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| "The Tower of the Elephant" | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Short story byRobert E. Howard | |||
 An interior panel of "The Tower of the Elephant" comic adaptation byRoy Thomas featuring the art ofJohn Buscema andAlfredo Alcala. The original short story was written byRobert E. Howard and first appeared in a 1933 issue ofWeird Tales magazine. | |||
| Original title | The Tower of the Elephant | ||
| Country | United States | ||
| Language | English | ||
| Genre | Fantasy | ||
| Publication | |||
| Published in | Weird Tales | ||
| Publication type | Pulp | ||
| Publisher | Rural Publishing Corporation | ||
| Publication date | March 1933 | ||
| Chronology | |||
| Series | Conan the Cimmerian | ||
| |||
"The Tower of the Elephant" is one of the originalshort stories starring the fictionalsword and sorcery heroConan the Cimmerian, written by American authorRobert E. Howard. Set in the fictionalHyborian Age, it concerns Conan infiltrating a perilous tower to steal a fabled gem from an evilsorcerer named Yara. Its unique insights into the Hyborian world and atypicalscience fiction elements have led the story to be considered a classic of Conan lore, and it is often cited by Howard scholars as one of his best tales.[1]
In the Zamorian city of Arenjun,[2] also known as the "City of Thieves,”[3] Conan drinks in atavern. He overhears a Kothic rogue describe a fabulous jewel known as the "Heart of the Elephant," which is kept in a tower by an evil sorcerer named Yara.
Conan ventures into Yara's garden to steal the jewel and encounters Taurus of Nemedia, known as the "Prince of Thieves,” who has the same agenda. Taurus is wily and fat, but amazingly agile. Impressed by Conan's daring, Taurus agrees to work together. After battling lions in the tower gardens, the thieves ascend Yara's spire. Upon reaching the top, Taurus enters a treasure vault and is killed by the venomous bite of a giant spider. Conan crushes the spider with a chest of gems, then continues his search for the Heart of the Elephant.
He discovers a strange being with the body of a man and the head of an elephant. The creature, Yag-kosha, is a blind and tortured prisoner of Yara.
Yag-kosha reveals to Conan the pre-cataclysmic saga of his people, their arrival on Earth, and how he taught Yara the art ofmagic only to have his apprentice betray him. At Yag-kosha's request, Conan grabs the fabled jewel, kills the being, extracts the heart from his corpse, and drips its blood over the Heart of the Elephant. When he sets the blood-infused relic in front of Yara in his sleeping-chamber, the gem's magic shrinks and draws the sorcerer into the jewel. Inside, a revived Yag-kosha, limbs and wings restored, pursues the screaming Yara, and the Heart vanishes.
Obeying Yag-kosha's instructions, Conan leaves, emerging empty-handed from the tower at dawn as it collapses behind him. He has nothing after his night's work except for his sword, loin-cloth, and sandals.
In an overview of Howard's fiction,E. F. Bleiler listed "The Tower of the Elephant" as being "Among the better stories". Bleiler added that "the influence of theLovecraft circle" can be seen in Howard's conception of the alien Yag-kosha.[4]
Anadventure is based on this tale forConan: The Roleplaying Game.
The Tower of the Elephant has been adapted intocomic book form three times: twice byMarvel and once byDark Horse.
The first adaptation by Marvel appeared inConan the Barbarian #4.[5] The story was adapted byRoy Thomas and illustrated byBarry Windsor-Smith andSal Buscema.
The second adaptation by Marvel appeared in theSavage Sword of Conan #24[6] and was again written by Roy Thomas but this time drawn byJohn Buscema (brother of Sal Buscema) andAlfredo Alcala. Asked why he chose to adapt the same story again, Thomas explained: "I wanted to do all the adaptations [of Conan stories] I could, of everything. I adapted "The Tower of the Elephant" ... in sort of old-time radio format for a record album ... That was kind of nice. And then, right before I left Marvel, I adapted it near the end of the Conan comics strip. I adapted it about four times. I just, I like that story so much, I just wanted to wring everything out of it, and every time I could find a new excuse to adapt it, I would do it all over again."[7]
The newest adaptation, in Dark Horse'sConan issues 20-22,[8][9] was written byKurt Busiek and illustrated byCary Nord,Dave Stewart andMike Kaluta. Two of these have recently appeared in collections released by Dark Horse: theConan the Barbarian adaptation inThe Conan Chronicles Volume 1: The Tower of the Elephant and other stories, and the Dark Horse adaptation inConan Volume 3: The Tower of the Elephant and other stories.
Episode 3 of the animated seriesConan 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 dying.
A variant on this story has been added into themassively multiplayer online role-playing gameWizard101, 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 the 1982 filmConan the Barbarian, which includes Conan and his fellow thieves scaling a tower, battling a giant snake, and stealing a jewel.[10]
In the 2011 filmConan 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 filmConan the Barbarian.[11]
| Preceded by | Original Howard Canon (publication order) | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Original Howard Canon (Dale Rippke chronology) | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Complete Conan Saga (William Galen Gray chronology) | Succeeded by |
