Jirel of Joiry: "Jirel Meets Magic"

Art by Clade Mirya

I seem to be somewhat in the minority in thinking that "Jirel Meets Magic" is probably the worst of the Jirel of Joiry stories. It's a little bit hard to tell since there aren't a lot of people out there writing about Jirel, but most of the blogs and other reviews I can find really enjoy this piece, perhaps with the exception of Bobby Derie over at Deep Cuts in a Lovecraftian Vein, who calls it "a very generic heroic fantasy story" and "a solid, enjoyable potboiler."

Published in the July 1935 issue of Weird Tales, this is the third Jirel story that had made the page, following October 1934's "The Black God's Kiss" and December '34's "Black God's Shadow." Bobby includes a quote from an HP Lovecraft letter that I think really nails it: "July W T is pretty mediocre—though it was refreshing to see Hectograph Eddie with a new plot. The Moore item was excellent—even though it seems to shew a tendency of C L M’s to drop into a rut." I agree: Jirel seems to be in a bit of a rut.

Looking back through the Weird Tales letters column, "The Eyrie" (which I always want to pronounce like "eye-ree," but I commonly hear people pronounce it the exact same as "eerie" and the WT staff themselves apparently pronounced it as a rhyme with "dairy"), it's clear that readers contemporary to publication also really loved this story.

I love old-fashioned letters columns like this. I imagine that in a time like the 1930s, it provided a real sense of community in readership and a total rush if you happened to see your name published in your favorite mag. 

Clifford Shine of my home of Denver wrote in the September '35 issue,

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"My favorite stories in the July issue are Jirel Meets Magic by C. L. Moore, and The Avenger from Atlantis by Edmond Hamilton. My two favorite authors are Robert E. Howard and C. L. Moore."

B.M. Reynolds from up in Massachusetts wrote,

"C. L. Moore, with a long line of successes already to her credit, certainly gave us the best to date in Jirel Meets Magic. Moore's stories are following, more and more, a trend toward sheer fantasy, of which there is a pitiful lack in present-day fiction. Parts of this story were strongly reminiscent of A. Merritt's imaginative descriptions, and I hardly believe a better compliment could be given a writer than to compare one with the incomparable."

Carleton C. Ames from Minneapolis wrote,

"I have just finished the July 1935 issue. The leading story therein, in my opinion, is C. L. Moore's Jirel Meets Magic. As far as that goes, Moore's stories are the best that you have published."

A letter-writer known only as C. B. H. from NYC said,

"Jirel Meets Magic was the best Jirel story, in my estimation, that I have ever read. Jirel is my favorite character."

And sometimes writers ignorant of the fact that C. L. stood for "Catherine Louise" would sometimes assume that Moore was a guy while heaping praise on her, as Jerry Laird from Topeka does in the August '35 Eyrie:

"I find your magazine highly entertaining, especially those masterpieces of fantasy by C. L. Moore. His inimitable style and word pictures, combined with an unbounded imagination, certainly put him in a class with Merritt and Lovecraft. Julbi, in my opinion, surpassed anything else he has written, with the exception, perhaps, of Shambleau."

I wish I felt the same way about "Jirel Meets Magic." In speaking with modern-day Jirel author Molly Tanzer recently, she noted that in every Jirel story, Jirel enters some kind of magical land (except in one of hers!), and you can see that pattern here. In the first two stories, she crossed over into a hellish dreamland deep underground. In this one, she goes into a purple-skied world through a magic window. Soon, we'll see her go into The Dark Land and then into Hellsgarde, but all in good time. The setting here is, at least in my estimation, not quite as alien-beautiful as her underground hellscape or as utterly terrifying as the Dark Land, or as indelible as Hellsgarde.

Unfortunately, I don't find Jarisme to be quite as engaging of an antagonist either, nor Giraud, probably because their emotional stakes with Jirel aren't ratcheted super fucking high like they are in previous stories. 

Also, what's with this title? Jirel has met magic before, at least twice. Why is this the one that's called "Jirel Meets Magic?" I know it's not that C.L. Moore had forgotten- page 36 of the story says, "Jirel shrugged after a moment's bewilderment. She had met magic before."

Don't count me a total naysayer, though. This story still has a bit of fun to be had. Specifically, it continues to show off Moore's skills as a fantastic character artist. Jirel's early exchange with Jarisme in which Jirel "smiled her sweetest, most poisonous smile" is filled with great character moments. The two of them spar verbally for a moment, and Jirel shows that she would make a decent battle rapper, responding to a question essentially asking "You think I can be bought?" with "You will forgive me. At the first glance at you I did not think your price could be high..."

I've always wondered if Jirel was less of a favorite character to Moore than Northwest Smith, and so perhaps she was a little less invested in the yellow-eyed maiden of Joiry than other characters.

​Either way, even C. L. Moore's most mediocre is pretty much anyone else's best.