This post is brought to you by the Swords of Fire 4, now out at last. Like the three previous collections, this one features four longer Sword & Sorcery adventures with the longest being “The Dragon God”, a Sirtago & Poet tale set in a country much like Japan. This is by Jack Mackenzie, of course. There is also the next adventure of Bradik the Slayer by M. D. Jackson, “The Star of Kanshalsus”. One of the other two tales is a new Arthan the Bear Man story, “The Twilight War” featuring an army of mercenaries versus giant spiders. And to round out the quartet, “Between the Dragon and His Wrath” by Will Parker. For the previous anthologies, go here.
Hollywood loves a good battle. Here are some of my favorites from the last thirty years, starting with Braveheart and Gladiator, two films that got the ball rolling. I haven’t included any battles that include monsters (they deserves their own post, so The Odyssey fans you will have to wait). So these are largely humans fighting each other and may not be to everyone’s taste. (If you don’t like to see violence delivered, try a different post.)
What got me started down this road was thinking about Sword & Sorcery vs Epic Fantasy, which tends to be focused on an individual’s valor rather than an entire army’s actions. Epic Fantasy is, of course, bigger, and armies clashing is almost the entire point. Whether you prefer to see Conan fight an adversary with a sword versus the entire force from Mordor fall upon a group of men and elves is a personal choice. I like both as probably do you. But they are the quintessential difference between the two subgenres. Howard versus Tolkien. (Which isn’t to say Howard wasn’t interested in battles since he had one in The Hour of the Dragon.)
Robert E. Howard was quite fond of battles, especially the historical kind. He read Adventure Magazine, sought to be published there (but never did. Much of what Sword & Sorcery inherited from the Adventure genre comes through this desire.) This list is largely historical in nature with Romans, Celts, Greeks, Trojans, Crusaders and Vikings all taking part. REH would have loved it.
Stirling (Braveheart, 1996) Foot soldiers run to meet each other on the field of battle.
Arena Fight (Gladiator, 2000) There are so many good scenes from this film that really stoked the historical action genre. I mean tigers, right?They would try to top it in the sequel but largely failed.
Hydaspes (Alexander, 2004) The famous elephant battle that inspired The Lord of the Ring’s oliphants.
Battle on the Beach (Troy, 2004) The Iliad is a natural for a movie adaptation. It also features Achilles vs. Hector.
Battle on the Ice (King Arthur, 2004) Another movie with plenty of fights but this one is my fav.
Opener (Rome, 2005) Great TV show that led the way for several Spartacus remakes.
Forest Battle (Kingdom of Heaven, 2005) Another film crammed with battles and fights. Ridley Scott directed so there has to be stuff floating around in the air.
The First Battle (The 300, 2006) A film that could have been nothing but fight after fight but achieves more.
Picts (Centurion, 2010) The missing legion comes up in several Roman films. This one explains it.
Hostages (The Eagle, 2011) More Romans.
First Battle (Dracula Untold, 2014) There are vampires in this one but not this scene which shows the Turks and Wallachians fighting.
Vikings vs Anglo-Saxons (Vikings, 2014) English history unfolds.
The Battle of the Bastards (Game of Thrones, 2016) No dragons or monsters in this one. Jon Snow vs Ramsay Bolton.
Ambush (Pilgrimage, 2017) Tom Holland wasn’t just Spider-man or in The Odyssey.
Epic Battle (The King, 2019) This one gets compared to the Battle of the Bastards from three years earlier.
Scottish Ambush (The Last Duel, 2021) Matt Damon didn’t get his start in The Odyssesy. He will appear in The Great Wall too when we get to monster battles.
The Crabfeeder Army (House of the Dragon, 2022) Another dragon-less fight from a series filled with dragons.
Vikings! (The Northman, 2022) Best Conan film?
The Battle of Numidia (Gladiator 2, 2024) Taking the outer wall of a city is a dangerous venture.
Trial of the Seven (A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, 2026) A great series for having no dragons in it. They make you wait until this finale for any actual battle as well.
Conclusion
Now you may be wondering why battle scenes when I began by saying Sword & Sorcery is a smaller scale affair. That as a generalization is true but not in every case. Elric certainly fought some battles as did Karl Edward Wagner’s Kane. The difference is perhaps they happen largely off screen. Glen Cook’s Chronicles of the Black Company is set in war. Is it S&S or Epic Fantasy? Or Grimdark. The lines are fuzzy.
Swords of Fire 4 features at least two tales with armies in them. “The Twilight War” by G. W. Thomas has General Hathan and the Free Army of Proxima fighting giant blue spiders. (They fight regular folks, too.) “The Dragon God” by Jack Mackenzie has two armies meeting during a kaiju-like monster-fest. Sure, there are monsters in these but we will do that post next time. Best Battles With Monsters. We will also look at best duels, fights between two or three opponents, much more Sword & Sorcery. Until then…
Sword & Sorcery from RAGE machine Books
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