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 horror/fantasy magazine Weird Tales. Jirel is the proud, tough, arrogant and beautiful ruler of her own domain, Joiry; somewhere in late medieval France. One Jirel story, "Quest of the Starstone", states the time period that the story is set in as the year 1500 CE.[1] Her adventures continually involve her in dangerous brushes with the supernatural.

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

  1. ^ a b Murphy, Brian (2019). Flame and Crimson : a history of sword-and-sorcery. Pismo Beach, CA: Pulp Hero Press. p. 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.