Last month I wrote a general review of The Witcher series of short stories and the novels up to The Lady of the Lake (two prequel novels have been published since). Like most, I was more familiar with the character through the computer games which were the main vehicle for the series’ popularity outside of Poland and Eastern Europe. I mentioned in passing some claims of plagiarism due to a number of similarities The Witcher has with Michael Moorcock’s Elric of Melniboné series. As I had only read the first novel (by internal chronology), in this series, I didn’t know enough to offer an opinion. I decided soon after that post to seek out the books and was able to find an omnibus of the first four novels (again by internal chronology), which I quickly read through over the last month.
Although I wouldn’t describe myself a “fan”, I certainly found them far more engaging and absolutely better-written than The Witcher novels and may read the rest of the series in the future. I can also add based on these four novels that The Witcher novels are different enough that Andrzej Sapkowski can’t be considered a plagiarist in the strict definition of the word. I do think that because of his career translating English novels into Polish before becoming an author, that he was aware of and influenced by Moorcock and probably did knowingly copy a number of Elric’s attributes for Geralt. I don’t think being derivative in your writing is necessarily a literary sin but I do think it is unprofessional not to acknowledge your influences and especially the direct ones.
With that out of the way, this is not a post written to compare the two series. It is about what I found most irritating in the otherwise entertaining Elric novels I read which were Elric of Melniboné, The Fortress of the Pearl, The Sailor on the Seas of Fate and The Weird of the White Wolf. These are all collected in a 2022 publication by Saga Press.
As the title of this post makes clear, Elric is yet another gamma protagonist in the Fantasy genre though one that is saved by the quality prose and imaginative ideas of his creator. Having covered a number of notorious examples including the especially egregious The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss, I felt it my duty to add some commentary on Elric too.
Unlike for Rothfuss, I only have one lengthy quote from the fourth novel but it is a doozy that includes virtually every gamma trope you could think of. It is obvious from the early pages of the first novel that Elric is a gamma but Moorcock really pours it out in the passage that follows.
One night, as Elric sat moodily drinking alone in a tavern—ever the best of places for discovering news—a wingless woman of Myyrrhn came gliding out of the storm and rested her lithe body against him.
Her face was thin and frail-boned, almost as white as Elric’s own albino skin, and she wore flimsy pale green robes which contrasted well with her dark red hair.
The tavern was ablaze with candle-flame and alive with droning argument and gusty laughter, but the words of the woman of Myyrrhn came clear and liquid, carrying over the zesty din.
“I have sought you twenty days,” she said to Elric who regarded her insolently through hooded crimson eyes and lazed in a high-backed chair, a silver wine-cup in his long-fingered right hand and his left on the pommel of his sorcerous runesword Stormbringer.
“Twenty days,” murmured the Melnibonéan softly, speaking as if to himself, mockingly rude. “A long time for a beautiful and lonely woman to be wandering the world.” He opened his eyes a trifle wider and spoke to her directly: “I am Elric of Melniboné, as you evidently know. I grant no favours and ask none. Bearing this in mind, tell me why you have sought me for twenty days.”
Equably, the woman replied, undaunted by the albino’s supercilious tone. “You are a bitter man, Elric; I know this also—and you are grief-haunted for reasons which are already legend. I ask you no favours—but bring you myself and a proposition. What do you desire most in the world?”
“Peace,” Elric told her simply. Then he smiled ironically and said: “I am an evil man, lady, and my destiny is hell-doomed, but I am not unwise, nor unfair. Let me remind you a little of the truth. Call this legend if you prefer—I do not care.”
“A woman died a year ago, on the blade of my trusty sword.” He patted the blade sharply and his eyes were suddenly hard and self-mocking. “Since then I have courted no woman and desired none. Why should I break such secure habits? If asked, I grant you that I could speak poetry to you, and that you have a grace and beauty which moves me to interesting speculation, but I would not load any part of my dark burden upon one as exquisite as you. Any relationship between us, other than formal, would necessitate my unwilling shifting of part of that burden.” He paused for an instant and then said slowly: “I should admit that I scream in my sleep sometimes and am often tortured by incommunicable self-loathing. Go while you can, lady, and forget Elric for he can bring only grief to your soul.”
With a quick movement he turned his gaze from her and lifted the silver wine-cup, draining it and replenishing it from a jug at his side.
The Weird of the White Wolf, Book II, Chapter 1 by Michael Moorcock
In the above passage we have our hero approached by a sexually forward red-head and though he spends the next few paragraphs posturing that he wants nothing to do with her, he fornicates with her barely two pages later. This is all very much in the vain of gamma fantasy and the sexually forward red-head is all too common.
It is also of interest that Elric is all alone in a tavern which is a place that people usually go for company. The author expects the reader to believe this is by choice but after all that is uttered above, who could possibly want to share his company? I can imagine the young Mr. Moorcock had some experience sitting morosely alone in a tavern with a decanter of red wine and a single glass, while those around him drank beer. Perhaps one night, sitting in the corner ignored, he noticed a red-headed waif speaking to another man and made a fantasy in his head of her making a seductive approach to him. After all, what woman would not be attracted to the mysterious man sitting alone, with a glass of red pondering subjects more sophisticated than sport and the weather on a Friday evening?
This passage also mentions some other events from the earlier novels including the death of his oneitis-beloved Cymoril by his own hand. Any sympathy for the character vanishes when knowing this is an eventuality that could have easily been avoided at multiple points in overall narrative. Cymoril is Elric’s cousin who also has an ambitious brother Yyrkoon who had nothing but contempt for Elric; quite understandably judging by the passage above. He makes this as obvious to Elric as it is to the reader and yet the aloof and arrogant Elric does nothing about it though he is well within his rights to do so.
Elric is soon betrayed and left for dead by Yyrkoon and after escaping death, has every opportunity and justification to revenge himself upon Yyrkoon or at least have him executed. He doesn’t and quite absurdly leaves him in charge of the capital Imrryr when he decides to become an adventurer. Yyrkoon naturally usurps his throne again and sometime prior to the drunken lamentations above, he leads foreign pirates into his homeland to sack and destroy it; himself killing Yyrkoon and Cymoril in the process.
As a character then, Elric is not in the least bit sympathetic and his status as an “antihero” does not excuse this as many similar characters are still likeable or at least have some appeal. The world and aspects of Elric himself are “very cool” and it is not hard to understand how influential Moorcock’s character has been to heavy metal. But strictly as a character, he leaves a lot to be desired. I simply can’t find much to like in a weepy weakling that wallows in his own stupidity. Yes, he is under the influence of a demonic sword called ‘Stormbringer’ (also pretty cool), but he fully knew the potential consequences before he first decided to wield it.
One last thing I wished I’d grabbed a quote for was Elric’s fling in a dream world with a Dreamthief named Oone in The Fortress of the Pearl. This novel is set after the original but was written and published much later. The short of it is that he wasn’t being unfaithful to Cymoril because it happened in a dream and Oone caused him to forget it afterwards. So we are to suppose that it isn’t cheating if it happened in a dream and you no longer remember it.
I am not sure if Moorcock actually embraces this label but he is often considered the anti-Tolkien. This is true in a number of ways but not for any good reasons. He writes well and there are interesting ideas within these books but Tolkien’s oeuvre is still on a whole other level of quality even leaving aside the immense literary achievement of The Lord of the Rings. At least based on the first four Elric books, I would also put him below a number of other fantasy greats as well. I can’t speak for his other works but the biggest problem with the Elric novels is the protagonist and that is a big problem.