The Tower of the Elephant

This article is about the short story. For the collection of the same title that contains the story, see The Tower of the Elephant (collection).

"The Tower of the Elephant" is one of the original short stories starring the fictional sword and sorcery hero Conan the Cimmerian, written by American author Robert E. Howard. It's set in the pseudo-historical Hyborian Age and concerns Conan infiltrating a perilous tower in order to steal a fabled gem from an evil sorcerer named Yara. Due to its unique insights into the Hyborian world and atypical science fiction elements, the story is considered a classic of Conan lore and is often cited by Howard scholars as one of his best tales.

"The Tower of the Elephant"
Short story by Robert E. Howard
An interior panel of "The Tower of the Elephant" comic adaptation by Roy Thomas featuring the art of John Buscema and Alfredo Alcala. The original short story was written by Robert E. Howard and first appeared in a 1933 issue of Weird Tales magazine.
Original title	The Tower of the Elephant
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre(s)	Fantasy
Publication
Published in	Weird Tales
Publication type	Pulp
Publisher	Rural Publishing Corporation
Publication date	March 1933
Chronology
Series	Conan the Cimmerian
The Scarlet Citadel   Black Colossus

Plot summary

The story is set in the Zamorian city of Arenjun (also known as the "City of Thieves"). A young Conan is drinking at a rowdy tavern, when he overhears a fat Kothic rogue describe a fabulous jewel known as the "Heart of the Elephant". It's kept within a tower by an evil sorcerer named Yara. Once, Yara frightened the King of Zamora after he transformed a prince into a spider and crushed the boy with his foot. When Conan interrogates the rogue for more information, insults are traded and a fight ensues. Suddenly, a candle is knocked over and the tavern is plunged into darkness. However, Conan's sword finds his nemesis in the dark, and he escapes into the moonlit streets. (The Kothian's death saves a damsel, his intended victim, from her eventual kidnapping and slavery.)

After crossing a snake-infested river, Conan ventures into Yara's garden to steal the jewel and immediately encounters Taurus of Nemedia (known as the "Prince of Thieves") who has a similar agenda. Taurus, who is wily, fat, but amazingly agile, is impressed by Conan's daring and they agree to work together as allies. After battling lions in the tower gardens, the thieves slowly ascend Yara's spire. Upon reaching the top, Taurus enters a treasure vault and is killed by the venomous bite of a giant spider. After a desperate battle, Conan crushes the spider with a chest of gems. Conan hastens on in search of his greatest prize, the Heart.

Continuing into the tower, he discovers a strange "trans-cosmic being" with the body of a man and the oversized head of an elephant. The creature, named Yag-kosha, is a blind and tortured prisoner of Yara.

Yag-kosha reveals to Conan the pre-cataclysmic saga of his alien people, their arrival on Earth, and how he taught Yara the art of magic, only to have his own apprentice betray him. At Yag-kosha's request, Conan grabs the fabled jewel, mercifully kills the elephant-like being, extracts the heart from his corpse, and, as instructed, drips its blood over the Heart of the Elephant. Conan uses the supernatural powers of his blood-infused relic to shrink Yara and draw him into the jewel. Inside the jewel appears a revived Yag-kosha, with his limbs and wings restored, relentlessly pursuing Yara as the Heart vanishes.

Obeying Yag-kosha's instructions, Conan leaves immediately and emerges empty-handed from the tower at dawn, just as it collapses behind him. He has nothing after his night's work except for his sword, loin-cloth, and sandals.

Publication history

• Weird Tales magazine, March 1933
• Skull-Face and Others (Arkham House, 1946)
• The Coming of Conan (Gnome Press, 1953)
• Conan (Lancer, 1967, later reissued by Ace Books)
• The Tower of the Elephant (Donald M. Grant, Publisher, Inc., 1975)
• The Conan Chronicles (Sphere Books, 1989)
• The Conan Chronicles Volume 1: The People of the Black Circle (Gollancz, 2000)
• Conan of Cimmeria: Volume One (1932-1933) (Del Rey, 2003)
• Conan the Barbarian: the Stories that Inspired the Movie (Del Rey, 2011)

Reception

In his biography of Howard, Mark Finn praises the story, particularly the twist from a "heist" story to a story "of retribution and mercy". Finn concludes: "Tower" is a classic Conan story that still holds up, one of the great "weird tales" and certainly among Howard's best works."

Adaptations

There is also a modular adventure based on this tale for Conan: The Roleplaying Game.

The Tower of the Elephant has been adapted into comic form three times: twice by Marvel and once by Dark Horse.

The first adaptation by Marvel appeared in Conan the Barbarian #4. The story was adapted by Roy Thomas and illustrated by Barry Windsor-Smith and Sal Buscema.

The second adaptation by Marvel appeared in the Savage Sword of Conan #24 and was again written by Roy Thomas but this time drawn by John Buscema and Alfredo Alcala.

The newest adaptation, in Dark Horse's Conan issues 20-22, was written by Kurt Busiek and illustrated by Cary Nord, Dave Stewart and Mike Kaluta. Two of these have recently appeared in collections released by Dark Horse: the Conan the Barbarian adaptation in The Conan Chronicles Volume 1: The Tower of the Elephant and other stories, and the Dark Horse adaptation in Conan Volume 3: The Tower of the Elephant and other stories.

Episode 3 of the animated series Conan the Adventurer is adapted from "Tower of the Elephant", although the character of Taurus is replaced with Jezmine who becomes an ongoing character in the series rather than dies.

A variant on this story has been added into the massively multiplayer online role-playing game Wizard101, a dungeon called the "Tower of the Helephant". The thief Taurus is the only name that remains true to the original tale, however the parallels between the stories are evident to anyone that is familiar with the story. The players must scale a tower and descend into it, ultimately freeing the elephant-headed interstellar being by defeating the wizard that bound him and destroying the "Heart of the Helephant".

The story is the inspiration for a sequence in Conan the Barbarian, which includes Conan and his fellow thieves scaling a tower, battling a giant snake, and stealing a jewel.

In the 2011 film Conan the Barbarian a character extols Conan's past accomplishments and mentions his adventure in the Tower of the Elephant.

The story was adapted into a hack and slash video game for IOS by developer Chillingo, which was released as a tie-in for the 2011 film Conan the Barbarian.

External links

• Project Gutenberg online text
• Conan the Barbarian at AmratheLion.com
• Conan.com: The Official Website
• The Tower of the Elephant title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database