#jirelle

[retroillustrates]

Inspired by the Justice League Unlimited intro shot, I did one for the sword and sorcery heroes.

From left to right we have:

The father himself, Conan the Barbarian

The first woman in the genre, often overlooked, Jirel of Joiry

The antithesis of the father, the antihero, Elric of Melnibone

[oliverbrackenbury]

New Edge Sword & Sorcery 2024 only launched on Backerkit yesterday and it's already 75% funded! Be a part of literary history when backing this project by helping us publish the first new Jirel of Joiry story in 85 years! There's also an obscure Elric reprint paired with new art, an S&S tale by Harry Turtledove, and scads of crowdfund exclusive rewards. Check out the campaign page to learn more!

[imsupposedtobestudying-whoops]

I couldn't decide which flavour of lines for her... Jirel of Joiry, warrior Queen from the 1930's - created by the great C. L. Moore.

[tromroan]

Jirel ☀️

[vintagerpg]

This is the Paperback Library collection Jirel of Joiry (1969), which collects (like most Joiry collections) all but one of C. L. Moore’s Jirel stories (omitted is her collaboration with her husband, Henry Kuttner, “Quest of the Starstone”). The cover artist, unfortunately, is unknown.

These stories are alarmingly modern in sensibility, and starkly undercut a lot of escapist power fantasy that folks assume is baked into the genre — doubly shocking considering Jirel is the first female hero of sword and sorcery. The first details Jirel’s first dangerous brush with magic. This underscores the action of the second story, “Black God’s Kiss,” an acknowledged classic. That one see’s Jirel’s kingdom conquered. Rather than submit to the conqueror, who roughly tries to "kiss” her, Jirel attempts to tear his throat out with her teeth. Failing at that, she slips out of her cell and embarks on journey to a dark land accessed through a trap door beneath her castle, a phantasmagoric landscape of forests and mountains that somehow exist underground (in a wonderfully sinister bit, Jirel is initially enclosed in impenetrable darkness until she removes her crucifix). Horrible creatures live there. She seeks out the statue (is it a statue, though?) of the titular god and gives it a kiss, which she carries back and passes along to the conqueror, killing him.

“Black God’s Shadow” forces Jirel to reckon with the consequences of her actions in the previous story in ways that are honestly surprising now, let alone when the story was first published in 1934. “The Dark Land,” probably the weakest of the stories, involves another unwanted suitor. “Hellsgarde,” the final story, is a sinister treasure hunt.

And that’s it, unfortunately. Still, Jirel looms large. Her stories imply a much richer history beyond the events they present, though, even if we can only perceive them through a fog of imagination.

[gilgalahad]

Jirel of Joiry

Art by Saša Đurđević

[weirdlookindog]

Virgil Finlay - Hellsgarde

(Weird Tales - April, 1939)

[paragons-luster]

*blows off thick layer of dust*

'SUP NERDS?? GUESS IT'S TIME TO START UP THE DRAGON AGE SIDEBLOG AGAIN!

For now, all I have is this kinda potato pic of my Rook because I haven't figured out photo mode yet.

[dykebeckett]

bought this yarn today to make him a little blanket and he already loves it ❤️ my sweetie pee

[cosmosrebellion]

Got myself some new books!!

[bookmaven]

SHAMBLEAU AND OTHERS by C.L. Moore. (New York: Gnome Press, 1953) Cover art by Ric Binkley.

Announced by Arkham House but never published by them. This collection of stories about Northwest Smith and Jirel of Joiry originally appeared in Weird Tales. 4,000 copy edition.

"Black God’s Kiss" (October 1934) [Jirel of Joiry]

"Shambleau" (November 1933) [Northwest Smith]

"Black God’s Shadow" (December 1934) [Jirel of Joiry]

"Black Thirst" (April 1934) [Northwest Smith]

"The Tree of Life" (October 1936) [Northwest Smith]

"Jirel Meets Magic"(July 1935) [Jirel of Joiry]

"Scarlet Dreams" (May 1934) [Northwest Smith]

Weird Tales (October 1934) Cover by Margaret Brundage. Story illustrated by H.R. Hammond.

(New York: Galaxy Novel #31, 1957)

“Shambleau”

“Black Thirst”

“The Tree of Life”

[basicallyanotherwitchesthing]

C.L. Moore - Black God's Shadow - Donald M. Grant - 1977 (cover illustration by Alicia Austin)

[princealigorna]

Is it just me, or does Sword and Sorcery have a higher abundance of badass female characters compared to other styles of fantasy? If so, what do you think accounts for that?

[imsupposedtobestudying-whoops]

Someone stop me of adapting all of C.L.Moore’s work into comic form ⚔️

[tromroan]

Another Jirel with gold lines, because I think it looks... quite cool.... (Jirel of Joiry is a medieval warrior queen, and fantastic original character by the great C. L. Moore - one of the pioneer women writers of sci fi and fantasy!)

[ruinedhead]

Jirel of Joiry

Jirel of JoiryC.L. Moore | Paperback Library | 1969 (first published 1934) | 175 pages Originally published in Weird Tales magazine in the thirties, this collection of sword-and-sorcery tales features a red-haired female equivalent to Conan the Barbarian, but also forgoes much action to lean heavily into the weird. In Black God’s Kiss, Jirel’s domain is conquered by the malicious–but somehow…