"The Rug and the Bull" 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 ...

short 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 anthology '' Flashing Swords! #2'', edited by

Lin Carter Linwood Vrooman Carter (June 9, 1930 – February 7, 1988) was an American author of science fiction and fantasy, as well as an editor, poet and critic. He usually wrote as Lin Carter; known pseudonyms include H. P. Lowcraft (for an H. P. L ...

( Doubleday, 1973). It has also been translated into

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and

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Plot summary

Gezun of Lorsk presents King Norskezhek of Torrutseish with a scheme to mass-produce magic carpets based on a sample in his possession, the Carpet of Khazi, which he had previously conned from the magician Larentius Alba of Ausonia. In furtherance of his plan, Gezun finds he must join forces with the president of the local magician's guild, who turns out to be Bokarri, the victim of another of his cons some eighteen years before (in " The Hungry Hercynian.". The alliance is therefore a shaky one, and when the king turns on Gezun, Bokarri leaps at the chance to betray his partner. Transformed by the magician into a bull, the Lorskan discovers he has become the prime attraction in the next deadly contest in the local bullring. Chronologically, "The Rug and the Bull" is the seventh of de Camp's Pusadian tales, and the fifth to feature his protagonist Gezun of Lorsk. Gezun is middle-aged at the time of this story, and possessed of a wife (Ro, whom he first met in "

Ka the Appalling "Ka the Appalling" is a fantasy story by American writer L. Sprague de Camp, part of his Pusadian series. It was first published in the magazine ''Fantastic Universe'' for August, 1958, and first appeared in book form in the anthology ''The Young M ...

") and three children.

Setting

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

Eurasia Eurasia (, ) is the largest continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. Primarily in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres, it spans from the British Isles and the Iberian Peninsula in the west to the Japanese archipelago a ...

joined with

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

, and in the islands to the west. It is similar in conception to

Robert E. Howard Robert Ervin Howard (January 22, 1906June 11, 1936) was an American writer. He wrote pulp fiction in a diverse range of genres. He is well known for his character Conan the Barbarian and is regarded as the father of the sword and sorcery subge ...

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 An atlas is a collection of maps; it is typically a bundle of maps of Earth or of a region of Earth. Atlases have traditionally been bound into book form, but today many atlases are in multimedia formats. In addition to presenting geographic ...

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rug and the Bull, The Fantasy short stories Short stories by L. Sprague de Camp 1973 short stories Pusadian series