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| Cover: Bob Haberfield |
The Stealer
of Souls encompasses five short stories ‘The Dreaming City’, ‘While the Gods
Laugh’, ‘The Stealer of Souls’, ‘Kings in Darkness’ and ‘Flame Bringers’.
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| Artwork: Rodney Matthews |
The Story
I read
Moorcock’s stories of Elric before I stumbled onto Robert E. Howard and the pale king with
his malign sword has in many ways overshadowed any image I have of Conan. I
realise this is probably because Elric is an archetypal dark hero, agonising
about his shady and unfortunate existence, and 15-year-olds dig that kind of
thing.
“Mighty
Elric…Mightier sword!” The back of this book reads.
The world of
Elric is a world in the before-time of Earth; ancient kingdoms have risen and
fallen and new cities are built on the bones of old. This earth is a cruel
place, harsh and filled with war bands and monsters, demons, gods, sorcerers
and dark deeds.
Elric begins
as a petulant and apathetic princeling, a brooding proponent of evil and
violent acts. He leads an enemy army against his own kingdom, the ancient
city-state Imrryr, and is willing to watch as the city is raped, burned and
looted if it will get him his heart’s desire: his lover Cymoril and the death
of the royal usurper, Yyrkoon.
Elric is an
albino; because of this, he is weak, half-blind and extremely sensitive—entirely
the wrong person for a heroic narrative. Elric is only able to achieve his legendary
deeds because of the power of his vampiric sword, Stormbringer. He gains
strength and clarity of mind when he uses Stormbringer to strike an enemy. The
sword draws out the souls of the people it kills in order to feed Elric the superior
strength he needs to be a feared and heroic figure. Thus it becomes clear that Elric
is dependent on his sword for vitality and life, and that the sword,
Stormbringer, holds the real power in the dynamic.
“Be wary of
this devil-blade. It kills the foe – but savours the blood of friends and
kin-folk most”, Elric warns his companion after the sword betrays him by
guiding his hand to kill an innocent man.
Elric’s
realisation of this ugly truth heralds his growth as a likeable character. He
begins to realise that he is a tool of the sword, Stormbringer, rather than the
other way around, and that he would like nothing more than to be free from the
power it has over him.
The Tasty
Bit
The Eternal Champion is the figure that
Michael Moorcock reincarnates in every new story. A figure doomed to be
reincarnated in other places and times, when the ‘laws’ of the worlds are disrupted
and a new, often ruthless, balance must be exacted. Alongside the eternal
champion are two other figures: the Soulmate and the Companion, female and male
consecutively.
As Moorcock’s stories are episodic, the far-reaching and multi-tiered
applications of an eternally reincarnated soul are endless and the individual
heroes often run into each other through the mystical warping of time, space
and narrative causality.
While this concept doesn’t come into overt
play in the Stealer of Souls, Elric
as a character is aware that he is part of an ominous plan that goes far beyond the
conflicts of gods and humankind. Getting your teeth into this tasty bit requires a certain amount of
Moorcockian (haha…) dedication, in particular reading the Erekose, Hawkmooon and
Corum collections.
Verdict
In some ways
I felt a little nervous about tackling a review of a Michael Moorcock book,
especially Elric. There’s a lot of colour, movement and raw emotion on
Moorcock’s writing, and the concepts are fascinating, but in many ways it’s the
allure of oil on water—beautiful, intriguing even, but ultimately unsatisfying
when looking for anything more complex.
That being said the books are true treasures of the 60s. Moorcock describes his books as being born of the characters' emotional states, his environments are out of Bosch or Dali, immense and violent landscapes with grotesque figures. The worlds are psychedelic and colourful and the characters are so charismatically byronesque that it's impossible to ruin.
My only real qualms with Moorcock are his depictions of masculine versus feminine agency, which are a little bit too Arthurian, but ultimately inoffensive.
That being said the books are true treasures of the 60s. Moorcock describes his books as being born of the characters' emotional states, his environments are out of Bosch or Dali, immense and violent landscapes with grotesque figures. The worlds are psychedelic and colourful and the characters are so charismatically byronesque that it's impossible to ruin.
My only real qualms with Moorcock are his depictions of masculine versus feminine agency, which are a little bit too Arthurian, but ultimately inoffensive.
Other Stuff
Gollancz has recently re-published a number of Moorcock’s Eternal Champion books in its Masterworks collection. I find, however, that the new publications lack the physical grace of Granada’s ‘mayflower science fantasy’ prints with Haberfield's artwork. If you can acquire a 2nd hand copy of these books, I promise you it’s worth it!
Where to start: The issue of linearity doesn’t really come into
Moorcock’s Eternal Champion books, as previously mentioned, because they’re all
sort of reincarnations of each other. That being said, I don’t recommend
reading the Erekose collection first, as it ruins the surprise.
The list of characters and books in the Eternal Champion series is huge, I recommend: Corum, Elric, Erekose, Jherek Carnelion (not to be confused with Jerry Cornelous, another book by Moorcock), and Dorian Hawkmoon.
Artwork: Rodney Matthews , whose aesthetic I absolutely adore, also did a number of covers for Moorcock - go forth and see his amazing work!
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