Ahira's Hangar

Elric of Melnibone:
Elric, Moorcock's greatest creation, in his first story. An unhappy Prince sits on the Dragon throne, a weakling sustained only by drugs, until his cousin's attempted usurpation sets him on the road to becoming something greater - and more terrible - fed by the power of the black sword.

And what a sword 'Stormbringer' is! Ever since I began Ahira's Hangar I've wanted to have a thread devoted to Michael Moorcock and his Elric stories in particular. But I really didn't know how to do it justice. I was inspired to start one by Shadowlurker's comments at Kevin's Watch, and I will seriously try 2 kidnap him over to help flesh out this topic. (He's prob going to be here any day for the Earthsea stories-but maybe he'll be snatched b4 he knows it! )

I read an Elric chapter about two years ago but haven't read the books in twenty years. Elric, like Thomas Covenant, is more of an antihero, in a weird way: pestilence and doom seem to follow him--at certian times the Elric character was very popular and is more of a well established "cult" figure than anything else. Perhaps it is the darkness, drugs and at times, kinda, psychedelic scenarios that turn some folks off to him-I don't know. Or perhaps it's just that people can't image this razor thin, decrepit alibino being able to wield such a huge and incredible black sword.

Who knows? I've always liked Moorcock's style--it is definately unique--and like Donaldson--shatters the typical "fantasy" formula. I've heard Moorcoock is about to come out with some huge Elric project. So let loose here if your part of this strange dark "cult", I'll try to get Shadowluker over here, list all Moorcock's books and get some Moorcock resouces going!

ELRIC OF MELNIBONÉ
THE SAILOR ON THE SEAS OF FATE
THE WEIRD OF THE WHITE WOLF
THE VANISHING TOWER
THE BANE OF THE BLACK SWORD
STORMBRINGER *****
Before, you are wise; after, you are wise. In between you are otherwise.
Fravashi saying (from the formularies of Osho the Fool) <i>Edited by: danlo60 at: 1/8/04 8:17 am
</i>

I read these years ago, and I loved them. They are really short books but alot of really awesome things happen in them. Elric is one of the coolest characters I have ever read. I'm going to have to read them again in order to really be of any use to this thread tho. hehe.

I told Shadow about it too and he wants to get involved. *********

"And the glory of the world becomes less than it was."<i></i>

Sorry it took so long for me to get here, danlo. This should be a great thread. I do not know of anyone, besides you and Furls, that have read Moorcock. These books run a close second with me behind TCTC. Both "anti-heros" are very similar. Both weakened by disease, both somewhat frail, both weilding a power they don't truly understand. (Although, Stormbringer reminds me more of the Ring in LOTR than it does Covenant's white gold ring).

Moorcock's writing style is indeed, as you say, gritty. Both he and Donaldson had me entranced in the late 70's. I remember indentifying with both lead characters, Elric and Covenant profoundly. Elric is an amazing character, fighting for a kingdom he never wanted in the first place, having his power, Stormbringer, eventually rise up and destroy him. Wow! Some extraoridinary reading there. We are looking for some copies of the Elric books. Mine have been lost for some time, and Furls never bought them. When I get copies I will be able to quote and note specifics, but as it has been a very long time since I read them, the details of the story have escaped my memory.

Thank you for inviting me over here. I did not know about this board until Furls brought it up on her computer a few days ago. <i>Edited by: ShadowLurker at: 1/10/04 9:27 am
</i>

I first read the Elric novels back in the wilderness years of the 1970s when apart from Tolkien all you could find to read was Howard and Moorcock. I've pretty much got all the Eternal Champion series but Elric has always remained my favourite character. Moorcock is a big fan of Fritz Leiber, Lovecraft, Howard, Fletcher Pratt and its hoes in his writing. Full of doom laden anti-heroes in fantastical medievalist settings. Great stuff and as far as pulp Fantasy goes the Elric series is probably as good as it gets. Arphent Cirion: i 'west hen bronatha an rîn aglar Dôr-en-Êl a bronwe Elendil Sadron. Hebithar ha aen, i cherir erin erchaim ned Annûn ar i Vin i northa or erchaim phain an uir. <i></i>

I read most of the Eternal Champion series after being introduced to them as a teenager by my father with the Dancers at the End of Time trilogy. It was nothing like any teenager I knew then was reading, heh. I love Elric, but my favourite has to be Dorian Hawkmoon.

Anyways, back to lurking, lol.

Alexia xxx <i></i>

Cool, this topic is finally rolling, and pretty quickly, I might add...I read the first book and a series of short stories in the late 70s and early 80s. A good xcuse to get back into them. My local bookstores have a dearth of Gene Wolfe but plenty of Elric books...a very good xcuse to get back in2 them. Welcome Shadowlurker ur presence trulty honors the Hangar. Welcome back my true friend Beren who, it seems, has so many interests dear to my heart that we may, indeed, have been seperated at birth, And WOW! A new pilot and Moorcoock fan o/o the blue! Alexia UK!!! Fall far and well! *****
Before, you are wise; after, you are wise. In between you are otherwise.
Fravashi saying (from the formularies of Osho the Fool) <i></i>

Series
The Dancers at the End of Time
1 An Alien Heat (1972)
2 The Hollow Lands (1974)
3 The End of All Songs (1976)
4 Legends from the End of Time (1976)
5 The Transformation of Miss Mavis Ming (1977)
6 Tales from the End of Time (1989)

Second Ether Trilogy
1 Blood (1995)
2 Fabulous Harbors (1995)
3 War Amongst the Angels (1996)

Corum
The Books of Corum
1 The Bull and the Spear (1973)
1 The Knight of the Swords (1971)
2 The Oak and the Ram (1973)
2 The Queen of the Swords (1971)
3 The King of Swords (1971)
3 The Sword and the Stallion (1974)
Corum: The Coming of Chaos (1997)

Between The Wars
1 Byzantium Endures (1981)
2 The Laughter of Carthage (1984)
3 Jerusalem Commands (1992)

Hawkmoon
Chronicles of Castle Brass
1 Count Brass (1973)
Magazine Appearances:
Count Brass (Part 1 of 2) (1975)
Count Brass (Part 2 of 2) (1975)
2 The Champion of Garathorm (1973)
3 The Quest for Tanelorn (1975)
The Chronicles of Castle Brass (1985)

The History of the Runestaff
1 The Jewel in the Skull (1967)
2 The Mad God's Amulet (1968)
3 The Sword of the Dawn (1968)
4 The Runestaff (1969)

The Elric Saga
1 Elric of Melnibone (1975)
2 The Sailor on the Seas of Fate (1976)
3 The Weird of the White Wolf (1977)
4 The Vanishing Tower (1970)
5 The Bane of the Black Sword (1977)
6 Stormbringer (1977)
7 The Fortress of the Pearl (1989)
8 The Revenge of the Rose (1991)

Eternal Champion
1 The Eternal Champion (1970)
2 Phoenix In Obsidian (1970)
3 The Dragon in the Sword (1986)
To Rescue Tanelorn... (1962)
The Eternal Champion Vol 1 (1996)

Cornelius
1 The Final Programme (1968)
3 The English Assassin (1972)
4 The Condition of Muzak (1977)
4 A Cure For Cancer (1971)
5 The Lives and Times of Jerry Cornelius (1976)
6 The Entropy Tango (1981)
7 The Adventures Of Una Persson And Catherine Cornelius In The
Twentieth Century: A Romance (1976)

Von Bek
1 The War Hound and the World's Pain (1981)
2 The City in the Autumn Stars (1986)
The Brothel in Rosenstrasse (1982)

Oswald Bastable
1 The Warlord of the Air (1971)
2 The Land Leviathan (1974)
3 The Steel Tsar (1981)

Warlords of Mars [as Edward P. Bradbury]
1 Warriors of Mars (1965)
2 Blades of Mars (1965)
3 Barbarians of Mars (1965)

Novels
A Caribbean Crisis (1962)[as Desmond Reid]
The Fireclown (1965)
The Sundered Worlds (1965)
The LSD Dossier (1965)[as Roger Harris]
The Wrecks of Time (1967)

Mr Moorcock was born in 1939 and has won The Nebula, Hugo and World Fantasy Awards. He has also won the British Fantasy Award 5 times--info compliled from wikitex.com *****
Before, you are wise; after, you are wise. In between you are otherwise.
Fravashi saying (from the formularies of Osho the Fool) <i>Edited by: danlo60 at: 1/13/04 8:07 am
</i>

WOW!!! Looks like my Amazon list just got a whole lot bigger!!! *********

"And the glory of the world becomes less than it was."<i></i>

Yeah, I remember reading The Chronicles of Corum a couple of decades ago, and being really impressed with the, well, depressing tone of the books. Seemed like a very original treatment for heroic fantasy. As I understand it Corum sort of is Elric in another universe - is that right?

In the 90's I got into the 'End of Time' series and An Alien Heat has since become one of my top ten SF books. Those books are not only fun to read and aesthetically masterful, they are amazingly prescient. Moorcock's society of ring-weilders is almost a personified distillation of cultural trends and Postmodern philosophical ideas that would emerge decades later! ******************

Audentes fortuna iuvat!<i>Edited by: AlphSeeker at: 1/13/04 5:49 pm
</i>

I have the read Hawkmoon, Corum, Elric, Eternal Champion and the Runestaff books. Then I lost touch with him and haven't read his later works. Furls is right, we need to get all of those. -----------

"Even the blind can see this light, what a glorious passing this is." -Stephen C. McKinney<i></i>

I loved the early Elric books, but I hate the new ones, The Fortress of the Pearl and The Revenge of the Rose. It is like Moorcock has become too self-indulgent and his self-referentiality has passed all limits. I think Moorcock wants to write Real Literature and as a result we get things like the sudden and jarring tense shifts in The Revenge of the Rose.

I have also read Blood which was written in the stream-of-consciousness style and painful to read. I hate stream-of-consciousness. <i></i>

Well, the 1st book I found is The Bane of the Black Sword so it appears that I'm, sorta, reading the series backwards...I'm halfway though and the 2nd of the 4 stories is the 1 I read two years ago: Kings in Darkness. I found the 1st story, The Stealer of Souls to reek of Eddison and Howard--but I can also understand the Lieber reference, as stated above. Kings has a more Lovecraftian, McKillup, Tolkien feel to it--very weird and woodsy.

Initial thoughts on Elric-somewhere in my distant mind is the 1st book--which I remember to be very amazing and totally different than any other fantasy I had read at the time, except 4 Donaldson. The problem was that I was reading Donaldson (as TCTC was coming out) so Moorcock always got placed on the back burner. It's actually kinda interesting to compare Covenant to Elric as they are really pretty tragic characters. The big differences are their respective tools-TC has no idea what to do with his ring but Stormbringer gives Elric life. Due to his ancient lineage Elric is a sorcerer and has the "witchsense" but he would have died without the sword.

Like Covenant's ring, Stormbringer is a terrible paradox in and of itself as once it get going it takes friends and kinsmen alike. The Elric stories are doubly tragic this way, the analogy: a goodhearted drug addict systematically destroying everything he loves--is this the way the great ancient empire of Imrryr must atone? *****
Before, you are wise; after, you are wise. In between you are otherwise.
Fravashi saying (from the formularies of Osho the Fool) <i>Edited by: danlo60 at: 1/22/04 12:01 pm
</i>

It's been ahwile since I read any of the Elric books. I'm going to dig them out though, to refresh my memory.

Elric appealed to me because the character was the antithesis of the typical fantasy hero. He wasn't beautiful, muscular, chivalrous or bound to a any sort of code of morality. He did whatever was necessary to help himself or his particular cause--end of story.

There is so much about the character that I love--his doomed fate, his relationship with the gods of order, his dark demeanor, and his sentient soul devouring sword.

Hopefully I can add something a bit more substantive after I've re-read some of the books!! <i></i>

G'day, I was just surfing through...and I thought this might be of interest.

movies.yahoo.com/shop?d=h...1808502990

Adios
Rockin' & in The Land of Oz
<i></i>

Thank you! Welcome 2 the Hangar! please stick around! *****
Before, you are wise; after, you are wise. In between you are otherwise.
Fravashi saying (from the formularies of Osho the Fool) <i></i>