A Witch Shall be Born

"A Witch Shall Be Born" is a sword and sorcery novella by American writer Robert E. Howard, featuring his character Conan the Cimmerian. It was written in only a few days in spring of 1934 and first published in Weird Tales in December 1934. A book edition was published in 1975 by Donald M. Grant, Publisher with illustrations by Alicia Austin.

The story concerns a witch replacing her twin sister as queen of a city-state, which brings her into conflict with Conan who had been the captain of the queen's guard. Themes of paranoia, and the duality of the twin sisters, are paramount in this story but it also includes elements of the conflict between barbarism and civilization that is common to the entire Conan series. The novella as a whole is considered an average example of the series, but one scene stands out. Conan's crucifixion early in the story during the second chapter ("The Tree of Death") is considered one of the most memorable scenes in the entire series. A variation of this scene was included in the 1982 film Conan the Barbarian with Arnold Schwarzenegger.

In the story, the witch Salome is part of a family line of witches. Salome's words at the beginning – "'Every century a witch shall be born.' So ran the ancient curse. And so it has come to pass. Each was named Salome. I too am Salome. It was always Salome, the witch. It will always be Salome, the witch, even when the mountains of ice have roared down from the pole and ground the civilizations to ruin, and a new world has risen from the ashes and dust—even then there shall be Salomes to walk the earth, to trap men's hearts by their sorcery, to dance before the kings of the world, and see the heads of the wise men fall at their pleasure" – Howard implies that the witch Salome of this story is an earlier incarnation of the notorious Salome of the New Testament, who instigated the beheading of John the Baptist.