Michael Moorcock's Eternal Champion, Part 1: Enter the Multiverse

Impressive overview of Moorcock's work and his very significant contribution to Fantasy (and beyond), and a very fair assessment of the quality of his writing. There's no question that Moorcock is an important and influential writer, that he's often hugely entertaining (many of his stories remain vivid in my memory after 40 years), but, like P.K. Dick, another fictionalising-philosopher, his most important legacy will probably be his ideas, not his prose. If not a great writer (of prose at least), he is, at his best, a great storyteller.
Yet another excellent video from The Library Ladder - thank you!

Great vid but back ground music far too loud.

Sorry, "The Doctor" is one of the Eternal Champions? As in, from Doctor Who?!

Thank you for this. I'm excited about reading again.

I often wonder why there has been no Elric series on HBO.

Is this guy for real, why does he talk like a movie trailer

You have sold me on it! 😂 i really want to read his books now. Especially the ones with the unlikeable characters. 😂

Carmine Infantino and Gardner Fox used the term "multiverse" in a 1961 comic called Flash of Two World, before Moorcock used it. In the scientific sense, the idea came forward in the debate between Boltzman and Zermelo in the late 1890s, Schrodinger mentioned multiple simultaneous universes in his lecture regarding superposition in the 1950s. Philosophically the exact term was used by William James in the 1890s as well. The idea was well defined, in writing, in the 5th century BC by Leucippus and Democritus, though they did not use the exact name of course. Hugh Everett's "Correlation Interpretation" from the 1950s, which became the "Parallel Worlds" hypothesis (one of the primary interpretations of Quantum Mechanics otday) was also in the 1950s. I believe that the idea, and possibly even the word, was in use in the Theosophical Society. Madam Blavatsky referring to "the Absolute" - which she describes (I believe in the Secret Doctrine) as being " a) "the Universe in toto", and b) "numberless Universes" associated with the "the Universe in toto." " I loved Moorcock's work, particularly the Dorian Hawkmoon saga (High History of the Runestaff), but I think most of his concepts have much deeper roots.

You sir, are great!

Perfect video, but god damn... this voice is so deep then I can hear the beast from below ocean realm calling my name

Someone should make a tabletop rpg based on his multiverse. It would be amazing.

Not gonna lie; I love Elric, and all the other character within that story, Oone, Hawkwind, Zaraznia, all of them burned into my mind. It is difficult to explain how much that story means to me. It set me down a path of taste in fantasy I am finding impossible to fulfill save for Malazan, some other writers, and the work of Goran Gligovic.

But I fking HATE the eternal champion/multiverse stories. First off, they are not this gem, OK? Get it out of your system. Elric's GF is a Nazi Officer in WWII Earth XD lmaooo, there is no consistency of tone or setting; one guy is an Austrian knight that has Melnibonean lineage, there are tie-ins to Marvel and Conan. It is the MOST compromised storyline Moorcock ever came up with. It is on the level of B comic tier.

It is fine inside the discrete stories, because they are only hinted at, and sometimes a character will come through for cameo at most. But if you loved Moorcock for his story on Chaos Lords, Ruinous Powers, this Weird Gothic (what Warhammer Fantasy basically copied), Phase Ships etc, they all devolve into Jack Kirby-esque story with the multiverse. Take it or leave it. One man's warning is another's endorsement after all. Me, I prefer my fantasy to be as far from Marvel shenanigans as possible.

There are literally TONS and TONS of stories by Moorcock beyond Elric even if you wanna branch out - but the multiverse is eck

Edit: On spirit of fairness, I will say the stories are well crafted. They are written by Moorcock after all. So it is not an incompetence that creates the lack of verisimilittude or quality. They read well enough, and the art is as always inspired and great because really Moorcock knows the best people in Illustration and Progressive Rock scenes. After all, we are talking about an aesthetic that inspired Yoshitaka Amano.

get rid of the AI, ultra sound processed super reverb ultra produced audio. sounds fake and odd; doesnt match the video of a talking man in a cozy library room.
but excellent overview nonetheless

I couldnt agree more. My favorites were the Elric and Corum saga's, both of which would make sprawling and incredible epics on the big screen if done right and kept as close to the source material as possible. They would be every bit as good, if not better, than dynamic and fantastic epics like Game of Thrones. I really hope that I see this come to be someday.

I read most of my Moorcock in the 1970s and 1980s I think the last book I read was the Warlord and the world's pain. Which I know you review latter. Having read almost everything, I did not read Morecock until in 2010 I bought my son the latest Dr Who book (as an audio book) The Coming of the Terraphiles by Micheal Moorcock. It sees the titular Dr and one of his companions and a Capt Cornelius on an adventure.

That's a huge moorcock! 😮

I've only read 2 Moorcock but I love both (behold the man and dancers at the end of time), it's amazing how prolific and influential he is and yet is not spoken of in the same breath as Clarke or Asimov.

Brilliant video dude! Been really enjoying binging your content

By all reports, It was Tolkien's choice not to publish LOTR in paperback.

I don't understand why Elric of Melnibone isn't a TV series yet

I know Elric is Moorcock's best known creation but I have always been more partial to the John Daker series and should be IMHO the starting point for those wanting to start the journey through Moorcock's multiverse.

Thank you so much for all of this! My name is actually Elric and I have only read through the elric books and some of The Books of Corum. But I talk about it all of the time, like the whole multiverse thing and it’s inspiration for a lot of fantasy. Plus I’m much more proud to be named after the White wolf than that anime character haha.

I remember watching this about a year ago and somehow I now stumble upon this channel again. I really appreciate these videos and I made sure to subscribe this time. I'd love to see you cover other writers like Gene Wolfe, Erikson, and R. Scott Bakker.

About damn time somebody covered all these. Thank you

Not a regular viewer of your channel but I did like this one so I will subscribe. One small suggestion, if I may, is to reduce the volume of the background music, it really does bleed a lot into your own vocal track.

Corum is my favorite series from Moorecock to think he wrote it "as little as a week" is incredibly mindboogling.

DC comics started their multiverse in 1956, so it actually predates Moorcocks.

This man could/should/is a voice actor. 😳 I’m trying to focus on the words but my brain can only register the tone. 😅 I’ve recently received a recommendation to read this authors works. This video is either a coincidence or a sign. 🤩 Thank you.

Weird, I just bought part 1 of the chronicles on audible last night.

I started reading his books in the late 60’s. I loved them for the way the protagonist changed the way we see good and evil and the role of the hero. I always thought he was underrated I have built a collection that is 80% compete of the eternal champion.

My first book was night of the swords

The whole idea of a reincarnating hero who keeps balance in the world reminds me a lot of Avatar: The Last Airbender. I don’t know if they got that idea from Moorcock.

They have killed the Great Sun Jester.

Thanks for this video. New subscriber. I love The Eternal Champion series especially Prince with the Silver Hand

Wasnt fritz leibers fafhrd and grey mouser series the birth of multiverses in popular fiction?

You got a great voice buddy you should be reading stories. I'd listen to an audiobook by you.

I’m shocked that there hasn’t been a movie, tv show, or animated series done with Elric. With how often Hollywood seems to be eager to gobble up any IP with a built in fanbase for exploitation, it seems like an obvious choice

The first 'mature' fantasy book I ever picked up was a three-in-one omnibus of the Corum saga called 'The Swords Trilogy' when I was eleven years old.

Thank you so much , 43 years ago at the age of 17 I was in a second hand book shop I picked up An Alien Heat the first part of The Dancers at the End of Time and I was hooked and the search book shops for more Moorcock , I love the way all the books where interconnected . i need to go dig out those books from the dusty box they are in , in the garage .

I started reading Moorcok with the Hawkwind series and then the Elric series and onward into the Multiverse. And I always suspected that much like Doctor Who's adventures are more about the companion than the Doctor. Or how in Tolkiens Lord of the Rings the stories are less about the tall regal heroes and more about the Hobbits , that Moorcocks stories were less about the hero and more about his companions like Jherek Carnelian or Jerry Cornellius. And that in fact the Eternal Champion was this companion. Anyway great to see a series produced on this IMHO epic writer of superb fiction.

I have been a fan of Moorcock for about 21 years now and I am so happy you commented on his impact on contemporary gaming. So many people talk about his impact on literature but never mention that he pretty much gave us law v chaos. He absolutely needs to be more widely celebrated. Thank you for these videos!

ASMR my goddamn balls off with this tight shit

Love the reverb on your narrator's voice!

I would have described the struggle for equilibrium using the scales with Law on one end and Chaos on the other and describing the Eternal Champion as being neither, but is instead the Scale itself, keeping both sides equal at all times despite their attempts to upend the order of things.

Personally I think using Sisyphus as an allegory for the struggle for equilibrium doesn't quite do it for me.

Chronicles of Corum was a seminal series when I was growing up. Absolutely fantastic, and it has forever shaped my view of dark fantasy.

Today on me and my friends accidentally had a convergence of ideas with an IP we never heard of: ...

Awesome. Just found you. I’m excited to watch your other videos. Have never read Moorcock. Will do so now. Subscribed!

When it comes to RPGs beyond the appearance of some gods/eldritch beings from Elric series in the the first printing of Deites and Demigods for 1st edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, there was an entire RPG ruleset released by Chaosium in the '80s dedicated to Elric and the Eternal Champion series called STORMBRINGER! It's pretty decent, admittedly a little slapdash, clunky and weird by modern standards, but the sourcebooks are fun to trawl through.

God damn the production in this video is so good