Jirel of Joiry

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

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 magazine Weird Tales .

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

• C. L. Moore, "The Black God's Kiss", Weird Tales, 24.4 (October 1934), pp. 402–21
• C. L. Moore, "Black God's Shadow", Weird Tales, 24.6 (December 1934), pp. 701–18
• C. L. Moore, "Jirel Meets Magic", Weird Tales, 26.1 (July 1935), pp. 30–53
• C. L. Moore, "The Dark Land", Weird Tales, 27.1 (January 1936), pp. 53–71
• C. L. Moore and Henry Kuttner, "Quest of the Starstone", Weird Tales, 30.5 (November 1937), pp. 556–75. (This story also featured Moore's other series character, the future space adventurer Northwest Smith.)
• C. L. Moore, "Hellsgarde", Weird Tales, 33.4 (April 1939), pp. 37–60.

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..

References

1. Murphy, Brian (2019). Flame and Crimson : a history of sword-and-sorcery. Pismo Beach, CA: Pulp Hero Press. pp. 93–97. ISBN   9781683902447.
2. Lin Carter, ed. Realms of Wizardry p 205 Doubleday and Company Garden City, New York, 1976
3. "Jirel of Joiry: The Mother of Us All – Black Gate" . Retrieved 2022-04-12.
4. "StarShipSofa Podcast, No 734: Molly Tanzer". StarShipSofa . United Kingdom. 2024-05-06. Retrieved 2025-02-22.
5. Helland, Jonathan. "CL Moore, M. Brundage, and Jirel of Joiry: Women and Gender in the October 1934 Weird Tales." The Unique Legacy of Weird Tales: The Evolution of Modern Fantasy and Horror (2015).
6. Donaldson, Eileen (2018-01-02). "'A hot and savage strength': The female masculinity of C. L. Moore's Jirel of Joiry" . English Academy Review. 35 (1): 48–60. doi:10.1080/10131752.2018.1464222. ISSN   1013-1752. S2CID   165175055.
7. Toland, Jacqueline. "Gender-Bending Genres: Queerness, Female Masculinity, and Warriorship in C.L. Moore's Jirel of Joiry." Masters thesis., Florida Atlantic University, 2020.

External links

• Media related to Jirel of Joiry at Wikimedia Commons