"The Owl and the Ape" is a

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...

story by American writer

L. Sprague de Camp Lyon Sprague de Camp (; November 27, 1907 – November 6, 2000) was an American writer of science fiction, fantasy and non-fiction. In a career spanning 60 years, he wrote over 100 books, including novels and works of non-fiction, including biog ...

, part of his

Pusadian series The Pusadian series is a sequence of fantasy stories by L. Sprague de Camp, begun in the early 1950s and written under the influence of Robert E. Howard's Conan stories. The series, also known as the Poseidonis series, prefigured the numerous sw ...

. It was first published in the magazine '' Imagination: Stories of Science and Fantasy'' for November, 1951, and first appeared in book form in the de Camp's collection '' The Tritonian Ring and Other Pusadian Tales'' (

Twayne Gale is a global provider of research and digital learning resources. The company is based in Farmington Hills, Michigan, west of Detroit. It has been a division of Cengage since 2007. The company, formerly known as Gale Research and the Gale G ...

, 1953). The story has also appeared in the anthology ''

Kingdoms of Sorcery ''Kingdoms of Sorcery: An Anthology of Adult Fantasy'' is an anthology of fantasy stories, edited by American writer Lin Carter. It was first published in hardcover by Doubleday in January 1976 as the first of two such anthologies continuing a s ...

'' (1976). and the de Camp omnibus collection ''Lest Darkness Fall/Rogue Queen/The Tritonian Ring and Other Pusadian Tales'' (2014). It has also been translated into

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

Plot summary

Young Gezun of Lorsk, bound to the service of a sorcerer named Sancheth Sar, is sent by his master to bid on the Hordhum Manuscript, one of the magical effects of the retiring magician Dauskezh Van. The errand is complicated and the competition fierce, as the bidding is anonymous and his master's rival, Nikurteu Bayla, is also after the manuscript. But Gezun parries almost all of Bayla's stratagems. Chronologically, "The Owl and the Ape" is the third of de Camp's Pusadian tales, and the first to feature his protagonist Gezun of Lorsk. Gezun is a teenager at the time of this story.

Setting

In common with the other Pusadian tales, "The Owl and the Ape" takes place in a prehistoric era during which a magic-based Atlantian civilization supposedly throve in what was then a single continent consisting of

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joined with

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, and in the islands to the west. It is similar in conception to Robert E. Howard's

Hyborian Age The Hyborian Age is a fictional period of Earth's history within the artificial mythology created by Robert E. Howard, serving as the setting for the sword and sorcery tales of Conan the Barbarian. The word "Hyborian" is derived from the l ...

, by which it was inspired, but more astutely constructed, utilizing actual

Ice Age An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages and gree ...

geography in preference to a wholly invented one. In de Camp's scheme, the legend of this culture that came down to classic

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

as "Atlantis" was a garbled memory that conflated the mighty Tartessian Empire with the island continent of Pusad and the actual Atlantis, a barbaric mountainous region that is today the Atlas mountain range.

Notes

Fantasy short stories Short stories by L. Sprague de Camp 1951 short stories Pusadian series Works originally published in Imagination (magazine) {{1950s-fantasy-story-stub