Jirel of Joiry

Cover of the October 1934 issue of Weird Tales, featuring the first Jirel of Joiry story "Black God's Kiss".

Jirel of Joiry is a fictional character created by American writer C. L. Moore, who appeared in a series of sword and sorcery stories published first in the pulp horror/fantasy magazine Weird Tales. Jirel is the proud, tough, arrogant and beautiful ruler of her own domain — apparently somewhere in medieval France. Her adventures continually involve her in dangerous brushes with the supernatural.

These stories are the first to show the influence of Robert E. Howard on sword and sorcery; they also introduced a female protagonist to the genre.^[1]

Moore's Jirel stories include the following:

• "Black God's Kiss" (October 1934)
• "Black God's Shadow" (December 1934)
• "Jirel Meets Magic" (July 1935)
• "The Dark Land" (January 1936)
• "Quest of the Starstone" (November 1937) (with Henry Kuttner)
• "Hellsgarde" (April 1939)

These stories, except for "Quest of the Starstone", appear in the collection Jirel of Joiry (1969), and in the Gollancz Fantasy Masterworks compendium Black Gods and Scarlet Dreams (2002). All six appear in a collected edition under Paizo Publishing's "Planet Stories" imprint, compiled under the title Black God's Kiss.

References

1. Lin Carter, ed. Realms of Wizardry p 205 Doubleday and Company Garden City, New York, 1976

Books

• Moore, C. L. (1969). Jirel of Joiry. Paperback Library.
  • Moore, C. L. (1996) [1969]. Jirel of Joiry. Ace Books. ISBN 0-441-38570-2.
• Moore, C. L. (2002). Black Gods and Scarlet Dreams. London: Orion/Gollancz. p. 439. ISBN 0-575-07417-5.
  • collects all of the Jirel and (primary) Northwest Smith stories except "Quest of the Starstone"
• Moore, C. L. (2002). Black God's Kiss. Bellevue: Paizo/Planet Stories. p. 224. ISBN 978-1-60125-045-2.
  • "Where No Man Had Gone Before" • introduction by Suzy McKee Charnas
  • "Black God's Kiss"
  • "Black God's Shadow"
  • "Jirel Meets Magic"
  • "The Dark Land"
  • "Hellsgarde"
  • "Quest of the Starstone" • with Henry Kuttner • Northwest Smith crossover story

Music

"Jirel of Joiry", a 1985 filk song by Mercedes Lackey and Leslie Fish, appearing in the album Murder, Mystery and Mayhem