Jirel of Joiry

For the collection of stories, see Jirel of Joiry (collection).

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 magazine Weird Tales.

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

The character

Jirel is the proud, tough, arrogant and beautiful ruler of her own domain, Joiry; somewhere in late medieval France. "Quest of the Starstone", says that she lived circa 1500 CE.^[1] Her adventures continually involve her in dangerous brushes with the supernatural. In her afterword to the collection The Best of C. L. Moore, the author stated that Jirel and her earlier creation Shambleau, both represented idealized imags of herself.

Significance

These stories are among the first to show the influence of Robert E. Howard on sword and sorcery, and among the first sword and sorcery stories of any kind. They also introduced a female protagonist to the genre.^[2][3][1]

Stories

• "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. (This story also featured Moore's other series character, the future space adventurer Northwest Smith.)
• "Hellsgarde" (April 1939)

Continuation by other writers

In 2024, "Jirel and the Mirror of Truth" by Molly Tanzer, appeared in the third issue of New Edge Sword and Sorcery. This was written with the permission of Moore's estate.^[4]

Reception

She has been described as one of the first strong female characters in fantasy and "the world's first female sword-and-sorcery hero".^[5] Despite being a female character, her masculine traits have led to her being analyzed in the context of gender bending fiction.^[6][7]

Bibliography

• 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.. This collects all of the Jirel stories and the majority of stories featuring Northwest Smith.
• Moore, C. L. (2002). Black God's Kiss. Bellevue: Paizo/Planet Stories. p. 224. ISBN 978-1-60125-045-2..