I’m not suggesting Kuttner ripped off Moore–only that both were fans of H. For Moore it is Urda-sla and Kuttner it is Baal-yagoth. The similarity is in the villainess trying to sacrifice the hero to evil gods that are more than a little Lovecraftian. This story lacks the novelty of the first two tales but it does have an interesting similarity to Henry Kuttner’s Elak story “Beyond the Phoenix” ( Weird Tales, October 1938). She kills him without using her sight before returning home. Giraud is stupid enough to try and blind Jirel with a spell. Only Jirel and Giraud escape the destruction when Jarisme’s god, Urda-sla, demolishes the castle. Using the amulet, Jirel destroys the magic sphere that Jarisme is using.

Jarisme summons many different monsters from other worlds through her magic doors then begins the ceremony that will trap Jirel in her own body and force her to relive her worst experiences. She finds it in the Black God’s kiss, which she delivers to her enemy, only to discover the weapon is too great, and her emotions misunderstood.Īfter many attempts to get into the same space with Jarisme (who keeps disappearing through magic doors and appearing as phantom monsters such as a purple phantom snake and a sabertooth tiger) Jirel finally confronts her, only to be told she is going to be sacrificed in the most horrible manner possible. There she seeks a weapon with which to destroy Guillaume. Going through a weird transdimensional portal, Jirel finds herself in a world of bizarre creatures and unGodly evil. Jirel escapes her prison and finds Brother Gervase, a priest who once explored the depths of Joiry with her mistress. Guillaume kisses her savagely, as a promise of what her fate holds. The conqueror wishes to see the man who leads only to find it is a woman, Jirel, the red-headed warrior-woman. “The Black God’s Kiss” ( Weird Tales October 1934) opens with Guillaume and his forces taking Joiry in battle. The feel is different than Howard’s prose but no less useful. I find she is a master at evoking weird images that others can not (the same for Merritt).

Moore’s style in the majority of the tales has that same “fruit caky” or “lush, art nouveau prose” (to quote Baird Searles) that may or may not be to taste. Merritt that is the wellspring of her imagination, not Howard. The saga of Jirel is part of Sword & Sorcery’s origins in the Pulps, but it is actually the writer, A. This lifestyle often takes her into contact with the magical in the form of gods, weird dimensions and strange creatures. She rules her small medieval French kingdom of Joiry by sword and cunning. Jirel is as fiery a character as Howard’s Conan the Cimmerian.