The Eye of Tandyla

Infobox short story |
name = The Eye of Tandyla
title_orig =
translator =
author = L. Sprague de Camp
country = United States
language = English
series = Pusadian series
genre = Fantasy short story
published_in = "Fantastic Adventures"
publisher =
media_type = Print (Magazine)
pub_date = May, 1951
english_pub_date =
preceded_by = The Tritonian Ring
followed_by = "The Owl and the Ape"

"The Eye of Tandyla" is a fantasy story written by L. Sprague de Camp as part of his Pusadian series. It was first published in the magazine "Fantastic Adventures" for May, 1951, and first appeared in book form in de Camp's collection "The Tritonian Ring and Other Pusadian Tales" (Twayne, 1953). It has also been translated into Italian and German.

Plot summary

The sorcerer Derezong Taash, in the service of King Vuar the Capricious of Lorsk, is ordered to steal a magical gem from the temple of the goddess Tandyla in Lotri. The jewel is set as an eye in the goddess's statue. Together with his apprentice Zhamel Seh, Taash undertakes the errand, which goes suspiciously well; its guardians almost seem to "want" it stolen, while the gem itself appears to "want" to stay with him. With a sense of foreboding, Taash decides he must return his prize to the temple while tricking the king into thinking he has truly supplied it, thus becoming unwittingly embroiled in a plot against the throne that reaches to the very heart of the royal family...

Chronologically, "The Eye of Tandyla" is the second of de Camp's Pusadian tales, and the first to feature his protagonists Derezong Taash and Zhamel Seh. It is set some generations after "The Tritonian Ring", King Vuar of Lorsk being stated to be a descendant of that novel's King Zhabutir.

Setting

In common with the other Pusadian tales, "The Eye of Tandyla" takes place in a prehistoric era during which a magic-based Atlantian civilization supposedly throve in what was then a single continent comprising Eurasia joined with Africa, and in the islands to the west. It is similar in conception to Robert E. Howard's Hyborian Age, by which it was inspired, but more astutely constructed, utilizing actual Ice Age geography in preference to a wholly invented one. In de Camp's scheme, the legend of this culture that came down to classic Greece 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.

References

*cite book | last=Laughlin | first=Charlotte | coauthors=Daniel J. H. Levack | title=De Camp: An L. Sprague de Camp Bibliography | location=San Francisco | publisher=Underwood/Miller | pages=158 | date=1983