This 1969 paperback was one of my "gateway drugs" to the super-genre of fantasy, and as I remember I purchased this along with my first collection of CONAN stories. In those pre-Internet days I had no idea that the titular character was the first noteworthy sword-and-sorcery heroine in prose fiction, and I'm not sure that I knew (though I believe I soon learned) that JIrel's creator C.L. Moore was one of the pioneering female fantasy/SF writers from the days of the American pulps.
The five stories in this volume were the only ones Moore wrote with this character, except for an anomalous "crossover" story between Jirel and Moore's space-opera hero Northwest Smith, reviewed here. All of the stories appeared in WEIRD TALES, and may have been a response to the popular success of Robert E. Howard's Conan series. However, whereas the Howard stories are rigorously plotted historical epics with a smattering of magical elements, Moore's five Jirel stories are all wild phantasmagorias of violence and bizarre supernatural imagery. There's never more than hints about the background of the fiery, sword-swinging heroine, who has somehow risen to the rulership of a medieval French province, Joiry, but who spends most of her time fighting mystical threats. I'll discuss some of these in detail, so-- SPOILERS.
The first story in the series, "Black God's Kiss," was published in 1934, and it's easily the best of the five. "Kiss" starts off with a bang, showing Jirel in the throes of defeat, taken prisoner by the warlord Guillaime, who has also conquered Joiry. Guillaime kisses Jirel, suggesting that he'd like to make her his leman, and when she responds by sinking her teeth in his throat, he belts her and sends her to the dungeon. Jirel breaks free and decides that the only way to strike back against the warrior is to venture down a forbidden stairwell that leads to Hell itself. Once there, Jirel braves a variety of bizarre Lovecraftian menaces, none of which resemble the standard horrors of the medieval Hell. Finally she finds a weapon, acquired by kissing the stone lips of a black statue, and when she communicates the kiss to Guillaime, he perishes immediately. In a turnabout sure to be unpopular with feminists, Jirel then belatedly realizes that since being forcefully kissed by the warlord, her hate for him was really an all-consuming love.
"Kiss" evidently pleased the readers of WEIRD TALES, for Moore followed up with "Black God's Shadow." Following the events of the first story, Jirel has managed to re-take Joiry, but she's haunted by the spirit of Guillaime, tormented in the afterlife, Jirel assuages her guilt by once more descending into Hell to liberate the warlord's spirit. Though Moore tries to combine some new horrors with those familiar from the last trip, the story lacks the narrative drive of its predecessor.
The title of the third tale, "Jirel Meets Magic," seems odd given her previous journeys to Hell, but it is her only meeting that the swordswoman has with a sorcerer (discounting "Starstone.") Jirel pursues the rebel magician Giraud into a weird dimension, where she finds that Giraud has a protector, an enchantress whose name, Jarisme, is modestly close to that of Jirel's. The two women hate each other at first sight, but Jarisme doesn't kill Jirel right off due to a vague prophecy of doom. Jirel pursues Giraud and Jarisme to the latter's castle, where the warrior woman witnesses a convocation of bizarre alien beings, all apparently sorcerers allied to Jarisme. Despite the superior powers of her adversaries, Jirel triumphs as expected.
In "The Dark Land," Jirel spends nearly no time in the real world, when Pav, overlord of a weird alien dimension, spirits her into his realm. Pav has observed Jirel's adventures in dimension-hopping and wants her to be his new queen. Pav's human form is essentially an illusion, as he is coterminous with his whole dimension, so he has no human weaknesses. Only by seeking out Pav's previous queen can Jirel manage to escape her absorption into this alien domain.
The last story, "Hellsgarde," includes no voyages to otherworlds, though most of the action takes place in the haunted castle of the title. Jirel is taken prisoner by a weird, vampire-like family, whose purpose is to lure out the spirit of their ancestor, who assaults the noblewoman with kisses. (These days, the lustful ghost probably would not be quite so restrained.) Jirel isn't able to save herself this time, and she perseveres only because the vamps's real purpose is to feed not off her, but off her spectral attacker.
One interesting aspect of these five tales is that even though Moore produces some tantalizing "cosmic horror" images worthy of Lovecraft, those images possess a greater vibe of sexual perversity than one finds in the Providence writer. Moore mostly wrote short stories, aside from two solo novels and some book-collaborations with her husband Henry Kuttner, so she probably never would have contemplated a longer work with her intriguing creation, nor would she have believed such a work would have been saleable. Today a Jirel of Joiry novel could find an audience. Yet the unique blend of perversity and cosmic imagery could probably never be duplicated in these more politically correct times, so it's best to leave the first lady of sword and sorcery to her own era.
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