Michael Moorcock, Elric: The Stealer Of Souls: The Sleeping Sorceress / The Revenge Of The Rose / The Stealer Of Souls / Kings In Darkness / The Caravan Of Forgotten Dreams / Stormbringer

When we left Elric last, the wicked sorcerer Theleb K'aarna of Pan Tang had ticked him off, earning what the albino swore would be a terrible vengeance. The first three of these stories (two novels and a novelette) are mainly about that revenge (if only by proxy in Rose), while the second three (two novelettes and a novel) are more concerned with fate, setting up and playing out the final apocalyptic events of Elric's world.

The Sleeping Sorceress: Like The Sailor On The Seas Of Fate, it's really three novelettes stitched together, one after another. It's a little more coherent as a novel than Sailor (due to the presence of Theleb K'aarna in each incident and the eventual reappearance of the titular sorceress), but only a little.

Elric and his trusty companion Moonglum have tracked Theleb K'aarna to the kingdom of Lormyr when an attack by creatures of Chaos (and subsequent capture and escape) leads them to an ancient castle containing, yes, a sleeping sorceress, Myshella, Empress of the Dawn, the Dark Lady of Kaneloon -- servant of Law and ancient enemy of Melniboné. She's been put into an enchanted sleep by Theleb K'aarna, but that doesn't stop her from explaining all about the situation (Theleb K'aarna is now in league with Prince Umbda, a servant of Chaos who plans to take over Lormyr and, eventually, the world), putting Moonglum to sleep (to ensure compliance), and sending Elric on a brief fetch quest to retrieve a revive-from-the-dead stone. He uses it on her, he's captured for two seconds, and Myshella is revived just in time to crush the invading army and offer Elric his heart's desire, which he rejects because he believe his lot to be naught but sorrow and guilt and hatred -- for you see, what he most desires is also what he most fears.

In the Book Two ("To Snare The Pale Prince"), Theleb K'aarna visits Nadsokor, the terrible City of Beggars (because I guess poverty, disability, and moral degeneracy are to be considered morally equivalent. But hey, it's fantasy, which makes it okay, right?), for aid from its vulgar, loathsome King Urish, who hates Elric for stealing a scroll from his Sacred Hoard in an untold adventure (evidently Yyrkoon tricked Elric into it). Meanwhile, Elric visits Old Hromar, ruled by that explorer/adventurer duke he dicked over in Sailor. He and Moonglum seek Tanelorn, but are distracted when some whores they're trying to save steal Elric's ring of kingship (they're part of the plot to lure him to Nadsokor). When Elric is captured, rather than doing the smart thing and killing him outright, they send him to feed their Burning God, who's really quite friendly. With the help of a Lord of Law (ooh, arc movement), he kills it and escapes, but he can't get his ring back yet because Theleb K'aarna has summoned a demon to block everyone from the hoard (it feels really RPG-y). Meanwhile, King Urish and Theleb K'aarna are off to harass a caravan on its way to Tanelorn; Rackhir the Red Archer and other Tanelornians defend. Theleb K'aarna summons some woman-demons, but Elric can't summon their natural demon enemies without his ring. Oh, wait, yes, he can. The sorcerer flees, Nadsokor is defeated, and the king is boned because not even he's allowed past the hoard-guarding demon. Then Arioch fixes everything and gives Elric back his ring, telling him that he should be loyal to Chaos and not join neutral Tanelorn. I don't have to pick the story apart when plot summary does the work for me.

Finally, in "Three Heroes With A Single Aim," not even spending time in Tanelorn can give Elric peace. He goes out to the desert, hoping to lose himself but prepared to die if he cannot. Then Myshella shows up to spoil everything because she's just now learned that Theleb K'aarna isn't dead yet. Out for revenge against both Elric and Tanelorn, the sorcerer has discovered ancient weapons and technology, including an infernal machine which allows him to summon invincible reptile monsters from another plane. While trying to destroy the Mammon machine, Elric is drawn into another world and meets Corum, who is about halfway through the events of The King Of The Swords. Erekose shows up and they go up against Voilodion Ghagnasdiak (an evil dwarf) of the Vanishing Tower, where Jhary-a-Conel is being held captive (it's the same adventure as in King from a different perspective, without any additional points of interest). They enter the tower, fight, link up, merge, save Jhary, and get the Runestaff, which brings everybody back to Elric's world. Elric is given special anti-Godzilla weapons to kill the reptiles while the rest use the machine to be sent back to their own worlds. Theleb K'aarna is foiled and he loses the blessings of the Chaos Lords, but thankfully not before he kills Myshella.

Yeah, Myshella is kind of a reflection of Cymoril, and Theleb K'aarna here is an externalized and exaggerated exemplar of the qualities Elric hates about himself, but these mirrorings are shallow, providing no particular insight into character (other than the fact that Elric has a definite romantic "type"). The sorceress is asleep. The sorcerer insists upon vengeance even when it works against his own best interests. That's about as far as it goes.

The Revenge Of The Rose: This is the other Elric novel written almost twenty years after everything else. Unfortunately, it's not nearly as strong as The Fortress Of The Pearl, indulging in so much sterile reality-hopping and pointless connections to other multiverse books that its ostensible main themes wind up muddled and underexplored.

Elric has temporarily bidden farewell to Tanelorn and Moonglum, but very quickly acquires a substitute companion: the trans-reality-traveling poet Wheldrake, a Swinburne-esque poet from an alternate England. Wheldrake is the first strike against the novel, a constantly irritating blowhard who receives constant praise from everyone ("his poetic inspiration is without parallel") for terrible verse and rancid philosophizing ("I have no quarrel with such wounded, needy souls as yourself, who must chant a creed as some kind of protective charm against the unknown. It seems to me, as I travel the multiverse, that reliance on such insistencies is what all mortals have in common. Million upon million of different tribes, each with its own fiercely defended truth." If you liked that, you're in for a treat here). Elric also runs across a dragon who brings him back to a past version of Melniboné where the shade of his dead father, Sadric, dwells. It would seem that the status of Sadric's soul is under dispute by Elric's sworn liege, Arioch and a rival Chaos Lord, Count Mashabak. In the meantime, Sadric schemes to free his spirit-essence from all claims by Hell, hoping to get in by the back door to the closest thing Melnibonéans have to Heaven. He has hidden his soul in a box; the box has been lost in another world, and Sadric wants Elric's help to find it. As relations between the two have been strained since his father spent all his life blaming him for his mother's death in childbirth, Elric doesn't want to help. His father doesn't exactly care; he forces compliance by sort of possessing Elric. So there's the metaphor for this quest: if Elric doesn't fulfill the task in time, Sadric's soul will overpower his and they'll be linked forever -- his worst fear. If he succeeds, he can be free of his father's legacy, and, by extension, make peace with his heritage, the cursed Melnibonéan background he despises.

Only, no. Elric's daddy issues bookend the story rather than inform it. The rest of the novel is concerned mainly with vengeance and thematic doubles with whom Elric feels a strange kinship, as they present potential life paths for him. The first he meets is Prince Gaynor the Damned, from the Corum books (Remember him? Former Knight of the Balance, eternally damned by a monstrous betrayal?), who serves Count Mashabak at first (but the betrayal is to be expected). The second is the Rose, a strong, self-assured adventuress in search of revenge -- there's a mysterious blood-feud involved (and I am under the impression that there are connections here to the Second Ether books, which I haven't gotten to yet). Both are journeying to the Gypsy Nation, an ever-moving city of lost souls and nomads of the time streams, seeking three elusive sisters. When Elric learns that the sisters have the box he's looking for, he also joins the hunt.

The Gypsy Nation society feels like if China Mieville came up with the concept for an RPG city and then didn't bother to flesh it out (it's kind of unjust, and its inhabitants are constantly compelled to keep moving. That's it). It's almost saved from being offensive by having nothing much to do with real gypsies. While there, Elric and company meet up with a family of clairvoyants and master trackers -- father Fallogard Phatt, niece Charion, son Koropith, and their crazy-oracular granny. They're descended from Corum's people, the Vadhagh, and they normally travel the planes and stars, but are currently trapped by the "psychic gravity" of the gypsies. Fortunately, this dilemma becomes a moot point when Gaynor summons up a gaping Chaos catastrophe which scatters everyone through worlds and time.

Starting over in another unfamiliar plane, Elric finds Wheldrake and Charion Phatt (enough years have passed for her in the meantime that she's legal now. Wheldrake falls for her. It would be icky if these characters felt anything like human beings). They're forced to travel with Gaynor again and are joined for the second section of the novel by Esbern Snare, a werewolf (or skinwalker or whatever). Snare is a good man cursed to wear a wolf skin and his background involves a fable about a deal with a troll. The whole thing sort of has to do with vengeance but it feels beamed in from another book entirely, despite a vague attempt to tie his story in with the Rose's background later. The werewolf redeems his honor but not his soul, he's an Elric shadow figure, blah blah blah, it's all killing time until everyone gets back together and the three sisters show up (who are also descended from the Vadhagh, by the way, with an explicit connection to the events of The Dragon In The Sword. Eventually, we find that everybody seems to have Vadhagh/Eldren blood, though there's no real point to learning these details). It all comes down to Elric being flanked by a bunch of fighting females in a big battle with Gaynor and the forces of Chaos.

The titular revenge of the Rose turns out to be turning evil into good, by controlling the power of Mashabak in the service of recreating what has been lost. This is presented as the only "positive," constructive revenge. It's a little simplistic to be the final word of the series on the nature of vengeance, but there you go -- that's the major theme of the novel. It's pulling the same trick as Pearl, showing Elric the medley of extemporanea available to him if he chooses to go beyond his narrow worldview, refusing to allow his lineage to shape his destiny. Why does this fall flat where Pearl succeeded? Elric never struggles with his cultural values over the course of the story [1], and he's personally disconnected from all of the vengeance. It's as if the characters are staging a morality play for him. This might be fine (with the tragedy being that he doesn't take the lesson he should have taken from this) if not for the fact that the ending is presented as an unambiguous victory. He gives his father back his soul, and this is presented as a good thing. It leads his father to forgive him. It allows him to move past his origins. He goes on to take pointless vengeance in chronologically later stories, but knowledge of that does not impinge upon the events here; this should have not only thematic relevance but direct in-story references to the Theleb K'aarna revenge arc, but those references are absent. We're left not with a sense of Elric's moral weakness, but with his heroism. He and the Rose go to Tanelorn together. This is a holiday. Perhaps it's a stronger holiday than Kings In Darkness (see below), but it has no moral weight. It doesn't work in tandem with the other Elric stories and it's flaccid as a standalone novel. Oh, well, at least Moorcock got one Tehanu-level artistically successful revisionist work out of his biggest character.

The Stealer Of Souls: And here Elric is at his vicious, cruel, self-justifying, self-pitying worst.

Some merchants enlist Elric and Moonglum to take out a powerful merchant rival, who just happens to be employing Theleb K'aarna (Queen Yishana, over whom the whole feud started back at the beginning of time, is also hanging around just to see how things turn out between her warring suitors, Meg White-style). They need help, so they decide to get it from some of the nearby Melnibonéan refugees, who now work as mercenaries. You'd think that the refugees might harbor some resentment against the man responsible for slaughtering the majority of their (and his own) people, reducing their civilization to rubble and ash, and reducing their circumstances to what I'm pretty sure would be considered dishonorable work, but no. They're happy to help! Their leader, Dyvim Tvar, former Lord of the Dragon Caves, lists all of the valid reasons they shouldn't assist Elric (leading the human merchant fleet and betraying his people is one; the doom laid on Elric that they would share if they followed him is another valid one) then goes ahead anyway for two not very convincing reasons:

1. Regicide is even more undesirable than the prospect of vengeance against Elric
2. Vengeance against Theleb K'aarna (!). It appears that Queen Yishana fucked one of the refugees (looking for an Elric replacement), and a jealous Theleb K'aarna killed him.

In the half-hearted initial effort, Theleb K'aarna summons a hellbeast, captures Elric, and makes the incredibly stupid mistake of keeping him alive to take revenge (displaying . Elric's backup is left twiddling their thumbs. Follow this logic:

1. Elric goes to get help from the Melnibonéans because he doesn't think he can go up against Theleb K'aarna's sorcery alone
2. The Melnibonéans are powerless when Elric is kidnapped because only he can stand up against Theleb K'aarna's sorcery

It's a good thing that Nikorn, the merchant employer who's actually a real stand-up guy, even more stupidly decides to free Elric on two conditions:

1. I keep your sword (fantastic idea, that)
2. Promise not to kill me

Once freed, Elric gets Stormbringer back within seconds (with the help of Yishana, who's still smitten with Elric even though he totally left her hanging the last time they were together) and his forces launch an attack, during which Dyvim Tvar gets killed for his trouble. Theleb K'aarna, at the end of his summoning rope, goes A Fridge Too Far and is reduced to a gibbering Chaos-thing (like Yyrkoon). The final vengeance Elric takes is hollow. Then Stormbringer goes for Nikorn's soul and Elric goes "NOOOOOOO I PROMISED" and cries about it. Then he gleefully cheats the merchants who hired him in the first place; they kind of deserve it, but still, it's supposed to be cool and it isn't. Elric's quip at the end (Yishana asks, "What happened to Nikorn? He was nice," and he responds, "Like all merchants, he bargained too hard.") is callous and feels a little out-of-place considering he was blubbering over the man just minutes before.

Kings In Darkness: Or, Elric finds a wife.

But how can this be? All of his previous sort-of-love-interests are dead (Cymoril, Myshella), have something resembling personality and motivation (Yishana, Shaarilla), or haven't been invented yet (the Rose). Surely Moorcock wouldn't pull an Annie Blackburn on us!

Elric and Moonglum are on the run from Nadsokorian beggars (again), and take refuge in the evil Forest of Troos. There they meet a bland, personality-free princess, Zarozinia. Elric is engaged to her in approximately five seconds; their non-romance is momentarily interrupted by a perfunctory adventure involving the dull degenerate royalty of the grubby forest kingdom, finding its resolution in the clockwork fulfillment of a half-assed prophecy/legend. It feels a little like C.L. Moore's "Hellsgarde," only drained of atmosphere, character, creative vision, and writing quality. Ruin rains down on the bad guys and our heroes are free to leave for Kaarlak, Zarozina's remote but homey country. In a symbolic move even M. Night Shyamalan would have rejected for being too obvious, Elric also finds some herbs with which he can sustain his health, thus allowing him to permanently stop using Stormbringer. All of his problems are solved, and everyone can live happily ever after in peace and domestic bliss!!!

The Caravan Of Forgotten Dreams: ...or not.

Moonglum shows up with bad tidings: the warlord Terarn Gashtek, known as the Flame Bringer, has been conquering a whole bunch of places, and Kaarlak is next on his list. Elric, who is right in the middle of enjoying his peace with Zarozina, is forced once again to take up the unholy sword he swore he would never use again.

Yeah, this is the "Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!" story.

The Flame Bringer is unstoppable due to his hold over a powerful sorcerer who pulled the old "place your soul in a cat" routine and then unwisely let the cat get kidnapped by the evil warlord, who threatens it to make the sorcerer do his bidding. If you put your soul in a cat (or any unconventional form of storage, for that matter), I suggest you not tell anybody about it. Elric's only hope is to free the sorcerer and let vengeance take its course. Despite conducting the most incompetent undercover mission ever (this should be an opportunity to trade on Elric's villainous reputation -- he should have no problem fitting in and pretending to share the villain's values -- but instead he talks back to the boss and spends half of his time in suspicious conversations with the sorcerer), he succeeds at this.

The soul restored to him (with the help of Elric's summoned cat elemental or whatever), the sorcerer prepares to wreak unholy havoc on the army, but his victory is cut short by an arrow to the eye, thus making the whole plan sort of a waste of time. After some light battling, the day is saved. With his last breath, Terarn Gashtek curses Elric and everyone he holds dear. Evidently this is the one that finally sticks, because its fulfillment is not far off.

It's kind of a nothing story. It feels more like a rejected outtake from Stormbringer than anything else, building tension before a rapidly-approaching cataclysm less successfully than that volume's component adventures. By the way, there is no caravan here and very few forgotten dreams. The original title was The Flame Bringers, which isn't great but at least had something to do with its contents.

Stormbringer: This novel consists of four more-or-less continuous novellas but, unlike Sailor or Sleeping Sorceress, the individual pieces strengthen each other (though they could conceivably stand alone) and don't feel disjointed, building on each other to effectively dramatize the mounting breakdown of kingdoms, civilization, and, finally, reality itself. For all its faults (and they are many), it's probably the strongest single Elric work after Fortress. There's nothing particularly subversive about the novel, per se, in form or subject matter, and it's not doing much of anything new -- the specter of Ragnarok goes, of course, without saying, and more than any of the Elric stories, it bears a great debt to Kullervo in the Kalevala -- but it does achieve a memorable and unique apocalyptic feel. It's also structurally interesting; the threats start out immense and gradually get smaller from there, but the situation gets more and more desperate as losses pile up and options dwindle.

"Dead God's Homecoming": It was a dark and stormy night when, suddenly, Zarozinia was kidnapped! Elric springs into action, once again drawing the sword he renounced for her. Trouble is brewing: Jagreen Lern, the ambitious new Theocrat of Pan Tang, warlike island country of warrior-wizards and Melnibonéan wannabes, is making war alliances and preparing for conquest, threatening all of the Young Kingdoms, including Jharkor, the land ruled by Elric's former sex partner Queen Yishana, who has just hired the surviving Melnibonéan mercenaries, led by Dyvim Slorm, Dyvim Tvar's son and Elric's last remaining kinsman, for protection. COULD THIS HAVE SOMETHING TO DO WITH THE KIDNAPPING?

Spoiler: Yes.

Let's set aside the plot for a moment and focus on a small incident that may, in fact, be fraught with meaning. While traveling through a blasted waste in the wake of the depredations of the armies of Pan Tang, Elric comes across an old man who dabbles in the dark arts. The codger reveals that he survived by summoning a demon who, in return, asked him to give Elric a message when the albino prince inevitably passed by (the message is unimportant, a plot signpost). On further questioning, Elric finds that the man sold his soul for the power to call up the demon. The man rationalizes it: "But it was an old one and not of much worth. Hell could be no worse than this existence." Elric is still puzzled, asking, "why did you not let yourself burn, your soul unbartered?" In reply, the man expresses his wish to live, his opinion that life is good and worth savoring for even a short while longer. Elric dismisses the man and never gives him a second thought. But shouldn't this be the major moral question of the series? Is damning himself (not to mention bringing innumerable others to ruin) worth a few short additional years of existence, especially when there is so little pleasure or joy for him in life? The emphasis on fate and the nature of heroism throughout the novel threatens to obscure this point, but really, when you take immortal souls into account, allowing everyone in the world to suffer and die horribly is preferable to subjecting even the worst villain to Stormbringer [2].

But back to the story. Battle rages (introducing and killing off all sorts of warrior races and elite fighting squads), Yishana loses and is killed (::mourn::), and Elric and Dyvim Slorm escape. They're met by Sepiriz of the ten Nihrainians, servants of fate (and cousins to the Warrior in Jet and Gold from the Hawkmoon books). It's basically one of those situations where you can read "plot" for each instance of "destiny," "fate," or "prophecy." Sepiriz has plenty of information about the origins and purposes of Stormbringer and its twin, Mournblade, which he just happens to have pulled out of the black hole it has apparently been in since Yyrkoon died in The Dreaming City because it just happens to be necessary for what's about to happen ("fate" is like that). Dyvim Slorm, by the way, gets to use Mournblade, and there's almost an attempt to parallel the two Melnibonéans, but it doesn't quite stick, especially because Mournblade winds up having no real importance at all besides serving as a powerful weapon for one of Elric's teammates. Sepiriz also has plenty to say about the ancient and contradictory Dead Gods, who, in fact, "chose to die," but one of whom has returned to this reality (in the wake of the Chaos disruptions caused by Jagreen Lern, of course, leading Elric, predictably, to swear vengeance on him) to get the runeblades because they endanger him and his fellow gods (despite the Dead Gods being, you know, dead, so that no one would have even paid any attention to them if the one guy hadn't drawn Elric's attention). Said Dead God, Darnizhaan, is the one who has kidnapped Zarozinia, and he offers a trade: give him the swords or Zarozinia gets it. The bullshit morality is the same as in "The Gift" (since, if Darnizhaan gets the swords, all of the now-invincible Dead Gods come back and instantly turn the world into Hell, but, you know, it would be *wrong* to sacrifice Zarozinia, even if she'd die with everyone else in the alternative) but unfortunately, suicide is not the solution Elric offers to Darnizhaan; instead, because the Dead God is apparently the dumbest being in creation and too preoccupied with grandstanding about the nature of reality to see that this all-important trade goes through correctly (or even to research these swords he fears so much and discover that they can be operated remotely by their bearers), Elric manages a flawless victory by handing over the blades, getting his wife back, and promptly ordering them to slice the Dead God to ribbons. This the hellblades accomplish thoroughly and effectively. The Dead God's final words offer another Buffy moment -- something to the Balthazar-esque effect of "once you face what's to come, you'll wish I killed you all." Sepiriz confirms Darnizhaan's assertion: the blades, in addition to having god-slaying powers, are destined to destroy the world. Though really, it's just Stormbringer.

"Black Sword's Brothers": The threat of Jagreen Lern and the forces of Pan Tang grows. After a council of war featuring some of the most laughably unconvincing dialogue I have ever seen, Elric picks up Moonglum and they go journeying again in search of aid from the forces of Law. They are quickly interrupted by the appearance of the ever-informative Sepiriz, who tells them they can't do that yet because Jagreen Lern has summoned three Dukes of Hell for support, including Lord Arioch himself. The only hope against them is to summon Stormbringer's brothers, supernatural beings of Chaos from another plane, and that's rather dangerous (though pretty much everything is dangerous at this point). After learning the spell to accomplish this, the Elric and Moonglum travel to the capital of Pan Tang, fighting off monsters and such on the way. The aristocrats show up, Arioch makes a really pathetic case that even he should realize wouldn't convince Elric, and Elric chants the rune and summons a million black blades to permanently banish the Dukes from this plane. Unfortunately, when they disappear, returning to their home dimension, Stormbringer vanishes with them, leaving an exhausted Elric at the mercies of Jagreen Lern.

Painfully, Jagreen Lern is yet another Bond villain who, rather than just killing his archenemy and being free to conquer the world unhindered, would prefer to torture Elric and give him ample opportunity to escape. He even casts a protective charm on Elric so he won't be accidentally killed, which takes things to new heights of ridiculousness. Sure enough, Elric quickly works up the strength to summon Stormbringer and escapes with Moonglum -- he didn't even bother killing Moonglum! -- though Jagreen Lern escapes to fight another day.

"Sad Giant's Shield": And the Theocrat isn't licked yet; things look even more hopeless as Jagreen Lern has more big guns up his sleeve, summoning a fleet of unstoppable Chaos ships, crewed by the dead and the size of castles. Fortunately, those ships need to sail through, like, a Chaos zone or something, which takes a long time to create as they sail along, so Elric and company have plenty of time to do everything they need in preparation for the attack, kind of like how you can do all the Chocobo breeding you want even though Meteor is about to hit the planet. Lacking direction once again, they're at a loss until Sepiriz shows up yet again to explain exactly what needs to be done. It seems Elric has need of protection against Chaos, and so must seek out the powerful Chaos Shield held by a formerly-immortal giant (named Mordaga) living in a castle on the edge of the world. The giant is depressed, primarily because he's going to die (being made mortal and all), and, more specifically, there's a prophecy about him being killed by a group of four heroes. Elric bids Zarozinia goodbye for (OMG spoiler) the last time, prepares his people's defenses, and sets off with Moonglum, Rackhir, and Dyvim Slorm, after being given even more detailed information about the giant's defenses by a water elemental:

"It lies upon the topmost crag of a tall and lonely mountain, reached by a hundred and sixty-nine steps. Lining these steps are forty-nine elder trees, and of these you would have to be especially wary. Also Mordaga has a guard of a hundred and forty-four warriors. I'm explicit in giving numbers, for they have a mystic value."

That last line is quite possibly the lamest thing I have ever read. They fight their way through those deadly elder trees, but Elric is maddened by battle and stabs Rackhir, too, who cries, "Elric! Not my soul, too!" I laughed. When they make their way to Mordaga, the giant would rather not fight; he gives them the Chaos Shield outright and reasons that, hey, why exactly would you have to fulfill that prophecy anyway? Elric is sympathetic (for once) and leaves the giant in peace, but Moonglum sneaks back and stabs him from behind. Moonglum justifies himself by making the specious arguments that a) someone must be responsible for Rackhir's death, and they can't very well blame Elric, so why not Mordaga? and b) considering they're serving fate through all this, they might as well go all in. Are we meant to disapprove of Moonglum's actions here? I hope we are, but it's not as if this moment has any further consequences.

They make their return only to find that, uh-oh, Zarozinia has been kidnapped again. It's a good thing that helpful water elemental also explained how to stop the Chaos ships:

"Slay Pyaray, Lord of the Fleet of Hell, and, lacking his direction, the fleet itself would perish. His life-force is contained in a blue crystal set in the top of his head and striking at that with a special weapon is the only means of killing him."

At least Elric doesn't have to use the Top Spin on the boss' final form. He fights the end-of-level battle, breaks the crystal, and makes the fleet disappear (Jagreen Lern escapes for the last time), but, sadly, it's too late for Zarozinia, who has been transformed into a white worm with her human head. She begs for death and he resists, but of course Stormbringer makes the decision for him. Romantically, a portion of her soul will be together with him forever, or at least for about thirty more pages.

"Doomed Lord's Passing": Everything is falling apart, and Elric, Moonglum, and Dyvim Slorm may be the last remaining non-evil human beings (or near-human in the case of the Melnibonéans) in the world. They reach the ruins of Immryr, hoping to wake up the sleeping dragons for one last battle, and Elric is drawn through visions, meeting the shade of his father (who still hates him and knows nothing of the current age -- yes, it's inconsistent with The Revenge Of The Rose, or, rather, Rose is inconsistent with it), Sepiriz, and, at long last, the Lords of Law, who tell him that he needs the Horn of Fate: one blow wakes the dragons, two allows the forces of Law to enter the plane, and three heralds the end of the world and the beginning of a new one. They send him across the planes to the world which contains the Horn -- our world. Yeah, after hinting at it a dozen times, Moorcock finally comes out and says it: our Earth is actually the potential post-death-and-rebirth future of Elric's world, and Elric's true destiny is to ensure that it comes into being.

Jermays the Crooked makes an obligatory appearance to explain some things, and Elric learns that the Horn is held by Roland, who is not dead but sleeping (he is of course another incarnation of the Eternal Champion). Roland comes to life because I guess it wouldn't be proper if Elric didn't prove his worth in battle, even though Roland and his entire world would cease to exist if he bested Elric. This whole section is a rather out-of-place pace-killing detour, but it does contain the important detail, especially unsettling in light of the ending of the novel, that, while Elric feels like he doesn't belong in our Earth's reality, Stormbringer does feel right at home.

But the final battle awaits, and a magnificent one it is, too. Elric returns to his dying world and his companions with the Horn and is able to muster enough energy to blow it once, sending the dragons on one final glorious suicide run against the forces of Chaos. He duels more Chaos Lords, including Xiombarg (who is for some reason male with a woman's body here, rather than female as in the Corum books) and Mabelode. Dyvim Slorm dies valiantly but quickly, and the energy Elric receives from banishing Xiombarg allows him to blow the Horn again, summoning the Lords of Law. Most of the remainder of the battle is theirs, though Elric is able, at long last, to face off against Jagreen Lern, choosing, rather than taking the Theocrat's soul and life-force with Stormbringer, to make his death long and painful. This is a failure of the last moral test he is presented with. Without the energy to blow the Horn the third and final time, all of the fighting would have been for nothing, so Moonglum faithfully begs Elric to take his soul and, with it, complete his task -- but the experience of total soul-death is a far worse fate even than Moonglum had imagined. I'm pretty sure we're meant to conclude that, had Elric focused on his mission rather than on vengeance, he would not have had to murder his last friend. What I'm not entirely sure we're supposed to interpret as avoidable is the final events of the saga. Elric blows the Horn, the new world is born, and the balance rights itself (literally, up in the air). But Stormbringer, acting on its own, turns on its master and stabs Elric, reveals its true demonic form, announces, "I was a thousand times more evil than thou!", and dances through the new universe "in mockery of the cosmic balance."

So there you have it. Elric's victory is significant, and could not have occurred without his actions, but it also essentially introduces Original Sin into the new world of justice and potential he has fought so hard to create. The novel, if not the saga as a whole, does indeed function as a tragedy. And how might things have turned out differently, for the better? If Elric had not summoned Stormbringer back to his world while being held captive on Jagreen Lern's mast, he would have died and his soul would have stayed his own, but the new world would never have been born. Elric's dependence on the sword and the dull drug metaphor are red herrings; the use of Stormbringer seems to be necessary for the achievement of the final goal, but taints it. Good ends may not be able to justify evil means, but evil means are necessary to achieve it. And none of these ideas would add up to a decent story if not for that moment with the old man who sold his soul, which casts doubt on the rest of the narrative's insistence that the fate of the cosmos is more important than the fate of the individual. I'm almost shocked, but, in the end, the novel does work.

[1] We're not even reminded that Melnibonéans have raised cruelty to an art form. We don't see their bizarre conception of good leadership or any of their petty prejudices. All Elric grapples with is his pact with Arioch, and we already know that Elric usually doesn't take that very seriously.

[2] This is, incidentally, the reason Persona 2: Innocent Sin is both morally coherent and packs an emotional gut-punch, and why Eternal Punishment, for all its virtues, accomplishes neither.