Elric of Melniboné

Elric of Melniboné[1] is a fictional character created by Michael Moorcock and the protagonist of a series of sword and sorcery stories taking place on an alternative Earth. The proper name and title of the character is Elric VIII, 428th Emperor of Melniboné. Later stories by Moorcock marked Elric as a facet of the Eternal Champion.

For the novel, see Elric of Melniboné (novel).
"Elric" redirects here. For other uses, see Elric (disambiguation).

Elric of Melniboné
Elric as depicted by Michael Whelan on the 1977 cover of The Weird of the White Wolf
First appearanceThe Dreaming City, 1961 story
Created byMichael Moorcock
In-universe information
GenderMale
TitleElric VIII, 428th Emperor of Melniboné
OccupationEmperor, sorcerer, warrior
NationalityMelnibonean

Elric first appeared in print in Moorcock's novella The Dreaming City (Science Fantasy No. 47, June 1961). Moorcock's doomed albino antihero is one of the better known in fantasy literature, having crossed over into a wide variety of media, such as role-playing games, comics, music, and film. The stories have been continuously in print since the 1970s.

Fictional history

Elric is described in 1972's Elric of Melniboné:

It is the colour of a bleached skull, his flesh; and the long hair which flows below his shoulders is milk-white. From the tapering, beautiful head stare two slanting eyes, crimson and moody, and from the loose sleeves of his yellow gown emerge two slender hands, also the colour of bone.[2]

Elric is the last emperor of the stagnating island civilization of Melniboné. Physically weak and frail, the anemic Elric must use drugs (special herbs) to maintain his health and vitality. From childhood he read freely in the immense royal library and learned of the world outside the Dreaming Isle. Perhaps due to this in-depth study, unlike other members of his race, Elric has a conscience. He witnesses the decadence of his culture, which once ruled the known world, and worries about the rise of the Young Kingdoms, populated by humans (as Melnibonéans do not consider themselves such), and the threat they pose to his empire. Because of his introspective self-loathing of Melnibonéan traditions, his subjects find him odd and unfathomable, and his cousin Yyrkoon (next in the line of succession, as Elric has no heirs) interprets his behaviour as weakness and plots Elric's death. Complicating matters is Yyrkoon's sister Cymoril, who is deeply in love with Elric; Yyrkoon covets her, and part of his plan for usurpation is to marry Cymoril himself.

In addition to his skill with herbs, Elric is an accomplished sorcerer and summoner. As emperor of Melniboné, Elric is able to call for aid upon the traditional patron of the Melniboné emperors, Arioch, a Lord of Chaos and Duke of Hell. From the first story, Elric uses ancient pacts and agreements with not only Arioch, but various other beings—some gods, some demons—to help him accomplish his tasks.

Elric's finding of the sword Stormbringer serves as both his greatest asset and greatest disadvantage. The sword confers upon Elric strength, health, and fighting prowess, allowing him to do away with his dependence on drugs, but it must be fed by the souls of intelligent beings. In the end, the blade takes everyone close to Elric and eventually Elric's own soul as well. Most of Moorcock's stories about Elric feature this relationship with Stormbringer, and how it—despite Elric's best intentions—brings doom to everything he holds dear.

Influences

Moorcock acknowledges the work of Bertolt Brecht, particularly Threepenny Novel and The Threepenny Opera, as "one of the chief influences" on the initial Elric sequence; he dedicated 1972's Elric of Melniboné to Brecht.[3][4] In the same dedication, he cited Poul Anderson's Three Hearts and Three Lions and Fletcher Pratt's The Well of the Unicorn as similarly influential texts. Moorcock has referred to Elric as a type of the "doomed hero", one of the oldest character-types in literature, akin to such hero-villains as Mervyn Peake's Steerpike in the Titus Groan trilogy, Poul Anderson's Scafloc in The Broken Sword, T. H. White's Lancelot in The Once and Future King, and Jane Gaskell's Zerd in The Serpent.[5]

The story of Kullervo from Finnish mythology[6] contains elements similar to Elric's story, such as a talking magic sword and fatal alienation of the hero from his family.[7] Besides Elric, Kullervo has been proposed as having influence on Poul Anderson's 1954 novel The Broken Sword, and J.R.R. Tolkien's Túrin Turambar. Moorcock has stated that "Anderson's a definite influence [on Elric], as stated. But oddly, the Kalevala was read to us at my boarding school when I was about seven", and "from a very early age I was reading Norse legends and any books I could find about Norse stories".[8] Moorcock in the same posting stated "one thing I'm pretty sure of, I was not in any way directly influenced by Prof. T[olkien]".[9]

Elric's albinism appears influenced by Monsieur Zenith, an albino Sexton Blake villain whom Moorcock appreciated enough to write into later multiverse stories.[10] Moorcock read Zenith stories in his youth and has contributed to their later reprinting, remarking that it "took me forty years to find another copy of Zenith the Albino! In fact it was a friend who found it under lock and key and got a copy of it to Savoy who are, at last, about to reprint it! Why I have spent so much energy making public the evidence of my vast theft from Anthony Skene, I'm not entirely sure... ".[11] Moorcock later said, "As I've said in my introduction to Monsieur Zenith: The Albino, the Anthony Skenes character was a huge influence. For the rest of the character, his ambiguities in particular, I based him on myself at the age I was when I created Elric, which was 20".[12] The influence of Zenith on Elric is often cited in discussions of Zenith.[13]

Publishing history
See also: Michael Moorcock bibliography

Elric first appeared in print in a series of six novelettes published in Science Fantasy magazine:

  • "The Dreaming City" (Science Fantasy No. 47, June 1961)
  • "While the Gods Laugh" (Science Fantasy No. 49, October 1961)
  • "The Stealer of Souls" (Science Fantasy No. 51, February 1962)
  • "Kings in Darkness" (Science Fantasy No. 54, August 1962)
  • "The Flame Bringers" (Science Fantasy No. 55, October 1962); retitled "The Caravan of Forgotten Dreams" in some later collections.
  • "To Rescue Tanelorn ..." (Science Fantasy No. 56, December 1962)

After this came four novellas:

  • "Dead God's Homecoming" (Science Fantasy No. 59, June 1963)
  • "Black Sword's Brothers" (Science Fantasy No. 61, October 1963)
  • "Sad Giant's Shield" (Science Fantasy No. 63, February 1964)
  • "Doomed Lord's Passing" (Science Fantasy No. 64, April 1964)

The last of these terminated the sequence with the close of Elric's life.

After these initial Elric tales, Moorcock periodically published short tales throughout the 1960s and early 1970s, such as 1967's "The Singing Citadel" and 1973's "The Jade Man's Eyes". Meant to be placed in between the initial stories but before the conclusion of "Doomed Lord's Passing", these later stories would frequently be edited, retitled, and combined together with other material to form fix-ups as part of later republication campaigns.

The first original Elric novel, 1972's Elric of Melniboné, was a prequel detailing Elric's origin and how he came to possess Stormbringer. In 1989 came the second original Elric novel, The Fortress of the Pearl, followed in 1991 with The Revenge of the Rose. A decade later Moorcock began an original Elric trilogy, beginning with The Dreamthief's Daughter (2001), followed by The Skrayling Tree (2003) and The White Wolf's Son (2005).

Internal chronology

The main sequence, according to the saga's internal chronology, comprises the following books. Bold roman numerals indicate the six-book sequence of the 1977 DAW paperbacks. The dates following each story refer to the date of original publication. In those cases where a book was assembled from several pre-existing stories, each story is given along with its original date; when an original novel is subdivided into parts, the parts are named but not given individual dates.

  • (I) Elric of Melniboné (1972)
    • Book 1
    • Book 2
    • Book 3
  • The Fortress of the Pearl (1989)
  • (II) The Sailor on the Seas of Fate (1976)
    • Book One: "Sailing To the Future"
    • Book Two: "Sailing To the Present"
    • Book Three: "Sailing To the Past" (Revision of "The Jade Man's Eyes")
  • Elric at the End of Time (1984)
  • (III) The Weird of the White Wolf
    • Prologue: "The Dream of Earl Aubec" (original title: "Master of Chaos") (May 1964)
    • Book One: "The Dreaming City" (June 1961)
    • Book Two: "While the Gods Laugh" (October 1961)
    • Book Three: "The Singing Citadel" (May 1967)
  • (IV) The Vanishing Tower (original title: The Sleeping Sorceress) (1971)
    • Book One: "The Torment of the Last Lord"
    • Book Two: "To Snare the Pale Prince"
    • Book Three: "Three Heroes With a Single Aim"
  • The Revenge of the Rose (1991)
  • (V) The Bane of the Black Sword
    • Book One: "The Stealer of Souls" (February 1962)
    • Book Two: "Kings in Darkness" (August 1962)
    • Book Three: "The Flame Bringers" (alternative title: "The Caravan of Forgotten Dreams") (October 1962)
    • Epilogue: "To Rescue Tanelorn" (December 1962)
  • (VI) Stormbringer
    • Book One: "Dead God's Homecoming" (June 1963)
    • Book Two: "Black Sword's Brothers" (October 1963)
    • Book Three: "Sad Giant's Shield" (February 1964)
    • Book Four: "Doomed Lord's Passing" (April 1964)

Chronology uncertain:

  • "The Jade Man's Eyes" (1973) (Revised as "Sailing To the Past")
  • "Elric: Return to Melniboné" (1973)
  • "The Lands Beyond the World" (1977)
  • The Dreamthief's Daughter (2001)
  • The Skrayling Tree (2003)
  • The White Wolf's Son (2005)
  • "Black Petals" (2008)
  • "Red Pearls" (2010)

Not part of canonical continuity:

  • "The Last Enchantment" (1978)

Collections

The first five novelettes were originally collected in The Stealer of Souls (1963) and the later four novellas were first published as a novel in an edited version called Stormbringer (1965). The 1965 novel had about a quarter of the text removed for reasons of length (mostly in the second and third novellas) and the remaining text rearranged with new bridging material added to make sense of the restructuring.

In 1977, DAW Books republished Elric's saga in six books that collected the tales according to their internal chronology. These paperbacks all featured cover art work by the same young artist, Michael Whelan, and helped to define the look of both Elric and his sword Stormbringer. The DAW edition of Stormbringer restored some of the original structure and text compared to the 1965 release, but other revisions were performed and other material excised. A few oddments were collected in Elric at the End of Time (1984), which became the seventh book in the DAW line when DAW released it in the US in 1985. It includes two Elric-related tales: the title story and 1962's "The Last Enchantment", originally intended as the final Elric story but put aside in favour of those that eventually made up Stormbringer; it was not published until 1978. Both would appear in later collections (with "The Last Enchantment" occasionally retitled "Jesting with Chaos").

In the 1990s, Orion Publishing/Millennium released a two-book collection – Elric of Melniboné and Stormbringer – containing the Elric material then available. White Wolf Publishing released a similar two-volume compilation – Elric: Song of the Black Sword (1998) and Elric: The Stealer of Souls (2001). Both of these two-volume compilations are arranged according to the internal chronology of the saga. The White Wolf text has minor revisions when compared to the Millennium release.

The early version of the Elric saga, i.e., the first nine short stories – with "The Flame Bringers" using the later title of "The Caravan of Forgotten Dreams" and the full text of Stormbringer as it appeared in Science Fantasy – was republished in a single volume as Elric (Orion/Gollancz 2001), volume 17 in the Fantasy Masterworks series.

Beginning in 2008, Del Rey Books reprinted the Elric material as a series of six illustrated books: The Stealer of Souls, To Rescue Tanelorn, The Sleeping Sorceress, Duke Elric, Elric in the Dream Realms, and Elric: Swords and Roses. This series arranged the stories in the sequence they were originally published, along with related fiction and nonfiction material. The version of Stormbringer featured in this collection restored all the original material missing since the 1977 DAW edition – which had formed the basis for all later editions – as well as Moorcock's preferred versions of all the revised material in an attempt to produce a definitive text. These volumes present the evolution of the character through early fanzine stories, early musings by Moorcock, some Elric stories, some others introducing the reader to the wider "Eternal Champion" theme, stories of other heroes who coexist with Elric in the realm of Melniboné, unpublished prologues, installments of Moorcock's essay "Aspects of Fantasy", a 1970s screenplay, a reader's guide, notes from an Elric series that never developed, contemporary reviews, and appreciation essays by other writers.

In August 2012, Victor Gollancz Ltd. announced their intention to republish all of Michael Moorcock's back catalogue, including all the Elric stories, presented in internal chronological order along with previously unpublished material, in both print and e-book formats. The Elric stories were published in seven volumes in 2014–15: Elric of Melniboné and Other Stories, Elric: The Fortress of the Pearl, Elric: The Sailor on the Seas of Fate, Elric: The Sleeping Sorceress, Elric: The Revenge of the Rose, Elric: Stormbringer!, and Elric: The Moonbeam Roads.

Characters in the Elric series
"Yyrkoon" redirects here. For the French death metal band, see Yyrkoon (band).
  • Cymoril: A Melnibonéan, Elric's cousin, consort and first great love. He hopes to one day make her his wife and empress. She tries to understand and help Elric, but like his subjects, she has difficulty understanding Elric's motivations and would have him rule as the emperors of old. Despite that she stands by Elric in his weakest state before his acquiring of Stormbringer and she supports his dreams and wishes even when she is put in danger by them.
  • Dyvim Slorm: A Melnibonéan, Elric's cousin, son of Dyvim Tvar. He fights alongside Elric in the final war against Chaos, wielding the black sword Mournblade.
  • Dyvim Tvar: A Melnibonéan, one of Elric's few friends. He is one of the Dragon Masters, a group of Melnibonéans who can speak to the Dragons of Melniboné. Dyvim Tvar stays loyal to Elric even after he destroys Imrryr. Dyvim Tvar also has more of a moral compass than most Melnibonéans.
  • Ernest Wheldrake: An amiable poet and bard who involuntarily travels across the Multiverse. Amorous and good-natured, he is given to sudden expulsions of verse and song. He is writing an epic poem about Elric during their shared adventures.
  • Jagreen Lern: The cruel ruler of Pan Tang, skilled with both magic and the use of a battleaxe.
  • Moonglum of Elwher: A short, red-haired human with a cheerfully ugly face, adventuring companion to Elric. He and Elric share many dangers and rewards together. The most steadfast and loyal companion of all the Young Kingdom humans Elric encounters. He helps Elric in completing his fated purpose.
  • Myshella of Law: Colloquially referred to as the Empress of the Dawn and The Dark Lady of Kaneloon, the powerful sorceress Myshella has acted as a guide and consort to Eternal Champions and adventurers alike down through the ages in the ineffable pursuit of Law. Immortal, ageless, and indescribably powerful. She sometimes rides a metal bird with emerald eyes, and more than once lends this mount to Elric.
  • Oone: A Dreamthief by trade, at the Silver Flower Oasis in the Sighing Desert, Lady Oone helps Elric locate The Fortress of the Pearl when another of her order dies in a previous attempt. Her fleeting romance with the albino has considerable significance during the later 'Moonbeam Roads' trilogy.
  • Prince Gaynor The Damned: A fallen knight of the Balance, doomed to suffer without release by the forces of Chaos. He inhabits a formless existence, imprisoned in a black-and-gold suit of armor emblazoned with the 8-pointed symbol of Chaos.
  • Rackhir, the Red Archer: A human, once a Warrior Priest of Phum but cast out of his order. He and Elric travel and adventure together several times throughout the series. Unlike other characters who serve either Law or Chaos, Rackhir devotes himself to the Balance exclusively.
  • Sepiriz: One of the ten remaining Nihrain, this dark-skinned servant of the Balance guides Elric through the final phases of his quest. He is also sometimes called 'The Knight in Black and Yellow'.
  • Shaarilla of Myyrrhn: The daughter of a dead necromancer, Shaarilla of the Dancing Mist was born a mutant and an outcast among her people. Unlike her fellows of Myyrrhn, Shaarilla was born without wings. She enlists Elric to locate The Dead Gods' Book in the hopes it might contain a spell to reverse her deformity.
  • Smiorgan Baldhead: A Count of the Isle of the Purple Towns, and an affable adventurer who accompanies Elric on his adventures on the Nameless Continent. His fleets aid in the Sacking of Imrryr.
  • Theleb K'aarna: A human sorcerer of the Pan Tang isles. After being displaced as Queen Yishana's advisor and chief sorcerer by Elric, he seeks revenge and uses sorcery to hinder several of Elric's plans.
  • The Rose: A beautiful, scarlet-haired warrior Elric encounters on his journeys through the Multiverse. She wields a Lawful counterpart to Elric's Chaos-forged demonblade 'Stormbringer' named 'Swift Thorn'. Serving neither Law nor Chaos, she has sworn an oath of revenge against Gaynor The Damned for the eradication of a universe that was precious to her.
  • Yishana of Jharkor: A human, ruler of Jharkor. She presents Elric with several problems/adventures and openly covets his company and power. Her selfish desires are the root of several of Elric's problems, but she also aids him from time to time and ultimately becomes an important ally in his fight against Chaos.
  • Yyrkoon: Prince of Melniboné, Elric's cousin. He is next in line for the throne, as Elric has no male heir. He worries about Elric's behaviour and takes all of Elric's brooding and philosophical talk as a sign of weakness. He yearns for a return to more traditional emperors and secretly plots Elric's demise. Yyrkoon is a great sorcerer who has made many pacts with unholy forces to obtain his sorcerous strength. As further evidence of his decadent ways, he openly desires his sister Cymoril and intends to make her his wife and Empress if his plans ever reach fruition.
  • Zarozinia: A human of the Young Kingdoms. She falls in love with Elric and eventually marries him, for a time allowing him to experience true love and companionship. For her sake, Elric also gives up his blade Stormbringer and reverts to taking sorcerous herbs to sustain his life.

Appearances in other media

Comics
Conan the Barbarian No. 14 (March 1972), Elric's first appearance in comics. Cover art by Barry Windsor-Smith
  • In 1971, the French artist Philippe Druillet drew for Spirits #1 the first comics version of Elric, written by Michel Demuth and published as a book the same year.[14]
  • Elric first appeared in comics in America 1972, in Conan the Barbarian issues 14–15, an adventure in two parts entitled "A Sword Called Stormbringer!" and “The Green Empress of Melniboné”. The comic was written by Roy Thomas and illustrated by Barry Windsor-Smith, based on a story plotted by Michael Moorcock and James Cawthorn.[15]
  • Star Reach comics published Elric stories in the late 1970s. First Comics published several Elric mini-series in the 1980s as well.
  • Elric also appeared in a number of original stories published by DC Comics. Helix, a short-lived science-fiction and fantasy imprint of DC, published the 12-issue Michael Moorcock's Multiverse from 1997. In 2004, DC Comics published the four-issue Elric: Making of a Sorcerer, with art by Walt Simonson, a story about Elric's magical training before the events of the novel Elric of Melniboné.
  • P. Craig Russell has drawn comics adaptations of three Moorcock novels: Elric of Melniboné (with Roy Thomas and Michael T. Gilbert; Pacific Comics), The Dreaming City and While the Gods Laugh (representing the first two-thirds of Weird of the White Wolf; Marvel/Epic Comics), and Stormbringer (Dark Horse). The character has also been adapted by Walter Simonson and Frank Brunner, and by George Freeman and others on the long-running Elric series at Pacific which Russell had co-created. (Reportedly tensions between him and Thomas were the reason for his departure.)
  • Adam Warlock, under artist Jim Starlin, was influenced by Elric and made into a Marvel Comic version of that superhero, with concepts such as the Soul Gem stealing souls, the introduction of Master Order and Lord Chaos. The premise is similar to the Adam Warlock soul-stealing gems, which may well have borrowed from Elric.[16][17][18][19]
  • Tom Strong No. 31 and No. 32, The Black Blade of the Barbary Coast part 1 & 2, written by Moorcock, feature albino pirate Captain Zodiac seeking the "Black Blade", a black cutlass marked with red runes. This presents a recurrence of Elric and Stormbringer, with a liberal dash of Monsieur Zenith.
  • 2011 marked the launch of another Elric-based comic, Elric: The Balance Lost by BOOM! Studios. The series, written by Chris Roberson and drawn by Francesco Biagini, is available in both traditional hard copy and for digital download.
  • In 2014, The Ruby Throne, the first volume of a new four-volume adaptation of Elric of Melniboné written by Julien Blondel and illustrated by Didier Poli, Jean Bastide, and Robin Recht, was published by Titan Comics. Stormbringer, the second volume was published in March 2015 by the same team and publisher. Moorcock states that this is his favorite comic adaptation of his Elric stories to date and praises the subtle changes to the original story, saying that he wishes he had made them himself.[20] The third volume, entitled The White Wolf, was released in September 2017.[21] The final volume, The Dreaming City, is currently scheduled for Fall 2020.

Music
  • The Chronicle of the Black Sword is a 1985 album by UK space rock band Hawkwind. Moorcock and Hawkwind had, at this stage, collaborated a number of times. An expanded live album, Live Chronicles, was released in 1986. This included several spoken-word interludes by author Moorcock in his capacity as on-stage narrator. The live show also included a mime artist portraying Elric himself. A video concert film entitled The Chronicle of the Black Sword appeared on VHS and later on DVD.
  • The song "Black Blade" was recorded for the album Cultösaurus Erectus (1980) by Blue Öyster Cult, written by singer/guitarist Eric Bloom with lyrics by Moorcock. Moorcock also collaborated on the songs "The Great Sun Jester" (Mirrors (1979)) and "Veteran of the Psychic Wars" (Fire of Unknown Origin (1981)).
  • The heavy metal band Tygers of Pan Tang take their name from the fictional islands of Pan Tang in the Elric series, where the ruling wizards keep pet tigers.
  • In 1974, the UK hard rock band Deep Purple released an album entitled Stormbringer. In a 1974 interview with New Musical Express, David Coverdale said he "never even considered Michael Moorcock's work" writing the song.
  • Influential new wave of British heavy metal band Diamond Head made Elric one of the primary lyrical subjects of their seminal 1982 release Borrowed Time and featured the character on the cover art. Songs from this release would gain further visibility when they were re-recorded by Metallica.
  • Washington State thrash/black metal band NME released the song "Stormbringer" on their 1986 album Unholy Death.
  • The German band Blind Guardian has written several songs pertaining to Elric's story and Stormbringer, including "The Quest For Tanelorn", "Tanelorn (Into The Void)", and "Fast To Madness".
  • The Italian power metal band Domine has based most of their albums on the Elric saga.
  • The second studio album Agents of Power by American heavy metal band Skelator contains "Elric: The Dragon Prince (A Tale Of Tragic Destiny In 12 Parts)", a 40-minute Elric epic.
  • Elric appears in the EP "The Fall of Melniboné" from Spanish heavy metal band Dark Moor.
  • The Serbian fantasy metal band Númenor has written several songs on their debut album Colossal Darkness based on Elric of Melniboné stories including: The Eternal Champion, The Sailor on the Seas of Fate and While the Gods Laugh.
  • Swedish melodic black/death band Sacramentum have referenced characters and themes such as the cult of Slortar on their 1999 album Thy Black Destiny, notably the track "Overlord".
  • The Greek epic metal band Battleroar has written the song "Mourning Sword" on their debut album Battleroar. On their second album, "Age of Chaos", there is a song called "Dyvim Tvar".
  • Swedish heavy metal band Grand Magus released "Steel Versus Steel", about Elric's dependence on Stormbringer's corrupting power, on their 2014 album "Triumph and Power".
  • American metal band Chase the Sun released "Sacred Storm (Tanelorn)" (about the equilibrium of chaos and of law and Elric's foolish thought of escape) on the 2020 CTS EP "Divine Mourning".
  • American thrash metal band Mournblade released "Mournblade (Stealer of Souls)" on the 2006 Mangled Lies EP and Live at the Whiskey A Go Go in 2008 on VD Records.

Film
  • Wendy Pini published a book documenting her attempt to make an animated film project of the Stormbringer series. Law and Chaos: The "Stormbringer" Animated Film Project (ISBN 0936861045) was published by Father Tree Press of Poughkeepsie, New York in 1987. The book contains original artwork, information on the characters, an overview of the plot, and her personal investment in the project. The film, however, never reached completion.
  • On 29 May 2007, in an interview with Empire magazine, directors Chris and Paul Weitz stated that they are in the process of adapting a trilogy of films based on Elric for Universal Pictures.[22] Chris grew up reading the material[22] and has met with Moorcock, who trusted them with the project.[22]

Role-playing games
  • Elric (along with Stormbringer) was listed in the first printing of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D) Deities & Demigods rule book. However, Chaosium already had a role playing series in the works based on Elric & Stormbringer and the initial AD&D printing was not fully authorised. A mutually beneficial deal was worked out between Chaosium and TSR, yet TSR chose to remove Elric from later printings of Deities & Demigods.[23]
  • The world of Elric's Young Kingdoms was the setting of the Stormbringer role-playing game by the publisher Chaosium (Hawkmoon has also been so treated, as has Corum). In 1993 Chaosium released Elric! which still used their BRP system. Its main difference was in the way magic through demon summoning was detailed and the allegiance system that saw characters lean either towards law, chaos or the balance, themes that underscored the books. It was later re-published with slight modification as "Stormbringer 5th edition".
  • After a disagreement between Moorcock and Chaosium, the Stormbringer line was discontinued. Subsequently, a new version called "Elric of Melniboné" was published by Mongoose Publishing under their Runequest system in 2007.
  • A French company called "Départements des Sombres Projets" (Dark Designs Department) published a new version called "Mournblade" in 2012. The name Mournblade is a wink to Chaosium's Stormbringer.

Video game

A video game based on Elric was in development by Psygnosis for the PlayStation during the late 1990s.[24]

See also: Stormbringer § In popular culture

Television
  • In the Babylon 5 episode "The Geometry of Shadows", the leader of the Technomage order is named Elric in what Michael Moorcock called "clearly straight homage"[25] to his Elric novels.
  • In the TV series Game of Thrones, when King Joffrey I Baratheon is presented with a new sword at his wedding feast, he asks the crowd what he should name it and someone suggests "Stormbringer".

Comics
  • The Elric character is parodied in the Cerebus the Aardvark graphic novels by Dave Sim, as Elrod of Melvinbone, the Albino, with his sword Seersucker, and the speech-patterns of Foghorn Leghorn. Sim's drawing of Elrod follows Smith's drawing of Elric in Conan the Barbarian, which in turn was based on the US Lancer paperback covers by Jack Gaughan, complete with "tall pointy hat".[26]
  • Elric is also parodied as "Eric of Bonémaloné" in the Thrud the Barbarian comic strip from White Dwarf. In "The Three Tasks of Thrud", Thrud's third task is to capture Eric's magic sword, "Stoatbringer".[27]

Books
  • Karl Edward Wagner wrote a short story, "The Gothic Touch", in which his immortal protagonist Kane enlists the aid of Elric and Moonglum, which can be found in Michael Moorcock's Elric: Tales of the White Wolf (ISBN 1-56504-175-5) and in Wagner's Exorcisms and Ecstasies (ISBN 1878252283).[28]
  • Author Neil Gaiman wrote a short story called "One Life, Furnished in Early Moorcock'" about a troubled boy who loves the stories about Elric, and finds escape from the everyday world in them. The story was published in the short story collection Smoke and Mirrors.
  • Author Tad Williams features the character in "Go Ask Elric", a short story published in his collection Rite.
  • The book You: A Novel contains many references to Elric as having influenced one of the main characters.

Music
  • Michael Moorcock received a songwriting credit for the Blue Öyster Cult song "Black Blade". Blue Öyster Cult notes on their website that lyrical collaborations with Moorcock "inspired ... 'Black Blade'".[29][30] He has also co-written "Veteran of the Psychic Wars", inspired by the Elric stories.
  • The California-based speed-metal band Cirith Ungol included several Elric-based songs on their albums over the years; moreover, their album covers were often book-cover depictions of Elric by artist Michael Whelan, used with permission.
  • Elric, his homeland of Melniboné, and his sword Stormbringer are featured in German heavy metal band Blind Guardian's song "Fast to Madness" from their "Follow the Blind" album (1989). "Damned for All Time", from the same album, also concerns Elric, as do the songs "The Quest for Tanelorn" from "Somewhere Far Beyond" (1992) and "Tanelorn (Into the Void)" from "At the Edge of Time" (2010).
  • Elric is featured in the Spanish Power metal band Dark Moor's song "Fall of Melnibone".
  • The new wave of British heavy metal band Tygers of Pan Tang are named after a warrior society in the Elric stories.
  • The metal band Grand Magus feature part of the Elric saga in the song "Steel vs. Steel" from the "Triumph and Power" album.
  • The Heavy Metal band Atlantis released a song, on their second EP, called "Stormbringer & Mournblade".
  • The albums of the Italian Power Metal band Domine are all about Elric's saga.
  • At the beginning of 1975, the band Hawkwind recorded the album Warrior on the Edge of Time in collaboration with Michael Moorcock, loosely based on his Eternal Champion figure.

Role-playing game
  • Elric's nickname "the White Wolf" inspired White Wolf, Inc. Founders Steven and Stewart Wieck were fans of the character, and named their roleplaying game magazine, and later their company, after him.[31]

Software
  • The Grome landscape modelling software is named after Grome, King of the Earth elementals in Elric's world.
  • The ZX Spectrum strategy game Chaos: The Battle of Wizards (1985) uses the "Arrow of Law" and "arrows radiating outward" symbols of Law and Chaos established in Moorcock's mythos to denote the alignment of spells. Use of Law or Chaos magic also shifts the Cosmic Balance in favour of Law or Chaos, as in Moorcock's multiverse. The game's author Julian Gollop acknowledges that the design was "partly inspired by Moorcock's conflict of Law and Chaos".[32]

Footnotes
  1. Michael Moorcock (1 March 2008). "pronunciation". Moorcock's Miscellany. p. 3. Archived from the original on 16 April 2009. Retrieved 18 November 2016. Mel-nib-on-ay (as in cafe)
  2. Moorcock, Michael (1987). Elric of Melniboné. Ace. pp. 192. ISBN 978-0-441-20398-7.
  3. "Mike's Recommended Reading List" Archived 14 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine. by Michael Moorcock
  4. Librarything on Elric of Melnibone
  5. Michael Moorocok, "Aspects of Fantasy" in Darrell Schweitzer (ed.), Exploring Fantasy Worlds: Essays on Fantastic Literature. San Bernardino, CA: Borgo Press, 1985, p. 27.
  6. John Martin Crawford (1888). "The Kalevala: Rune XXXI. Kullerwoinen Son of Evil". sacred-texts.com. Retrieved 18 November 2016.
  7. John Martin Crawford (1888). "The Kalevala: Rune XXXVI. Kullerwoinen's Victory and Death". sacred-texts.com. Retrieved 18 November 2016.
  8. Elric/Turambar Archived 16 April 2009 at the Wayback Machine – Moorcock's Miscellany.
  9. Moorcock, Michael (25 January 2003). "Tolkien times two". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 1 May 2010.
  10. Paula Guran; Rich Horton. "The Metatemporal Detective by Michael Moorcock (review)". Fantasy Magazine. Retrieved 18 November 2016.
  11. Lancer pirates? > M. Zenith Archived 16 April 2009 at the Wayback Machine – Moorcock's Miscellany.
  12. Bill Baker, World Famous Comics >> Baker's Dozen – 5 January 2005.
  13. E.g.: Monsieur Zenith the Albino, and Savoy People: The Most Banned Publishing Company in Britain.
  15. Thomas, Roy (w), Windsor-Smith, Barry (p). "A Sword Called Stormbringer!", "The Green Empress of Melniboné" Conan the Barbarian 14, No. 15 (March 1972), Marvel Comics
  16. "Jim Starlin's 1975 Warlock series", Remarkable, 2 July 2009.
  17. "Starlin's Warlock and it's influence on Grant Morrison", 11 O'Clock Comics, 6 May 2012.
  18. "Elric Movie", The REH Forum, 31 January 2004.
  19. "Elric of Melniboné vs. Adam Warlock", Who Would Win?
  20. Rob Bricken, "Michael Moorcock Reveals Why This Elric Comic Is Superior To The Books", io9.com, 25 September 2014.
  21. "Elric BD Facebook Page". Elric BD Facebook. Glénat BD. Retrieved 15 February 2017.
  22. Empire Staff (29 May 2007). "Weitz Brothers Making Elric". Empire. Retrieved 13 July 2008.
  23. See the RPGnet brief history of Chaosium for more details.
  24. "Elric". Electronic Gaming Monthly. No. 101. Ziff Davis. December 1997. p. 93.
  25. "I have noticed that, though I haven't seen much Babylon 5, not getting to see TV that often (usually in motel rooms when travelling). I don't mind, since the Elric reference is clearly straight homage, and I'd do the same myself in the circumstances." --Michael Moorcock
  26. "I loved Dave's parody. As he knew. He'd been a little charey of what I'd think of it and I thought it was tremendous. I even bought the Elrod T-shirt." "Jack Gaughan. I never forgave him for that hat." – Michael Moorcock. Moorcock's Miscellany Archived 16 April 2009 at the Wayback Machine. Image here Archived 27 September 2011 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 23 March 2008
  27. http://www.multiverse.org/imagehive/index.php/bookcovers/comiccovers/Parodies/thrud/Thrud
  28. "Karl's Influences". karledwardwagner.org. 24 November 2007. Retrieved 18 November 2016.
  29. "Michael Moorcock". www.blueoystercult.com. Retrieved 19 November 2016.
  30. Blue Oyster Cult – Music Shop – Virgin Radio Archived 10 February 2016 at the Wayback Machine
  31. "A Brief History of Game #11: White Wolf, Part One: 1986–1995 – RPGnet". rpg.net. Retrieved 18 November 2016.
  32. "Julian Gollop talks Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars and a career in turn-based gaming – GamesTm". gamestm.co.uk. Retrieved 13 December 2016.
gollark: Is DnD not just mostly based on having people say things to other people? What setup would you want?
gollark: No, you just click the create server button.
gollark: The logs thing? It gets a list of previously sent messages.
gollark: Well, the logs thing is a specific instance of the skynet protocol being kind of weird and possibly needing cleaning up.
gollark: It's also to indicate the fact that you get this anyway by operating the server.
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