Elric: Where to start?

[j. d. worthington]

Originally Posted by Connavar of Rigante

Does that mean i can read Elric like i read Conan ?

Publishing orderwise where a story is about an older king Conan and next is 20 years back to a young mercenary Conan and so on.


For me it doesnt matter, just want to know which reading order hurt the stories.


Man Moorcock's work is too confusing to get hold. It would be nice to have a link with all the short stories and which collections etc

Wiki doesnt make it sense for him.

Hope Fantasticfiction has better control on his things.

Somewhere (buried in the boxes of papers in storage) I have a chronology of his fiction I drew up some years ago. While it wouldn't cover the works published in the last 10 years or so, that wouldn't take long to catch up on, actually, as the bulk of that has been novels (not all, of course, but most).

At any rate, I'll see what I can do to help with this over the next few days. Suffice to say that The Golden Barge was perhaps the earliest (surviving) example of his fiction, though it was edited (for consistency and to clean it up a bit) when it was published in 1978 (IIRC). The next notable set would be his Sojan stories, which (unless you're a die-hard Moorcockian) aren't really worth looking into -- very early work, and more interesting for the faint signs of the writer to come, and for indications of his early development.

If you're only intersted in the Elric tales, then the first of the series is "The Dreaming City" (s.s., not the novel, which was a retitling -- without Moorcock's permission, as I understand it -- of Elric of Melniboné); then came "While the Gods Laugh", "The Stealer of Souls", "Kings in Darkness", and "The Flame Bringers" (all collected together in the collection The Stealer of Souls). Then came the four pieces that made up Stormbringer!: "Dead God's Homecoming", "Black Sword's Brothers", "Sad Giant's Shield", and "Doomed Lord's Passing". However, you may not want to read these until the end, as it does tell you of Elric's ultimate fate (this was originally where Moorcock intended to leave the series, and did until several years later).... At any rate, let me know if it's just the Elric stories you're interested in at this point, as this would simplify things considerably.....

[Connavar]

Im interested only in Elric saga. Corum i want to read too but i already know how to read him.


Dreaming City (EM)
While the Gods Laugh(EM
The Stealer of Souls
The Fortress of the Pearl ( EM)
The Sailor on the Seas of Fate(EM)

EM is i found in fantasticfiction that those stories are collected in EM collection.


Is my order a good start?

Also when you make a list, can make difference beteween novels,collections and short stories. Good to know what you are getting.

[j. d. worthington]

Okay, Connavar, get ready for a very convoluted ride.....

First, yes, reading that collection would be fine, as it contains the earliest published Elric tales. But, as I said, you'll probably want to avoid the stories that make up Stormbringer! until you've read the rest of the series (at least, that would be my judgment, given comments in some of your other posts elsewhere).

Here's the list (first publication dates only given; if a story has been revised, that's noted, but not the date):

"The Dreaming City" (ss) -- Science Fantasy (June 1961)
"While the Gods Laugh" (ss) -- Science Fantasy (October 1961)
"The Stealer of Souls" (ss) -- Science Fantasy (February 1962)
"Kings in Darkness" (ss) -- Science Fantasy (August 1962)
"The Flame Bringers" (ss) -- Science Fantasy (October, 1962) (later retitled "The Caravan of Forgotten Dreams" for inclusion in the latest edition of the Eternal Champion cycle)
"To Rescue Tanelorn" (ss) -- Science Fantasy (December 1962)
"The Last Enchantment" (ss) -- Ariel, the Book of Fantasy vol. 3 (1978) (while not published until this date, the story was apparently written at the same time as the ones listed above; it was later retitled "Jesting with Chaos" for inclusion in the most recent edition of the Eternal Champion cycle)
"Dead God's Homecoming" (ss) -- Science Fantasy (June 1963)
"Black Sword's Brothers" (ss) -- Science Fantasy (October 1963)
"Sad Giant's Shield" (ss) -- Science Fantasy (February 1964)
"Doomed Lord's Passing" (ss) -- Science Fantasy (April 1964)
"Master of Chaos" (ss) -- Fantastic (May 1964) (retitled "The Dream of Earl Aubec" for later printings)
"The Singing Citadel" (ss) -- The Fantastic Swordsmen (anthology) (1967)
The Sleeping Sorceress (novel) -- (1971) (later retitled The Vanishing Tower)
"The Sleeping Sorceress" (ss version of novel) -- Fantastic (February 1972)
Elric of Melniboné (novel) -- (1972)
"The Jade Man's Eyes" (ss) -- Flashing Swords! #2 (anthology) (1973)
"The Lands Beyond the World" -- Flashing Swords! #4 (anthology) (1977)
"Elric at the End of Time" (ss) -- Elsewhere (anthology), 1981
The Fortress of the Pearl (novel) -- (1989)
The Revenge of the Rose (novel) -- (1991)
"The White Wolf's Song" (ss) -- Tales of the White Wolf (anthology) (1994)

Okay? Wait... the fun's only just beginning.... In the late 1970s, Moorcock did some revisions (sometimes light, sometimes heavy) to all the Elric tales published up to that point, to reconcile inconsistencies, to bring them into line with his growing conception of the multiverse and the cycle as a whole, and to alter emphasis philosophically. This set was the 6-volume set that was so long the standard edition of the Elric series (until the introduction of Fortress in the late 1980s), even though they left out "The Last Enchantment":

Elric of Melniboné (October, 1976)
The Sailor on the Seas of Fate (December, 1976)
The Weird of the White Wolf (March, 1977)
The Vanishing Tower (June, 1977)
The Bane of the Black Sword (August, 1977)
Stormbringer! (November, 1977) (this edition restores nearly a quarter of the work from the original serial, which had been cut when it was first published as a novel)

Thereare, so far as I know, no substantial changes between these and later editions, save that the newer work is now included... except that now, there's a new edition of Elric coming out next year, I hear, which (iirc) brings in some new material he's written since....

Del Rey Online | Elric The Stealer of Souls by Michael Moorcock

And then there's the two Elric scripts that he wrote for Marvel's Conan the Barbarian (issues #14 and 15) which come between The Sailor on the Seas of Fate and The Weird of the White Wolf....

Personally, my suggestion (if you can afford/find it) is to read the two-volume edition of the Elric tales from the Millennium/White Wolf set: Elric of Melniboné (Am. ed.: Elric: Song of the Black Sword) and Stormbringer (Am. ed.: Elric: The Stealer of Souls), which includes all but the newest of the material in the Elric series proper.

And we're not finished yet, as Elric makes appearances in both the Corum, Hawkmoon, and Dancers at the End of Time series (as well as occasionally, in a lighter vein, in the Cornelius tales); under different names in much of Moorcock's later fiction (such as Fabulous Harbours), and in an important capacity in three relatively new novels: The Dreamthief's Daughter (an odd sort-of sequel to Fortress of the Pearl), The Skrayling Tree, and White Wolf's Son. These are more closely connected to the von Bek books than the Elric series, but he does play a major role in them; so much so that they are often considered a new (but separate) Elric series....

[Connavar]

Thanks J.D for this and the pms i finaly understand.


Elric of Melniboné and Stormbringer collectionsfrom Millennium i will get.

[kaelcarp]

I'm glad I found this thread. I've been wanting to get into Moorecock's stuff, particularly Elric, for a long time, but I am kind of intimidated by the sheer amount of it and the lack of any real good guide to it (at least that I've found).

[j. d. worthington]

Okay... Somewhere about I've got a listing of the Eternal Champion Cycle and related material, divided up by groups (thematically or by series). I'll try to dig that out and post it to help those just getting into Moorcock.

In the meantime... there's been a new addition to the Elric stories: a graphic novel titled Elric: The Making of a Sorcerer, by Michael Moorcock and Walter Simonson; and yes, apparently it is a canonical story, which takes place about a year prior to the first of the previously published novels. Here's a review of the thing (I recently got a copy, but have not yet had a chance to read it):

Xenagia: Review of Michael Moorcock's Elric: The Making of a Sorcerer

Along with The Swords of Heaven, the Flowers of Hell (a tale of Erekosë) and Michael Moorcock's Multiverse, this graphic novel is a genuine part of the cycle, from all accounts; so newbies may want to begin there.

The thing about Moorcock's work is, you can pretty much begin anywhere, and you can pick up the pieces as you go along. He wrote the stories in such a way as to allow a pretty free order of reading...

[Who's Wee Dug]

Originally Posted by Connavar of Rigante

Im interested only in Elric saga. Corum i want to read too but i already know how to read him.


Dreaming City (EM)
While the Gods Laugh(EM
The Stealer of Souls
The Fortress of the Pearl ( EM)
The Sailor on the Seas of Fate(EM)

EM is i found in fantasticfiction that those stories are collected in EM collection.


Is my order a good start?

Also when you make a list, can make difference beteween novels,collections and short stories. Good to know what you are getting.

A good guide is The Tanelorn Archives - Richard Bilyeu pandora's Books
M.Moorcock A Readers Guide by John Davey
or the latest one I have is The Age of Chaos:The Multiverse of M.Moorcock by Jeff Gardiner published by British Fantasy Society

[j. d. worthington]

Originally Posted by Who's Wee Dug

A good guide is The Tanelorn Archives - Richard Bilyeu pandor's Books
M.Moorcock A Readers Guide by John Davey
or the latest one I have is The Age of Chaos:The Multiverse of M.Moorcock by Jeff Gardiner published by British Fantasy Society

I have the first, but neither of the other two... going to have to do some looking, it seems.... Thanks, WWD!