Michael Moorcock is the creator of the first “anti-hero” in traditional heroic fantasy. His Elric, Emperor of Melnibone, an island state that once ruled over all the peoples of the earth, is not inferior in popularity to such famous literary heroes as Conan the Barbarian of Cimmeria, Prince Corwin from the Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny and Don Rumata of Estor from the story of the Strugatsky brothers "It's hard to be a god."