The Elric Saga

1. Elric of Melnibone (1972)
2. A wanderer on the seas of fate (1976)
3. The fate of the White Wolf (1977; short story and novels, first published in 1961-1967)
4. The Sleeping Sorceress (1971)
5. The Curse of the Black Sword (1977; short stories first published in 1962)
6. Burenetsets (1977; new edition of the 1965 novel, compiled from novels 1963-1964)

According to the plot, these works are closest to traditional heroic fantasy , only the hero himself is different (Elric was originally conceived as “anti- Conan ”: white and black hair, blue and red eyes, muscularity and thinness, masculinity and reflexivity - the whole look of Elric is emphasized “ not like that of Conan). Elric travels with his friend Munglam around the world, struggles with sorcerers and demons , learns love, but at the same time is not in the strict sense of the word a positive hero.

1. Pearl Fortress (1989)
2. Revenge of the Rose (1992)

These works are written in the style of postmodernism : they describe wanderings in parallel worlds (for example, in the world of Dreams ), reminiscent of visionary revelations, meditation . Both the style and the plot of these novels are unlike the “canonical six books”, but from them you can learn much more about Elric’s universe.

Currently, several comics about Elric have been released, the scripts for which were written by Murcock. According to the plot and style, they adjoin the “postmodern” novels about him, and reveal previously unknown moments of his life (for example, how he learned meditation techniques in childhood, etc.).

In addition, Michael Moorcock continues to write stories about Elric, reminiscent of works from the "canonical six books." They were not translated into Russian; some of them are included in the collection Fabulous Harbors (1995) , others were published in numerous fanzines .

The Elric saga was published in Russian almost more often than other works by Murcock (more editions are available only from the Hokmun Chronicles ), but was usually not fully translated. Here is what he wrote in the early 90's. critic D. Ivakhnov in his article on Murcock: “... The first novel in this series (...) was published five times, the last (...) once. Three old collections of stories about Elric were replicated three times (which Murcock himself refused, creating novels based on them). And once - a greatly truncated and badly translated third novel - “A Wanderer on the Seas of Fate”. One can only guess how this Murcockian hero could please the reader, who had the opportunity to get acquainted only with the beginning and the end (in which everything is not clear, because the plot complications remained in unpublished (...) novels) ” (cited from the book: Michael Murcock,“ Brass Castle ", T.1, ed." Troll ", Moscow-St. Petersburg-Saratov," Joker "," Rosich ", Moscow, 1994) Naturally, the level of such transfers (with very few exceptions) was very unsatisfactory. The situation remained unchanged until 1994, when more or less complete and qualified translations of the Elric Saga began to appear. Now there are three such transfers.

Complete Translations of the Elric Saga

Translation of A. Lidin and A. Stradomsky - appeared in the series “Fantasy Worlds” in Taganrog and Moscow from 1992 to 1994. It was the first translation of the entire “canonical six books” of the Saga at that time, and for a long time it simply did not have competitors ( all other publications were extremely incomplete). The disadvantages of this translation include the consecutive numbering of parts of the cycle (that is, the original authoring was divided into separate novels - they all appeared to the reader as a kind of continuous metatext .)

Translation of the St. Petersburg publishing house "North-West" - came out in 1998 in St. Petersburg. In addition to the existing translations of A. Lidin , it included new translations made by him, as well as N. Baulina , Y. Zabelina, T. Temkina and M. Petrunkin. This was the first full edition of the Saga (“the canonical Six Books” + two additional novels + the now-officially non-cycle novel “Elric on the Edge of Time”).

G. Krylov's translation - published by Eksmo and Domino publishers in 2005 (reprinted in 2008). The first edition of this translation was criticized by many critics for translation (for example, the word "purple" was translated as "scarlet", therefore, instead of the purposed “purplish blue”, it turned out “scarlet blue”). Therefore, to be reprinted in 2008 by the activists of the Tanelorn website, a very large editorial revision was made. The poetry of Michael Moorcock, Swinburne , Samuel Daniel and other authors included in the Saga by the author was first translated by a professional poet, Roman Adrianov , taking into account most of the stylistic features of the original, including size , rhyme , tautograms and other technical techniques. G. Krylov’s translation is the second complete translation of the Saga after the “Northwest”, which (as amended) has been recognized by authorities as the best today.

Unsuccessful and incomplete translations

In 2001-2002 Eksmo publishing house, with the participation of the Terra Fantastica publishing group, tried to publish the entire Saga about Elric in the translations of K. Korolev and Yu. Novikov as part of its series The Eternal Warrior Saga. But the series was not in demand among readers (for more details see the Tanelorn site directory ), and was closed; The Elric Saga was interrupted in the middle. Subsequently, when Eksmo again made an attempt to print the Russian translation of the Saga, they turned to G. Krylov's services.

• Elric

1. Silberstein A. Age of Storms and Wolves. The World of Elric of Melnibonic // World of Fantasy . - No. 12 (64) December 2008 . - S. 117-121 .
2. Michel Delville. Pop Meets the Avant-Garde: Music and Muzak in Michael Moorcock's Jerry Cornelius Stories // Trajectories of the Fantastic: Selected Essays from the Fourteenth International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts / Editor: Morrison, Michael A. .. - Greenwood Publishing Group, 1997 .-- P. 121.

• The Elric Saga on the Fantasy Lab website

• List of publications of the Elric Saga at ISFDB