Pulp Librarian Profile picture
Oct 2, 2020 16 tweets 7 min read Read on X
Today in pulp... "It is the colour of a bleached skull, his flesh; and the long hair which flows below his shoulders is milk-white." This is how we are introduced to Michael Moorcock's anti-hero Elric of Melniboné.

Let's learn more... #FridayThoughts
Elric, also known as The Albino Emperor, Elric Kinslayer and the Pale Prince of Ruins is the 428th emperor of Melniboné, and the last. A sickly sorcerer sustained by enchanted herbs, he is a brooder and an outsider to his people.
Elric is the sole heir to the Ruby Throne of Melniboné, after his mother died in childbirth. Like Hamlet he is a prince who studied the world and questions his role within it. He is also a moral person, which makes his people think of him as weak.
Elric's story is both a 'voyage and return' narrative of his travels amongst humans and a 'killing the monster' tale of his struggles against his cousin Yyrkoon and indeed his own role as an Eternal Champion.
Elric is set in the Michael Moorcock multiverse: a series of different versions of Earth at various times. Law and Chaos battle in each one, and an Eternal Champion must strive - often unwillingly - to maintain the balance between them.
To aid his role as Eternal Champion - and to provide his sickly body with strength - Elric wields the runesword Stormbringer: a sentient weapon that feeds on souls. However he must feed it souls whenever he draws it - a curse that causes him bitter grief.
Elric first appeared in Science Fantasy magazine in 1961, featuring in five novelettes. Four novellas followed, with the last one "Doomed Lord's Passing" published in 1964.
A number of other Elric stories were published in the 1960s and 70s, filling in gaps between the novellas. Collections of the original stories were also published by DAW, Lancer Books, Mayflower and Quartet.
The next original novel, "Elric of Melniboné" was published in 1972 as a a prequel to the earlier stories explaining how he came to possess Stormbringer...
...but it was another 17 years before the next Elric novel "The Fortress Of The Pearl" was published in 1989. Moorcock published further original Elric novels in the early 2000s.
Many influences on Moorcock's Elric saga have been cited, including Poul Anderson and Fletcher Pratt. But in the end Elric is unique to Michael Moorcock and his fictional multiverse.
Elric is a hugely complex character; not quite a tragic hero, not quite an anti-hero. Moorcock's concise style in describing him in his world adds to the sense that an elegant but intense narrative is being offered to the reader.
The world of Elric is also rich and complex, but not unfamiliar. The saga has been described as anti-Tolkein, unredemptive and Norse inspired. There is something in all of those assertions.
There are many excellent Elric graphic novels and role-playing games, so you can enjoy the world of Melniboné and the struggle for (and against) the Ruby Throne however you wish.
I don't think you have to start reading Elric in canonical order to enjoy it: I started with The Weird Of The White Wolf and worked backwards. That's the joy of a well constructed saga, you understand what you have missed from what you are already reading.
That's it for my look at Elric of Melniboné today. I hope I've whetted your appetite to read (or re-read) Michael Moorcock's epic tale.

More stories another time...

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Pulp Librarian

Pulp Librarian Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @PulpLibrarian

Feb 2
Today in pulp I try to decipher 1980s Japanese street style, with the help of Olive: The Magazine for Romantic Girls!

This may involve frills... Image
Street style is an ever-changing mix of styles, brands, attitudes and poses with various influences. And you normally have to be in the right place at the right time to capture it. Image
Which is where magazines come in! Photograping, documenting and deconstructing fashion never goes out of style, and in the late 1970s Japanese youth had one key guide to help them: Popeye! Image
Read 13 tweets
Feb 1
In February 1974 something profound and inexplicable happened to author Philip K Dick that changed his life forever. Was it an illness, a psychotic reaction, or something truly mystical?

Today in pulp I look back at the exegesis of Philip K Dick... Image
Philip K Dick was both prolific and influential. In his youth he came to the conclusion that, in a certain sense, the world is not entirely real and there is no way to confirm whether it is truly there. Image
By the end of the 1960s Philip K Dick had published over 40 novels and stories, as well as winning the 1963 Hugo Award for The Man In The High Castle. But he still struggled financially. Image
Read 18 tweets
Jan 29
What with you being so busy and everythign you may not have visited your local library in a while.

So come with me on a virtual library tour, courtesy of stock photography, to see what we do for a living... Image
The enquiries desk is normally your first stop in a library, and this is where you will meet The Angry Librarian!

Why is she angry? Because people keep asking her stupid questions! Image
"Are you open?"
"Do you have a toilet?"
"That chair's wobbly!"
"Why isn't it available in audiobook?"
"Someone else is on the computer and that's not fair!"

On and on it goes... Image
Read 11 tweets
Jan 29
Today in pulp I look at the original white stripes: the world of dazzle camoflague! Image
Traditional pattern camoflague had been used by the British Royal Navy to break up a ship's outline for some time. But in 1917 artist Norman Wilkinson presented the Admiralty with a different idea - camoflague that confused enemy rangefinders. Image
Dazzle - known in the US as Razzle Dazzle - would use high contrast colours in irregular patterns to make it difficult for enemy gunners to calculate a ship's range and bearing. This would (hopefully) lead to them taking up a poor firing position when they attacked. Image
Read 12 tweets
Jan 28
Friendship is universal. So are human-eating alien lizards in sunglasses. At least that's what we thought in 1983, thanks to one blockbuster TV mini-series.

This is the story of V... Image
Writer Kenneth Johnson had a strong background in TV drama and sci-fi, having worked on The Incredible Hulk and The Six Million Dollar Man. In 1976 he created The Bionic Woman series.

But his next project would be more political... Image
Johnson was interested in Sinclair Lewis's 1935 novel It Can't Happen Here, a story about how fascism might take hold in America. He worked up a modern retelling of the story - called Storm Warning - and pitched the idea to NBC as a mini-series. Image
Read 18 tweets
Jan 26
Abraham Van Helsing may be the most famous of the early occult detectives, but there were many others who appeared in Victorian and Edwardian literature.

Today I look back at some of the early supernatural sleuths who helped to define a genre that is still going strong today… Image
Occult detectives explore paranormal mysteries, sometimes by using spiritual skills. They could be normal detectives investigating the occult, occultists who use the dark arts to solve crime, or detectives with supernatural abilities such as clairvoyance. Image
Occult detectives began in the mid-19th century: Poe’s Murders in the Rue Morgue (1841) had set the template for detective fiction, whilst spiritualism and paranormal research also began to interest the public. Séances and Ouija boards were familiar tropes for Victorian readers. Image
Read 19 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

:(