Jirel from Joiry

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Cover of the October 1934 issue of Weird Tales magazine with the story Black God's Kiss .

Jirel of Joiry is the main character of a series of Fantasy - Short Stories by the American author Catherine L. Moore . She first appeared in the short story The Kiss of the Black God . The total of six stories were published between October 1934 and April 1939 in the pulp magazine Weird Tales .

background

In 1934, female heroes were rarely found in the fantasy genre, and female characters were often only an accessory to the plot. With Jirel von Joiry, Moore introduced a heroine who acts in a combative manner, but not only represents a transfer of the male hero into a female role, but rather has emphatically female character traits. This redefined the role of women in this genre.

In the kiss of the black god , Jirel's appearance and demeanor is described as follows:

"She was tall as most men, and as savage as the wildest of them [...]. The face above her mail might not have been fair in a woman's head-dress, but in the steel setting of her armor it had a biting, sword-edge beauty as keen as the flash of blades. The red hair was short upon her high, defiant head, and the yellow blaze of her eyes held fury as a crucible holds fire. "

“She was as tall as most men and as wild as any man [...]. The knight's face might not have looked beautiful with a lady's headdress, but framed by the steel of her armor it had the cutting beauty of a blade, sharp as a flashing sword. The red hair stood short on her high, defiant head and the yellow flash of her eyes was angry like a melting pot full of fire. "

Suzy McKee Charnas describes this in her introduction to a collection of the Jirel stories as " Rambo- eske Johanna von Orleans ".

In a follow-up to The Best of CL Moore collection, edited by Lester del Rey , Moore wrote:

“If you read about Jirel after Shambleau, you will notice how similar the two women are. They set the tone for a substantial part of my writing until I met and married Henry Kuttner. Today I realize that - undoubtedly unconsciously - there are two versions of the person I would have liked to have been. "

As the anthologist Karl Edward Wagner noted:

“Like her creator, Jirel was a redhaired beauty and fiercely independent — arguably one of the genre's first liberated heroines. Jirel was not simply Conan in a brass bra. Moore portrayed Jirel with a depth of characterization and a sure grasp of feminine feeling that placed Jirel generations beyond the rest of the pulp field. "

“Like her author, Jirel was a passionate independent red-haired beauty - perhaps one of the genre's first emancipated heroines. Jirel wasn't just Conan in an armored bra. Moore drew Jirel with a depth and a sure hand for the portrayal of female emotions, which gave Jirel a lead of decades over other novel heroins. "

Fantasy Amazons and female superheroes are common today , but in 1934 there was hardly anything like it. There were some models: the Amazons of ancient myths; some female knights in literature such as Bradamante in Ariostos Orlando furioso , the virgin knight Britomartis in Spenser's verse epic The Faerie Queene and the virgin maiden of Orleans . The debut of Wonder Woman was still six years in the future, Sheena would only see the light of the jungle in 1937 and Robert E. Howard's comparable characters such as Red Sonya of Rogatino, who appeared in the short story The Shadow of the Vulture in January 1934 ( German Horde from the Orient ) appeared, or Valeria, who first appeared in 1936, Conan's comrade-in- arms and lover , were ultimately not fully formed main characters. Howard's historical stories with the also red-haired Agnes de Chastillon did not appear posthumously until the 1970s.

In any case, the time was ripe: After the female protagonists had been severely decimated in the 1920s, numerous new female main characters could be seen towards the end of the 1930s, including some superheroes such as Watt Dells, who was equipped with superpowers and X-ray vision, Olga Mesmer (1937, the first comic book Superheroine) and Vera Ray, glowing in the dark, and the Golden Amazon by John Russell Fearn (1939).

One characteristic that distinguishes Jirel from the chaste or virginal heroines of the chivalric novels is their thoroughly open-minded relationship to sexuality. So she confesses in the kiss of the black god : “God knows, loose love is not alien to me - but be a man's toy for a night or two before he breaks your neck or sells you as a slave - and only when Guillaume this man is! ”So it is not sexuality per se that she rejects, but the grinning arrogance of the macho conqueror Guillaume, who turns her into a raging fury. Only when Guillaume, overwhelmed by the demonic kiss, sinks to his knees whimpering, can Jirel feel pity and at the same time admit her true feelings for Guillaume.

stories

Jirel's castle is captured. She descends into a fantastic underworld to find a weapon against the conqueror. When she killed him with a fateful kiss, she regrets what she did.
  • Black God's Shadow / The shadow of the black god
  • Jirel Meets Magic / The Tower of Worlds
  • The Dark Land / The Dark Land
  • Quest of the Starstone
  • Hellguard

bibliography

Single stories
  • Black God's Kiss . In: Weird Tales. Vol. 24, No. 4 (October 1934). Translations:
    • The kiss of the black god. Translated by Lore Straßl. In: CL Moore: Jirel, the Amazon. Pabel (Terra Fantasy # 25), 1976. Also called: The Kiss of the Black God. In: CL Moore: Jirel, the Amazon. Festa (Festa Dark Fantasy # 1102), 2002, ISBN 3-935822-44-8 . Also in: Frank Festa (ed.): The red room. Festa (HP Lovecraft's Library of Secrets # 2625), 2010, ISBN 978-3-86552-088-3 .
    • The kiss of the black god. Translated by Irene Holicki. In: CL Moore: The kiss of the black god. Heyne SF&F # 3874, 1982, ISBN 3-453-30760-7 . Also in: CL Moore: Shambleau. Heyne (Library of Science Fiction Literature # 77), 1990, ISBN 3-453-03929-7 .
  • Black God's Shadow . In: Weird Tales. Vol. 24, No. 6 (December 1934).
    • German: The shadow of the black god. Translated by Lore Straßl. In: Jirel, the Amazon. 1976. Also in: Jirel, the Amazon. 2002.
  • Jirel Meets Magic. In: Weird Tales. Vol. 26, No. 1 (July 1935).
    • German: The Tower of the Worlds. Translated by Lore Straßl. In: Jirel, the Amazon. 1976. Also in: Jirel, the Amazon. 2002.
  • The Dark Land. In: Weird Tales. Vol. 27, No. 1 (January 1936).
    • The dark land. Translated by Lore Straßl. In: Hugh Walker (Ed.): Swords, Schemas and Shamans. Pabel (Terra Fantasy # 32), 1977.
  • with Henry Kuttner : Quest of the Starstone. In: Weird Tales. Vol. 30, No. 5 (November 1937).
    • German: The secret of the star stone. Translated by Lore Straßl. In: Jirel, the Amazon. 2002.
  • Hellguard. In: Weird Tales. Vol. 33, No. 4 (April 1939). Translations:
    • Hellguard. Translated by Ingrid Rothmann. In: Walter Spiegl (Ed.): Science-Fiction-Stories 25. Ullstein 2000 # 45 (2964), 1973, ISBN 3-548-02964-1 . Also called: Hellsgate. In: L. Sprague de Camp (ed.): Swords and Magic. Ullstein (Ullstein Science Fiction & Fantasy # 31160), 1973, ISBN 3-548-31160-1 .
    • Hellguard. Translated by Lore Straßl. In: Jirel, the Amazon. 2002.
Collections
  • Jirel of Joiry. Paperback Library, 1969. Also called: Black God's Shadow. Donald M. Grant, 1977, ISBN 0-686-27900-X . New edition: Ace Books, 1996, ISBN 0-441-38570-2 .
  • Black Gods and Scarlet Dreams. Gollancz / Orion (Millennium / Gollancz Fantasy Masterworks # 31), 2002, ISBN 0-575-07417-5 (omnibus edition of Jirel von Joiry and Northwest Smith stories, Quest of the Starstone is not included).
  • Black God's Kiss. With an introduction by Suzy McKee Charnas ( Where No Man Had Gone Before ). Paizo Publishing (Planet Stories # 3), 2007, ISBN 978-1-60125-045-2 .

German compilations:

  • Jirel, the Amazon. Pabel (Terra Fantasy # 25), 1976.
  • Jirel, the Amazon. Festa (Festa Dark Fantasy # 1102), 2002, ISBN 3-935822-44-8 .

literature

  • Jennifer Jodell: Mediating Moore: Uncertain Origins and Indeterminate Identities in the Work of CL Moore . Dissertation Washington University in St. Louis 2010, All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) # 784, online .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Review on blackgate.com by Ryan Harvey (accessed April 14, 2018).
  2. ^ A Rambo-esque Joan of Arc . See Suzy McKee Charnas: Where No Man Had Gone Before . In: CL Moore: Black God's Kiss. Paizo Publishing (Planet Stories # 3), 2007, ISBN 978-1-60125-045-2 .
  3. ↑ "If you have read past Shambleau to Jirel, you will probably have noticed what a close relationship the two women bear to one another. They set the keynote for a lot of my own […] writing until I met and married Henry Kuttner. I realize now that, unconsciously, no doubt, both were versions of the self I'd like to have been. “CL Moore: Footnote to“ Shambleau ”… and Others . In: (dies.): The Best of CL Moore. Nelson Doubleday / SFBC, 1975.
  4. ^ Karl Edward Wagner: CL Moore. In: (ders.): Echoes of Valor II. Tor, 1989, ISBN 0-312-93189-1 .
  5. ↑ All-Star Comics # 8, Winter 1940–1941, sales started November 22, 1940.
  6. ↑ Jess Nevins: The Evolution of the Costumed Avenger: The 4,000-Year History of the Superhero. ABC-Clio 2017, ISBN 978-1-4408-5484-2 , pp. 195 f ..
  7. ↑ "God knows I'm not innocent of the ways of light loving — but to be any man's fancy, for a night or two, before he snaps my neck or sells me into slavery — and above all, if that man were Guillaume! "
  8. ↑ Jennifer Jodell: Mediating Moore: Uncertain Origins and Indeterminate Identities in the Work of CL Moore . St. Louis 2010, p. 177, fn. 159.