Short Story: The Tower of the Elephant

Overview
Robert E. Howard's "The Tower of the Elephant" is a taut, atmospheric tale of youth, daring and unexpected compassion that helped define the sword-and-sorcery genre. Set in the decadent streets of a dark, foreign city, the story follows a young Conan as he answers the call of a legendary prize: a priceless gem housed within an apparently impregnable sorcerer's tower. The narrative moves quickly from swaggering bravado to eerie revelation, combining burglary, brutal combat and a vision of cosmic tragedy.
Howard stages the story as both adventure and parable. Conan's reputation as a brawler and thief brings him to the tower's shadow, but what he finds inside overturns the simple calculus of risk and reward. The tale fuses visceral physical action with a melancholy encounter that forces its protagonist to confront pain and mercy on a scale far beyond ordinary human quarrels.

Plot
Conan joins forces with a seasoned thief who boasts of the Tower of the Elephant and the jewel within it. The two slip into the city at night and attempt a daring ascent of the sorcerer's stronghold; obstacles, alarms and strange guardians test their nerve. When the robbery goes awry, Conan is separated from his companion and pressed deeper into the tower by a mix of courage and hard luck.
In the tower's innermost chamber Conan finds the source of the legend: not only a luminous jewel but the imprisoned, dying being who is the true owner of that radiance. This entity, Yag-kosha, is an alien intelligence, described with haunting, elephantine imagery, whose long suffering has been turned into an object coveted by men. Through a mind-to-mind communion Yag-kosha tells of cosmic origins and torment at the hands of the sorcerer who has enslaved him. Faced with the creature's plea, Conan confronts a moral choice that eclipses simple thievery. What follows is swift and brutal: Conan does what mercy and fury demand, and the story closes on a note that mixes wonder, sorrow and irrevocable change.

Themes and Legacy
At its core the story contrasts youthful greed and bravado with the larger consequences of suffering and compassion. Conan is portrayed not as a one-dimensional brute but as a figure capable of acting from impulse and honor; his reaction to Yag-kosha's tale reveals an ethical complexity that elevates the adventure into tragedy. Howard pairs the physical realism of fight and stealth with a cosmic melancholy, suggesting that some prizes are cruelly bought and that knowledge can both liberate and wound.
"The Tower of the Elephant" remains influential for its concise plotting, vivid action and daring blend of pulp heroics with cosmic horror. The image of the imprisoned, alien Yag-kosha and the final fusion of pity and violence in Conan's response linger long after the tale ends. It stands as a defining early Conan adventure and a template for fantasy that can surprise readers with moral weight as much as with swordplay.