Corwin, a Prince of Amber, is the main character in the first five books of Roger Zelazny's Chronicles of Amber.[1][2][3][4][5] He is the second son of Oberon and Faiella, and the father of Merlin. Within the novels, much of the action centers on Corwin and his family as they plot against one another conspiring to become the King of Amber.
In the first book of the series, Nine Princes in Amber, Corwin is identified as the eldest heir to the throne who has a legitimate claim. The matter of succession is hotly (and frequently) contested within the family, particularly during the prolonged absence of Oberon, and loyalties constantly shift among the undecided.
Corwin has dark hair and green eyes. His colors are black and silver (alternately gray), and his symbol is a silver rose. Corwin's favoured weapon is his sword Grayswandir, and his use of magic is extremely limited. While a few of his siblings exceed him in certain skills, such as arms (Benedict), strength (Gérard), and magic (Brand, Fiona, and Bleys), Corwin is well-balanced in most and is the best leader of them all. He also exemplifies stamina throughout the series.
Corwin is a quick and strategic thinker. Like his brothers and sisters, he boasts remarkable endurance and regeneration abilities, even more so than his siblings. While Corwin acts with a strong personal code of honor, he is also extremely practical; he will not engage in a fight of principle unless he believes he has a chance to win, and he is perfectly willing to employ subterfuge to defeat an opponent.
Overview
Centuries before the opening of Nine Princes in Amber, while their father Oberon was still ruling in Amber, Corwin fought a duel (or, as Corwin referred to it later, "a simultaneous decision to murder each other") with Eric and nearly died. Eric, fearing their father's wrath, dumped Corwin in Elizabethan England during one of the recurrent plague outbreaks, most likely during one of the outbreaks in 1592 or 1603. Corwin recovered from the plague, but he suffered brain damage causing amnesia. He proceeded to live out several hundred years of Earth's history as a soldier of fortune, physician, and songwriter until the 1970s when he was in a car accident and confined to a clinic. Waking with no memories at all, Corwin escapes and makes contact with his sister Florimel, and soon after his brother Random, using them to return to Amber and finally regain his past (by re-walking on the copy of the Pattern located in the underwater city Rebma).
Once Corwin's memory returns, we learn that he is far from saintly. Like his siblings, he has created his own kingdom in Shadow to rule, calling it Avalon, and in doing so has cast shadows of himself and his kingdom around. While the original Avalon has been destroyed, in the shadow of Avalons his name is reviled for cruelty and arrogance. As Benedict says of the Avalon that he has adopted, acting as Lord Protector, "young boys are not named Corwin here, nor am I brother to anyone of that name". Even in Lorraine, the shadow of a shadow where he first encounters the forces of Chaos, he is remembered as a tyrant and butcher. However, it is also implied that this image may be distorted, as it is from a shadow of Avalon in which the real Corwin never ruled. Even so, it seems that his centuries on Earth have somehow mellowed his character, if not his ambition.
Grayswandir, also known as the Night Blade, is Corwin's sword and it has a twin called Brand's Werewindle, the Day Sword. Both Grayswandir and Werewindle are inscribed with portions of the Pattern of Amber, granting them some power over Shadow. In addition, Corwin is able to call Grayswandir to him while travelling in Shadow: while escaping imprisonment by his brother Eric, en route Corwin determines that Grayswandir will be found inside a hollow tree he spots along the way, despite the sword being within Amber at that point. Later, while visiting Tir-na Nog'th, the blade enables Corwin to speak to the shades there, who had previously been unaware of his presence; when Corwin fights the shade of Benedict, he also learns that Grayswandir can harm him, perhaps as a result of the Pattern force within or due to Tir-na Nog'th being a distorted shadow of Amber.
In the Amber short story "Hall of Mirrors," Corwin revealed that Grayswandir and Werewindle were transformed spikards: Spikards are rings of power that existed before Amber and possibly even Chaos were created, and allow the bearer to tap into a power source somewhere in the Shadow.
The name Grayswandir echoes that of Graywand, the longsword of Fafhrd in Fritz Leiber's tales of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. Fafhrd naming consecutive swords all Graywand after losing each predecessor is the likely inspiration for the name of Grayswandir as it can reappear to Corwin after being lost.
Corwin's Pattern
In The Courts of Chaos, Corwin inscribed a new pattern after he incorrectly concluded that Oberon's attempt to repair the Primal Pattern had failed. He created his pattern in a shadow originally resembling the nearby Courts of Chaos; when his Pattern was complete, it brought a measure of order to that Shadow. Corwin's Pattern created an additional emblem of Order, upsetting the balance of power between the original Pattern and the weakened Logrus of Chaos.
Corwin's Pattern is somewhat different from the original Primal Pattern and the copies of it. It feels more benevolent than Amber's Pattern and its Shadow copies; this is theorized by readers to be a result of Corwin's mellowed personality and his experiences in Paris, France, which he drew on while creating his Pattern. Corwin's Pattern treats its pattern ghosts as helpers rather than expendable tools.
It appears that the original Pattern wishes to incorporate Corwin's Pattern into itself, to further its advantage over the Logrus and that Corwin's Pattern is resisting its incursions, to the extent that the Pattern of Amber could not subdue the independence of Corwin's without being sufficiently weakened to lay itself open to a counter-stroke from the Logrus of Chaos. Likewise, the Logrus seeks to destroy Corwin's Pattern, since it represents an additional artifact of Order against Chaos (although not in accord with the Order of Amber's Pattern) — but equally cannot do so without the risk of a counter-stroke from Amber's Pattern. It is suggested Corwin's Pattern may end up forming a third "pole" in the struggle between Order and Chaos, ultimately taking neither side and able to retain its independent existence against anything short of what will never happen, namely a combined assault from the Amber Pattern and Logrus.
Reception
Jane M. Lindskold called Corwin of Amber one of Zelazny's several "poet protagonists", noting that "Zelazny gives Corwin dimension beyond the usual sword-and-sorcery hero by giving us hints of what depths of feeling" he is capable of, often through Corwin's use of poetry and song.[6]
Juan A. Prieto-Pablos notes that Corwin, like most of Zelazny's heroes, is a privileged, immortal superhero on a mission to redeem himself from a past mistake.[7]
In the game NetHack, Grayswandir appears as a powerful artifact silver saber that protects its wielder from hallucination.[8]
In Warcraft: Orcs and Humans, typing in "Corwin of Amber" activates the game's cheat codes.[9] The summoning of non-human armies from another dimension to lay siege in the case of The Horde in the Warcraft series also closely mirror the events in the climax of Nine Princes in Amber.
In Lost Souls, the magical sword Grayswandir appears as a rare artifact longsword that destroys items of chaos on contact.[10]
Related Research Articles
The Amber Diceless Roleplaying Game is a role-playing game created and written by Erick Wujcik, set in the fictional universe created by author Roger Zelazny for his Chronicles of Amber. The game is unusual in that no dice are used in resolving conflicts or player actions; instead a simple diceless system of comparative ability, and narrative description of the action by the players and gamemaster, is used to determine how situations are resolved.
Roger Joseph Zelazny was an American poet and writer of fantasy and science fiction short stories and novels, best known for The Chronicles of Amber. He won the Nebula Award three times and the Hugo Award six times, including two Hugos for novels: the serialized novel ...And Call Me Conrad (1965), subsequently published under the title This Immortal (1966) and then the novel Lord of Light (1967).
The Chronicles of Amber is a series of fantasy novels by American writer Roger Zelazny. The main series consists of two story arcs, each five novels in length. Additionally, there are a number of Amber short stories and other works. While Zelazny's will expressly forbade sequels by other authors, four posthumous prequels authorized by Zelazny's family were authored by John Gregory Betancourt.
Oberon is a king of the fairies in medieval and Renaissance literature. He is best known as a character in William Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream, in which he is King of the Fairies and spouse of Titania, Queen of the Fairies.
Creatures of Light and Darkness is a 1969 science fiction novel by American writer Roger Zelazny. Long out of print, it was reissued in April 2010. The novel is set in the far future, with humans on many worlds. Some have god-like powers, or perhaps are gods—the names and aspects of various Egyptian gods are used. Elements of horror and technology are mixed, and it has points in common with cyberpunk.
Nine Princes in Amber is a fantasy novel by American writer Roger Zelazny, the first in the Chronicles of Amber series. It was first published in 1970, and later spawned a computer game of the same name. The first edition of the novel is unusually rare; the publisher pulped a significant part of the original print run in error when the order went out to destroy remaining copies of Zelazny's older book Creatures of Light and Darkness.
The Guns of Avalon is fantasy novel by American writer Roger Zelazny, the second book in the Chronicles of Amber series. The book continues straight from the previous volume, Nine Princes in Amber, although it includes a recapitulation.
The Hand of Oberon is a fantasy novel by American writer Roger Zelazny, the fourth book in The Chronicles of Amber, published in book form by Doubleday in 1976. It was first published in serial format in Galaxy Science Fiction.
The Courts of Chaos is a fantasy novel by American writer Roger Zelazny, the fifth book in the Chronicles of Amber series. It was first published in serial format in Galaxy Science Fiction.
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Geoff Taylor is an English fantasy artist.
In The Chronicles of Amber series of fantasy novels, The Pattern is an inscribed labyrinth which gives the multiverse its order. It granted characters walking through it "the ability to access a multitude of compossible worlds". Related to it is the Logrus, a shifting, three-dimensional maze which represents the forces of Chaos in the multiverse.
Here There Be Dragons is a children's book by American writer Roger Zelazny. It is one of two stories he wrote for children, the other being Way Up High, and one of three books without heroic protagonists. The two children's books were first published with separate dust jackets but sold only in shared slipcases bearing the title Here There Be Dragons/Way Up High . One thousand copies of each book were produced in 1992 signed by Zelazny with illustrations by Vaughn Bodē.
This Immortal, serialized as ...And Call Me Conrad, is a science fiction novel by American author Roger Zelazny. In its original publication, it was abridged by the editor and published in two parts in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in October and November 1965. It tied with Frank Herbert's Dune for the 1966 Hugo Award for Best Novel.
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Nine Princes in Amber is an interactive fiction video game with graphics. The game was published by Telarium, a subsidiary of Spinnaker Software, in 1985. The game is based upon the fantasy novels Nine Princes in Amber and The Guns of Avalon by Roger Zelazny.
Bridge of Ashes is an experimental science fiction novel by author Roger Zelazny. The paperback edition was published in 1976 and the hardcover in 1979. Zelazny describes the book as one of five books from which he learned things "that have borne me through thirty or so others". He states that he "felt that if I could pull it off I could achieve some powerful effects. What I learned from this book is something of the limits of puzzlement in that no man’s land between suspense and the weakening of communication".
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↑ "Grayswandir". NetHackWiki. Retrieved 2010-11-10. One of the most coveted weapons in the game, Grayswandir is a lawful silver sabre that can do both double damages (to all targets, without exception) and silver damage, and prevents hallucination.
↑ "Grayswandir". Retrieved 2010-03-22. The name of the blade is Grayswandir. If tale and legend are to be believed, this is the armament of Prince Corwin of Amber, a Pattern-sword bearing a fragmentary mirror-image of the source of cosmic order within it.
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