In which the author begins a discussion of the magical pacts of Elric of Melniboné.

Let Us Speak of Magic: Part the Eighth

Dear Reader,

If I had been in a glib mood, I could have subtitled this letter “The Accidental Magician.” Michael Moorcock’s Elric rarely plans on using magic. It usually comes to him in a moment of desperation or when he needs to accomplish some deed that is impossible under the current circumstances.

You see Elric doesn’t cast spells like your typical fantasy wizard – he invokes ancient pacts and the right of kingship. And usually those incantations come to him out of the dark recesses of his memory.

Yet, perhaps you have not heard of Elric? He is the 428th Emperor of a cruel and decadent people, an ancient race that does not know that its time is coming to an end. The Young Kingdoms stir, testing their new strength, and some – the eager and the bold – wonder if the Dragonlords of Imryrr are truly still unassailable upon their island fastness.

Elric would save his “insane” people (his word, not mine), but he must face them, as well as outsiders, monsters, and the machinations of the Lords of the Higher Worlds – the Lords of Chaos and Law.

And he fails. At least the prologue says as much:

So, what powers does Elric summon by magic as he struggles across his own world (and other realms that he forgets along the way)?

We will divide our discussion into three broad categories: the Beast Lords, the Elemental Lords, and the Lords of Chaos. We begin with the least of these in this letter.

The Beast Lords

There are a number of instances over the course of Elric’s journeys that he calls upon Beast Lords to come to his aid. Here we will look at Elric’s summoning of both Nnuuurrrr’c’c Lord of Insects and Haaashaastaak Lord of Lizards (if you are bewildered about how you might approach pronouncing those names, then I believe that Moorcock has succeeded in his purpose).

Let’s start with Nnuuurrrr’c’c.

Elric takes ship with one Duke Avan of the nation of Vilmir to seek out the lost city of R’lin K’ren A’a, where Elric’s people are said to have first arisen, back in the far flung ages of the past.

As they are sailing up a river, seeking for the city, the expedition is set upon by reptile-men who quickly prove to be of a supernatural nature. The situation grows desperate and Elric seeks a magic solution, fighting to clear his head:

So, from this section we learn that the incantations to summon aid are not front of mind for Elric. Indeed, he has never before invoked this specific pact with the Insect Lord, and he doesn’t even know if it is “appropriate” at the moment. Yet, he has no other option: he can’t recall any other incantations at the moment.

The Insect Lord Answers

The incantation draws Elric to the plane of the Insects so that he can draw the Insect Lord to his own plane. From here, we move into the bargaining stage of the magic:

Yes, there’s that elevated faux Medieval speech at work here, letting us know that Elric and the Insect Lord are speaking in an elevated register. Nnuuurrrr’c’c doesn’t know who Elric is, but it doesn’t take much persuading to get to the offer of aid.

First the request:

Nnuuurrrr’c’c looks in and then he wonders: Don’t you have someone else you could call upon? Some other patron of “thine own species” or some “Lord of Chaos”? Elric makes it known that he’s out of options.

So the Insect Lord decides that he will help:

So, this is going to be a one time deal.

The Swarm

And it’s going to be a scary one:

The Insect Lord has answered by sending a swarm of monstrous dragonfly like servants. They make quick work of Elric’s enemies:

Some of the lizard things survive, fleeing off into the jungle. They do not muster the courage to test the expedition again for some time.

This is a common theme in the Elric stories: summon a Lord of Beasts and something dramatic happens. We never receive any minor magic when a pact is invoked. Yet, there are some variations. For example, later in The Singing Citadel, we’ll actually see the summoning taking hold of Haaashaastaak Lord of Lizards from its perspective. One difference is clear right away, the Lizard Lord doesn't think and speak in the same manner as Nnuuurrrr’c’c.

The Lord of Lizards

In this instance, the incantation doesn’t work immediately and we find out why: it sounds faint to the entity being summoned. But Elric (and Yishna, one of his companions) don’t give up. Here's what they are saying:

The incantation claims kinship between the summoners and the master-type Reptile, names and describes him, and calls for aid. Eventually it works:

This passage gets down into the why of what happens when an incantation of summoning is performed. It’s not quite True Names, as we find in Ursula K. Le Guin’s Earthsea, but Elric is tapping into an underlying “manner and logic” of the world that’s been there since the “voice of the Cosmic Balance” spoke (an echo of the great word in Earthsea) and it does indeed involve the master-type’s name, spoken in an ancient High Speech.

This is doubly interesting because we’ve been led to believe that the Beast Lords are keeping ancient pacts made with Elric’s ancestors when they answer a summons. And they are. But the pacts themselves are rooted in an even deeper magic that is woven into the very fabric of the creation.

(In case you were wondering, Haaashaastaak appears and swallows the monster menacing our hero and his friends. One big tasty gulp.)

There we will let the matter rest for a time, Dear Reader. When we return to Elric, we will speak of his pacts with the Elemental Lords, beginning with my personal favorite Straasha the Lord of Water Elementals.

Until we speak again.

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Best regards,

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Bryan