The saga of Corum by Michael Moorcock, covering six novels, is perhaps the most satisfying of the Eternal Champion tales. It has a distinct beginning, middle, and end. It is the most cohesive and elegant of the Eternal Champion stories. This volume is the final three "books" of Corum and happen some 80 years after the first three volumes in the saga.

While Corum is not my favorite Eternal Champion incarnation, these three novels are perhaps my favorite collection in the Eternal Champion arc. It is in many ways more profound and somewhat scarier, with the only hinted gigantic idiot demons the Fhoi Myore ruling much of the geography we're concerned with.

We have the usual sword and sorcery mayhem, gore, heroics, dastardly deeds, villains, traitors. There is also a distinct Celtic flare to these stories.

Moorcock manages to infuse a few interesting ideas into what on the surface appears to be pure swashbuckling fantasy. He hints that the Fhoi Myore aren't really evil, just screwed up because they got shoved through a crack in time-space of the 15 planes and, through no fault of their own, ended up in a bad place for both them and the good guys of the story. He intimates that in their own place and time they are quite happy and get along fine, maybe aren't even mentally damaged. Their deformities are legion, perhaps due to the transition just as a caged animal is twisted, and Moorcock often has Corum feeling sympathy for them as he sees some of himself, a being caught in the wrong place and the wrong time, in the hideous Fhoi Myore. You see, Corum is the last of the Vadagh race (more like a species) that were all killed by the Mabden (humans like us) who are now the dominant species. Corum is forced to befriend the Mabden both through romantic love and just through survival necessity. He fights for the people that killed his race, because he once loved a Mabden woman and because there ain't nobody else around to party with. Corum, being immortal, is pragmatic.

There is also an underlying theme of destiny/fate versus free will, cause and chance. The Fhoi Myore were not born evil, unlike Tolkien's Orcs, somehow genetically programmed to be evil, but became mentally and physically deformed by passing between the planes of reality. If they were home, they'd be fine.

I'm having a hell of a time writing this as the kitten thinks that the mouse, cursor, keyboard, screen, and desk are strictly here for her amusement.

Where was I? Oh yes, fate. Even Corum's actions and experiences are driven or revealed by prophecy, in the end leaving little doubt that this is the only way it could be. Most people are fooled into thinking this is a conventional epic tragedy when the real tragedy is on a different level. All Corum's actions, thoughts heroic deeds, are foreordained, indeed all the characters', good and evil are. Is this just a clever thing inserted by Moorcock to comment on an author's relationship to his characters and work, or is he trying to say something about the way the universe really is? If so, then good and evil are nonsense in a clockwork or scientifically constrained universe where everything can be traced back to an antecedent cause.

All this in a sword and sorcery yarn? If you're Michael Moorcock, hell yes. ( )

Moorcock twists Celtic mythologies, taking them to alternative realities. Corum may be his most accessible personae of the Eternal Champion. Epic and intimate at the same time, somehow. ( )

My reaction to reading this in 1999. Spoilers follow.

“Introduction” - Not much here except a listing of Irish writers that influenced Moorcock.

The Bull and the Spear -- I liked this second Corum trilogy (at least, this first book of the second trilogy) about as well as the first. The cold-enshrouded , winter-bearing Fhoi Myore were interesting villains. Calatin was an intriguing character. With him, Moorcock seemed to be doing a variation on the mad scientist, a critique of the sort of ruthless scientific questing that sacrifices morality, idea logy, and family.

The Oak and the Ram -- It was nice to see the enigmatic Gaynor the Damned as well as Jhary-a-Conel. I liked Moorcock emphasizing Corum and Goffanon’s befuddlement at the encroaching magic in the Mabden world (who also, until evoking Corum were incredulous about magic too). I liked the bits about the rescue of Amergin being rescued from Caer Llud. The depiction of the Fhoi Myore (not gods of Chaos but Lords of Limbo, a change of pace for Eternal Champion stories) as not evil but simple-minded, needy entities exiled from their world. The dream visions of Corum into his other incarnations as the Eternal Champion were interesting. I liked Jhary-a-Conel complaining about the limited imagination of the gods in regard to horns: “Horns for bringing the apocalypse [a reference to Elric], horns for calling demons – now horns for handling dogs?”

The Sword and the Stallion -- This was the most interesting book of the second Corum trilogy. The whole end, where Corum is regarded as a traitor, was an interesting turn on the usual Eternal Champion story. Corum’s story echoes (not for the first time proving that some thought went into the ordering of this White Wolf series of Eternal Champion stories) Elric’s in some ways. He gets a magical sword, Traitor, which has a sinister ability to kill Corum’s friends (in this case Goffanon). His life ends at the point of this sword after greatly changing the world, here helping to purge it of “sorcery and demigods” – Corum and Goffanon -- worry about the influence of a alliance with the sinister Malibann (who seem an echo, ruby throne, sorcery, empire and all, of Elric’s Melniboneans) on Mabden rationality. They might view the world magically – presumably the reason Corum can not be allowed to remain in the Mabden world. The treachery of Medhbh (the sinister prophecy warning Corum about a harp, beauty, and a brother) was not unexpected but still shocking. ( )

The Bull and the Spear: http://www.librarything.com/review/89086375
The Oak and the Ram: http://www.librarything.com/review/89086396
The Sword and the Stallion: http://www.librarything.com/review/89086421 ( )

This omnibus contains the second Corum trilogy. Long after his mortal wife and queen has died, Corum lives his life in solitude, until he hears voices calling him. These voices draw him into a distant future, in which the Mabden, the race of men, are threatened with an evil, destructive force.

In order to benefit these dying Mabden, Corum must help them procure their objects of power, each book bears the name of those he seeks in that volume. As with any relic in a Moorcock book, each use comes with its own price, which the characters pay time after time.

Teaming up with his companion from the last trilogy, Jhary, as well as some ancient fey giants, called the Sidi, who bear a striking resemblance to Corum’s own race, the Vadagh, Corum rallies the Mabden against the hordes of Chaos, led by the fallen champion himself, Gaynor the Damned.

In classic Moorcock tradition, this story unfolds; enemies become acquaintances, friends become enemies, and tragedy follows the Prince with the Silver Hand wherever he goes.

This volume is definitely recommended for fans of Moorcock’s fantasy, and is a worthy member of the Eternal Champion White Wolf omnibuses. ( )