The Elric stories are the most famous. A true anti-hero, Elric is an morally ambiguous, sickly, super-civilised prince who gives up his throne to go adventuring and uses magic to best his foes. Elric wields a black sword called Stormbringer that devours the souls of those it kills and worships the demon prince Arioch. The early Elric stories (Elric of Melnibone, the Fortress of the Pearl, the Sailor on the Seas of Fate, the Dreaming City, While Gods Laugh and the Singing Citadel) are collected in the volume entitled Elric of Melnibone or Elric: Song of the Black Sword and the later stories (the Sleeping Sorceress, Revenge of the Rose, the Stealer of Souls, Kings in Darkness, the Caravan of Forgotten Dreams, Sormbringer) in the volume entitled Elric : The Stealer of Souls or Stormbringer. A later trilogy was written between 2001 and 2005. The first volume is an Elric/Nazi Germany cross-over, The Dreamthief's Daughter. The Skrayling Tree is a complex interweaving of three different stories set in different times and locations, which include Elric in America. Suffice to say, the White Wolf's Son is even more intricate. Finally, Michael Moorcock is now releasing definitive reworked versions of the stories in a new edition, the Chronicles of the Last Emperor of Melnibone.
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Elric of Melnibone |
Stormbringer |
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The Dreamthief's Daughter |
The Skrayling Tree |
The White Wolf's Son |
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The Stealer of Souls (Chronicles volume 1) |
To Rescue Tanelorn (Chronicles volume 2) |
Sleeping Sorceress (Chronicles volume 3) |
Duke Elric (Chronicles volume 4) |
Another incarnation of the Eternal Champion is Corum, prince of a dying race, devoted to law, who fights and slays the forces of Chaos. The early Corum stories (Knight of Swords, Queen of Swords and King of Swords) are collected in the volume entitled Corum, while the later stories (the Bull and the Spear, the Oak and the Ram and the Sword and the Stallion) which have a strong celtic flavour are collected in the volume entitled The Prince with the Silver Hand.
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Corum |
The Prince with the Silver Hand |
A future-history fantasy incarnation is Hawkmoon, who again fights against the forces of evil, represented by an Empire in which everyone wears animal masks. Hawkmoon himself is a less interesting character than Elric or Corum, but the characters he encounters make the stories well worth a read. The early Hawkmoon stories (The Jewel in the Skull, the Mad God's Amulet, the Sword of the Dawn and the Runestaff) are collected together in the volume entitled Hawkmoon or The History of the Runestaff, while the later stories (Count Brass, the Champion of Garathorm and the Quest for Tanelorn) are collected together in the volume entitled Count Brass.
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The History of the Runestaff |
Count Brass |
There a variety of other Eternal Champion novels, covering a variety of other science-fiction and fantasy environments.
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Von Bek |
The Dancers at the End of Time |
Jerry Cornelius |
John Daker |
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