Kothar

(Even) worse than John Jakes' Brak the Barbarian.


two books in the "Llarn" series; five books about the barbarian swordsman Kothar (starting in 1969 with the anthology Kothar—Barbarian Swordsman[16]) and four books about the adventures of "Kyrik," starting with Warlock Warrior (1975).[1 Comic book hack Gardner F Fox applies his dubious talents to sword & sorcery to cash in on the success of the Conan paperbacks.
Titles Order
Kothar: Barbarian swordsman by Gardner F. Fox Book 1
Kothar of the Magic Sword by Gardner F. Fox Book 2
Kothar and the wizard slayer by Gardner F. Fox Book 3
Kothar and the Demon Queen by Gardner F. Fox Book 4
Kothar and the Conjurer's Curse by Fox Gardner F
Kothar the Cumberian. With a name like that you might suspect that this character is a Conan knockoff. Well, in this case, if you thought that, you would pretty much suspect-o correct-o.

He leads a defensive force against an invading wizard and narrowly loses.

One difference is that he has a magic sword. A lich offers it to him to use to save the queen whose army has just been destroyed. He'd rather keep the sword than have the princedom she offers him for rescuing her wizard.

He also gets paid to go treasure hunting, and finds a minotaur, and deals with a witch woman in a wood, and actually gets to go sword to sword with a sorcerous baron.