"The Reluctant Shaman" is a classic contemporary fantasy story by L. Sprague de Camp. It was first published in the magazine Thrilling Wonder Stories for April 1947. It first appeared in book form in the collection The Reluctant Shaman and Other Fantastic Tales (Pyramid, 1970); it later appeared in the magazine Science Fiction Yearbook no. 5 (Popular Library, Inc., 1971) and the collection The Best of L. Sprague de Camp (Doubleday, 1978). The story has been translated into French and German.