Dead gods?

[Murk]

I need to refresh my memory on the subject of "the dead gods" and "the dead god book". It is now ages since i read the elric books but i do remember they played a crucial role in the destruction of the world. Could anyone give me a tiny summary as to what happened, what the dead gods book did and of the connection with the pan tangian theocrat??
I thought there was a Moorcock databse on the website i could search through, btu it might have been swallowed in the recent storm. I would be most grateful and I am btw reading the books again at this time, now with a new perspective.

in advance thank you
and what a lovely cat animation

[Grey Mouser]

I can't tell you with any authority about the Dead Gods themselves without re-reading the series but the Dead Gods Book itself comes from an early Elric short story called 'While the Gods Laugh.'

Spoiler for While the Gods Laugh below!









In this story Elric was on an an existential quest to find out the ultimate truths of life etc and this knowledge was said to be contained in the Dead Gods Book, so it became the object of his quest. Of course, when Elric found it it crumbled to dust before his eyes, signifying perhaps that the answers to lifes ultimate questions are not quite so easily obtained.

[Morgan Kane]

Having rered elric saga some weeks ago, i don' t remember other occurences of "the dead gods" in this context ........

[Mario]

Unless he means Agak and Gagak?

[lemec]

I can't tell you with any authority about the Dead Gods themselves without re-reading the series but the Dead Gods Book itself comes from an early Elric short story called 'While the Gods Laugh.'

Spoiler for While the Gods Laugh below!









In this story Elric was on an an existential quest to find out the ultimate truths of life etc and this knowledge was said to be contained in the Dead Gods Book, so it became the object of his quest. Of course, when Elric found it it crumbled to dust before his eyes, signifying perhaps that the answers to lifes ultimate questions are not quite so easily obtained.

Yes, it starts to talk about the "Book" about 5 pages into 'While the Gods Laugh.'


-which is also Book II inside The Weird Of The White Wolf.


-around page 315 if you happen to have "The Elric Saga Part 1" Science Fiction Book Club edition with the Robert Gould cover art. :o

anyway, as Grey Mouser says, it is in that short story.

I am sorry I don't have a more modern copy laying around to give example.

[David Mosley]

The two relevant works are "While the God's Laugh" (already mentioned here), which gives us our first taste of the Dead Gods of Elric's world, and "Dead God's Homecoming", the first story in "Stormbringer" (novel, not omnibus).

Iirc, the return of the Dead Gods to Elric's world is one of the portends for the eventual end of the world. The swords Stormbringer and Mournblade also play a part in all this, but to say anymore would entail the use of spoiler tags. Which we haven't got yet. ;)

[Murk]

Thank you for your answers. Im reading my way to "while the dead gods" laugh pretty soon. I forgot to mention it was rpg related btw. Im interested in everything that has to do with the destruction of the world as im trying to web the characters into evil plots. Do anyone know about the nature of "the dead gods"? Are they actually gods or was it so that they where a powerful old race??

[David Mosley]

Do anyone know about the nature of "the dead gods"? Are they actually gods or was it so that they where a powerful old race??

Perhaps you might like to ask the questions in Q&A? After all, Mike did 'invent' the Dead Gods, so he might know a thing or three about them. :)