里人被北方侵略的大潮推在前面做先锋，任何军队或城市都无法阻挡他们。他们涌向冈德兰王国，并彻底摧毁了它。他们穿过古老的阿奎洛尼亚，英勇无畏，势不可挡，为向皮克特的进军开辟了道路。他们打败了尼米迪亚人，并洗劫了尼米迪亚部分城市，但他们并没有停止前进。他们继续东进，并在布列松尼亚边境击溃了一支赫卡尼亚军队。

For a short age Pict and Hyrkanian snarled at each other over the ruins of the world they had conquered. Then began the glacier ages, and the great Nordic drift. Before the southward moving ice-fields the northern tribes drifted, driving kindred clans before them. The Æsir blotted out the ancient kingdom of Hyperborea, and across its ruins came to grips with the Hyrkanians. Nemedia had already become a Nordic kingdom, ruled by the descendants of the Æsir mercenaries. Driven before the onrushing tides of Nordic invasion, the Cimmerians were on the march, and neither army nor city stood before them. They surged across and completely destroyed the kingdom of Gunderland, and marched across ancient Aquilonia, hewing their irresistible way through the Pictish hosts. They defeated the Nordic-Nemedians and sacked some of their cities, but did not halt. They continued eastward, overthrowing a Hyrkanian army on the borders of Brythunia.

在他们身后，阿萨人和华纳人军队涌向这片土地。皮克特帝国在他们的打击下开始动摇。尼米迪亚被推翻，半开化的北方人冲向他们野蛮的氏族兄弟，废弃了尼米迪亚，留下一片废墟和荒芜。这些迅猛的北方人保留了上一个王国原来的名字（也叫尼米迪亚人），他们进入科斯古老的疆域，驱逐了皮克特人和赫卡尼亚人，并帮助闪族人挣脱了赫卡尼亚的枷锁。在整个西方世界，皮克特人和赫卡尼亚人在这个年轻的、更为迅猛的民族面前战战兢兢。阿萨人的一支部队把东方骑兵驱逐出布列松尼亚，并在那里定居下来，而且沿用了那个名字。征服了希柏里尔的北方人猛烈地袭击他们的东方敌人，以至于利莫里亚深肤色的后裔不得不退回到大草原上。北方人无往不胜，把他们逼退至维拉耶特海附近。

Behind them hordes of Æsir and Vanir swarmed into the lands, and the Pictish empire reeled beneath their strokes. Nemedia was overthrown, and the half-civilized Nordics fled before their wilder kinsmen, leaving the cities of Nemedia ruined and deserted. These fleeing Nordics, who had adopted the name of the older kingdom, and to whom the term Nemedian henceforth refers, came into the ancient land of Koth, expelled both Picts and Hyrkanians, and aided the people of Shem to throw off the Hyrkanian yoke. All over the western world, the Picts and Hyrkanians were staggering before this younger, fiercer people. A band of Æsir drove the eastern riders from Brythunia and settled there themselves, adopting the name for themselves. The Nordics who had conquered Hyperborea assailed their eastern enemies so savagely that the dark-skinned descendants of the Lemurians retreated into the steppes, pushed irresistibly back toward Vilayet.

与此同时，西米里人曲曲折折地向南行进，摧毁了古老的赫卡尼亚王国——图兰，并在内陆海的西南海岸定居下来。东方征服者的势力被打破。在攻打诺德海姆和西米里亚之前，他们摧毁了所有的城市，屠杀了那些不适合长途跋涉的俘虏，之后便驱赶着成千上万的奴隶，绕过海洋的北部边缘，返回到神秘的东方，从此便从西方历史中消失了。直到几千年以后，他们以匈奴人、蒙古人以及突厥人的身份走出东方重新站在西方历史的舞台上。与他们一同撤退的是成千上万的萨莫拉人和辛格拉人，他们共同定居，一直延伸到遥远的东方，形成了一个融合的民族，也就是若干年之后崛起的吉普赛人。

Meanwhile the Cimmerians, wandering southeastward, destroyed the ancient Hyrkanian kingdom of Turan, and settled on the southwestern shores of the inland sea. The power of the eastern conquerors was broken. Before the attacks of the Nordheimir and the Cimmerians, they destroyed all their cities, butchered such captives as were not fit to make the long march, and then, herding thousands of slaves before them, rode back into the mysterious east, skirting the northern edge of the sea, and vanishing from western history, until they rode out of the east again, thousands of years later, as Huns, Mongols, Tatars and Turks. With them in their retreat went thousands of Zamorians and Zingarans, who were settled together far to the east, formed a mixed race, and emerged ages afterward as gypsies.

同时，华纳人中一支颇具冒险精神的部落沿着皮克特海岸南下，蹂躏古老的辛格拉，然后来到斯泰吉亚，后者被残酷的贵族统治阶级压迫，在黑色王国的袭击中迁移南下。红发的华纳人带领奴隶发动了一次大暴动，推翻了统治阶级，并把自己归于征服者之列。他们征服了最北端的黑色王国，建立起一个庞大的南方帝国，取名为埃及。早期的法老自诩为这些红发征服者的后代。

Meanwhile, also, a tribe of Vanir adventurers had passed along the Pictish coast southward, ravaged ancient Zingara, and come into Stygia, which, oppressed by a cruel aristocratic ruling class, was staggering under the thrusts of the black kingdoms to the south. The red-haired Vanir led the slaves in a general revolt, overthrew the reigning class, and set themselves up as a caste of conquerors. They subjugated the northern-most black kingdoms, and built a vast southern empire, which they called Egypt. From these red-haired conquerors the earlier Pharaohs boasted descent.

西方世界现在被北方野蛮人主宰。皮克特人仍然控制着阿奎洛尼亚和部分辛格拉，以及大陆西海岸。自北极圈到闪族，向东至维拉耶特海，除了定居在图兰的西米里人外，唯一的居住者就是游荡的诺德海姆部落。除了斯泰吉亚和闪族有城市之外，这片土地看不到其他任何城市，因为皮克特人、赫卡尼亚人、西米里人以及北方人一次又一次的侵略浪潮早已将城市夷为平地。当主导的希柏里尔人从这片土地上消失时，在其征服者身上几乎没有留下一丝他们的血脉。只有很少一部分土地、部落以及城市名称在野蛮人的语言中存留了下来，通过扭曲的传说和寓言世代相传，直到整个海伯利安时代完全消失在谜与幻想中。这样，吉普赛人的词汇中尚有辛格拉和萨莫拉，统治尼米迪亚的阿萨人被称为尼米迪亚人，他们之后在爱尔兰历史中扮演了重要角色。还有定居在布列松尼亚的北方人，被称为布列松尼亚人，或是布列松人，或者不列颠人。

The western world was now dominated by Nordic barbarians. The Picts still held Aquilonia and part of Zingara, and the western coast of the continent. But east to Vilayet, and from the Arctic circle to the lands of Shem, the only inhabitants were roving tribes of Nordheimir, excepting the Cimmerians, settled in the old Turanian kingdom. There were no cities anywhere, except in Stygia and the lands of Shem; the invading tides of Picts, Hyrkanians, Cimmerians and Nordics had levelled them in ruins, and the once dominant Hyborians had vanished from the earth, leaving scarcely a trace of their blood in the veins of their conquerors. Only a few names of lands, tribes and cities remained in the languages of the barbarians, to come down through the centuries connected with distorted legend and fable, until the whole history of the Hyborian age was lost sight of in a cloud of myths and fantasies. Thus in the speech of the gypsies lingered the terms Zingara and Zamora; the Æsir who dominated Nemedia were called Nemedians, and later figured in Irish history, and the Nordics who settled in Brythunia were known as Brythunians, Brythons or Britons.

在那时，没有所谓的大一统的帝国。各个部落一如既往地拥有自己的首领或国王。他们之间经常爆发激烈的战争。至于他们的命运如何，无人知晓，因为地球再一次发生了剧变，将现代人已熟悉的土地撕裂开来，所有的一切又陷入混乱。绵延的西部海岸下沉；华纳海姆和西方的阿斯加德荒无人烟；过去一百年以来一直是冰川覆盖的荒原，如今完全消失在海浪里。大海沿着西方的西米里亚群山形成北海；这些群山变成三个岛屿，也就是后来的英格兰、苏格兰和爱尔兰；皮克特荒原和博松边界的地方被海浪所覆盖。在北方，波罗的海形成了，将阿斯加德切成三个半岛，也就是后来的挪威、瑞典和丹麦。在大南端，自东向西的尼罗河形成了一条分割线，将斯泰吉亚大陆与世界其他地方分离。在阿戈斯、科斯西部以及闪族西部养育了蓝色海洋的种族，也就是后来的地中海人。然而，当世界其他地方都在下沉的时候，斯泰吉亚西部有一片广阔的疆域却从巨浪中上升，形成了非洲大陆的整个西半部。

There was no such thing, at that time, as a consolidated Nordic empire. As always, the tribes had each its own chief or king, and they fought savagely among themselves. What their destiny might have been will not be known, because another terrific convulsion of the earth, carving out the lands as they are known to moderns, hurled all into chaos again. Great strips of the western coast sank; Vanaheim and western Asgard—uninhabited and glacier-haunted wastes for a hundred years—vanished beneath the waves. The ocean flowed around the mountains of western Cimmeria to form the North Sea; these mountains became the islands later known as England, Scotland and Ireland, and the waves rolled over what had been the Pictish wilderness and the Bossonian marches. In the north the Baltic Sea was formed, cutting Asgard into the peninsulas later known as Norway, Sweden and Denmark, and far to the south the Stygian continent was broken away from the rest of the world, on the line of cleavage formed by the river Nilus in its westward trend. Over Argos, western Koth and the western lands of Shem, washed the blue ocean men later called the Mediterranean. But where land sank elsewhere, a vast expanse west of Stygia rose out of the waves, forming the whole western half of the continent of Africa.

大地的挤压变形在北方大陆的中心位置形成了一系列山脉。整个北方部落被毁灭，而其他种族则退回到东方。日渐干旱的内陆海地区并没有受到影响。在那儿的西海岸，北方部落开始了宁静的生活，与西米里人过着或多或少可以算是和平相处的日子，并逐渐与之融合。在西方，皮克特幸存下来的人又一次被巨变打回到石器时代，成了野蛮人。他们的种族有着不可思议的刚强，使他们再一次占有土地，直到后来被西进的西米里人和北方人推翻。这是在大陆分裂之后过了很久以后的事了，以至于只有微不足道的传说诉说着先前帝国的辉煌灿烂。

The buckling of the land thrust up great mountain ranges in the central part of the northern continent. Whole Nordic tribes were blotted out, and the rest retreated eastward. The territory about the slowly drying inland sea was not affected, and there, on the western shores, the Nordic tribes began a pastoral existence, living in more or less peace with the Cimmerians, and gradually mixing with them. In the west the remnants of the Picts, reduced by the cataclysm once more to the status of stone-age savages, began, with the incredible virility of their race, once more to possess the land, until, at a later age, they were overthrown by the westward drift of the Cimmerians and Nordics. This was so long after the breaking-up of the continent that only meaningless legends told of former empires.

这次西进在现代历史中有记载，此处不再赘述。它起因于人口增长，内陆海西部的干草原上住满了人（内陆海后来在面积上缩小了很多，之后被称为里海）。人口如此之多，出于经济的考虑，他们不得不移民。于是部落向南、向北、向西转移，进入到印度、小亚细亚，以及欧洲中部和西部。

This drift comes within the reach of modern history and need not be repeated. It resulted from a growing population which thronged the steppes west of the inland sea—which still later, much reduced in size, was known as the Caspian—to such an extent that migration became an economic necessity. The tribes moved southward, northward and westward, into those lands now known as India, Asia Minor and central and western Europe.

他们以雅利安人的身份进入这些国家。但在这些原始的雅利安人中也有变异，其中一些现在仍不能识别，另一些则在很久以前就被遗忘了。例如白肤金发的亚该亚人、高卢人以及英国人都是血种纯正的阿萨人的后裔。丹麦人是纯种华纳人的后代，哥特人（包括盎格鲁–撒克逊在内的其他斯堪的纳维亚和日耳曼部落的祖先）是一个混合种族的后代，该种族有华纳人、阿萨人以及西米里人的血缘。爱尔兰和高地苏格兰的祖先盖尔人是血统纯正的西米里氏族的后裔。英国威尔士部落是一个由北方人和西米里人组成的混合种族，它先于北欧英国人来到岛上。对抗罗马人的辛布里人、亚述人和希腊人中的基默莱人，以及希伯来人中的高莫人有共同的祖先。西米里人的其他氏族向干旱的内陆海东部冒险，几个世纪之后，与赫卡尼亚人血统混合，以斯基泰人的身份返回西方。现代的克里米亚的名字得自盖尔人最原始的祖先。

They came into these countries as Aryans. But there were variations among these primitive Aryans, some of which are still recognized today, others which have long been forgotten. The blond Achaians, Gauls and Britons, for instance, were descendants of pure-blooded Æsir. The Nemedians of Irish legendry were the Nemedian Æsir. The Danes were descendants of pure-blooded Vanir; the Goths—ancestors of the other Scandinavian and Germanic tribes, including the Anglo-Saxons—were descendants of a mixed race whose elements contained Vanir, Æsir and Cimmerian strains. The Gaels, ancestors of the Irish and Highland Scotch, descended from pure-blooded Cimmerian clans. The Cymric tribes of Britain were a mixed Nordic-Cimmerian race which preceded the purely Nordic Britons into the isles, and thus gave rise to a legend of Gaelic priority. The Cimbri who fought Rome were of the same blood, as well as the Gimmerai of the Assyrians and Grecians, and Gomer of the Hebrews. Other clans of the Cimmerians adventured east of the drying inland sea, and a few centuries later mixed with Hyrkanian blood, returned westward as Scythians. The original ancestors of the Gaels gave their name to modern Crimea.

古老的苏美尔人与西方种族没有任何联系。他们是一个混血种族，有着赫卡尼亚人和闪族人血统，在撤退时没有被征服者一同带上。闪族的很多部落逃脱了那次俘虏，纯正的闪族人或是闪族与海伯利安人、北方人的混血带来的后代有阿拉伯人、以色列人以及其他身材笔直的闪族人，其祖先可追溯到闪族人祖先以及库希特，阿兰人就是这种种族的一个典型。身材矮小、四肢纤细的埃斯诺斯坎人是最主要的罗马种族祖先，是斯泰吉亚人、赫卡尼亚人和皮克特人混血的后代，最初住在古老的科斯王国。赫卡尼亚人退回到大陆东部海岸，进化成后来的鞑靼、匈奴、蒙古以及土耳其部落。

The ancient Sumerians had no connection with the western race. They were a mixed people, of Hyrkanian and Shemitish bloods, who were not taken with the conquerors in their retreat. Many tribes of Shem escaped that captivity, and from pure-blooded Shemites, or Shemites mixed with Hyborian or Nordic blood, were descended the Arabs, Israelites, and other straighter-featured Semites. The Canaanites, or Alpine Semites, traced their descent from Shemitish ancestors mixed with the Kushites settled among them by their Hyrkanian masters; the Elamites were a typical race of this type. The short, thick-limbed Etruscans, base of the Roman race, were descendants of a people of mixed Stygian, Hyrkanian and Pictish strains, and originally lived in the ancient kingdom of Koth. The Hyrkanians, retreating to the eastern shores of the continent, evolved into the tribes later known as Tatars, Huns, Mongols and Turks.

现今世界中其他种族的根源也可以用相似的方式进行追溯，几乎在所有情况下，他们的历史都远远长于人们的想象，可以与失落的海伯利安时代联系起来。

The origins of other races of the modern world may be similarly traced; in almost every case, older far than they realize, their history stretches back into the mists of the forgotten Hyborian age....

UP写在结尾：虽然现在回头看，以现实世界为蓝本进行架空创作的奇幻背景，早已玩滥了。但追根溯源，你都能发现《野蛮人柯南》的基因。比如大名鼎鼎的中古战锤，你们不觉得西格玛很像某人吗？又比如《英雄无敌》系列，在其第三代的历代记剧情中，也致敬了非常多“剑与魔法”作品的经典元素。

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剑与魔法的鼻祖《野蛮人柯南：海伯利安时代》罗伯特·霍华德 著，中英双语版

剑与魔法的鼻祖《野蛮人柯南：海伯利安时代》罗伯特·霍华德著，中英双语版