Elric Swords and Roses - Michael Moorcock [182]
Stormbringer (1965), conceived as a novel, was first published as such when abridged and revised from the four remaining Science Fantasy novellas. It was later restored to its original length and further revised, in 1977. The original abridgments basically condensed the first two novellas (plus part of the third) into one section, “The Coming of Chaos.”
The Singing Citadel (1970) is a collection of four other novellas originally published in various periodicals and anthologies between 1962 and 1967. They were later split up and all but one were recollected in, or absorbed into, The Weird of the White Wolf and The Bane of the Black Sword as their events interconnect with those of The Stealer of Souls. They were also, as a result of this assimilation, slightly revised. The unused novella, “The Greater Conqueror” (sometimes erroneously listed as “The Great Conqueror”), was subsequently collected in Moorcock’s Book of Martyrs (1976, a.k.a. Dying for Tomorrow, 1978), Earl Aubec and Other Stories (1993) and Elric: To Rescue Tanelorn (2008).
The Sleeping Sorceress (1971) was expanded from a novella of the same name, although it was originally commissioned as a serial for Kenneth Bulmer’s magazine, Sword and Sorcery, which never appeared. One of its sections retells, from Elric’s viewpoint, a part of the Corum novel, The King of the Swords. In 1977, The Sleeping Sorceress was retitled, with minor textual amendments, as The Vanishing Tower (q.v.).
Elric of Melniboné (1972) is a prequel to all other Elric novels. The Dreaming City (1972) was a version of Elric of Melniboné, published with unauthorized changes. Collectors should note that, in 1977, Elric of Melniboné was one of three Elric books published as illustrated editions in slip-cases. This first (in a red case) also had a smaller, limited edition (in a brown case) signed by the author, artist (Robert Gould) and publisher. In 2003, Elric of Melniboné was the first novel of Moorcock’s to become an unabridged audiobook.
Elric: The Return to Melniboné (sic, 1973) remains, despite its comparative irrelevance to the overall series, one of the scarcest and most sought-after of Elric books. This is the result of its somewhat checkered history, a saga complex enough to rival Elric’s own. It is actually little more than a showcase for the exquisite artwork of Philippe Druillet, beginning life in the mid-’60s as double-spread colour illustrations for the first two issues of a French children’s magazine called Moi Aussi, with text by Maxim Jakubowski. In 1969, Druillet illustrated an omnibus called Elric le Necromancien, and in 1972 some of this (and new) artwork was put into a twenty-one piece portfolio as La Saga d’Elric le Necromancien, this time with text by Michel Demuth. All of this work up until then was unauthorized, but when the portfolio was reprinted and bound (less one piece) in the UK as Elric: The Return to Melniboné (text by Moorcock), Druillet threatened to sue! Moorcock was forced to step in on behalf of the British publishers, pointing out that permission had never been granted for Druillet to draw Elric in the first place. In order to avoid messy litigation, it was decided to allow the small print run to expire, never to be reprinted. However, a republication was finally agreed, and the book made available again in 1997 as Elric: The Return to Melniboné.
The Jade Man’s Eyes (1973) is a separate novella which, in order to bring it in line with the developing series, was revised and absorbed into The Sailor on the Seas of Fate as “Sailing to the Past.”
The Sailor on the Seas of Fate (1976) originally slotted, chronologically, between events in Elric of Melniboné and The Weird of the White Wolf. One of its sections retells, from Elric’s viewpoint, a part of the Hawkmoon/Count