Talk:The Tower of the Elephant

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When was this story written?[edit]

The question is of interest because it seems like this is the first "real" Conan story.

From a website:

“The Tower of the Elephant” casually dips the reader into a world that has the feeling of reality and solidity to it. More so than Howard’s three previously written Conan tales (“The Phoenix on the Sword,” “The Frost Giant’s Daughter,” and “The God in the Bowl”, Conan’s world feels fully realized in “Tower.”

In “Hyborian Genesis: Notes on the Creation of the Conan Stories” from The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian (Del Rey, 2003), Patrice Louinet notes that Howard completed his world-building essay “The Hyborian Age” in between his first three Conan stories and “Tower.” Writes Louinet: “While there is no denying that Howard had some ideas as to what his Hyborian world was to become, there was no attempt at systemization until after the first three stories were written.” Link: [1]

Then Wikipedia writes "Having digested these prior influences after he returned from his trip, Howard rewrote the rejected Kull story "By This Axe I Rule!" (May 1929) with his new hero in mind, re-titling it "The Phoenix on the Sword". Howard also wrote "The Frost Giant's Daughter", inspired by the Greek myth of Daphne, and submitted both stories to Weird Tales magazine. Although "The Frost-Giant's Daughter" was rejected, the magazine accepted "The Phoenix on the Sword" after it received the requested polishing.

The Phoenix on the Sword" appeared in Weird Tales in December 1932, thus marking Conan's first appearance in print. The acceptance of "The Phoenix on the Sword" by editor Farnsworth Wright prompted Howard to write an 8,000 word essay for personal use detailing "the Hyborian Age," the fictional setting for Conan. Using this essay as his guideline, Howard began plotting "The Tower of the Elephant", a new Conan story that would be the first to truly integrate his new conception of the Hyborian world, and thus to introduce the setting to the reader. The publication and success of "The Tower of the Elephant" would spur Howard to write many more Conan stories for Weird Tales."


So, one source says he wrote three tales, another says he wrote two before this one. Both can't be right.

Another source says that "The Vale of the Lost Women" was written by Howard around the same time as "The God in the Bowl". It was also rejected by Weird Tales magazine, and then lost to the world for about 30 years." Link: [2]

If The God in the Bowl was written before The Tower of the Elephant, and The Vale of the Lost Women about the same time as The God in the Bowl, then which one of them is the oldest? According to Wikipeida, the whole tale The Vale of the Lost Women is told from Livia's point-of-view, not Conan's. That could make sense if he wrote it before he wrote the Hyborian Age, because why would he make another person the main character in a Conan story after The Tower of the Elephant, where both Conan and his world were more or less completed? But I could be wrong, without any information to trust, it's impossible to tell.

Also, The Scarlet Citadel was published before The Tower of the Elephant. I assume it was written after it, but for some reason pubslished before. Further info would be interesting. 84.210.46.108 (talk) 07:25, 3 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I have assorted books on the subject but I'm working on other things first (the Robert E. Howard bio itself for example). I'm sure the first three Conan stories were Phoenix on the Sword, The Frost Giant's Daughter and The God in the Bowl. I think The Vale of Lost Women was much later, in Howard's "middle period" regarding Conan. Nevertheless, I'd still take Phoenix on the Sword as the first "real" Conan story. The Hyborian Age essay isn't really relevant to the real-ness and the change from By This Axe I Rule! was quite significant (the entire Thoth-Amon/Epimetrius sub plot was added to replace a star-crossed lovers subplot in the Kull story). Louinet is regarded as the best source regarding dating of Howard's works, so I'd recommend taking his view over others. - AdamBMorgan (talk) 17:23, 3 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]
O.K. Interesting to hear. It sounds like The Tower of the Elephant really is number four on the list then (and that the Conan article here on Wikipedia forgot to include The God in the Bowl). And that all the Conan stories are "real", maybe except for The Vale of Lost Women since Conan himself is not the main character here. 84.210.46.108 (talk) 11:32, 4 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Adaptations: Conan the Adventurer[edit]

The article mentions that the cartoon episode 'Star of Shadizar' is probably inspired by this story, but I believe that the episode 'Hanuman the Ape God' also draws inspiration from it. Specifically, that episode is about an alien being who is tricked into turning over the source of his power to a greedy human and then imprisoned by that human. The episode is toned down and the alien is an ape-like creature rather than a Ganesh-like one, but that aspect of the plot is very similar. Does anyone think this is worth noting in the main page? Legionaireb (talk) 17:27, 2 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

This story was also adapted in the Conan live action TV series, if I remember right, it might have been the very opening chapter. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 187.247.185.181 (talk) 08:26, 8 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Expansion[edit]

This article is not that well developed and missing important citations, it needs to be expanded with unsourced information given proper citations.--Paleface Jack (talk) 15:45, 2 March 2016 (UTC)[reply]

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