The Bane of the Black Sword
core novel 1977 The Eternal Champion
Record
| First published | 1977 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 4.01 (8,319 ratings, collected 2026-09-13) |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780879973162 |
| Internal chronology | 7 |
Synopsis
The Bane of the Black Sword is the seventh book of the Elric Saga in reading order. Elric, having married Zarozinia and settled in the city of Karlaak, attempts to leave his old life of wandering behind, and even tries to cast off his sentient, soul-drinking sword Stormbringer in favor of the calmer existence he has found with his bride. But the blade will not stay abandoned, returning to his armory of its own will, and Elric's domestic peace proves to be only a lull before its demands, and his own restless nature, pull him back into violence and adventure far from Karlaak's walls.
Where it sits
- Universe: The Eternal Champion
- Series: The Elric Saga core; position 7 of 12 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Michael Moorcock
Notes
- From the series record (The Elric Saga): 12 novels in internal chronological order (per Saga Press's current standard edition), spanning 1965-2022 in publication. At least 4 of these are fix-ups of originally separate 1961-64 magazine novelettes (The Weird of the White Wolf, The Bane of the Black Sword, The Sailor on the Seas of Fate, and, hybrid, Stormbringer); the remainder are original novels. The Sleeping Sorceress was retitled The Vanishing Tower for some US editions; the database records the earlier UK title. Publication order genuinely differs from internal order and no two secondary sources fully agree on the exact publication sequence due to UK/US divergence, internal (reading) order is used here as the primary axis since it is the one Moorcock himself settled on for the modern standard edition.
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings and are never conflated: a book's place in one says nothing about its place in the other.
- Publication order, within the series The Elric Saga: position 6 of 12: previous The Weird of the White Wolf (1977) · next The Fortress of the Pearl (1989)
- Internal chronology, within The Eternal Champion: position 24 of 30: previous The Champion of Garathorm (1973) · next The Quest for Tanelorn (1975)
Sources
- Moorcock's Miscellany
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elric_of_Melnibon%C3%A9
- https://reactormag.com/elric-reread-bane-of-the-black-sword/
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