Corwin
The second son of Oberon and Faiella (after Benedict, before Eric), a quick and strategic thinker who acts with a strong personal code of honor.
Corwin, a Prince of Amber, is the main character in the first five books of Roger Zelazny's Chronicles of Amber. He is the second son of Oberon and Faiella (after Benedict, and before Eric), and the uncle of Merlin (son of Random and Dara). 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. 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. He is well-balanced in most skills and is the best leader of them all. He also exemplifies stamina throughout the series.
Quick Facts
- Role
- Prince of Amber; Protagonist
- Primary weapon
- Grayswandir
- Key ability
- Quick and strategic thinker; remarkable endurance and regeneration abilities
Lore & Background
Centuries before the opening of Nine Princes in Amber, while their father Oberon was still ruling in Amber, Corwin fought a duel 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 temporary amnesia. He proceeded to live out several hundred years of Earth's history as a soldier of fortune and physician until the 1970s when he was in a car accident, which caused persistent amnesia and confined him to a clinic. Waking with no memories at all, Corwin escapes and makes contact with his brother Random, and soon after his sister Florimel, 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.
Reader's Guide
Corwin's favoured weapon is his sword Grayswandir, also known as the Night Blade. 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. 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 — 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.
Elsewhere in The Chronicles of Amber
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