The Passage of Dilvish

Roger Zelazny’s Dilvish the Damned had two distinct periods of development, separated by a twelve year hiatus. The first explosion of story writing was in the 1960s Fantastic under Cele (Goldsmith) Lalli. Other Sword & Sorcery writers were selling there too, including Fritz Leiber with new Fafhrd & Gray Mouser stories, and John Jakes with his first Brak the Barbarian tales. Roger brought his Dunsany-flavored Dilvish to party and it was a hit.

Ride to Greatness

“Passage to Dilfar” originally appeared in Fantastic, February 1965.  It was inspired by Lord Dunsany, the turn-of-century nobleman who wrote some of the first connected Fantasy tales in a world called Pegana. Zelazny’s opening tale of Dilvish is the most “old-fashioned” in tone. It opens:

When Dilvish the Damned came down from Portaroy they tried to stop him at Qaran, and again at Tugado, then again at Maestar, Mycar, and Bildesh. Five horsemen had waited for him along the route to Dilfar; and when one flagged, a new rider with a fresh horse would replace him. But none could keep the pace of Black, the horse out of steel, for whom it was said the Colonel of the East had bartered a part of his soul.

This is not the action-oriented diction of Robert E. Howard but something more poetic. The plot is not what is as important as how it is told.

Dilvish’s army is destroyed at Portaroy but Dilvish survives to take the message of the Colonel of the West, that Lylish is advancing on the city of Dilfar. The story recounts the five riders who tried to out-ride Black and failed and finally Lance, a knight with impenetrable armor that Dilvish defeats by having Black drive his hooves into his breastplate, leaving two deep wounds. Dilvish delivers his message to the king of Dilfar but he knows someday he will have to face Lance again.

Later the Dilvish stories would become for like modern Fantasy. This piece is a gem and one of my favorite mock-Dunsany stories, right up there with the best of Lovecraft’s Dreamlands tales.

A Terrible Mirror

The sequel, “Thelinde’s Song ” appeared in Fantastic, June 1965. It too had the affected style but with more plot.

A young woman of the were-folk (who worship the Moon Goddess in a coven), magical beings who can transform themselves using cloaks, sings an old song taught to her by a frog-thing in a cave. The song names Jelerak, which brings the girl to the sorcerer’s attention.

Milden, the girl’s mother, cautions her not to speak the name that begins with a J. She takes Thelinde to a pool where she can create a magic mirror that sees the past. The vision shows Jelerak about to sacrifice a virgin in a terrible rite of the Old Gods. He is stopped by a handsome man in green elf boots, Dilvish. Jelerak turns Dilvish into a stone statue while his soul is sent to Hell.

While in Hell, Dilvish meets up with the being who will become Black, his steel horse. The spell wears off and Dilvish and Black are free in time to face Lylish, Colonel of the West, who is invading the land. Dilvish and his men fight Lylish and only Dilvish and Black survive to warn Dilfar (as described in “Passage to Dilfar”). The vision ends there for a servant of the Dark One (Jelerak) comes to take Thelinde. Milden defeats it by directing a single beam of moonlight against it.

Zelazny’s tale got the Gray Morrow cover of Fantastic, June 1965. It shows Jelerak about to sacrifice a virgin in an evil rite. This scene was shown to Thelinde by her mother in a magic mirror. Once again, Morrow was there first to illustrate the classics of Sword & Sorcery.

First True Classic

“The Bells of Shoredan”, the second sequel, appeared in Fantastic, March 1966. This story was Dilvish’s big break-out number. Here the plot becomes more important and lengthier. Gray Morrow drew two illustrations for the story.

Dilvish, as an heir of the house of Selar, is the only man who can ring the Bells of Shoredan and raise the phantom hosts that lie in Rahoringhast. When Lylish surrounds Dilfar and the siege appears dire, Dilvish sets off on Black to reach the bells and raise the ghost army to save the city. He has to avoid the guards around enemy’s camp which he does easily. He has to cross a desert where ghoulish phantoms circle about him trying to drive him insane.

He arrives at the ruined city of Rahoringhast but Black can not go with him up the stairs to the thirteen towered castle for his demon-nature is prevented. Dilvish goes but not alone for a priest of Babrigore meets him. His name is Korel and he has been doing penance there. The Priests of Babrigore are friendly to Jelerak for they housed and nursed him after he was fallen down when he fought a terrible monster there. (This battle was the beginning of his turning from good to evil.)

Korel and Dilvish walk up the long stairs to a chamber at the top of the castle. As soon as Dilvish arrives he sees the god Hohorga lying in a pile of his entrails and his men surrounding Selar, who they cut down and kill. The vision disappears. This vision only happens when an heir of Selar enters the room.

Dilvish opens the door to the tower where the Bells of Shoredan are kept. When he does a black smoke appears with two red eyes in it. It is Cal-Den, the demon who tortured Dilvish in Hell before his escape. Dilvish and Cal-Den fight. The demon savages Dilvish about the head, smashes his sword and throws him against the wall. Dilvish’s hand falls on an unseen weapon. It is the invisible sword of Selar. With this he kills Cal-Den, then goes up the bell tower to ring the bells and summon the ghost army.

Zelazny uses some familiar Fantasy tropes in this story. Dilvish, like Aragorn in The Lord of the Rings, summons a ghost army. He finds an impromptu weapon just as Beowulf does when he fights Grendel’s mother. The three stories written in the period of 1965-66 form a three-part early history of Dilvish. Through these three stories we see what happened before The Siege of Dilfar, Dilvish rides to warn the city and finally in this story the conclusion of that struggle. Even in “The Bells of Shoredan” you can see Zelazny begin to shed the high-tone Dunsanian mold for the faster moving Howard-like tale. The last of the 1965-1967 period, “A Knight For Merytha” shows the change complete.

A Process Complete

“A Knight For Merytha” did not appear in Fantastic. This may have been caused by Cele Lalli leaving and the magazine becoming more of a reprint mag. Instead it appeared in the very obscure Kallikanzaros #2, 1967 and then was reprinted in Eternity SF #3, 1974.

While leading the ghost army to Dilfar, Dilvish has to pass through a range of mountains. While camped, he and Black hear a woman scream. They investigate. A woman in a ruined castle claims a dragon is about to kill her.

Once inside there proves to be no dragon. Black is for going back to camp but Dilvish goes on alone with the woman. She makes him a nice meal and then beds him.

Upon waking Dilvish finds she has been feeding on his neck. She tells him she wasn’t trying to drain him but only taking a small taste. A loud banging at the door proves to be her insane husband, the Lord Morin. He breaks down the door with his axe and attacks Dilvish. Dilvish draws the sword of Selar and kills the man though he doesn’t want to.

As he is dying, Morin explains he wasn’t mad but under the influence of a drug given him by his wife. He has been her jailer since he married her without knowledge of her condition. He did not have the heart to destroy her. Merytha begs Dilvish to stay with her and be her new husband. He refuses and leaves, despite her screams and cries, and her final, “I love you.”

This was the last of the four tales written in 1965-1967. The next tale of Dilvish would be 12 years later. His style will have become that of the award-winning writer of the 1980s and author of the popular Amber series. Beginning in 1979, Roger would pen enough new stories to fill a book, Dilvish the Damned (1982) and one novel, The Changing Land (1981). Though The Changing Land is a wonderful homage to Lovecraft, something isn’t quite the same with Period 2 Dilvish. These first tales have a magic that ended with the Cele Goldsmith/Lalli Fantastic and wouldn’t return until Ted White took over the magazine in 1968.