The books of Michael Murcock in the eighties and nineties of the 20th century were read by fans of fantasy. At the ruins of books, readers grabbed the novels of the writer, which were packed to capacity all the shops selling books. Recently, the writer has not published anything, so the younger generation does not know the name of Michael Moorcock.
This article is intended to illuminate the writer's work and contribute to the revival of its popularity among fans of science fiction literature.
Meet Michael Moorcock
To begin with, we offer to get acquainted with the outstanding personality of Michael Moorcock closer, before moving on to Eric from Melnibone.
The writer was born in England, in the town of Mitchum. Until 1993, he lived in London, but then moved to a permanent place of residence in the United States, Texas.
My father worked as an engineer, but he and his mother divorced when Michael was a teenager, and the future writer began to live independently very early.
Murcock served in the Air Force, and then studied at an elite college in London. Michael's main hobby was music. He, like many of his peers, fell under the magnetic influence of The Beatles, and decided to create his own rock band. And Michael achieved his goal. His group "Heavkvind" successfully performed on stage, and he would first be an active participant, then he wrote lyrics and music for songs.
Murcock was the editor of the journal of the Liberal Party, considered politics a very important tool in modern life. Michael later became an anarchist and even wrote a work in which he expressed his political views.
The writer began to seriously engage in literature, when he was offered to collaborate with the publication of the fantastic orientation New Worlds. Prior to this, Murcock was engaged in samizdat, publishing small stories. Over time, he headed the magazine after the departure of friend and mentor Ted Carnell as editor-in-chief.
The authorship of Murcock owns several scripts for the cinema, which he wrote out of need, for the sake of money, which helped the magazine not become bankrupt.
In 2010, Moorcock wrote the script for yet another season of the Doctor Who television series.
The writer has retired, in recent years he has been collecting old books, painting and music. Murcock is married, has two daughters and a son. Lives in Texas.
The Multiverse by Michael Moorcock
In the mid-1970s, Murcock conceived a cycle of novels whose heroes could coexist in one fantasy world.
The writer invented and introduced the concept of âmultiverseâ into literature. According to the theory of Murcock, the worlds are always in contact with each other, and the characters are able to move from one world to another, to experience the events of different eras. The writer introduced the image of the Eternal Warrior, which is embodied in different ways in different worlds. The main characters of the chronicles of Murcock embody the eternal spirit of the Warrior, is his reincarnation in the "multiverse."
Cosmos consists of spheres, which are enclosed spaces. Each sphere boils its own, unlike other life.
The center of the "multiverse" is the city of Tanelorn. It is similar to the biblical Eden where people strive to get. Tanelorn represents freedom, peace, joy, bliss. Each of the heroes seeks to find a wonderful city in order to take a break from battles in the shade of trees and gain strength. The main characters of the book, the eternal warriors, find themselves in Tanelorn after death and find what they could not find in other areas.
The "Multiverse" lives by its own laws. The eternal warrior cannot rest, his destiny is to be born again and again engage in battle where there is no balance. The eternal hero is a mortal man in whom one of the heroes of the "multiverse" occupies, and when the eternal warrior dies, a new soul settles in his body. If one of the parties violates the order of things in the world, the Eternal hero appears, who will defend the offended and return the balance of forces in the universe.
Michael Murcock Books
The novels of the writer are mainly devoted to the Eternal Hero, around which the plot of all the books of Murcock is formed.
There were many incarnations of the Eternal Warrior in the "multiverse", but the main characters, who were remembered by the reader, and participated in the most important battles for the world, were four. These heroes are dedicated to the main layer of the works of Murcock.
- The Chronicles of Hokmun. They consist of two novels, âRunic Staffâ (4 parts) and âBrass Castleâ (three parts).
- The Chronicles of Corum. It includes two novels - âLord of swordsâ, âSilver handâ, each of which consists of 6 parts.
- The Chronicles of Eriqueze (4 novels).
- The Saga of Elric of Melnibone. The largest cycle for which the writer wrote 19 works.
In a similar vein of the narrative of the Eternal Warrior, works such as The Chronicles of the Von Beck Family and a series of short stories, for example, Save The Tanelorn, are written. In the stories, Murcock describes the stories of the world or heroes that complement the information and broaden the horizons of fans of the "multiverse."
Moorcock wrote space novels that bring him closer to Bradbury. Such works include Wanderers in Time and The Chronicles of Kane from Ancient Mars.
The first written stories released by samizdat, Murcock collected and combined in a cycle of heroic fantasy Sojan. The stories tell of adventures in the imagined world of Sojan and his friends.
The story of the Elric saga
Moorcock long thought over the image of Elric from Melnibone. He himself admitted this. He conceived Elric as an antihero, even the characterâs appearance is opposed to Conan the barbarianâs courageous charisma (strength is thinness, blue eyes are red eyes, black hair is white hair). According to Murcock, readers are fed up with irresistible machos capable of defeating the entire enemy army in one battle.
Molecock conceived Elric from Melnibone as a hero, despite the fact that publicists write that Elric is a typical antagonist. Goodies are propaganda for young men and women that made them believe that there are ideal people who need to be imitated. According to the writer, people cannot be exceptionally clean. Therefore, Elric seems to many readers to be a bad character, he is a hero, but another, special.
Moorcock admitted that the creation of chronicles about Elric was influenced by Bertolt Brecht and his Three-Penny Opera, as well as Paul Anderson and Fletcher Prett, to whom the first novel about Emperor Melnibone was dedicated.
Michael Murcock began recording stories about Elric from Melnibone in the 50s. The writer was helped to think through the character by John Corton. He sent letters in drafts on paper, as well as thoughts about the development of the hero.
Moorcock said that Elric is a very important character for him. In it, the writer invested a lot of experiences, internal conflicts, which Murcock himself had. He fully identified Elric with himself.
Book reading timeline
About Elric from Melnibone, 19 works have been written, including short stories and comics. But six books that were written in different years are considered classical novels. We suggest you review the order of books about Elric from Melnibone by Michael Moorcock for reading. Here is the list:
- "Elric from Melnibone."
- "A wanderer on the seas of fate."
- "The fate of the White Wolf."
- The Sleeping Sorceress.
- The Curse of the Black Sword.
- "Burenetsets."
Currently, the writer is working on a continuation of the story of Elric. Chronicles of Elric from Melnibone will include three more novels.
Albino Emperor
Elric is the emperor of the island of Melnibone, or Dragon Island. He has a very strange appearance: white skin, long - ivory hair, he is very thin. His mother died in childbirth, leaving his father a small helpless and painful creature. Since then, Elric has maintained life in his sluggish body through potions, herbs, and witchcraft.
Elric has the power to summon demonic creatures, but he is very intelligent and conscientious. By the age of fifteen, Elric had studied all the books in his father's library. The emperorâs thoughts about the stupidity of many traditions in the kingdom are caused by the hatred of some courtiers, including his cousin Yirkun. Yirkun is very popular, they are afraid to argue with him and respect him for his conservatism. Elricâs cousin longs for power, so he pursues a cunning policy to overthrow the ugly brother.
In the first novel, Elric from Melnibone, the emperor competes with a cousin whose sister Simoril loves forever and wants to marry her. At the end of the confrontation between relatives, Imrrir, the capital of the island of Melnibone, perishes in a fire. It was a beautiful city with tall multi-colored towers, busy streets and rich ports. The ruined capital was eventually robbed by pirates from the Young Kingdoms.
Elric is weak in body, but he has a relic that cannot be compared to any wealth - the ring of Kings. Thanks to the ring, Elric is able to summon his patron - Arioch, the demon of Chaos.
Elric asks for intercession from Arioch so as not to lose to Yirkun. The demon gives Elric the Black Sword, which helps him to prevail in a duel with his cousin. The black sword gives the emperor tremendous power, but this invincible weapon feeds on the souls of the slain, and over time Elric falls under the power of the sword, under the power of Arioch. Most of the novels cover Elricâs relationship with Burenos, as he called his sword. Burenets wants to gain control of Elric, swallows the souls of all the people whom the emperor loves. But the last of the Melnibonians is not so easily broken.
Elric Novel Ideas
Each book should carry a meaning, an idea, because books are written in order to leave a mark in the soul of the reader, influence it, change it or direct it in the right direction.
In the series of chronicle "Elric from Melnibone" by Michael Moorcock, the following ideas can be distinguished:
- The thirst for power can destroy the state.
- In order to achieve their political ambitions, people are ready to go on betrayal, lies, betrayals, unjustified cruelty.
- The country needs reforms, in its traditions and rules, the state can run out of steam.
- Destructive weapons that create victory can destroy the owner of such a crushing artifact.
Melnibone Island - allegory to Britain. Like Britain, he lost all colonies, royal power became formal, and the island state of Melnibone perishes in flames, after a long domination of the world, and the power of emperors goes into oblivion.
Translations of the Elric Saga
The history of translations of the Elric saga in Russia began in the early 90s and was translated in parts, in separate pieces. Usually only the beginning and end of Elricâs adventures were translated. Therefore, critics did not understand how such a hero could arouse interest in the reader if the story of his life was greatly curtailed. Until 1994, translations were of terrible quality; some were impossible to read.
The best translations of the Elric saga are currently recognized as full translations of A. Lidinâs novels (Severo-Zapad publishing house 1998) and G. Krylovâs translation (Eksmo, 2005).
Krylov's translation in 2005 came out with several translation errors, so in 2008, Murcock fans, a translator and professional poets made a number of corrections to the text and published works in a new form.
Comics, music and movies
Elric's character inspired and inspires illustrators, musicians and directors to embody the character's image in film, music and comics.
Comics. Comics began to be released in 1972. Famous comics are Philip Russell, who released three comics around the world of Elric. Elric also appears in the famous DC comic book world. In 2011, BOOM studio set about publishing another comic about the albino emperor.
Music. The Heavquind group created by Murcock released albums that performed songs dedicated to Elric. Also, the image of the last emperor from the island of Melnibone is used by such groups as Blue Ăyster Cult, Blind Guardian, Domine.
Movie. There is evidence that there was an attempt to create an animated film that told the story of Elric, but for unknown reasons it was not completed. Currently, Universal Pictures is developing a trilogy about Elric.
Also, the world of Michael Moorcock and, in particular, the image of Elric, are used in many role-playing computer games.