Graf

Graf

Graf is a historical German noble title equal in rank to a count or a British earl...

 Ulrich von Bek is a fictional character

Fictional character

A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...

 created by Michael Moorcock

Michael Moorcock

Michael John Moorcock is an English writer, primarily of science fiction and fantasy, who has also published a number of literary novels....

. He and his descendants are a somewhat unusual family in Moorcock's works, as they function both as an aspect of his Eternal Champion

Eternal Champion

The Eternal Champion is a fictional creation of the author Michael Moorcock and is a recurrent feature in many of his novels.-About the Eternal Champion:...

 and as a companion to him. The family is considered to be the current Keeper of the Holy Grail

Holy Grail

The Holy Grail is a sacred object figuring in literature and certain Christian traditions, most often identified with the dish, plate, or cup used by Jesus at the Last Supper and said to possess miraculous powers...

. In addition, Moorcock has rewritten several of his past novels and short stories so that characters who previously had other names are now von Beks. Thus retroactively, von Bek has become one of the most important Multiverse

The Multiverse

The Multiverse is a series of parallel universes in many of the science fiction and fantasy novels and short stories written by Michael Moorcock. Central to these works is the concept of an Eternal Champion who has potentially multiple identities across multiple dimensions...

 participants.

The von Bek family motto is Do you the Devil's work, a nod to the relationship that the family developed with Satan

Satan

Satan , "the opposer", is the title of various entities, both human and divine, who challenge the faith of humans in the Hebrew Bible...

 in The War Hound and the World's Pain

The War Hound and the World's Pain

The War Hound and the World's Pain is a 1981 fantasy novel by Michael Moorcock, the first of the "von Bek" series of novels.The book is set in Europe ravaged by the Thirty Years' War. Its hero Ulrich von Bek is a mercenary and freethinker, who finds himself a damned soul in a castle owned by Lucifer...

.

A von Bek features in the following novels and short stories:

• The War Hound and the World's Pain
  The War Hound and the World's Pain
  The War Hound and the World's Pain is a 1981 fantasy novel by Michael Moorcock, the first of the "von Bek" series of novels.The book is set in Europe ravaged by the Thirty Years' War. Its hero Ulrich von Bek is a mercenary and freethinker, who finds himself a damned soul in a castle owned by Lucifer...
  
  (1981)
• "Flux" (1979, short story, retroactively rewritten as a von Bek)
• The Brothel in Rosenstrasse
  The Brothel in Rosenstrasse
  The Brothel in Rosenstrasse is a 1982 novel by Michael Moorcock. The main character is Rickhardt von Bek, of the von Bek family central to some of Moorcock's other fantasy novels, notably The War Hound and the World's Pain, The City in the Autumn Stars, and The Dragon in the Sword...
  
  (1982)
• The City in the Autumn Stars
  The City in the Autumn Stars
  The City in the Autumn Stars: Being a Continuation of the Story of the Von Bek Family and Its Association With Lucifer, Prince of Darkness, a science fantasy novel by Michael Moorcock, is the second book in the Von Bek trilogy, which was published by Grafton in 1986...
  
  (1986)
• The Dragon in the Sword (1987, with Erekosë
  Erekosë
  Many of Michael Moorcock's heroes are aspects of one all-encompassing hero, the Eternal Champion. Erekosë is the title character, so to speak, as the fantasy novel The Eternal Champion and its sequels feature him. He is a unique aspect of the Champion, in that he can remember all of his previous...
  
  )
• The Sundered Worlds, aka The Blood-Red Game (1965, retroactively rewritten as a von Bek)
• "The Pleasure Garden of Felipe Sagittarius" (1965, short story, retroactively rewritten as a Von Bek)
• "The White Wolf's Song," aka "The Black Blade's Summoning" (1994, short story, with Elric)
• "The Cairene Purse" (2002, short story)
• The Dreamthief's Daughter (2001, with Elric)
• The Skrayling Tree (2003, with Elric)
• The White Wolf's Son (2005, with Elric)

External links

• Moorcock's Miscellany (formerly Tanelorn, Multiverse.org & Moorcock's Weekly Miscellany)