Why the Witcher Left Me Cold and Elric of Melniboné Still Burns Like Witchfire

I recently picked up Heavy Metal #2, Variant
Cover A — Featuring Elric by Gerald Brom

While sick in bed with a cold for a couple of days, I took the opportunity to binge-watch The Witcher, a streaming series I’d heard both praise and condemnation for. Itching for a “new” sword-and-sorcery tale to disappear into, I found myself, halfway through season two, wondering why I didn’t simply return to old favorites—Excalibur, Conan the Barbarian, or The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Still, somewhat invested—and clearly weakened and confused by my sickness—I chose to see it through, foolishly hoping the show would improve. In hindsight, it was a poor decision on my part.

Assured by hardcore fans that “the books are way better” (a refrain I also heard from Harry Potter cultists—I did not like those movies, by the way), I found myself even less inclined to invest precious time reading Andrzej Sapkowski’s stories. Instead, the show—admittedly due to superficial similarities—nudged me toward something far richer: a desire to re-read Michael Moorcock’s Elric Saga, a dark-fantasy childhood favorite that shaped me as deeply as J.R.R. Tolkien, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and Robert E. Howard.

For those who don’t know, Elric of Melniboné is doom made flesh—the last, sickly emperor of a languishing empire, sustained by drugs until he binds himself to Stormbringer, the runesword that drinks souls and feeds him stolen vitality; an antihero in the truest sense. Albino, red-eyed, frail as parchment yet terrifying in sorcery, Elric wanders a dying world as both savior and scourge.

A tragic figure, he is a philosopher-king born into a race of decadent sadists, cursed with a conscience they never had. His victories leave ash, his morality damns him, and his Black Blade—his greatest strength—hungers for those he loves. Yet there is a stark beauty in him: a lone, pale figure against apocalyptic skies, wrestling with fate itself. In an age of disposable fantasy protagonists, Elric still feels dangerous, lyrical, and alive.

Considering how atrocious most film and television adaptations have become, I am genuinely relieved no studio has yet sunk its claws into Elric. The list of butchered sci-fi, fantasy, and sword-and-sorcery properties grows longer every year. While not all recent adaptations are disasters—Nosferatu, Frankenstein, Hellboy—these successes are rare flashes of integrity amid the slop the industry churns out.

If anything, revisiting Elric reminds me that some worlds are better left on the page, untainted—where the imagination can still conjure storms worthy of Stormbringer.

~ By Giovanni di Napoli, December 10th, Translation of the Holy House of Loreto 

Messa per la Pace

In Napoli

Il Portastendardo di Civitella del Tronto (n. 54 - Dicembre 2025)

Brindisi Borbonico

In Caserta

Rorate Mass at St. Anthony of Padua Church in East Northport, New York

Celebrating the Sixth Annual Sanfedisti Feast of San Nicola di Bari in Brooklyn, New York

Following Latin Mass Sunday morning, members and friends of the Fratelli della Santa Fede (aka Sanfedisti) gathered at Amunì Ristorante (7217 3rd Avenue) in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, to celebrate the 6th Annual Feast of San Nicola di Bari with the commemoration of Sant’Ambrogio and Santa Burgundofara.

Some twenty-five partygoers were treated to another fantastic multi-course Sicilian repast by Chef Vincent Dardanello. On the menu this year were fresh cavatelli with a traditional Sunday ragù, replete with fall-off-the-bone pork ribs, hot and sweet sausages, and braciola di cotenna di maiale. We also enjoyed homemade crepe-style manicotti, caponata, arancini, carduna, and carciofi fritti. We finished our festive gathering with digestivi, assorted nuts, fruit, fennel, café, and pastries.

Heartfelt thanks to our dear friends from the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of St. George, San Rocco Society of Potenza in NYC, the Brooklyn Latin Mass Society, the Italian Mass Project, the Holy Name Society of the Shrine Church of St. Bernadette, and the Angus Dei Knights of Columbus Council 12361 for joining us in the festivities.

Special thanks to Professor David DiPasquale for exhibiting selections from his Liber Mysteria and generously donating an original drawing for the raffle.

As always, it was a great joy to celebrate our faith and culture together. Evviva San Nicola di Bari!

Rorate Mass at Corpus Christi Church in South River, New Jersey

Under the Mantle of the Immaculate Conception

With her arms down, she raised her eyes to
heaven and then folding her hands over her breast
she said, "I am the Immaculate Conception."

Allelúja, allelúja. Tota pulchra es, María: et mácula originális non est in te. Allelúja. ~ Canticles 4:7 (1)

Monday evening, my brethren and I celebrated the Feast of the Immaculate Conception at the Shrine Church of the Holy Innocents in Manhattan. A holy day of obligation, it is also the patronal feast of these United States of America and the former Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Inside, the city’s noise dissolved at once; only the soft glow of candles and the hush of expectation remained. The traditional Latin Mass unfolded like a jewel in the dark—a solemn offering for Our Lady conceived without sin, the pure dawn before the world’s true Light. Incense rose in delicate spirals, veiling the sanctuary as though Heaven itself had drawn nearer. Buona Festa dell'Immacolata!

~ Giovanni di Napoli, December 8th, Feast of the Immaculate Conception

Notes:
(1) Alleluia, alleluia. Thou art all fair, O Mary, and there is in thee no stain of original sin.Alleluia. ~ Canticles (Song of Solomon) 4:7

The Pipes of the Mezzogiorno

Zampogna at the Metropolitan Museum of Art 

The bagpipes are an ancient instrument, dating back thousands of years; they're even mentioned in the Bible (Genesis 4:21). Here in America we normally associate the bagpipes with the Irish and Scottish, who have a long and storied tradition with this wonderful instrument. However, many Americans, even those of Italian ancestry, are unaware that Italy has an ancient bagpipe tradition of its own. Ironically, this tradition is more prevalent in Southern half of the peninsula than in the North, where there is supposedly a more Celtic influence.

While the music of the zampogna, as the instrument is called, may not be as well known outside the Mezzogiorno as say the world renowned canzone napoletana (Neapolitan song) or the percussion-based tarantella, it is still an important part of Southern Italy's vast and impressive musical heritage.

Each year, beginning on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception (Dec. 8th) right through the Christmas season, peasant musicians, called pifferari e zampognari (fifers and pipers), make their way from town to town playing traditional songs. It's unmistakable sound fills the air bringing great joy to the Christmas celebration.

The pifferari e zampognari are so much a part of the Christmas tradition in Southern Italy that they have become customary characters, just as popular as the Magi, angels and shepherds, in the elaborate Neapolitan presepi, or Nativity Scenes—another venerable Southern Italian folk art dedicated to the Christmas celebration.

With only a handful of these specialized musicians here in the States, it has become virtually impossible to hear the zampogna live anymore, but one of the few benefits of living in the modern world is we can always listen to, or purchase, the music online. While not the same as listening to it in person, the music will definitely make a nice change of pace from the same old vapid secular Christmas songs incessantly played over the airwaves during the Christmas season. Buon Natale!

Pifferari e zampognari with the

Holy Family by Susy Gatto

(L-R) Pifferari e zampognari by Antonio Caruso

Photos by New York Scugnizzo

Further reading:

• Zampogna (Neapolitan Bagpipes) by Jeff Matthews, Around Naples Encyclopedia

• The Neapolitan Presepe by Jeff Matthews, Around Naples Encyclopedia
• Zampogna and Zampognari, Made in South Italy Today

~ Edited November 30, 2022

Rorate Mass at Our Lady of Sorrows Church in Jersey City, New Jersey

Movie Night at Holy Innocents Church in NYC

Italian Christmas Concert Featuring Michela Musolino at Italian Charities of America in Elmhurst, New York

Around the Web: Manifesto di Isernia

Read and download Manifesto di Isernia (in Italian) at Società Storica del Sannio. It also appears in Il Portastendardo di Civitella del Tronto, n. 54 (Dicembre 2025)

Manifesto di Isernia

Scritto da Gianandrea de Antonellis

Contro il disimpegno politico

Quando le api lasciano l’alveare, questo viene invaso dalle mosche.

Questa metafora sul disimpegno della aristocrazia (in senso etimologico: governo dei migliori) dalla politica sintetizza egregiamente il risultato del disprezzo verso la res publica (letteralmente: “cosa pubblica”). Molti, troppi, in base all’assioma secondo cui «la politica è una cosa sporca», ritengono che sia bene lasciarla alla feccia del popolo, per non sporcarsi le mani. Il fatto è che chi sguazza bene nel pantano politico-amministrativo contribuisce ad abbassare il livello della qualità gestionale e ad alzare quello della corruzione e delle ruberie.

Le persone “perbene”, disgustate dalla cloaca politica, decidono di dedicarsi allo studio, alle professioni, all’arte, contribuendo così al circolo vizioso che (anche grazie all’attuale sistema democratico) non fa che aumentare – come detto – corruzione, clientelarismo e cattiva gestione della cosa pubblica.

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Photo of the Week: Nymphaeum at Pompeii

Photo by New York Scugnizzo

Rorate Caeli Mass at Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Newark, New Jersey

A Disappointment in Sherwood: A Review of the 2025 Robin Hood

Spoiler Alert

You don’t hate Hollywood enough. ~ Online meme

I’m not sure why I went into the 2025 Robin Hood series genuinely hopeful, considering how rarely contemporary retellings honor the stories they touch. This was a childhood story I loved—bright, mythic, morally clear—and I naïvely thought a modern reboot might honor that legacy. Instead, we got yet another legend mangled through the modern meat-grinder of “reinterpretation” and drained of its soul.

The show opens with Hugh Locksley teaching young Rob about his supposed Saxon “heritage” and Aedric, a purely invented folk hero with no basis in the medieval legends, who is transformed into a stag after consummating his marriage to the wood nymph Godda. The Saxons are recast as persecuted pagans suffering under the conquering Catholic Normans—an absurd premise, considering the Anglo-Saxons had already converted centuries earlier, beginning when St. Augustine arrived in 597. The historical illiteracy is so blatant it borders on parody.

While the production values are undeniably strong—handsome sets, solid costumes, polished cinematography—none of that compensates for the heavy-handed anti-Catholic framing, the overwrought melodrama, or the obligatory streaming-era “updates,” including the jarringly anachronistic extras and a gratuitous sex scene with Priscilla of Nottingham. It all plays less like storytelling and more like box-checking.

Ten episodes in all—I stopped after the first. I simply couldn’t get past how thoroughly they butchered the story I grew up loving, stripping away even the medieval tradition of Robin Hood’s devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

I was sincerely looking forward to this adaptation, but it’s yet another childhood tale refashioned into something unrecognizable—another classic sacrificed on the implacable altar of modernity, in thrall to the compulsive need to corrupt every wholesome, time-tested story for the sake of "the message," until nothing of its original character remains.

~ By Giovanni di Napoli, December 5th, Feast of St. John Almond, one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales

Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe at the Shrine Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament in Raritan, New Jersey

Simple Pleasures: Neapolitan Stocking Surprises from Little Italy

I found a handful of wonderfully playful Neapolitan-themed stocking stuffers at the Italian American Emporium in Little Italy, including Pulcinella puppets and a 300-piece puzzle of the Bay of Naples—perfect for a quiet winter afternoon. Even better were the Leonetti Bricks: four different miniatures, each a little tribute to the city’s soul—Pulcinella, San Gennarino, Diego Maradona, and Neapolis itself. They’re small, clever, and unmistakably Neapolitan, the kind of gifts that make a Christmas stocking feel like it’s carrying a bit of Naples inside it.

Remembering Emperor Pedro II of Brazil

2 December 1825 — 5 December 1891

In memory of Dom Pedro the Magnanimous, Second Emperor of Brazil, we pray for the happy repose of his soul. 

Eternal rest grant unto His Imperial Majesty, O Lord and let perpetual light shine upon him. May his soul, and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen

New Book — The Situated Science of Nicola Caputi: Witnessing Wonders in the Eighteenth-Century Kingdom of Naples

A forthcoming title that may be of interest to our readers. Available at Amazon.com

• The Situated Science of Nicola Caputi: Witnessing Wonders in the Eighteenth-Century Kingdom of Naples by Manuel De Carli

Publisher: Anthem Press
Publication date: June 2, 2026
Paperback: $24.95
Language: English
Pages: 100

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