The Geometry of Shadows - Literary References

Literary References

• Elric is a name most closely associated with Michael Moorcock's fictional character, Elric of Melniboné. Moorcock commented on the usage of his character's name within Babylon 5:

"I don't mind, since the Elric reference is clearly straight homage, and I'd do the same myself in the circumstances. It stops a long way short of being plagiarism, which I tend to pursue with my big black sword! Also when you've been around as long as I have and done as much work, you have to get used to your ideas becoming standard generic tropes. It means I have to work harder all the time, of course, to come up with stuff which no longer uses tropes I regard as my own (law, chaos, balance, say -- the multiverse, as such, and so on) and this is probably good for me, too!"

• Elric's warning to Vir is almost verbatim from Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, in which Gildor Inglorion makes the statement to Frodo Baggins (speaking about Gandalf). See original quote.