#also been reading the corum series and love him to death so I need to draw the prince in the scarlet robe someday too

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Corum, The Swords Trilogy

 Decided to kick point number 6 off the list since I’ve already read it.

Corum was my first time reading Michael Moorcock’s works, and it pretty well laid out what I’ve come to expect from his fantasy. This is the tale of Prince Corum Jhaelen Irsei, the Prince in the Scarlet Robe. The last survivor of his elf-like race the Vadhagh, wiped out by the savagery of man (or Mabden, as they are called).

He’s kinda an inversion of Elric in some ways, which makes sense since he’s another incarnation of the Eternal Champion. His race was once powerful, but fell into ruin as they retreated into their castles. Not for the same sadistic hedonism as enjoyed by the people of Melnibone, but rather to focus on science and art. These are more classical high-elves compared to Melnibone’s dark elf prototypes. As such, Corum comes across as much more sheltered than the Proud Prince of Ruins. However, their races both looked down on humanity. Where Melnibone took them for slaves, the Vadhagh saw them as little more than animals which led to them underestimating the threat. I really like this one line repeated throughout the book, whereas a Vadhagh says that he would feel better if the barbarians knew what they were destroying rather than just being ignorant in their genocide.

That is until humans destroy his home, kill his family, and leave him maimed. Losing an eye and a hand, he is left with anger towards humanity and the uncaring universe surrounding him. This is what originally sold me on the back of the book, but Corum soon falls in love with a human woman and lets go of his anger towards humanity as a whole and instead just saves it for the chaos-aligned warriors led by the dastardly Glandyth

Eventually Corum is sent on his first quest armed with the Hand of Kwll and the Eye of Rhynn, two lost gods. They come with some pretty cool powers. The jeweled eye allows Corum to see into other worlds, including a netherrealm where there are some undead. The six-fingered hand of Kwll not only gives Corum strength, it will kill threats to Corum regardless of his will and can summon the aforementioned undead. Those undead will fight for Corum, taking back those they kill to replacd them in order to get their prize. True death. I just really, really love how dark these powers are. Not as evil as Stormbringer, but considering how Corum comes across more of a nice guy than Elric it does seem out of place for him to have them.

There’s also Corums companion Jhary-a-Conel, who is basically Dandelion from The Witcher series with a flying kitty. Jhary is great, moreso than Corum’s love interest Rhalina. It’s nice she tries to be an action heroine, she just sucks at it and needs to be rescued quite a bit.

While this series was more trippy than the Elric stories I have read thus far (to think Elric is rather grounded), the big take-away I got was Corum was at the whims of the gods. An incarnation of Arioch, in this series Knight of the Swords, destroyed his race when he won Corum’s realm because they were not made by him. In the second book, Corum’s ally Lord Arkyn of Law sends him on a mission whose main purpose is to trick Xiombarg, queen of the Swords, into defying the Cosmic Balance and being destroyed as a result after Corum angers her greatly. Finally Kwll’s machinations are brought to the forefront when Corum has to go after Mabelrode, King of the Swords (Kwll even arranges a crossover with Elric and another eternal champion). So it felt less like he was in charge of his own adventure, much like Elric at points, but his final prize did offer some hope.

A world without gods after Kwll and Rhynn, both restored to full power, kill all of the lords of Chaos at Corum’s request then proceed to do the same to those of law for good measure. They then reply that while Arkyn may have been good, they don’t need the gods for that kind of goodness.

And that’s pretty much my thoughts on Corum. Compared to Hawkmoon and Elric, it’s definitely the lesser series. In fact, I would probably say the third book almost requires some level of familiarity with Moorcock’s other stories. Again, it gets pretty trippy in places and as a result feels very ungrounded. But it’s still good for a quick adventure, as each book clocks in at under 180 pages. I wouldn’t call it required reading though, and would recommend Hawkmoon or Elric over it as an introduction to Moorcock’s works.

And now for some Domine