Jirel of Joiry

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.

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.

All six appear in a collected edition under Paizo Publishing's "Planet Stories" imprint, compiled under the title Black God's Kiss.

[5][6] "Jirel of Joiry", a 1985 filk song by Mercedes Lackey and Leslie Fish, appears on the album Murder, Mystery and Mayhem.

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