# The Elric Saga *Elric of Melniboné* - Work: Book series - Date: 1961 – present - Made by: Michael Moorcock (Author) - Canonical: https://www.lanternhall.org/works/elric-of-melnibone/ > An albino sorcerer-emperor, sickly without drugs and a demon-sword that drinks souls, betrays everyone he loves in a cosmic war between Law and Chaos. **Why it matters:** The great anti-Conan: Moorcock's doomed, drug-dependent antihero remade sword-and-sorcery, gave D&D half its alignment system and gave Warhammer its eight-arrowed symbol of Chaos. ## Quick answers **When was The Elric Saga first published?** The Elric Saga was first published in 1961 – present. **Who created The Elric Saga?** The Elric Saga was made by Michael Moorcock (author). **What kind of work is The Elric Saga?** The Elric Saga is a book series in the Sword & Sorcery and Dark Fantasy tradition. **Why is The Elric Saga important?** The great anti-Conan: Moorcock's doomed, drug-dependent antihero remade sword-and-sorcery, gave D&D half its alignment system and gave Warhammer its eight-arrowed symbol of Chaos. ## Overview Elric VIII, 428th emperor of Melniboné, is fantasy's most famous antihero: an albino, physically weak and dependent on drugs and sorcery to live, ruler of a cruel, ancient, decadent island empire whose dragons sleep and whose power is waning. He is also bound to Stormbringer, a black runesword that drinks the souls of those it slays and feeds their strength to him — and that has a habit of killing the people he loves. [Michael Moorcock](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/michael-moorcock/)'s stories of Elric, begun in 1961 and extended across six decades, took [sword and sorcery](https://www.lanternhall.org/atlas/sword-and-sorcery/) away from the muscular confidence of [Robert E. Howard](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/robert-e-howard/)'s [Conan](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/conan-the-cimmerian/) and toward something neurotic, doomed and modern. ## Origins Moorcock was a 21-year-old London writer and editor when John Carnell, editor of the British magazine *Science Fantasy*, asked him for a heroic fantasy series. The result, "The Dreaming City," appeared in issue 47 in June 1961 and was followed by a run of stories collected as *The Stealer of Souls* (Neville Spearman, 1963) and *Stormbringer* (Herbert Jenkins, 1965). Moorcock has cited Bertolt Brecht, the Finnish *Kalevala* and [Poul Anderson](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/poul-anderson/)'s [The Broken Sword](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/the-broken-sword/) among his influences, and the critic John Clute read Elric as a deliberate inversion of Conan: where the barbarian is healthy, simple and self-reliant, Elric is sickly, intellectual and dependent. The first full novel, *Elric of Melniboné*, came in 1972, a prequel telling how the young emperor lost his throne; Moorcock went on adding books into the twenty-first century. Elric became the founding figure of Moorcock's larger "Eternal Champion" cycle, in which heroes across many worlds — Corum, Hawkmoon, Erekosë — are incarnations of a single figure caught in the balance between Law and Chaos. ## The story In the earliest stories, Elric has left Melniboné to wander the human Young Kingdoms, leaving his cousin Yyrkoon as regent and his beloved Cymoril waiting. Yyrkoon usurps the throne; in "The Dreaming City" Elric returns with a fleet of human raiders to sack Imrryr, the capital, and in the chaos Stormbringer kills Cymoril. The later stories follow Elric and his cheerful companion Moonglum through a series of adventures in which the emperor, a sorcerer who can summon elemental spirits and his patron, the Chaos Lord Arioch, is repeatedly pulled into the war between the gods of Law and Chaos. In *Stormbringer*, the cycle reaches its apocalypse: Chaos overwhelms the world, Elric serves as the agent of its renewal, and the sword finally turns on its master. ## Reception & impact Elric found a devoted readership and became one of the defining characters of the 1960s and 1970s fantasy boom, a hero for readers who found Tolkien too comforting. His image spread through covers, comics — from Philippe Druillet's French adaptation of 1968 to Marvel's *Conan the Barbarian* in 1972 — and rock music: Moorcock worked with Hawkwind and wrote lyrics for Blue Öyster Cult's "Black Blade." Roleplaying games took even more. [Gary Gygax](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/gary-gygax/) listed *Stormbringer* and *The Stealer of Souls* in [Appendix N](https://www.lanternhall.org/culture/appendix-n/) and credited Moorcock, along with Anderson, as the inspiration for the Law, Neutrality and Chaos [alignments](https://www.lanternhall.org/lexicon/alignment/) of original [Dungeons & Dragons](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/original-dungeons-and-dragons/). The first printing of TSR's *Deities & Demigods* (1980) included a Melnibonéan mythos written with Moorcock's permission. But Moorcock had also licensed the game rights to [Chaosium](https://www.lanternhall.org/houses/chaosium/), which released its *Stormbringer* RPG in 1981, and the Melnibonéan and Cthulhu sections disappeared from later printings of *Deities & Demigods*; accounts differ on whether legal pressure or TSR's own caution was decisive. ## Legacy The Elric stories left permanent marks on fantasy and on games. The cursed, soul-eating sword became a stock artifact. The doomed, morally compromised hero opened the path to later antiheroes, from the brooding protagonists of [dark fantasy](https://www.lanternhall.org/atlas/dark-fantasy/) to [Grimdark](https://www.lanternhall.org/atlas/grimdark/). And the cosmic contest between Law and Chaos, rather than simple good against evil, became a structuring idea of tabletop fantasy. The most visible heir is [Games Workshop](https://www.lanternhall.org/houses/games-workshop/). Moorcock designed a symbol of Chaos in the early 1960s — eight arrows radiating from a center, with a single arrow standing for Law — and Games Workshop adopted it as the emblem of Chaos in [Warhammer](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/warhammer-fantasy-battle/) and *Warhammer 40,000*, where the Chaos gods are the setting's great corrupting force. Computer RPGs inherited the saga's mood as well as its alignments: every tormented swordsman carrying a hungry blade owes something to the albino prince of the Dreaming City. ## Facts - Elric debuted in 'The Dreaming City' in Science Fantasy no. 47, June 1961; Moorcock was 21. - Moorcock has acknowledged Poul Anderson's [The Broken Sword](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/the-broken-sword/) as an influence; scholar John Clute saw Elric as a deliberate inversion of Conan. - Gygax credited D&D's Law-versus-Chaos alignments to Moorcock and [Poul Anderson](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/poul-anderson/). - TSR's Deities & Demigods (1980) included a Melnibonéan mythos, with Moorcock's permission; it vanished from later printings — accounts differ as to why. - Chaosium licensed the saga for its Stormbringer RPG (1981). - Moorcock drew the eight-arrowed symbol of Chaos in the early 1960s; Games Workshop adopted it for Warhammer. - Marvel put Elric in Conan the Barbarian in 1972 — his first appearance in a mass-circulation American comic, four years after Philippe Druillet's French adaptation. ## Sources and further reading - [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elric_of_Melnibon%C3%A9) - [The true story of the Cthulhu and Elric sections removed from Deities & Demigods — DMDavid](https://dmdavid.com/tag/the-true-story-of-the-cthulhu-and-elric-sections-removed-from-deities-demigods/) --- From The Lantern Hall (https://www.lanternhall.org/), a museum of fantasy literature and roleplaying games.