Barbarians

Ancient Greeks used to call someone whose language they didn't understand a "barbarian" (βάρβαρος). The word is probably onomatopoeic in origin, with "bar bar" representing the babbling or animal sounds the "civilized" Greeks heard in the foreigners' speech. "Barbarian" would become a generic term for foreigners, individuals deemed to be in some way abnormal - and often inferior - to those wielding the pejorative term. Increasing emphasis placed on racial and ideological aspects contributed to turning "barbarian" into a catch-all label for any individual who is rude, crude, uneducated or uncivilized, and often violent to boot.

Despite that, it's clear how such a character could become a source of growing fascination among modern and contemporary authors: The romantic notion of living in harmony with nature (along the lines of the Enlightenment-era myth of the noble savage), plus their legendary courage and great physical prowess all helped the "barbarian" carve out a rather substantial niche in the artistic world, literature and cinema first and foremost. This Tag attempts to assemble a group of fantasy and sci-fi films featuring characters who embody the stereotypes of a "barbarian" setting: Men in crude, haphazard garb, often engaged in guerrilla warfare or crossing inhospitable landscapes fraught with hidden dangers.

Robert E. Howard, literary father of "Conan the Barbarian", sprinkled the pages of his stories with descriptions of colorful, sometimes fearsome characters: "With his wolfskin mantle flung carelessly about his wide shoulders, and the great horns on his helmet adding to his height, he stood there in the swaying shadows, like some half-human thing, a brooding shape of the dark barbarism that was soon to engulf the world" (Excerpt from the 1930 short story "Kings of the Night").

Passages such as the above must have inspired sci-fi enthusiasts as well, given that post-apocalyptic films - a much-abused genre in the 1970s and '80s - raised the figure of the "neo-barbarian" to new heights. In these films, a wild, ragged remnant of humanity, having regressed to an almost feral state, finds itself waging an endless battle for survival. Finally, it's even possible to recognize a (pseudo)barbarian element in some space-oriented works, when alien creatures and civilizations are depicted with customs and costumes in line with the above-mentioned stereotypes.