Through the history of mankind, the times that are most recorded in mythology and song are those of great deeds and fantastic adventures. Such a time was the Hyborean Age. Such a tale is the story of 'Conan The Barbarian'. Cimmerian Conan (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is captured as a child after his parents' savage murder by raiding Vanir led by Thulsa Doom (James Earl Jones), head also of the malignant snake-cult of Set. Fifteen yeas' agony, first chained to the Wheel of Pain grinding grain and then enslaved as a Pit Fighter, forge a magnificent body and indomitable spirit. Freed miraculously one day by his owner, Conan, with his companions Subotai the Mongol (Gerry Lopez) and Valeria, Queen of Thieves (Sandahl Bergman), sets forth upon his quest to learn "the riddle of steel" which, his father has prophesied, will confer ultimate power; and to kill the arch-villain Thulsa Doom.