The King of the Swords
core novel 1971 The Eternal Champion
Record
| First published | 1971 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 3.92 (2,562 ratings, collected 2026-09-13) |
| Page count | 158 |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780583119993 |
| Internal chronology | 3 |
Synopsis
The King of the Swords, concluding Moorcock's first Corum trilogy, opens with Corum and his companions enjoying a period of peace at a rebuilt Castle Erorn following the conflicts of the earlier books, a tranquility that quickly sours into unexplained hostility and mutual resentment among the group. The company discovers this rising animosity is the result of a curse cast across the entire world by a Nadragh sorcerer working on behalf of Glandyth-a-Krae, Corum's old enemy, poisoning relationships everywhere it reaches. To break the spell, Corum and his companions must journey into the realm of King Mabelode, the last of the three Sword Rulers, an unstable domain of pure chaos where nothing can be relied upon to remain the same for more than a few moments.
Where it sits
- Universe: The Eternal Champion
- Series: The Swords Trilogy core; position 3 of 3 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Michael Moorcock
Notes
- From the series record (The Swords Trilogy): Corum Jhaelen Irsei's first trilogy; includes an in-story meeting with Elric of Melnibone and Erekose at the city of Tanelorn (within these books themselves, not a separately-published crossover title).
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 Swords Trilogy: position 3 of 3: previous The Queen of the Swords (1971)
- Internal chronology, within The Eternal Champion: position 13 of 30: previous The Sword of the Dawn (1968) · next The Dragon in the Sword (1987)
Sources
- Wikipedia: Corum Jhaelen Irsei
- Wikipedia: The Swords Trilogy
- https://www.stevenhsilver.com/mabelode.html
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