"A Witch Shall Be Born" is a novelette, written in late May or early June, 1934, by Robert E. Howard first published in the December, 1934, issue of Weird Tales. Howard had recently finished the Conan novel The Hour of the Dragon, which was not intended for publication in Weird Tales and the story previous to that, "The People of the Black Circle" which was already scheduled for August. He finished "A Witch Shall Be Born" in only two drafts over a period of days in order to meet editor Farnsworth Wright's demand for another Conan story Farnsworth, anxious to publish the growing-ever-more-popular Conan tales, accepted it without hesitation, telling Howard it was his best Conan story to date, and made it the cover story for the December issue.