The Gem in the Tower
1978 short story by L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter
"The Gem in the Tower" is a short story by American writers L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter, featuring the fictional sword and sorcery hero Conan the Barbarian created by Robert E. Howard. It is a rewritten version of "Black Moonlight", an earlier story by Carter alone featuring his own sword and sorcery character Thongor (for which see below). The Conan version was first published by Bantam Books in the paperback collection Conan the Swordsman in August 1978, and was reprinted in the anthology The Year's Best Fantasy Stories: 5 (DAW Books, 1980) and later editions of Conan the Swordsman (Ace Books, 1987 and 1991, Tor Books (first hardcover edition), 2002). The collection was later gathered together with Conan the Liberator and Conan and the Spider God into the omnibus collection Sagas of Conan (Tor Books, 2004). The story has also been translated into Italian and French.
Plot summary
Conan, as second mate of Gonzago's freebooters, participates in his voyage to a nameless island off the coast of Stygia to steal a mystical jewel guarded by Siptah, an evil sorcerer. The expedition immediately goes wrong, with its own magician Mena and Gonzago himself both killed. Conan is left in command to battle Siptah's winged demon and discovers a secret while inside the sorcerer's tower.
Adaptation
The story was adapted by Roy Thomas, John Buscema and Tony DeZuniga in Savage Sword of Conan #45, October 1979.
Thongor version
The Thongor version, written by Lin Carter alone, originally appeared as "Black Moonlight", and was first published in the magazine Fantastic in the issue for November 1976, It was reprinted in the anthology The Year's Best Fantasy Stories: 3 (DAW Books, 1977).
The public source identifies “The Gem in the Tower” as 1978 short story by L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Tower, short and story.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7736032. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1978, 1980, 1987 and 1991.
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This entry incorporates text from “The Gem in the Tower” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.