Michael Moorcock's Eternal Champion, Part 3: Hawkmoon & the Runestaff || Spoiler-free review

My goodness - It’s been 35 years since I read all of the Eternal Champion books. Everything from Hawkmoon to Elric to Jerry Cornelius and all the other “JC’s” Erekose, Ulrik, Oswald, Pyat. Loved all of them - but I suspect it was a lot to do with being of a certain age. Don’t think I could read them now. It was a magical time being a teenager, reading all this stuff and also Le Guin’s Earthsee, LOTR, even the GOR books were fun (for a not yet sexually active young person). But You can’t go back.

Forgive me, but I came across this video entirely by chance and then sat and listened enraptured. Speaking as a man, you have a beautiful voice to listen to. Once upon a time, aged 16 or thereabouts, I read through Moorcock's Eternal Champion series. I had no critical background, I just enjoyed them for what they were. Elric of Melnibone I remember as my favourite. Such sadness, tragedy and melancholy! It was hard not to be affected by Elric's tales and their ultimate conclusion. Listening to your critique I get the impression that Moorcock was almost churning these tales out because they were his only source of income. Very similar to the novels of Philip K. Dick, though of a completely different nature.
I finally began my awakening to literary awareness (if you will forgive my pretentiousness) when I began to read his Jerry Cornelius series. I cannot say with any honesty that I would have been able to see the theme of the Cornelius series without the introduction by John Clute in ''The Condition of Muzak''. This lead to me re-reading the series and, instead of it being a romp through history, it was a heartbreaking tour de force about Moorcock's own environment. I have never been able to revisit it since. Thank you for bringing this all back to me.

Read all the Elric books decades ago. SPOILERS Moody stuff with a sword with a personality and Elric who possessed the sword but not always happy with the outcome of using it.

The "banality of evil" connection is, if memory serves, spot on. I cannot at the moment recall exactly where, but I do remember Moorcock making a statement about how true insanity, like true evil, tends toward the banal. This may have been in an essay I've not read in quite some time, or it may be one of the many such lines he brings into his fiction; but, given the notability of Arendt's book on Eichmann around the time these books were being written, it is not at all unlikely there was an influence there.

You are making invaluable and hard to find cotent, please continue. I am very grateful.

The History of the Runestaff were the first Moorcock I read. In a way, you can see his contrariness, as Elric was devised as contrast to Conan, Hawkmoon was more juvenile stories to support the more experimental New Worlds. I think MM wrote these novels in 5 days and are based on pulp 4 act dramas. You will have missed the satire of the Labour Government names as well.
The Chronicles of Count Brass are later and after Corum Swords trilogy.

Do Jerry corenlius and also some moorcock stuff like kane of mars and sir seaton begg

I'd like you to opine on Jerry Cornelius and that strange novel "Blood: A Southern Fantasy" By far my favorite Eternal Champion book is "Stormbringer".

I read the Elric, Hawkmoon, Korum and Erekose once again 3 month ago. I love these books so much!

A TV series would be the best way to do The Eternal Champion Stories. Different seasons could be different characters, like True Detective or Fargo. Some stories could work as movies as well, like how Marvel has the movies and series interlinked. I had heard at one point that an idea for an Elric series had been shelved due to it being too similar superficially to the Netflix adaptation of The Witcher (irony!) but maybe now that the writers have ruined it, the way will open up for Elric to happen?

I started with erekose and then read Elric and then corum. I liked erekose a lot but moorcock writing style back then was very bad tbh. I really enjoyed the first Elric story and it’s probably my favorite but some of the other stories I didn’t like as much. I really hated how rushed his return to melnibone was and cyromil’s death felt so underwhelming. The corum stories I liked a lot and I think his world is probably the best. I look forward to reading hawkmoom next. I do have a question though. At the beginning of the Elric story the sleeping sorceress there is a guy named earl of aubec. The sequence felt so out of place in the story but apparently I read he’s featured in other stories and it a part of Elric’s world hundreds of years ago. I tried to find which stories he’s in but there’s not that much Info online. Any ideas what stories he’s in? I’d liked to learn more about the character.

Hawkmoon got me into Michael Moorcock's stories. Bizarrely, my grandmother had a copy of The Mad God's Amulet (in fact, it was actually titled Sorceror's Amulet ) handing around, and I picked it up and read it, and was totally hooked. I gradually collected other stories using my pocket money to buy them as used paperbacks. I think the Hakwmoon tales are in many ways som eof the most accessible and involve the least amoutn of actual, well, sorcery. And Hawkmoon is a pretty straightforward hero unlike the doomladen Corum, Elric and Erekose. After Hawkmoon I think I got some Corum books, from the library, although they only had the second trilogy where he fights the Fhoi Myore. I gradually began to realise that all the books, whilst perfectly good standalone stories, all link with each other; that's much more explicit in the Elric stories . Ironically, the second Hawkmoon series pretyt much ties all the books together and act as a sort of final volume.

What I really liked about the Hawkmoon books is that they are definitely set on OUR Earth - but in the future. The Tragic Millenium is obviously a perid of chemical, biological and nuclear war set in our future, as the technology is extremely advanced - which is why it;s confused with sorcery in Hawkmoon's time. I loved spotting the changed place names and stuff like the Gods of Granbretan (which are former British Prime Ministers - and the Beatles!). Our time now would be John Daker's time. Hawkmoon live sin our future. Elric and Corum I would suggest live in our distant past - we live in the "more Lawful" futire that the events in Elric work towards.

FYI the BBC acquired the rights to the first four Hawkmoon stories (the Runestaff sequence) back in 2019, so it looked like they were going to make a series. But nothing has been heard of since then. I;d say Hawkmoon would be the easiest to make a film or TV series out of as he's a pretyt straightforward heroic type and the stories are fairly simple as well (quite how they'd have handled the perversions of the Lord of Granbretan would be, err, interesting - like in the third book where they are entertained by sexual acrobats lol). On the othe rhand the BBC recently made a truly awful version of War of the Worlds so heck knows what they'd do to the Runestaff stories. The battle scenes and sorcery-science (eg the Throbbing Bridge) woudl have onc ebeen all but impossible, but you could CGI them without too much trouble now!

I loved the worldbuilding the most in the Hawkmoon stories. That and the episode with Ilian of Garathorm

MM is the idea man not the details man.

Looking forward to your take on the Corum stories. My White Wolf editions have been read a couple times but it has been a long time, perhaps finding your videos will prompt a reread!

The Jewel in the Skull was another fantasy paperback sold at my local Mom and Pop store. I think it was a Lancer paperback and cost 75 cents!

Jewel in the forehead also appears in Zardoz 1974

I have multiple versions of the omnibus collections as well as all the collections from the first along with most the original pulps.
I have an extensive knowledge of all things Moorcock and haven't as yet found new info in these videos other than added analysis.
What I needed was a series of overveiw videos to recommend to friends who don't know him, so thank you very much for covering an author who was the genesis of modern fantasy while somehow being unknown to most modern audiences.

I thought it worth mentioning that Moorcock routinely chats up fans on his fan sites like Moorcock's Miscellany and has for decades.
He is a very accessible guy.
He also goes out of his way to help people get out of print copies of his books for as cheap as he can and does readings of the ones he can't get back in print from his personal library and then posts them.
In the early days before social media he used to spend massive amounts of time on the site.

It’s been nearly 40 years since reading these books as a teen. They are iconic, but best left to nostalgia if you have read them before. Roger Zelazny’s Amber series follows similar theme’s but probably holds up better for adult readers today

Must reread my Panther editions. 🤔

I have read almost all of the volumes you have reviewed thus far. I still count myself a Moorcock fan despite not having read anything of his since the 90's. But I read many many of his works and still remember them with great fondness

Hawkmoon, Corum, and Elric, and perhaps Bastable are my personal favourites

Conan, John Carter and Dorian Hawkmoon where my entry point in adult fantasy universes, coming from Grimm's fairy tales and Tarzan adventures :) It was a shock and I am in love with Fantasy and Science Fiction since then! Thank you for this series and the rest of your channel content! Saludos desde Uruguay!

Ah, the first of Moorcock's stories positing Great Britain as the ultimate evil. I never got the impression that he was kidding about that. Over time they grow from just threatening Hawkmoon's version of Earth to potentially taking over the entire Multiverse. Regardless, his concept of the masked empire of evil is one of the most arresting 'visual' images in all of the fantasy literature of my youth. What an incredibly vivid mental picture that paints.

Hawkmoon's stories are enjoyable in a way that the nihilistic stories of Elric never were, and I believe that he is still the only incarnation of The Eternal Champion to get some version of a happy ending. I'm sure that says something about Moorcock's own psychology, but I have no idea what. I seem to remember that Moorcock said that he wrote them as a literal fever dream - he was very ill at the time of their writing. I have no source for that but my own memories so I don't know if it is true, but the idea has stuck with me for 4 decades. Even if it's completely apocryphal, it's a perfect description of the books.

I did find the (much later retcon) idea that the jewel in his skull was his incarnation of the Black Sword to be a stretch, but I suppose that's a discussion for another time. Or perhaps another year, given the pace at which this series is being produced. No judgment; I understand as well as anyone just how much time it takes to read all of these stories, let alone produce content based on them!

When I read an interview with Moorcock from (I think) the late '80s he mentioned having written the Hawkmoon books in single weekends fuelled by large amounts of amphetamine, which is when they clicked and suddenly made more sense to me.

Hey, Bridger! Please continue with this series.

part 4 and 5 please :) keep going!

I'd just like to say that because of this video, I went out of my way to buy the current collected edition of Hawkmoon: History Of The Runestaff. Thank you! The overall plot you described just sounded incredibly interesting

is there a part 4 video to the Eternal Campion ?

thank you for this exvellent review
all three videos!

When can we expect your next video on Moorcock’s Eternal Champion?

The graphic version of Jewel is one of the pieces I lend to people interested in Moorcock's work. If you can't handle that then his work probably will go over your head😂

Is there an in-depth video explaining how the multiverse works?

There are more books about this Hawkmoon gyu? I'm reading book 3 and I'm bored. They don't eat, don't sleep, but constantly fight like gods. The knight in gold and whatever is there to save the day every time.. And in the next book the saviour is his brother..OMG, so stupid. Hawkmoon is an absolute moron. And the pearl will be reactivated in the 4th book. He has nothing toworry about, there's no brain to be eaten.

Where is part 4?

Liked Hawkmoon !
Loved Corum ! More than Elric !
Didn't think I'd like Warhound and the World's Pain , but it's brilliant , and should be a big movie !
Loved the Bastable novel !
Wasn't overly keen on Elric , Corum is a far more cool character !

I randomly stumbled onto this channel after I was recommended by a friend to check out Moorcock's eternal champion series.
These videos have been great and I'm definitely sold. Thanks for all the spoil free info! I can't wait to jump into this series.

Thank you for reviewing this vastly underrated series. It is one of my all time favorites and though Elric is more popular, Moorcock’s masterpiece. I think you were a bit hard on it. I found the world building some of the best in fantasy. The stories are quick paced and enjoyable, but that is what makes them so good. I would rather have that then the ponderous 1,000 page modern books that take ten pages to describe a single hillside. I like the good guy nature of Hawkmoon and the downplaying of magic. The books have an excellent RPG that is fun and easy to learn. I have run many fun campaigns based upon it and players grasp the world easily even if they haven’t read the books. I can’t praise this series enough. I wish more people read it. My only complaint is that there weren’t more books done about this world. It is so fascinating. It would make an epic movie.

You need to do a tier ranking of Moorcocks works, I have started with Eric whilst OK the stories so far have been quite flat, I am listening via audible.

I am also reading Gloriana which was recommended to me by a friend. Moorcocks stule, voice and approach can be wildly different. A tier ranking will be great to get some perspective on your thoughts on the quality of his work and which books/series are best.

really love how you covered Moorcock. Not many booktubers have and its always great to see.

Are the rest of the saga videos coming?

True about world building and plot

Moorcock was writing about GB as it is now, despotic rule by Johnson, Starma and co, thought police not unlike 1984, and has been for some time, so much so that Rowan Atkinson recently put out a piece decrying this state of affairs

The casual mention of things that came before reminded me a bit of Larry Nivens and David Gerrolds "The Flying Sorcerers". Whereas the empire of Granbretan has many Warhammer vibes. Surely many ideas in those novels sound like they fell out of time, particularly when Dorian goes to London as the ambassador of Asiacommunista. Many ideas in these novels were super interesting, like the undying emperor who fell to his own hubris and folly rather then to the agency of the hero himself. I hugely enjoyed the series and I think it is a sad state in what fantasy is now. The grand scale of the adventure is very appealing!

I can't find part 4

I found it. Thank you and I'm loving your show.

The character of Corum is my favorite of the aspects of the Eternal Champion, but the world building in Hawkmoon is my favorite