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Von Bek #1
The Warhound and the World's Pain
This is the story of Ulrich von Bek, a cynical mercenary who sells his skills as a soldier in the wars taking place all over Europe. After the particularly horrific destruction of a city in which he played a role, von Bek decides to desert the military company he was working for and travel alone for awhile before seeking further employment.
On his solo journey, he happens upon a castle where he takes refuge with - and then falls in love with - the keeper of the castle, the beautiful Sabrina. It is in this castle that he meets Lucifer, the master of Hell, and finds out that his soul is already destined for Hell. And so, in exchange for his soul, von Bek agrees to go on a quest for Lucifer, namely to find the Cure for the World's Pain. This quest is also known as the Search for the Holy Grail.
196 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1981
35 people are currently reading
1367 people want to read
About the author
Michael Moorcock
1,205 books3,743 followersMichael John Moorcock is an English writer primarily of science fiction and fantasy who has also published a number of literary novels.
Moorcock has mentioned The Gods of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Apple Cart by George Bernard Shaw and The Constable of St. Nicholas by Edward Lester Arnold as the first three books which captured his imagination. He became editor of Tarzan Adventures in 1956, at the age of sixteen, and later moved on to edit Sexton Blake Library. As editor of the controversial British science fiction magazine New Worlds, from May 1964 until March 1971 and then again from 1976 to 1996, Moorcock fostered the development of the science fiction "New Wave" in the UK and indirectly in the United States. His serialization of Norman Spinrad's Bug Jack Barron was notorious for causing British MPs to condemn in Parliament the Arts Council's funding of the magazine.
During this time, he occasionally wrote under the pseudonym of "James Colvin," a "house pseudonym" used by other critics on New Worlds. A spoof obituary of Colvin appeared in New Worlds #197 (January 1970), written by "William Barclay" (another Moorcock pseudonym). Moorcock, indeed, makes much use of the initials "JC", and not entirely coincidentally these are also the initials of Jesus Christ, the subject of his 1967 Nebula award-winning novella Behold the Man, which tells the story of Karl Glogauer, a time-traveller who takes on the role of Christ. They are also the initials of various "Eternal Champion" Moorcock characters such as Jerry Cornelius, Jerry Cornell and Jherek Carnelian. In more recent years, Moorcock has taken to using "Warwick Colvin, Jr." as yet another pseudonym, particularly in his Second Ether fiction.
Moorcock has mentioned The Gods of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Apple Cart by George Bernard Shaw and The Constable of St. Nicholas by Edward Lester Arnold as the first three books which captured his imagination. He became editor of Tarzan Adventures in 1956, at the age of sixteen, and later moved on to edit Sexton Blake Library. As editor of the controversial British science fiction magazine New Worlds, from May 1964 until March 1971 and then again from 1976 to 1996, Moorcock fostered the development of the science fiction "New Wave" in the UK and indirectly in the United States. His serialization of Norman Spinrad's Bug Jack Barron was notorious for causing British MPs to condemn in Parliament the Arts Council's funding of the magazine.
During this time, he occasionally wrote under the pseudonym of "James Colvin," a "house pseudonym" used by other critics on New Worlds. A spoof obituary of Colvin appeared in New Worlds #197 (January 1970), written by "William Barclay" (another Moorcock pseudonym). Moorcock, indeed, makes much use of the initials "JC", and not entirely coincidentally these are also the initials of Jesus Christ, the subject of his 1967 Nebula award-winning novella Behold the Man, which tells the story of Karl Glogauer, a time-traveller who takes on the role of Christ. They are also the initials of various "Eternal Champion" Moorcock characters such as Jerry Cornelius, Jerry Cornell and Jherek Carnelian. In more recent years, Moorcock has taken to using "Warwick Colvin, Jr." as yet another pseudonym, particularly in his Second Ether fiction.
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May 10, 2012
Behold the Man…
Who else but Michael Moorcock, in all his devious craftiness, could employ Satan, Heaven & Hell, souls, damnation, and a quest for the Holy Grail, as tools for a story whose central premise is a call for humanity to eschew religious belief and embrace scientific discovery and secular self-determination. I mean…damn…regardless of which side of the God debate you place yourself, Moorcock deserves some major kudos for having both the sack and the creativity to use plot elements completely antithetical to his message…and having the ability to make them serve his purpose.
Tis genius, no?
PLOT SUMMARY:
Part of Moorcock’s iconic “Eternal Champion” saga, this novel introduces us to Ulrich von Bek, a character that I understand becomes an important figure in the mythos (I need to read more eternal champion books). Set in 17th century Europe, during the Thirty Years' War, when we first meet von Bek he's commander of a group of mercenaries fighting for the Catholic forces against the Protestants. Disillusioned, faithless and cynical, von Bek travels through a Germany ravaged by war and religious persecution, until he comes across an idyllic, isolated castle whose owner just happens to be Lucifer.
The fallen angel is shown as a romanticized, tragic figure, very much in the spirit of Milton, and Moorcock's portrayal reminded me quite a bit of Anne Rice's in Memnoch the Devil.
Sad, remorseful and looking to get back into God’s good graces, Lucifer enlists von Bek to help him "cure the world’s pain" by locating the Holy Grail. He hopes that by accomplishing this rather daunting goal, God will speak to him and welcome him back into heaven.
THOUGHTS:
Moorcock uses no blunt tools in this story, and it was not until very near the end that I really started to grasp what he was trying to accomplish. Most of the story is a pretty standard Moorcock adventure in which we follow von Bek on his quest. During his search for the Holy Grail, von Bek faces a usual cadre of both natural and supernatural adversaries, all leading to a final showdown with the archvillain.
What sets this apart is the common thread of religion running through the set pieces. Everywhere you look, Moorcock is highlighting some evil perpetrated in the name of religion. Catholics raze protestant cities, protestants burn catholic villages, Jews are persecuted and killed, pagans are butchered and raped. All manner of atrocity is forgiven because it is in adherence to some doctrine of faith or in service to God.
His message is delivered piecemeal, in small doses, throughout the story, but the final picture is a wallop. Whether you ultimately agree or disagree with Moorcock’s conclusion, I thought the journey he created was skillfully handled and raised wonderful topics to ponder over and debate.
Rather than arguing from the tired refrain of God exists/God does not exist, Moorcock takes the path less travelled to denote his position. He admits and embraces the existence of God/Satan/Heaven/Hell, and then artfully establishes why humanity must blaze its own trail, without God’s help or the Satan’s interference. I found his approach fascinating...probably more so than I did the execution of that approach.
Overall, I was very impressed with Moorcock's originality and the artistry of what he accomplished, though I can’t say my enjoyment ever got beyond “I like it” territory. The beginning was terrific and the end was stellar, but there were chunks in the middle that lost a bit of the momentum and dragged.
I think if I were to re-read this now, in light of my full understanding of what Moorcock was doing, my opinion of some of these slower parts may improve. I may just test that hypothesis at some point.
For now, a strong 3.5 stars and a HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
Who else but Michael Moorcock, in all his devious craftiness, could employ Satan, Heaven & Hell, souls, damnation, and a quest for the Holy Grail, as tools for a story whose central premise is a call for humanity to eschew religious belief and embrace scientific discovery and secular self-determination. I mean…damn…regardless of which side of the God debate you place yourself, Moorcock deserves some major kudos for having both the sack and the creativity to use plot elements completely antithetical to his message…and having the ability to make them serve his purpose.
Tis genius, no?
PLOT SUMMARY:
Part of Moorcock’s iconic “Eternal Champion” saga, this novel introduces us to Ulrich von Bek, a character that I understand becomes an important figure in the mythos (I need to read more eternal champion books). Set in 17th century Europe, during the Thirty Years' War, when we first meet von Bek he's commander of a group of mercenaries fighting for the Catholic forces against the Protestants. Disillusioned, faithless and cynical, von Bek travels through a Germany ravaged by war and religious persecution, until he comes across an idyllic, isolated castle whose owner just happens to be Lucifer.
The fallen angel is shown as a romanticized, tragic figure, very much in the spirit of Milton, and Moorcock's portrayal reminded me quite a bit of Anne Rice's in Memnoch the Devil.
Sad, remorseful and looking to get back into God’s good graces, Lucifer enlists von Bek to help him "cure the world’s pain" by locating the Holy Grail. He hopes that by accomplishing this rather daunting goal, God will speak to him and welcome him back into heaven.
THOUGHTS:
Moorcock uses no blunt tools in this story, and it was not until very near the end that I really started to grasp what he was trying to accomplish. Most of the story is a pretty standard Moorcock adventure in which we follow von Bek on his quest. During his search for the Holy Grail, von Bek faces a usual cadre of both natural and supernatural adversaries, all leading to a final showdown with the archvillain.
What sets this apart is the common thread of religion running through the set pieces. Everywhere you look, Moorcock is highlighting some evil perpetrated in the name of religion. Catholics raze protestant cities, protestants burn catholic villages, Jews are persecuted and killed, pagans are butchered and raped. All manner of atrocity is forgiven because it is in adherence to some doctrine of faith or in service to God.
His message is delivered piecemeal, in small doses, throughout the story, but the final picture is a wallop. Whether you ultimately agree or disagree with Moorcock’s conclusion, I thought the journey he created was skillfully handled and raised wonderful topics to ponder over and debate.
Rather than arguing from the tired refrain of God exists/God does not exist, Moorcock takes the path less travelled to denote his position. He admits and embraces the existence of God/Satan/Heaven/Hell, and then artfully establishes why humanity must blaze its own trail, without God’s help or the Satan’s interference. I found his approach fascinating...probably more so than I did the execution of that approach.
Overall, I was very impressed with Moorcock's originality and the artistry of what he accomplished, though I can’t say my enjoyment ever got beyond “I like it” territory. The beginning was terrific and the end was stellar, but there were chunks in the middle that lost a bit of the momentum and dragged.
I think if I were to re-read this now, in light of my full understanding of what Moorcock was doing, my opinion of some of these slower parts may improve. I may just test that hypothesis at some point.
For now, a strong 3.5 stars and a HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
April 15, 2021
I've long held the theory that humanity has the potential to be better than the most righteous hosts of high heavens, yet also worse than the worst rabbles of hell. The greater nuances of morality - not being bound to either extreme good or evil - not only give us free will and thus make all our choices and deeds more meaningful, but also mixes up in unpredictable and often uncomfortable ways to do better and worse than no celestial or infernal being could conceive. What indeed is worse evil than the evil done in the name of good? Would Mammon or Beelzebub ever have thought of that?
Michael Moorcock's War Hound never directly considers this viewpoint, but it did make me think about it, what with the state humanity is in. You have your share of bandits and other selfish folk just looking to make it through the day and having little moral qualms on how to make that happen, but they don't seem nearly as bad as all the priests burning heretics for the good of everyone. In some ways even the main heroes seem worse than the rebellious demonhosts. It says a lot when Lucifer Morningstar, the first rebel, the ultimate big bad of any setting where he shows up, feels like the very best and most noble character in the book... and I'm even reasonably certain that he did not lie at all by the end!
God Himself doesn't show up, but He isn't made to look like that bad a person either. At most it's shown that He may have been in the wrong with the whole apple nonsense.
On the whole it sets a surprisingly optimistic tone and pulls through with it, in spite of the grim and joyless setting. I had a good time and found myself fairly deep in thought after the fact.
Michael Moorcock's War Hound never directly considers this viewpoint, but it did make me think about it, what with the state humanity is in. You have your share of bandits and other selfish folk just looking to make it through the day and having little moral qualms on how to make that happen, but they don't seem nearly as bad as all the priests burning heretics for the good of everyone. In some ways even the main heroes seem worse than the rebellious demonhosts. It says a lot when Lucifer Morningstar, the first rebel, the ultimate big bad of any setting where he shows up, feels like the very best and most noble character in the book... and I'm even reasonably certain that he did not lie at all by the end!
God Himself doesn't show up, but He isn't made to look like that bad a person either. At most it's shown that He may have been in the wrong with the whole apple nonsense.
On the whole it sets a surprisingly optimistic tone and pulls through with it, in spite of the grim and joyless setting. I had a good time and found myself fairly deep in thought after the fact.
September 16, 2011
Moorcock is usually classed as a science fiction/fantasy author. This book might be classed as a theological fantasy as the major character is Lucifer. As ever, I appreciate fresh takes on old symbols and I like historical novels.
January 11, 2014
We all have our strange little rituals. Mine is, at the beginning of every year, to read nothing but authors with whose work I am unfamiliar. (Occasionally, I have sinned; but mostly, I keep to this.) A few weeks ago, I read a laudatory review of Michael Moorcock in the Times Literary Supplement. The only one of his books that caught my eye at the local library was The War Hound and the World's Pain, so I took it out not knowing quite what to expect.
How to describe it? Imagine something like Milton's Paradise Lost set in Europe during the Thirty Years War. A stout warrior named Graf Ulrich von Bek visits a strange uninhabited castle in a deserted wood where no birds chirp, no animals roam, and no insects ply their ways. Eventually, he meets a beautiful young woman who arrives at the castle with a strange guard detachment. Apparently she is a minion of Lucifer. The castle is Lucifer's. Anyone who comes into this wood and this castle can be presumed to have already lost his soul.
Eventually Lucifer shows up in person. He is a very attractive person of great warmth, strength, and beauty, with gold and copper glints from his body. Apparently, he wants to use von Bek's services to reconcile himself with God. The way to do this is to find the Holy Grail, which would thereby end the world's pain and allow the Devil to negotiate with God.
Ah, but this is only the beginning. Von Bek rides through strange, magical lands scattered across the Earth, all parts of Mittelmarch. He is pursued by other demons who do not want him to succeed, because they do not wish to be reconciled to the deity.
Along the way, von Bek picks up two sidekicks, Grigory Sedenko and the hermit Philander Groot. Moorcock tells a brilliantly inventive tale that kept me in thrall. At one point, his hero ponders:
How to describe it? Imagine something like Milton's Paradise Lost set in Europe during the Thirty Years War. A stout warrior named Graf Ulrich von Bek visits a strange uninhabited castle in a deserted wood where no birds chirp, no animals roam, and no insects ply their ways. Eventually, he meets a beautiful young woman who arrives at the castle with a strange guard detachment. Apparently she is a minion of Lucifer. The castle is Lucifer's. Anyone who comes into this wood and this castle can be presumed to have already lost his soul.
Eventually Lucifer shows up in person. He is a very attractive person of great warmth, strength, and beauty, with gold and copper glints from his body. Apparently, he wants to use von Bek's services to reconcile himself with God. The way to do this is to find the Holy Grail, which would thereby end the world's pain and allow the Devil to negotiate with God.
Ah, but this is only the beginning. Von Bek rides through strange, magical lands scattered across the Earth, all parts of Mittelmarch. He is pursued by other demons who do not want him to succeed, because they do not wish to be reconciled to the deity.
Along the way, von Bek picks up two sidekicks, Grigory Sedenko and the hermit Philander Groot. Moorcock tells a brilliantly inventive tale that kept me in thrall. At one point, his hero ponders:
I had fallen into the habit of deriving a kind of joy from the irony of my position, from the paradoxes and contrasts of my Quest. It led me to contemplate the most horrible crimes which could be committed by me in the name of the Grail Search. Was I strong enough, I wondered, to commit them? What kind of self-discipline was involved in forcing myself against one's own nature, towards vice? My inner debates became increasingly complex and unreal, but perhaps they served to take my mind off unwelcome actualities.I am not a frequent reader of fantasy, but I think that reading Moorcock can make me one.
May 4, 2018
THE WARHOUND AND THE WORLD'S PAIN wasn't part of the Eternal Champion cycle when I first read them back in the '70s, not coming along until 1981, but Von Bek is most definitely a manifestion in the same ranks as Erekose,Elric, Corum and Hawkmoon despite being rooted in a historical rather than fantasy context, at least to begin with.
Von Bek is a typical tortured Moorcock hero, but less tortured than some, a battle hardened veteran, having come to terms with his base nature. After being shown the Hell that awaits his soul, he makes a deal with Lucifer to take on a quest, not in search of enlightenment, but to heal the pain of the World
Ostensibly this is the story of a grail quest, but it's classic Moorcock, so things are never simple. All of his trademark flourishes are in evidence here, with wild rides through shifting reality, musings on the nature of humanity and its place in the many facetted universe, and simpler matters, like the nature of comradeship, and the power of a man to make his own reality through force of will.
Reading this I was transported again to my first Moorcock readings in the very early '70s, and felt the same sense of awe and wonder at the force of his vision that I did back then.
This is sword and sorcery at its finest, and, by Arioch, I love it.
Von Bek is a typical tortured Moorcock hero, but less tortured than some, a battle hardened veteran, having come to terms with his base nature. After being shown the Hell that awaits his soul, he makes a deal with Lucifer to take on a quest, not in search of enlightenment, but to heal the pain of the World
Ostensibly this is the story of a grail quest, but it's classic Moorcock, so things are never simple. All of his trademark flourishes are in evidence here, with wild rides through shifting reality, musings on the nature of humanity and its place in the many facetted universe, and simpler matters, like the nature of comradeship, and the power of a man to make his own reality through force of will.
Reading this I was transported again to my first Moorcock readings in the very early '70s, and felt the same sense of awe and wonder at the force of his vision that I did back then.
This is sword and sorcery at its finest, and, by Arioch, I love it.
January 9, 2008
Fascinating look at the 30 Days War before the Dawn of Reason. The battle between Lucifer and God is played out across war scared Europe as The fallen One vies for a return to Grace enlisting the aid of doomed mortals in a deadly chess match.
I can't recall a book where both God and Satan are portrayed this way and it is amazing. The Devil is not all bad and God is not all good. Put that in your pipe and smoke it...
I can't recall a book where both God and Satan are portrayed this way and it is amazing. The Devil is not all bad and God is not all good. Put that in your pipe and smoke it...
October 30, 2008
While it doesn't quite transcend expectations like some of Moorcock's books, this moody adventure that reads a little like Vance meets Bunyan has some interesting speculations on theology.Gruesome violence of the 17th century setting also helps keep this memorable. Fans of Phillip Pullman's fantasies should search it out. What was up with the giant cat? I love his books for inexplicable weirdness like that.
May 3, 2020
This novel was one of Moorcock's transitional novels, when he was re-imagining (or re-branding) himself as a serious literary artist rather than a purveyor of fast adventure fantasy. (It's interesting how careful he became to incorporate all of the works from both sides of his career into the multiverse tapestry, but that's a whole other thing.) It's the first volume of what became the Von Bek (sub-)series, a very Faustian story involving the confrontation between good and evil, the Grail quest, and Lucifer. It's told with the framing device of an old, lost manuscript from 1680 being rediscovered in a monastery's crypt during restorative work being done after damage during World War Two, a gimmick popularized by Burroughs that Moorcock was to adopt many more times in his work. This one doesn't have as much humor as many of his works, but does do a better job of staying on topic with fewer digressions and convoluted descriptions and conversations that appeared in some of his subsequent longer novels. It's a fine, thought-provoking read.
October 7, 2007
I enjoy this book, even though Von Bek is an idiot. It's amusing to watch him accept everything that Lucifer tells him as the truth without any questions at all. The book is typical Moorcock fantasy, complete with the sardonic hero, the loyal sidekick, the dandy that may or may not be an ally, and a war between gods. Still, the (mostly) real world setting makes it more interesting to me than the made-up settings of Elric, Corum, and other Eternal Champions.
March 23, 2008
An early fantasy classic of war and of dealings with the forces of darkness [though with Moorcock's usual ambiguity]. The violence of early modern central europe and the reality of knightly values pulls the fantasy-fascism of Elric down to earth and sharpens the sense of what cruelty really is. Certainly an early high point in Moorcock's fluctuating canon. The first of the long Von Beck cycle which weakens with time.
August 10, 2023
I've read Elric Melniboné Series, and this is entertaining and interesting; the concepts of Elric are abundant, kind of surprise that a multitude of metaphors and philosophies are crammed in less 200 pages each book in Elric series. However, even though the ideas are colossal and numinous, the writing isn't adequat that compares to those Big Ideas; Although after I read The War Hound and the World's Pain, I knew that the writing is much better than I've read in Elric series, which is Moorcock's first series since published.
I was fully immersed in the eloquent and delicate writing that which easily portraits a unsettled, disturbing world within Lucifer had been dominating since he was excommunicated from Heaven. A different interpretation of The Paradise Lost that is set in Moorcock's Eternal Champion Multiverse. Our Hero, Bon Vek who is a captain of Infantry had accidently roamed in Lucifer's territory, and found out that his soul was belonged to Lucifer. He has made the bargain with Lucifer that he would seek for the grail, which is the antidote of the world's pain. The journey is like a epic poem, and finally he discover the true meaning of The Grail and save the humanity. Moreover got married after finishing the Mission.
It's not a traditional Evil vs Good story, more like self-discovered, balance, heroic odyssey with romances and wars. Searching for mankind's salvation would not rely on powerful magic items.
I was fully immersed in the eloquent and delicate writing that which easily portraits a unsettled, disturbing world within Lucifer had been dominating since he was excommunicated from Heaven. A different interpretation of The Paradise Lost that is set in Moorcock's Eternal Champion Multiverse. Our Hero, Bon Vek who is a captain of Infantry had accidently roamed in Lucifer's territory, and found out that his soul was belonged to Lucifer. He has made the bargain with Lucifer that he would seek for the grail, which is the antidote of the world's pain. The journey is like a epic poem, and finally he discover the true meaning of The Grail and save the humanity. Moreover got married after finishing the Mission.
It's not a traditional Evil vs Good story, more like self-discovered, balance, heroic odyssey with romances and wars. Searching for mankind's salvation would not rely on powerful magic items.
October 20, 2025
Got in as far as 50%, grinding my teeth the whole time. This is just terrible. The writing is awful, both wooden and pompous as hell, and somehow I find it hard to believe that tackling-Christianity-with-rationalism was so novel even for the 1980s. Even in this cynical, edgy fashion. I was first irked at how he wrote female characters, Sabrina here is a hollow, impossibly beautiful seductress and little more, but the thing is, he doesn't write male characters any better. Von Bek himself is so obnoxiously smug and above it all, while not having much of a defined personality (he's a rough sketch of Count Brass, of Hawkmoon.) All characters are beyond shallow, description is sparse, things happen at breakneck speed and don't make much logical sense. This book has aged unusually fast too.
To say nothing of the little things. He took his sword between his teeth to draw both his pistols, did he?? Oh my god...
To say nothing of the little things. He took his sword between his teeth to draw both his pistols, did he?? Oh my god...
October 15, 2020
10/5
Since June, I ‘’quit’’ watching youtube and instead I read books. I finished Dresden files, Discworld and some Lumley collections of short stories. Is amazing how many pages replaced silly videos in my life!
So I had to return to one of my favourite authors…
And a book I wanted to read ten years now…
An OH MY GOD!
I think it waz one of the best books I read this year!
Not only von Bek iz everything I enjoy in Moorcock’s heroes, but the timeset of this book and the adventure waz just wow. A deal with Lucifer, an enemh who believes in Arioch, a meeting with Lilith and a quest for the holy grail… written by the author of elric??!?!
Just amazing!
Since June, I ‘’quit’’ watching youtube and instead I read books. I finished Dresden files, Discworld and some Lumley collections of short stories. Is amazing how many pages replaced silly videos in my life!
So I had to return to one of my favourite authors…
And a book I wanted to read ten years now…
An OH MY GOD!
I think it waz one of the best books I read this year!
Not only von Bek iz everything I enjoy in Moorcock’s heroes, but the timeset of this book and the adventure waz just wow. A deal with Lucifer, an enemh who believes in Arioch, a meeting with Lilith and a quest for the holy grail… written by the author of elric??!?!
Just amazing!
June 18, 2011
Look at the beautiful figure on the cover. Doesn't he look striking? Angelic perhaps? Would his words soothe your soul, comfort you? Perhaps you should give his story a listen. You won't be disappointed. You might even discover the source and cure for the world's pain.
This story focuses on the fantastic adventure of a professional soldier named Ulrich Von Bek. He has captured/killed many enemy soldiers and proven so excellent at waging war that he he has earned some measure of fame and a nickname: Krieghund.
This is an almost perfect fantasy story. The only minor criticisms would be how quickly a man named Sedenko joins Von Bek and also how rapidly a man named Klosterheim goes from a petty soldier-priest to the commander of a legion of unusual forces.
Spoilers below
Interesting Places/People...
Middle March--A realm connected to ours and to other worlds. It if full of both ordinary and extraordinary things. Similar to the Celtic Otherworld, I believe.
Sedenko--A bored soldier of the Kazak steppes who joins the quest out of curiosity mostly.
Philander Groot--a philosopher mage who has rejected both Heaven and Hell.
Klosterheim--a soldier priest who joins forces with Duke Arioch of Hell to stop Von Bek from finding the Holy Grail.
Plot Discussion...
Von Bek rides alone in 1631 Europe through a quiet, seemingly cursed forest devoid of life. Von Bek finds an abandoned castle in the middle of this forest. He spends a few days at the castle bathing, reading books in the library and speculating as to who might own the castle. He wonders if some rich prince uses the castle as retreat.
Preparing to leave, Ulrich Von Bek is stopped by a patrol of undead soldiers pulling a carriage. After a short battle, a woman inside the carriage halts the fight between Von Bek and the undead soldiers.
This woman and Von Bek make love and she introduces him to the master of the castle and her Master--Lucifer. Von Bek is naturally skeptical. When he meets Lucifer it is not some red, scaly beast or a man with a goatee and pitchfork, but rather a beautiful being with lovely skin, silvery hair and copper eyes--like an angel fallen from the heavens.
Lucifer informs Von Bek that is soul already belongs to him. He shows him Hell. The place of damnation is not a fiery pit but rather a collection of strange but not too extraordinary cities and realms. The "Hell" the damned souls experience is the knowledge that Heaven is forever out of reach. This is the Milton notion of Hell from Paradise Lost, where the mere knowledge of Heaven being forever forbidden to Satan is an eternal punishment unto itself. "The Hell within me, for within me Hell".
To save his soul and that of the woman from the castle (Sabrina) he goes upon a most curious quest on behalf of the devil. He is to search the world for the Holy Grail. Lucifer hopes to somehow cure the World's Pain with the holy cup and once more be allowed to speak with God. He has been denied any communication with God and Heaven since being cast out of paradise. Lucifer only designed Hell as such because he thought that to be his role in the Universe--for God left him no instructions.
This story focuses on the fantastic adventure of a professional soldier named Ulrich Von Bek. He has captured/killed many enemy soldiers and proven so excellent at waging war that he he has earned some measure of fame and a nickname: Krieghund.
This is an almost perfect fantasy story. The only minor criticisms would be how quickly a man named Sedenko joins Von Bek and also how rapidly a man named Klosterheim goes from a petty soldier-priest to the commander of a legion of unusual forces.
Spoilers below
Interesting Places/People...
Middle March--A realm connected to ours and to other worlds. It if full of both ordinary and extraordinary things. Similar to the Celtic Otherworld, I believe.
Sedenko--A bored soldier of the Kazak steppes who joins the quest out of curiosity mostly.
Philander Groot--a philosopher mage who has rejected both Heaven and Hell.
Klosterheim--a soldier priest who joins forces with Duke Arioch of Hell to stop Von Bek from finding the Holy Grail.
Plot Discussion...
Von Bek rides alone in 1631 Europe through a quiet, seemingly cursed forest devoid of life. Von Bek finds an abandoned castle in the middle of this forest. He spends a few days at the castle bathing, reading books in the library and speculating as to who might own the castle. He wonders if some rich prince uses the castle as retreat.
Preparing to leave, Ulrich Von Bek is stopped by a patrol of undead soldiers pulling a carriage. After a short battle, a woman inside the carriage halts the fight between Von Bek and the undead soldiers.
This woman and Von Bek make love and she introduces him to the master of the castle and her Master--Lucifer. Von Bek is naturally skeptical. When he meets Lucifer it is not some red, scaly beast or a man with a goatee and pitchfork, but rather a beautiful being with lovely skin, silvery hair and copper eyes--like an angel fallen from the heavens.
Lucifer informs Von Bek that is soul already belongs to him. He shows him Hell. The place of damnation is not a fiery pit but rather a collection of strange but not too extraordinary cities and realms. The "Hell" the damned souls experience is the knowledge that Heaven is forever out of reach. This is the Milton notion of Hell from Paradise Lost, where the mere knowledge of Heaven being forever forbidden to Satan is an eternal punishment unto itself. "The Hell within me, for within me Hell".
To save his soul and that of the woman from the castle (Sabrina) he goes upon a most curious quest on behalf of the devil. He is to search the world for the Holy Grail. Lucifer hopes to somehow cure the World's Pain with the holy cup and once more be allowed to speak with God. He has been denied any communication with God and Heaven since being cast out of paradise. Lucifer only designed Hell as such because he thought that to be his role in the Universe--for God left him no instructions.
April 21, 2015
I have read very little Moorcock, but have recently decided to rectify this by reading through the Eternal Champion series. This is the first novel in the first Omnibus "Von Bek" - and what a great place to start it is! A brilliant, multilayered tale of a man with no choice but to serve Lucifer, and his psychological musings on the nature of life as he travels across war ravaged Germany, and then an increasingly bizarre other world. As an Atheist, I was particularly tickled by the ending, and it's implications for the dawning Age of Reason.
I am very much looking forward to the other entries in the Von Bek families series.
I am very much looking forward to the other entries in the Von Bek families series.
November 2, 2024
As Grail Quests go, this is innovative. It's a story where Lucifer attempts to reconcile with God, and the only-too-experienced old soldier Von Bek is sent to find the Grail as a cure for the suffering of the world.
I think I most liked the hyper-real early modern German wars, a setting seen with its attendant atrocities, notably pogroms, plus a less-conscious-on-Moorcock's-part abuse of women: the emphasis being prejudices and cruelty as norms for the times. These evils, engaged in by our viewpoint characters, get across the fallen state of the world.
The philosophical resolution concerns desacralisation, the transition to a non-religious human world (suited for the early modern setting). An ideas novel from Moorcock, with his usual adventures across other realities, this time interspersed with an especially grim historical realism.
I think I most liked the hyper-real early modern German wars, a setting seen with its attendant atrocities, notably pogroms, plus a less-conscious-on-Moorcock's-part abuse of women: the emphasis being prejudices and cruelty as norms for the times. These evils, engaged in by our viewpoint characters, get across the fallen state of the world.
The philosophical resolution concerns desacralisation, the transition to a non-religious human world (suited for the early modern setting). An ideas novel from Moorcock, with his usual adventures across other realities, this time interspersed with an especially grim historical realism.
February 22, 2020
I've used a spoiler to preserve the plot, although to be honest it's no more than the summary on the back would tell you.
The story is a heady mix of gritty realistic warfare and a bizarre otherness reminiscent of some of the dark eastern European/Russian fairy tales like Prince Ivan or Baba Yaga with a dash of theology mixed in for good measure. Moorcock doesn’t hesitate to point out the evils that people inflict on each other in the name of religion: the Protestant town of Magdeburg sacked by Catholics, Catholics killed by Protestants and Jews killed by both sides. The writing is sparse, but effective, with Moorcock displayed the ability to describe a scene with a few well chosen words rather than a paragraph or two of lush description.
By today’s standards this book is more of a novella than a novel – my copy was just under 200 pages long – and works well as a standalone novel (I’ve never read the sequels). If you’re interested in getting started with Moorcock’s Eternal Champion novels than you might be better advised to start with Elric or Corum, but if you’re curious about Moorcock’s work, than this would be as good a place as any to start.
The story is a heady mix of gritty realistic warfare and a bizarre otherness reminiscent of some of the dark eastern European/Russian fairy tales like Prince Ivan or Baba Yaga with a dash of theology mixed in for good measure. Moorcock doesn’t hesitate to point out the evils that people inflict on each other in the name of religion: the Protestant town of Magdeburg sacked by Catholics, Catholics killed by Protestants and Jews killed by both sides. The writing is sparse, but effective, with Moorcock displayed the ability to describe a scene with a few well chosen words rather than a paragraph or two of lush description.
By today’s standards this book is more of a novella than a novel – my copy was just under 200 pages long – and works well as a standalone novel (I’ve never read the sequels). If you’re interested in getting started with Moorcock’s Eternal Champion novels than you might be better advised to start with Elric or Corum, but if you’re curious about Moorcock’s work, than this would be as good a place as any to start.
October 1, 2013
Da:
http://www.webalice.it/michele.castel...
Di Moorcock avevo già parlato presentando le raccolte dei racconti del suo eroe più famoso, Elric di Melniboné. Da quella presentazione appare evidente che io non abbia mai apprezzato molto Moorcock, pur riconoscendogli una certa originalità nel mondo dell'eroic fantasy, ed una qualità di scrittura che lo pone un gradino più sù dei suoi contemporanei e precedenti. Perché allora questo ritorno ad un autore non tanto amato?
Perché sul blog Plutonia Experiment di Alessandro Girola, che leggo abbastanza frequentemente, è recentemente apparsa una recensione decisamente positiva di un romanzo di Moorcock, proprio il qui presente Il Mastino della Guerra. Romanzo definito ormai introvabile ma che ha il suo bravo posto nella mia libreria. Ho voluto rileggerlo, dato che non ne era rimasta traccia significativa nei miei ricordi, per vedere quale sarebbe stata invece la mia reazione ad una rilettura fatta oggi, quando sono molto diverso per sensibilità individuale, per esperienza di lettura ma sopratutto per sensibilità alla qualità di scrittura.
Dopo questa rilettura devo osservare che condivido solo parzialmente il giudizio positivo di Girola, perché l'innovazione di tema che Moorcock sembra introdurre in questo romanzo a me sembra solo apparente. Il tema principale di tutte le serie meggiori di Moorcock è la lotta del Bene contro il Male, attraverso l'azione di campioni umanamente imperfetti, che lottano per il Bene anche se spesso a loro insaputa ma sono essi stessi un groviglio di contraddizioni, con aspetti che possono facilmente essere ascrivibili al Male.
Quindi perché non portare il meccanismo logico al suo estremo e pensare al Male estremo, il nemico di Dio per autonomasia, che ha un conflitto interiore e si pone lui stesso le domande che i vari campioni di Moorcock si sono posti sul significato delle loro azioni? E quindi la possibilità che il Male possa alla fine richiedere il perdono e la riammissione nel Bene?
Ovviamente non tutti gli esponenti del Male sarebbero consenzienti a questa richiesta, e ci sarebbe lotta per impedire la richiesta stessa, che se assume la classica espressione di una Quest da parte di un eroe umano dedito al Male, ma anche lui interessato a liberarsi del fardello che ciò comporta, specialmente in vista di poter conquistare una vita in comune con una splendida fanciulla, forma l'argomento dell'intero romanzo.
Scritto nel classico stile semi aulico di Moorcock, è indubbiamente una rottura della struttura tipica dei romanzi eroic fantasy, ma fino ad un certo punto, riproducendo sostanzialmente le stesse dinamiche solo trasportate ad un livello superiore, dove il Bene e il Male sono rappresentati dai loro assoluti, anche se con tanti, troppi, aspetti di debolezza umana. Non c'è quindi nessuna tematica veramente innovativa, nessuno stile diverso dal solito, ma semplicemente una trama semplice ma ben sviluppata nel solco delle problematiche tipiche di Moorcock.
Tutto sommato, poche ore di lettura piacevole ma senza particolare significato, e anche le trovate della trama non vanno molto oltre la normalità del genere, seppure con qualche piccolo tocco innovativo che è sempre stata la caratteristica di Moorcock.
http://www.webalice.it/michele.castel...
Di Moorcock avevo già parlato presentando le raccolte dei racconti del suo eroe più famoso, Elric di Melniboné. Da quella presentazione appare evidente che io non abbia mai apprezzato molto Moorcock, pur riconoscendogli una certa originalità nel mondo dell'eroic fantasy, ed una qualità di scrittura che lo pone un gradino più sù dei suoi contemporanei e precedenti. Perché allora questo ritorno ad un autore non tanto amato?
Perché sul blog Plutonia Experiment di Alessandro Girola, che leggo abbastanza frequentemente, è recentemente apparsa una recensione decisamente positiva di un romanzo di Moorcock, proprio il qui presente Il Mastino della Guerra. Romanzo definito ormai introvabile ma che ha il suo bravo posto nella mia libreria. Ho voluto rileggerlo, dato che non ne era rimasta traccia significativa nei miei ricordi, per vedere quale sarebbe stata invece la mia reazione ad una rilettura fatta oggi, quando sono molto diverso per sensibilità individuale, per esperienza di lettura ma sopratutto per sensibilità alla qualità di scrittura.
Dopo questa rilettura devo osservare che condivido solo parzialmente il giudizio positivo di Girola, perché l'innovazione di tema che Moorcock sembra introdurre in questo romanzo a me sembra solo apparente. Il tema principale di tutte le serie meggiori di Moorcock è la lotta del Bene contro il Male, attraverso l'azione di campioni umanamente imperfetti, che lottano per il Bene anche se spesso a loro insaputa ma sono essi stessi un groviglio di contraddizioni, con aspetti che possono facilmente essere ascrivibili al Male.
Quindi perché non portare il meccanismo logico al suo estremo e pensare al Male estremo, il nemico di Dio per autonomasia, che ha un conflitto interiore e si pone lui stesso le domande che i vari campioni di Moorcock si sono posti sul significato delle loro azioni? E quindi la possibilità che il Male possa alla fine richiedere il perdono e la riammissione nel Bene?
Ovviamente non tutti gli esponenti del Male sarebbero consenzienti a questa richiesta, e ci sarebbe lotta per impedire la richiesta stessa, che se assume la classica espressione di una Quest da parte di un eroe umano dedito al Male, ma anche lui interessato a liberarsi del fardello che ciò comporta, specialmente in vista di poter conquistare una vita in comune con una splendida fanciulla, forma l'argomento dell'intero romanzo.
Scritto nel classico stile semi aulico di Moorcock, è indubbiamente una rottura della struttura tipica dei romanzi eroic fantasy, ma fino ad un certo punto, riproducendo sostanzialmente le stesse dinamiche solo trasportate ad un livello superiore, dove il Bene e il Male sono rappresentati dai loro assoluti, anche se con tanti, troppi, aspetti di debolezza umana. Non c'è quindi nessuna tematica veramente innovativa, nessuno stile diverso dal solito, ma semplicemente una trama semplice ma ben sviluppata nel solco delle problematiche tipiche di Moorcock.
Tutto sommato, poche ore di lettura piacevole ma senza particolare significato, e anche le trovate della trama non vanno molto oltre la normalità del genere, seppure con qualche piccolo tocco innovativo che è sempre stata la caratteristica di Moorcock.
August 4, 2012
The hot cover lured this prepubescent boy in. What he found was his reflection, pained by rejection.
November 14, 2018
Heavy, man. Heavy. There was a lot of metaphorical weight to this book. A worthwhile read, sometimes disturbing.
September 17, 2021
Fantasía teológica cuyo mayor valor es la ambigüedad moral y el mensaje humanista, quizá un poco ingenuo, en el que se mueve el relato. Moorcock integra su cosmogonía en el escenario de la Guerra de los Treinta años (un conflicto traumático al que la intelectualidad europea reaccionaría con la Ilustración, la subida al trono de la Razón y la consideración del ser humano como centro y medida de las cosas), para lanzar un mensaje humanista que rechaza la acción de fuerzas fantásticas como responsables de la capacidad destructiva de la Humanidad, sobre la responsabilidad de nuestros actos, nuestra capacidad para mejorar y la aceptación del mundo y quienes lo habitan.
El argumento se plantea como un manuscrito encontrado, un recurso muy cómodo que, mediante la "autopresentación” del protagonista permite en pocas páginas situar al lector respecto al escenario, el personaje y el conflicto. Estructurada como un largo viaje de conocimiento espiritual en el que Von Bek evolucionará de Lutero al humanismo Ilustrado, es otra obra fantástica británica que tira del "Progreso del peregrino", de Bunyan. Como suele ocurrir, el problema no es la plantilla, si no que la novela está mal vestida; "las cosas que pasan" resultan escasamente imaginativas, básicamente Von Bek y su colega van sitio a otro preguntando, de vez en cuando les pasa una movida (aparece el malo con una cohorte de chungos), la esquivan y venga a otro lado a preguntar. Poca extravagancia (salvo el gato, ¿pero qué cojones era el gato?), mucho trotar a caballo y mucho diálogo un poco pesadito. Curiosamente, aparte de los arquetipos de otras obras de Moorcock; el sidekick, el dandy ambigüo, la mujer-trofeo y el antagonista, el desarrollo resulta tan vago o genérico que podría funcionar perfectamente en otros géneros de narrativa popular; el western o una novela policíaca tipo "El halcón maltés". Es más, tengo el firme propósito de plagiar esta novela ambientándola en el tardofranquismo, poner de protagonista a Germán Areta y vendérsela a Garci.
Quizá válida como lectura temprana (me topé por primera vez con esta novela de chaval, poco después de leer a Tolkien, el maniqueísmo del de Oxford estalló en pedazos en mi cabeza), pero para un lector con cierto bagaje puede hacerse un poco cuesta arriba.
El argumento se plantea como un manuscrito encontrado, un recurso muy cómodo que, mediante la "autopresentación” del protagonista permite en pocas páginas situar al lector respecto al escenario, el personaje y el conflicto. Estructurada como un largo viaje de conocimiento espiritual en el que Von Bek evolucionará de Lutero al humanismo Ilustrado, es otra obra fantástica británica que tira del "Progreso del peregrino", de Bunyan. Como suele ocurrir, el problema no es la plantilla, si no que la novela está mal vestida; "las cosas que pasan" resultan escasamente imaginativas, básicamente Von Bek y su colega van sitio a otro preguntando, de vez en cuando les pasa una movida (aparece el malo con una cohorte de chungos), la esquivan y venga a otro lado a preguntar. Poca extravagancia (salvo el gato, ¿pero qué cojones era el gato?), mucho trotar a caballo y mucho diálogo un poco pesadito. Curiosamente, aparte de los arquetipos de otras obras de Moorcock; el sidekick, el dandy ambigüo, la mujer-trofeo y el antagonista, el desarrollo resulta tan vago o genérico que podría funcionar perfectamente en otros géneros de narrativa popular; el western o una novela policíaca tipo "El halcón maltés". Es más, tengo el firme propósito de plagiar esta novela ambientándola en el tardofranquismo, poner de protagonista a Germán Areta y vendérsela a Garci.
Quizá válida como lectura temprana (me topé por primera vez con esta novela de chaval, poco después de leer a Tolkien, el maniqueísmo del de Oxford estalló en pedazos en mi cabeza), pero para un lector con cierto bagaje puede hacerse un poco cuesta arriba.
November 27, 2023
Really enjoyable, fascinating conception of the relationship between Lucifer and God, Heaven and Hell etc. Lost me a little near the end but brought it back for the actual ending. Looking forward to reading more Moorcock after this.
February 7, 2016
WAR HOUND opens in 1631, during the Thirty Year War. A mercenary, committed neither to Protestant nor Catholic factions, von Bek led his soldiers in the looting and burning of the city of Magdeburg. When some of his men contract the plague, von Bek abandons them.
Von Bek finds himself in an (ecologically impossible) forest: flourishing trees and plants, without insect or animal life. He arrives at a beautiful castle—clean, well provisioned, and empty. Recognizing that he and his horse need to recover from the stress of battle, von Bek moves in. After a few days, a coach, guarded by reanimated corpses, arrives. After von Bek has dispatched many zombies, a beautiful woman emerges and commands her dead servants to desist. Von Bek and the beautiful witch, Sabina, fall in love.
The master of the castle is Lucifer, who tells von Bek that he is tired of his war with God and wishes to regain angelic status. Since the rape, looting and carnage von Bek routinely engages in as a soldier have damned him, Lucifer offers to release von Bek’s soul, as well as Sabina’s, if von Bek finds the holy Grail--a cure for the world’s pain. Curing the world’s pain (the meaning of this evocative term is never explained) will, Lucifer believes, restore him to God’s favor.
Lucifer gives Von Bek a map that shows, not merely Europe but the “Mettelmarch,” areas on the borders of hell, which only those already damned can enter. He travels to a series of appointments with beings, each of whom guide him to the next stage of the journey. Von Bek is joined by Sedenko, an exuberant young Kozak soldier, who, like von Bek’s, has is damned through war atrocities. Sedenko left his master, a “soldier-priest,” because he found Klosterheim’s mission to kill Jews and burn witches cowardly. Klosterheim, however, has bigger fish to fry. He is in league with forces of hell that oppose Lucifer’s reconciliation with God. Klosterheim, therefore, seeks at every turn to thwart von Bek’s quest for the Grail. In rapid succession, von Bek and Sedenko meet more reanimated corpses; predatory eagles as large as ponies; Philander Groot, a hermit who dresses as a dandy and travels in a chariot pulled by birds; Tartars on mechanical horses; and other exotic beings. Of course, von Bek completes his mission by finding the Grail. For me, however, the grandiose, Miltonic conflicts among celestial beings were not very interesting. The quest for the Grail is a springboard for a series of lively conflicts with exotic beings.
What makes THE WAR HOUND stand out from run-of-the mill sword and sorcery, however, is von Bek’s narrative voice. Ulrich von Bek appeared for the first time in WAR HOUND (1981), but von Bek and his family are found again and again in Moorcock’s subsequent fiction. A sequel to WAR HOUND, CITY IN THE AUTUMN STARS (1986) follows the adventures of one of Ulrich's descendants, Manfred von Bek. In WAR HOUND, Ulrich Von Bek is a self-serving, tactical, pragmatic, ruthless survivor, who considers atrocities against civilians a necessary tool of war.
A child during World War II, Moorcock survived the German bombing of London. He has stated that the blitz shaped his fiction. While much of THE WAR HOUND is escapist fantasy, its descriptions of wartime devastation ring true.
November 8, 2012
Originally published on my blog here in May 2001.
The seventeenth century Thirty Years' War was a forerunner of devastating twentieth century conflicts. Disease and famine followed direct casualties and atrocities were carried out on a huge scale (the sack of Magdeburg an example) as bands of mercenaries rampaged out of control across the countryside. The religious background to the war was not reflected in Christian virtues during it.
Von Bek is a mercenary captain in the war. He has lost what faith he had, but has not descended to the depths of depravity of many soldiers. He flees his men when he detects signs of the onset of plague, and finds himself in a strange but peaceful wood. He stays at a deserted castle, and there meets a beautiful woman who conducts him into the presence of a being who claims to be fallen angel Lucifer. Von Bek doesn't believe him at first, but is taken on a tour of hell. He is eventually asked to undertake a quest for the Holy Grail, the Cure for the World's Pain (von Bek being the Warhound of the title). This, Lucifer says, will make it possible to be reconciled with God and escape from an existence he finds miserable.
The story of his quest is one of Moorcock's best fantasy novels, let down a bit by an unsatisfying ending. It is unusual in his work for its treatment of Christianity, which is rather different from the sort of adolescent desire to shock which seems to lie behind Behold the Man, or from the invented religion of his more fantastic works. It is cynical, with supernatural beings taking no interest in humanity, but has an interesting portrayal of Lucifer as world-weary and disillusioned.
The beginning of the novel is the best part, with the description of the encounter with Lucifer being especially fine; the depiction of hell clearly owes something to C.S. Lewis but has been made Moorcock's own. After the meeting with Queen Xiombarg - the name being an interesting connection with the Corum adventure The Queen of the Swords - the setting becomes more magical and the storytelling loses its focus; very unfortunate in what could easily have been one of Moorcock's best novels.
The seventeenth century Thirty Years' War was a forerunner of devastating twentieth century conflicts. Disease and famine followed direct casualties and atrocities were carried out on a huge scale (the sack of Magdeburg an example) as bands of mercenaries rampaged out of control across the countryside. The religious background to the war was not reflected in Christian virtues during it.
Von Bek is a mercenary captain in the war. He has lost what faith he had, but has not descended to the depths of depravity of many soldiers. He flees his men when he detects signs of the onset of plague, and finds himself in a strange but peaceful wood. He stays at a deserted castle, and there meets a beautiful woman who conducts him into the presence of a being who claims to be fallen angel Lucifer. Von Bek doesn't believe him at first, but is taken on a tour of hell. He is eventually asked to undertake a quest for the Holy Grail, the Cure for the World's Pain (von Bek being the Warhound of the title). This, Lucifer says, will make it possible to be reconciled with God and escape from an existence he finds miserable.
The story of his quest is one of Moorcock's best fantasy novels, let down a bit by an unsatisfying ending. It is unusual in his work for its treatment of Christianity, which is rather different from the sort of adolescent desire to shock which seems to lie behind Behold the Man, or from the invented religion of his more fantastic works. It is cynical, with supernatural beings taking no interest in humanity, but has an interesting portrayal of Lucifer as world-weary and disillusioned.
The beginning of the novel is the best part, with the description of the encounter with Lucifer being especially fine; the depiction of hell clearly owes something to C.S. Lewis but has been made Moorcock's own. After the meeting with Queen Xiombarg - the name being an interesting connection with the Corum adventure The Queen of the Swords - the setting becomes more magical and the storytelling loses its focus; very unfortunate in what could easily have been one of Moorcock's best novels.
February 22, 2011
1st read in the '80s, just re-read it.
I think on re-evaluation this is one of my favorite Moorcock books (this and The Brothel in Rosenstrasse: An Extravagant Tale, incidentaly another Von Bek book).
Recently been reading a load of Arthurian texts and this is a grail quest too. But unlike a load of the Arthurian stuff it actually has a conclusion and, for Moorcock, a happy ending.
It has all the standard Moorcock stuff (apart from the gender bending/time traveling JC stuff): Law vs Chaos; nearly every page has "sardonic" or "ironic" somewhere on it (not "entropy" though); most of the standard archetypes he uses and continualy cross refs in his work (scenery chewing villian; loyal henchman; introspective hero who may not be so heroic). And running though it a commentary on humanity and redemption and the nature of religion.
Another reviewer claims Von Bek is an idiot for buying Lucifer's tales and promises...don't get that from the book...after all, it is the Lord Of Lies so you'd kind of expect him to be good at telling giant porkies and folk believing them, but are they actually lies?..also the way these scenes are played leave you in no doubt that Von B is overwhelmed by the "glamour" and he later starts to question all he saw and experienced.
Set during the horror show that was the 30 years war in the early 1600s it still drips with fantasy elements: Xiombarg has a walk on part; Arioch lurks in the wings; friendly maggots; giant cats; demonic pacts; chariot drawn by mechanical birds...great stuff.
I think on re-evaluation this is one of my favorite Moorcock books (this and The Brothel in Rosenstrasse: An Extravagant Tale, incidentaly another Von Bek book).
Recently been reading a load of Arthurian texts and this is a grail quest too. But unlike a load of the Arthurian stuff it actually has a conclusion and, for Moorcock, a happy ending.
It has all the standard Moorcock stuff (apart from the gender bending/time traveling JC stuff): Law vs Chaos; nearly every page has "sardonic" or "ironic" somewhere on it (not "entropy" though); most of the standard archetypes he uses and continualy cross refs in his work (scenery chewing villian; loyal henchman; introspective hero who may not be so heroic). And running though it a commentary on humanity and redemption and the nature of religion.
Another reviewer claims Von Bek is an idiot for buying Lucifer's tales and promises...don't get that from the book...after all, it is the Lord Of Lies so you'd kind of expect him to be good at telling giant porkies and folk believing them, but are they actually lies?..also the way these scenes are played leave you in no doubt that Von B is overwhelmed by the "glamour" and he later starts to question all he saw and experienced.
Set during the horror show that was the 30 years war in the early 1600s it still drips with fantasy elements: Xiombarg has a walk on part; Arioch lurks in the wings; friendly maggots; giant cats; demonic pacts; chariot drawn by mechanical birds...great stuff.
May 10, 2019
Nicknamed Kriegshund or 'War Hound' by his men, Ulrich von Bek is a mercenary captain during the Thirty Years War which devastated Germany at the start of the 17th century. Disgusted by the massacre that occurred after the siege of Magdeburg and appalled by the lawlessness and plague that he witnesses elsewhere, he heads south, alone, to the Thuringian Forest. And it is in this quiet wilderness that he discovers a mysterious castle, which then sets him off on a quest to find a Cure for Der Weltschmerz, the World's Pain.
The personage who sets him off on this mission is no other than Lucifer. Yes, that Lucifer. It's what swings The War Hound and the World's Pain from apparent historical fiction to bona fide fantasy (and not science fiction as the UK paperback claims). But, this being a Moorcock novel, expectations are sure to be confounded.
First, this is a consideration of the relationship between Reason and Faith. Ulrich has thoughts on one of the instigators of the Reformation:
Von Bek at one point says to his travelling companion, "Do not speculate, Sedenko, on things for which no evidence exists," and yet we are as readers asked to swallow the existence of Lucifer, Hell, Heaven and sundry intermediate states. But Moorcock is merely playing with us: this is, after all, an unreliable text, supposedly dictated by von Bek in 1680 to Brother Oliver, then translated in 1980 by a Prinz Lobkowitz before the English is given a polish by the author. We may assume much may have been lost in translation during multiple transitions.
Second, the Cure for the World's Pain (Lucifer suggests) is the Holy Grail, "a physical manifestation of God's mercy on Earth" and a possible catalyst to reconcile Lucifer with God. It's clear to me that Ulrich is the antithesis of Perceval in the original graal stories: a scholar, not an innocent fool; a civilised townie instead of a country bumpkin; a mercenary instead of an instinctive fighter; introduced to Lucifer by a witch as opposed to being brought to God by a hermit, meeting a grail-bearer who is the opposite of whom the grail-seeker usually meets. Yet there are similarities: the fairytale castle in the forest, the questing, an object of worth.
Everything is viewed, reported on and therefore interpreted by von Bek, and that applies equally to the people he meets. Lucifer is depicted as a Promethean figure who lives up to his name as 'bringer of light'; some have even compared him to Milton's protagonist in Paradise Lost (1667/1674) who, thus, appears chronologically before von Bek's nominal 1680 narrative. Lady Sabrina is the 'witch' who enchants our narrator, though one can't really say that her mastery of Natural Philosophy smacks of black magic. Grigory Petrovich Sedenko is the impulsive young Cossack who accompanies him for much of his quest, while Philander Groot from Alsace is like no hermit you'd expect.
Apart from the Wildgrave of Ammendorf, leader of the Wild Hunt, and the wise young Queen Xiombarg XXV, the only other figure who impresses is the arch-villain. Ulrich's chief nemesis is a vicious magus called Klosterheim, who relentlessly pursues von Bek from their very first meeting (the same one in which the captain encounters Sedenko). I fancy Moorcock took the name from a Gothick romance by Thomas De Quincey entitled Klosterheim; or, The Masque (1832). This was Quincey's follow-up to his satire On Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts (1827) and, like Moorcock's novel, is set in 1633 during the Thirty Years War; this closet cross-referencing to other literary works is typical of the writer's fiction.
It's possible to trace some of von Bek's wanderings after Magdeburg: the Thuringian Forest is where he finds Lucifer's Castle, Schweinfurt is northeast of Würzburg, on the River Main. Nürnberg is easily identified but Ammendorf (a suburb of Halle, northeast of the Thuringer Wald) is out of geographical sequence, as is Teufenberg or Tüfenberg, which is actually in Switzerland, between Lake Constance and the Obersee.
Here is a part explanation for these dichotomies: Ulrich at times finds himself in the Mittelmarch. Unlike George Eliot's Middlemarch, we gather from the captain's maps that "Mittelmarch territories seemed to exist in gaps where, in my own world, no gaps were" (chapter ten). As a result the traveller frequently comes across Bunyanesque place-names such as the Valley of the Golden Cloud, the Burning Grounds, the City of the Plague and the Forest at the Edge of Heaven. In Hell the titles become less descriptive and more moralistic: the City of Humbled Princes, for example, and the Lake of the False Penitents.
In many ways Ulrich von Bek's quest, as well as drawing on past narratives, looks forward to the magical realism of authors like Katsuo Ishiguro, especially his The Buried Giant . There are similar musings about the purpose of life and the nature of belief underlying both: here they are questions such as Is God senile? Is the conflict between Lucifer and God merely a squabble between princelings? and Is the only cure for pain the absolute oblivion of death? And both have fantastic beasts: here too is a dragon for a knight to fight, and there is even a pair of Tolkienesque eagles of gigantic stature (though these may owe something to the Hapsburg double-headed eagle device familiar throughout the Holy Roman Empire).
After a slow start The War Hound and the World's Pain proved hugely enjoyable: part parody, part homage, mixed in with a bit of sword-and-sorcery plus genuine history, headed up by a far from blameless yet doughty hero. The whole is leavened by little flashes of humour, such as these bons mots from Lady Sabrina:
Some things clearly don't change.
The personage who sets him off on this mission is no other than Lucifer. Yes, that Lucifer. It's what swings The War Hound and the World's Pain from apparent historical fiction to bona fide fantasy (and not science fiction as the UK paperback claims). But, this being a Moorcock novel, expectations are sure to be confounded.
First, this is a consideration of the relationship between Reason and Faith. Ulrich has thoughts on one of the instigators of the Reformation:
Luther [...] had judged reason to be the chief enemy of Faith, of the purity of his beliefs. He had considered reason a harlot, willing to turn to anyone's needs, but this merely displayed his own suspicion of logic. [...] Most mad people see logic as a threat to the dream in which they would rather live...
Von Bek at one point says to his travelling companion, "Do not speculate, Sedenko, on things for which no evidence exists," and yet we are as readers asked to swallow the existence of Lucifer, Hell, Heaven and sundry intermediate states. But Moorcock is merely playing with us: this is, after all, an unreliable text, supposedly dictated by von Bek in 1680 to Brother Oliver, then translated in 1980 by a Prinz Lobkowitz before the English is given a polish by the author. We may assume much may have been lost in translation during multiple transitions.
Second, the Cure for the World's Pain (Lucifer suggests) is the Holy Grail, "a physical manifestation of God's mercy on Earth" and a possible catalyst to reconcile Lucifer with God. It's clear to me that Ulrich is the antithesis of Perceval in the original graal stories: a scholar, not an innocent fool; a civilised townie instead of a country bumpkin; a mercenary instead of an instinctive fighter; introduced to Lucifer by a witch as opposed to being brought to God by a hermit, meeting a grail-bearer who is the opposite of whom the grail-seeker usually meets. Yet there are similarities: the fairytale castle in the forest, the questing, an object of worth.
Everything is viewed, reported on and therefore interpreted by von Bek, and that applies equally to the people he meets. Lucifer is depicted as a Promethean figure who lives up to his name as 'bringer of light'; some have even compared him to Milton's protagonist in Paradise Lost (1667/1674) who, thus, appears chronologically before von Bek's nominal 1680 narrative. Lady Sabrina is the 'witch' who enchants our narrator, though one can't really say that her mastery of Natural Philosophy smacks of black magic. Grigory Petrovich Sedenko is the impulsive young Cossack who accompanies him for much of his quest, while Philander Groot from Alsace is like no hermit you'd expect.
Apart from the Wildgrave of Ammendorf, leader of the Wild Hunt, and the wise young Queen Xiombarg XXV, the only other figure who impresses is the arch-villain. Ulrich's chief nemesis is a vicious magus called Klosterheim, who relentlessly pursues von Bek from their very first meeting (the same one in which the captain encounters Sedenko). I fancy Moorcock took the name from a Gothick romance by Thomas De Quincey entitled Klosterheim; or, The Masque (1832). This was Quincey's follow-up to his satire On Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts (1827) and, like Moorcock's novel, is set in 1633 during the Thirty Years War; this closet cross-referencing to other literary works is typical of the writer's fiction.
It's possible to trace some of von Bek's wanderings after Magdeburg: the Thuringian Forest is where he finds Lucifer's Castle, Schweinfurt is northeast of Würzburg, on the River Main. Nürnberg is easily identified but Ammendorf (a suburb of Halle, northeast of the Thuringer Wald) is out of geographical sequence, as is Teufenberg or Tüfenberg, which is actually in Switzerland, between Lake Constance and the Obersee.
Here is a part explanation for these dichotomies: Ulrich at times finds himself in the Mittelmarch. Unlike George Eliot's Middlemarch, we gather from the captain's maps that "Mittelmarch territories seemed to exist in gaps where, in my own world, no gaps were" (chapter ten). As a result the traveller frequently comes across Bunyanesque place-names such as the Valley of the Golden Cloud, the Burning Grounds, the City of the Plague and the Forest at the Edge of Heaven. In Hell the titles become less descriptive and more moralistic: the City of Humbled Princes, for example, and the Lake of the False Penitents.
In many ways Ulrich von Bek's quest, as well as drawing on past narratives, looks forward to the magical realism of authors like Katsuo Ishiguro, especially his The Buried Giant . There are similar musings about the purpose of life and the nature of belief underlying both: here they are questions such as Is God senile? Is the conflict between Lucifer and God merely a squabble between princelings? and Is the only cure for pain the absolute oblivion of death? And both have fantastic beasts: here too is a dragon for a knight to fight, and there is even a pair of Tolkienesque eagles of gigantic stature (though these may owe something to the Hapsburg double-headed eagle device familiar throughout the Holy Roman Empire).
After a slow start The War Hound and the World's Pain proved hugely enjoyable: part parody, part homage, mixed in with a bit of sword-and-sorcery plus genuine history, headed up by a far from blameless yet doughty hero. The whole is leavened by little flashes of humour, such as these bons mots from Lady Sabrina:
Men are afraid of two things in this world, it seems---women and knowledge. Both threaten their power, eh?
Some things clearly don't change.
September 5, 2013
Según nuestro compañero de página Ferran Canetenc, para seleccionar un libro de entre varios acumulados en la pila de lecturas, ni sinopsis, ni portada, ni autor de renombre… no hay nada mejor que leer el primer párrafo del libro en cuestión, y a continuación, el último. Si hacemos este experimento con El perro de la guerra y el dolor del mundo, el resultado es esta bomba de relojería haciendo tic-tac.
Inicio: “Fue el mismo año en que la ola de crueldad exigía no solo la crucifixión de los jóvenes campesinos, sino también la de sus animales, cuando conocí a Lucifer y fui transportado a los Infiernos, pues el Príncipe de las Tinieblas deseaba cerrar un trato conmigo”
Fin: “E imploro con premura a todo hombre o mujer que lea esto y lo crea para que siga lo que mi mujer y yo mismo comenzamos: Haced la obra del diablo. Y pienso que veréis el Paraíso antes de que pueda verlo vuestro Amo”
¡Irresistible! ¡Impecable! Así se empieza a contar una historia: echando un gigantesco anzuelo ahíto de carnaza chorreante. Y así se termina, de forma contundente y lapidaria. ¡Aprended, escritorzuelos!
Reseña completa de Gusapira para paraiso4.com: http://bit.ly/14uBvLn
Inicio: “Fue el mismo año en que la ola de crueldad exigía no solo la crucifixión de los jóvenes campesinos, sino también la de sus animales, cuando conocí a Lucifer y fui transportado a los Infiernos, pues el Príncipe de las Tinieblas deseaba cerrar un trato conmigo”
Fin: “E imploro con premura a todo hombre o mujer que lea esto y lo crea para que siga lo que mi mujer y yo mismo comenzamos: Haced la obra del diablo. Y pienso que veréis el Paraíso antes de que pueda verlo vuestro Amo”
¡Irresistible! ¡Impecable! Así se empieza a contar una historia: echando un gigantesco anzuelo ahíto de carnaza chorreante. Y así se termina, de forma contundente y lapidaria. ¡Aprended, escritorzuelos!
Reseña completa de Gusapira para paraiso4.com: http://bit.ly/14uBvLn
February 12, 2024
Un récit proche des écrits Médiévaux, digne de ses épopées chevaleresques dans la recherche de graal. J'ai beaucoup aimé le travail de retranstription, qui donne à la plume une subtilité qui convient au récit.
Le personnage et la quête de Von Beck est introspective, elle nous emporte d'un bout à l'autre du roman. Je me suis vraiment laissée porter par l'histoire. Les personnages que l'on rencontre sont tous bien construits et énigmatiques.
La quête du grand reprise ici, donne un autre sens qui est intéressant avec un message qui je trouve est subtil. J'ai vraiment beaucoup aimé cette lecture.
Le personnage et la quête de Von Beck est introspective, elle nous emporte d'un bout à l'autre du roman. Je me suis vraiment laissée porter par l'histoire. Les personnages que l'on rencontre sont tous bien construits et énigmatiques.
La quête du grand reprise ici, donne un autre sens qui est intéressant avec un message qui je trouve est subtil. J'ai vraiment beaucoup aimé cette lecture.
December 3, 2015
A nice bridge book, lying between Moorcock's older swords & sorcery and his newer, more philosophical novels. This provides some interesting orthagonal looks at his multiverse and also rather amusingly is a rejection of all things fantastic.
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