The Broken Sword!

I'm amazed it has taken me this long, most of my life as it turns out to finally read Poul Anderson's famous The Broken Sword. I thought I had read it once before, back in the 80's but soon after launching into it, I realized I was on untraveled ground. The power of this narrative is nigh magical. It captures you, snarls you in its spell and it's hard to put down. But then when you do, it's surprising how short a distance you've come. The story is exceedingly compressed, in the manner of myth which rolls out the narrative with relentlessness. 

The novel was first published in 1954, the same year that J.R.R. Tolkien's masterpiece The Lord of the Rings first began to hit the bookshelves with The Fellowship of the Ring For that reason, I gather Anderson's book has been hidden in that epic's shadow. Not because of any other reason surely as Anderson also gives us a tale full of brave warriors, elves, trolls, and other magical creatures. They are profoundly different from Tolkien's creations, filled with a brutality and violence which fills The Broken Sword. Anderson does a magnificent job of capturing that sense of fatalism which informs Icelandic sagas and other Nordic myth. We meet characters only to see them die a few paragraphs later, but rather we feel that we're being cheated of story we are immediately put onto another trail. The richness if this tale is potent. 

This is a Viking saga in which we meet a brutal man named Orm who seeks his own fame and fortune. He murders the family of a witch, and she curses him. He takes a wife Alefrida and has a son, but circumstances are such that an elf named Imric replaces the child with a changeling. The changeling is named Valgard. Imric names the boy Skafloc and raises him to be the best a human can be in the Elven way. Valgard's origins are such that he's an even more violent and brutal son for a violent and brutal man, and he feels apart from his supposed family. What roles this man and changeling play in the wars between elf and troll and to some small extent man makes up the story, as well as the great sin which forms its darkest center. These can be hard characters to like, but they are characters one can admire, if only on their own brutal terms. 

This is story I'm hesitant to discuss in too much detail, as it might spoil the potential excitement for new readers. And the purpose of this post is just that. I want to encourage everyone and anyone to read The Broken Sword. It's taken me far too long to savor this truly awesome tale and I want others to get to it as soon as possible. Michael Moorcock prefers Anderson's story to Tolkien's more famous tale, and I can see why at last, even if I do hold the latter in still high regard. Many aspects of Anderson's saga find a shape in Moorcock's expansive writings. It has been exciting to find a story I can get excited about, even after all these decades. 

It's been a while since I've read a book I didn't want end, while as at the same time I raced to the inevitable conclusion. Read The Broken Sword. 

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Elric - The Eternal Champion Collection!

I imagine the very first time I ever heard of Jim Cawthorn was when he and Michael Moorcock supplied a plot for a few issues of Conan the Barbarian which co-starred Elric of Melnibone. (More on that collaboration tommorow.) That was my first taste of Elric too, so it's likely that was my first exposure to any of the work of Moorcock in any respect. Years later I'd gather up all the Moorcock I could find whether it was Elric, Hawkmoon, or even Jerry Cornelius, and I read all of it. But Cawthorn remained something of an enigma until I was able to read about his early contributions to Elric and other Moorcock concepts. When I saw this Titan tome reprinting work by Cawthorn featuring Elric I picked it up immediately. 

It didn't hurt that the book also features early work by Phillipe Drulliet, a name I first chanced upon in the wild and weird pages of Heavy Metal. I don't claim to have fully understood Drulliet's work but there's no denying his imagery on things like his Lone Sloane is compelling and a perfect fit for the decadent world of Melnibone. And it's this earliest raw stuff which pokes the eyeballs best in my opinion.

Melnibone differs from Robert E. Howard's Hyborian Age in that the former is defined by its excess and malignance. That a person like Elric could be considered a hero tells more about the decay and depravity of the time and place. 

And Drulliet captures that excess and vile opulence better than any artist I've ever encountered. His vistas of statues too large for actual human comprehension suggest a world dedicated not to humanity but to other forces beyond the scope and even ken of humanity. 

I often find Elric stories bewildering in their baroque use of names and likewise Drulliet's artwork is at once compelling and confusing. He makes drawings that make you feel like you are experiencing Melnibone. 

Cawthorn on the other hand gives up a world which does offer a greater degree of immediate apprehension. While the story of Stormbringer is a complex and detailed outing and at times I lose my place in Cawthorn's storytelling, I never lose interest in his images, even though some of those images are rough hewn at best. 

Drulliet's line is sinuous and serpentine while Cawthorn's resembles a network of slashes and cuts, as if they were not ink but rather cuts in a piece of wood. Given this rustic appearance it's fascinating at the depth of field he can sometimes create in the stronger imagery. 

These are not perfect works by any means, as they reflect talents capable but still growing and developing, but they are works which capture the imagination and that's the strongest aspect of any of Moorcock's writing. 

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The Swords Of May!

Welcome back. 

This merry month of May is dedicated to one of my most cherished passions, tales of swords and sorcery. Some label this kind of tale fantasy and make fine distinctions between say a Prince Valiant, a Conan the Barbarian, a King Kull, a Solomon Kane, a Lord of the Rings, a Prince Caspian of Narnia, an Eternal Champion or two, or even a Princess on Mars. But me, I like to think of them as all part of a wonderous timeless store of tales of stalwart men and beautiful women, and magic both white and black which is not of this world, and the steel it takes both inside those men and women and that which is gripped tightly in their hands to make sure that some modicum of justice prevails in the end. 

Conan the Barbarian will be the centerpiece this month with reviews of new (mostly) Conan comic anthologies on each Saturday. Robert E. Howard's unruly thief who became king might also show at other times as well. I have plans to look both of the recent Epic volumes showcasing Conan's earliest adventures under the helm of "Rascally" Roy Thomas and Barry "Becoming Windsor" Smith, with a dash of Gil "Sugar Lips" Kane "Big" John Buscma thrown in. 

The long awaited adaptation of REH's The Hour of the Dragon is also in the offing. 

"The Sunday Funnies" will showcase that champion of King Arthur's court -- Hal Foster's Prince Valiant. The Val of the 1950's will be the focus. 

In a new feature I'm dubbing the "Showcase Corner" expect to see a review of a series I've had in hand for a few years and feel a burning need to at long last read -- Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld. 

Also it turns out that many a sword and sorcery movie has been made over the decades. Some of them are fantastic and some of the are utterly terrible. I'll be taking a glimpse at some of the latter this month.

There will also be a special run of better movies starring the gang at Camelot. 

And showing up also in some capacity expect to see Michael Moorcock's Elric Melnibone, Doug Moench's and John Buscema's "Weirdworld" work Warriors of the Shadow Realm, Gemstone's offbeat World of the Dragonlords (starring Huey, Dewey and Louie no less) and if time permits Richard and Wendy Pinis' ElfQuest stories, Jeff Smith's delightful Bone and Rose misadventures, along with Gil Kane's BlackMark. Many of these I've read before, but it's great to revisist them. I haven't read Camelot 3000 in ages and that's always a hoot. I might even get around to Gold Key's Dagar the Invincible. 

It's a heavy lift, but the burden is a most enjoyable one indeed. 

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The Stealer Of Souls!

Michael Moorcock's Elric of Melnibone is a fascinating character, a hero for sure, but also a villain to many. He is a traitor to his own people in order to fulfill his own desire for vengeance on his enemy and as a result his beloved dies, and his ancient city falls. He becomes a nomad, and his people lose control of the ancient and sorcery-rich lands that had been theirs for countless generations.

I recently re-read the first few Elric "novels" in the first edition of the most recent series from Ballantine Books which offers up the texts as they originally appeared in magazine serial form in issues of Science Fantasy in the early 1960's. I can't say much for the John Picacio illustrations, which frankly left me rather cold, but the stories bristled with the youthful energy Moorcock was able to muster in these early outings of sword and sorcery. Elric is more in the wizened tradition of Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and Grey Mouser rather (which Moorcock likes a lot) rather than Robert E. Howard's seminal Conan (which Moorcock likes somewhat less). The stories are sardonic in tone at times and Elric is a protagonist always, but often far from a hero in any sense we might casually understand that term.

The "Stealer of Souls" referred to in the title is a sword, a sword named "Stormbringer" and it is this sword, a black blade which contrasts so starkly with the albino white skin of Elric himself which completes the character Michael Moorcock created so very long ago. Inspired to some extent by the anti-villain Zeno the Albino from the adventures of Sexton Blake. Stealer of Souls really is made up of five connected novellas, each complete in itself but moving the Elric story along as he meets a supporting cast of sorts, in particular his partner Moonglum.

More cohesive as a novel is Stormbringer, which brings the Elric saga to a close and follows up on the themes established in the earlier collection. In this saga, again comprised of four linked novellas, the action is more focused in time and the action in each follows on pretty much immediately from its predecessor. In this story Elric battles the sorcerer Jagreen Lern who is using the forces of Chaos, which Elric also serves, to conquer the known world. The Lords of Chaos and of Order actually appear in these stories and do battle directly as Elric is thrown into their midst. Death is the commonplace in these stories as the intent is to bring the story to a finale.

But of course Elric proved too popular to finish, so though we see his end, we are still left with a broad and sprawling life to explore and Moorcock has been doing that ever since.

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The Sword & Sorcery Anthology!

The Sword & Sorcery Anthology puts me in the mind of those wonderful collections of sword and sorcery stories by Lin Carter so many years ago.

It showcases quite a range of authors, including of course Robert E. Howard represented here by his outstanding "The Tower of the Elephant". Also from Weird Tales is a Jirel of Jory story by C.L. Moore ("Black God's Kiss"). There's a Fafhrd and Grey Mouser story by Fritz Leiber ("The Unholy Grail") and a story by Poul Anderson ("The Tale of Hauk"). Michael Moorcock is represented by the Elric story "The Caravan of Forgotten Dreams".

Those stories I have though in other places, but what really got me to give this one a second look were a trio of stories from Whispers, a Kane story by Karl Edward Wagner, a story by David Drake, and mostly a sword and sorcery story by Ramsey Campbell written under the pseudonym of "Montgomery Comfort".

Throw in some newer stuff by the likes of Michael Swanwick and Gene Wolf, and you have a really nice range of talent represented in this book. It's not comprehensive, but nicely expansive. There's a real sense of a range of voices and styles.

The volume is really hurt significantly though by the almost complete lack of an editorial voice. There's a forward by David Drake, but nothing from the editors and no explanatory material between the stories either about the authors or the stories. These kinds of books need that context in my opinion and the lack of it here does hurt.

The cover for this one by Jean-Sebastien Rossbach is a keeper, a really nice image full of blood and thunder. That's a nice change for my tastes when fantasy covers and S&S covers in particular seem sometimes to eschew this kind of thing.

The original solicitations for this book said Jack Vance would be included, but he has no story in this collection. There's no explanation offered.

At fifteen bucks though this one is worth the effort to find.

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The Fashionable Melnibonean!

Jack Gaughan
When Michael Moorcock's sorcerous albino hero Elric of Melnibone first appeared in American print, the covers to the paperbacks were illustrated by the late great Jack Gaughan. Gaughan has a style which is compelling, sleek, modern and beautiful. But it can be weird too.



These two paperback covers by Gaughan apparently were the only reference for the character that Barry (Not-Yet-Windsor) Smith could get hold of when it came time to render the Melnibonean for his guest-starring role in Conan the Barbarian. So it's understandable that Smith topped Elric with a rather tall peaked cap.



And while the cap looks okay in the Gaughan images, rendered by Smith, the hat looks somewhat silly to be honest. Moorcock apparently is not pleased with this look, neither in the Gaughan originals nor the Smith variations.


But for many years this became my image of Elric, because it was the only image I saw. Dave Sim reinforced this notion with the creation of Elrod in Cerebus, a spoof of Elric, or at least the Elric seen in the Conan comics.



It would be several years before I saw another interpretation of the hero. This time by Michael Whelan, who painted some outstanding covers for the DAW paperback series.


And it would be many years still before I got to see James Cawthorn's original interpretation of the Melnibonean, the classic look. It's certainly more flattering, but perhaps less memorable.


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Elric Of Melnibone!

Frank Brunner
I've been fascinated by Michael Moorcock's Elric of Melnibone since I found the bizarre albino character co-starring with Robert E. Howard's Conan in Marvel's superb comic book series.


Barry Windsor Smith
Suddenly, thanks to Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor Smith, in among all the Hyborian hubbub was thrown this rather different fellow with a really really funky hat. Despite the hat, I got the sense from that two-part story of a universe fundamentally different than Howard's, a place where magic was more fragrant and more varied.

I snagged up some Elric books when I found them later in the 70's under some exquisite Michael Whelan covers. When I found out Elric was part of a grander scheme of an "Eternal Champion" who is resurrected in different times under different names, I had to scarf up as many of Moorcock's books as I could lay my hands on. Elric's world reminded me of Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast more than any other sword and sorcery world I'd visited. It seemed rather peculiar and somewhat alien.





Michael Whelan
It's been decades since I read those stories, but now Del Rey is putting out Moorcock's saga, a story that has grown and altered over the years, in a series of books. I've yet to get the last two, but I want to sit down and mingle with the odd folks of Melnibone once again. They're like those very odd neighbors down the road, the kind you want to be polite to because you're not quite sure what they're capable of.







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