Jirel of Joiry: "Jirel Meets Death"

"Jirel Meets Death" art by Simon Underwood

Not to get too dark too quick, but I am absolutely terrified of death. It's my number one most paralyzing fear. It's been that way ever since I read Faulkner's As I Lay Dying in one of my college English classes. That book fucked me up for weeks as I walked around in a funk. To this day, if I think about death for too long, I get this horrible knot in the pit of my stomach and it feels like walls are closing in. 

It's not necessarily the process of dying itself, but the prospect of oblivion on the other side, of nothing but nothingness. For that reason, I'm always kind of interested in the different ways that an afterlife is portrayed in media. I remember being intrigued at Yu Yu Hakusho's remarkably boring, bureaucratic afterlife populated by office-dwelling ogres. The Black Mirror episode "San Junipero" is a little more melancholy, with something about the eternal time-stuck computerization of a consciousness registering as sad to me. The Good Place's confined, mundane atmosphere makes my brain itch even more; it seems so isolated and limited. This is all to say that Molly Tanzer's version of Tartarus, the underworld of "Jirel Meets Death," was very intriguing. I guess I'm looking for some kind of reassurance when I seek out new visions of the afterlife, and according to this tale, "all find what they seek in the land of the dead."

"Jirel Meets Death," Molly Tanzer's second full Jirel of Joiry pastiche published in 2025, sends Jirel, as you may have guessed, into the afterlife. Its title is a little riff on the third Jirel story, "Jirel Meets Magic," published in Weird Tales in July of '35.

After a classic Jirel opening in which there are poor decisions, double-crosses, and some bloodshed, Jirel finds herself just a little bit dead. Her body is occupied in her absence.

"Well, not everyone would call it Tartarus, it's true. Perhaps I should say that you are in the underworld, the land of the dead--though it has ever been more than that... I and my companions are Death's entourage, those closest to our liege who serve at Death's pleasure. And as to your last question... I'm afraid you are dead, my lady."

This was surprising to read, especially since Jirel of Joiry is unambiguously Catholic, which the story reminds you of in the opening as Jirel has recently returned from a christening. 

Death itself here is portrayed as a character, not as a process or anything that Jirel would recognize from her limited perspective. I won't spoil anything, but it's not what or how I thought it would be either.

Death's entourage is a funny bunch, referring to themselves as each other's colleagues rather than being angels or devils that Jirel might rather have expected. It's remarkably like a PTA meeting; there's a little petty bureaucracy in Tartarus, contrasted against some truly horrifying god-monsters that also dwell there. I asked Molly about her version of the afterlife and she compared its genesis to something like the ancient Greek idea of the underworld: not a Hell or a Heaven, but an Island of Misfit Toys at the end of the chute with all kinds of cast-offs populating it.

It's interesting to compare it to the dreamworld of the first two Jirel stories, which are a terrifying underworld in Jirel's basement, or the Dark Land of Pav, all these strange pocket universes seemingly co-existing. Tartarus is just one of many magical places within this universe, and Molly and I agree that it's a good thing for sword & sorcery fiction that we don't have to wind ourselves in knots to figure out the exact logic behind that.

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Jirel's characterization in this story is once again spot-on to Moore's original Jirel, with the lady of Joiry making bad decisions about men and loathing her time spent amongst highfalutin people. After having read Molly's novels Creatures of Will & Temper and Creatures of Want & Ruin since "Jirel Meets Death," this makes Jirel's distain for fops and high society even more entertaining.

As our redheaded and yellow-eyed swordmaiden embarks on a quest through Tartarus, it's an oddly comforting sword & sorcery adventure with a lot of heart.

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All find what they seek in the land of the dead. Now I seek both "Jirel and the Forest of Night" in New Edge Sword & Sorcery soon, and the upcoming novella Blue Fire. I simply can't say enough good things about what is going on with Jirel these days. I'm so thankful to Oliver Brackenbury for publishing this stuff, Molly's work is fantastic, Saša Đurđević's art is sick as hell. Even outside of New Edge, there's cool stuff coming, as Clade Mirya posts Jirel art on Bluesky all the time, and there's even a new collection of C.L. Moore's originals out soon. 

Let's hope Jirel stays with us away from Tartarus for a time.