The Knight of the Swords
British Fantasy Award 1972, Mythopoeic Fantasy Award nominee 1972.
The Hand of Kwll and the Eye of Rhynn in exchange for the Heart of Arioch
There
were Gods abroad in those days. It was their whim to wipe clean the
slate of history, to destroy the old races, the Vadhagh, the Nhadragh,
the remnants of still more ancient peoples. Mankind, the contemptible
Mabden, was their instrument, washcloth of the Gods. But the Gods
themselves fell out, and Chaos gained the advantage over Law. The stage
was set for heroes.
One such was the Vadhagh Prince Corum.
Driven mad for revenge by the callous slaughter of his family and race,
and by his own grotesque mutilation at the hands of the Mabden, he
agreed to accept from the treacherous sorceror Shool the Eye of Rhynn
and the Hand of Kwll in exchange for a lien on his soul.
Thus armed he
set out upon a personal crusade against the Sword Rulers, Lords of Chaos, puppetmasters to Man. And the first
of these was the loathsome Arioch, Knight of the Swords, master of five of
the fifteen planes of reality. From Arioch, Prince Corum required his
heart.
Michael Moorcock
Michael Moorcock (born 1939) is a prolific English writer primarily of science fiction and fantasy. Moorcock's most popular works have been the Elric novels, starring the character Elric of Melniboné. In 2008 the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America named him as a Grandmaster of SF.
Corum
Corum consists of six primary books, and includes two additional books that complement the series but are not considered mandatory reads. The current recommended reading order for the series is provided below.
Main series The Eternal Champion Sequence
