Glad you liked “The Dark Land”. I made the drawing a long time ago, and wrote the story so I could bring it in, with the addition of a cadaverous head and a swirl of vagueness.
—C. L. Moore to H. P. Lovecraft, 30 Jan 1936, Letters to C. L. Moore and Others 108
We don’t know much about how C. L. Moore came to write “The Dark Land,” the fourth published adventure of Jirel of Joiry, and saw print in the January 1936 issue of Weird Tales, except that it drew on ideas Moore had at some point before she first conceived of Jirel, and which she now turned to for inspiration:
Jirel’s Guillaume whom I so ruthlessly slew in the first of her stories, yet whom I can’t quite let die, was patterned after the drawing of Pav of Romne with which I illustrated her latest story, “The Dark Land” in Weird Tales. I made that drawing somewhere in the remote past, and have cherished it all these years in the confidence that someday it would come in handy. I meant to use it to illustrate “Black God’s Kiss,” first of the Jirel tales, but somehow the story got out of hand, and I’ve never since been able to introduce a situation it would fit until “The Dark Land.”
—C. L. Moore, “An Autobiographical Sketch of C. L. Moore,” Echoes of Valor 2, 37-38
Like most of Moore’s series stories, this tale was effectively a standalone episode; and like many of them, Jirel swiftly finds herself in another dimension, facing a supernatural threat wildly beyond her abilities.
“Our dear lady has dabbled too often in forbidden things,” he murmured to himself above the crucifix. “Too often. . . .”
—C. L. Moore, “The Dark Land” in Weird Tales (Jan 1936)
Once again, Jirel of Joiry is up against a dangerous, domineering suitor—an echo of the overbearing Guillaume in “Black God’s Kiss” (1934) by C. L. Moore. The central conflict is effectively a weird social drama, a contest of wills (literally) between Pav of Romne and Jirel of Joiry, as the alien king seeks to seduce or dominate Jirel without destroying her. In that, more than most of Jirel’s stories, there is a fierce resistance that is emblematic of the character that would become Red Sonja, who would give herself to no man who had not bested her in combat.
“Give me a weapon! There is no man alive who is not somehow vulnerable. I shall learn your weakness, Pav of Romne, and slay you with it. And if I fail—then take me.”
—C. L. Moore, “The Dark Land” in Weird Tales (Jan 1936)
It is sword & sorcery without much swordplay; Jirel is weaponless in the traditional sense, but then she is facing enemies that cannot be slain with a yard of steel. Like many of Moore’s stories, it deals with entities that are both vastly alien from human conception, and yet peculiarly attracted to either the human form or spirit. It is an aspect of sword & sorcery, the indomitable nature of the human spirit, that separates the swordswomen from the damsels in distress.
While the fans received “The Dark Land” positively, this tendency toward spiritual or psychic warfare was noted:
The Dark Land, by C. L. Moore, gets my vote for first place. . . . For originality of ideas in fantastic realms, Moore takes first place. However, can C. L. Moore discover something else instead of the hero’s (or heroine’s, as the case may be) tremendous will-power, to beat the foe?
—Michael Liene in The ‘Eyrie,’ Weird Tales (Mar 1936)
Another reader noted another running theme in Moore’s stories:
Can’t C. L. Moore write anything but woman-witch-halfbreed stories? Shambleau, The Dark Land, Yvala, ye gods!
—Willis Conover in The ‘Eyrie,’ Weird Tales (Mar 1936)
“The Dark Land” also aroused little comment from Moore’s peers, beyond polite acknowledgement. it wasn’t a bad story, but it lacked the vast originality of her earliest stories in Weird Tales.
I read your “Dark Land”, and liked it well.
—Forrest J Ackermann to C. L. Moore, 12 Feb [1936]Jan. & Feb. W T issues very poor—saved only by Moore stories.
—H. P. Lovecraft to Emil Petaja, 1 Apr 1936, LEP 472Have skimmed recent W T issues—though I suppose another is out today. Jan. & Feb. poor—each redeemed only by a Moore story.
—H. P. Lovecraft to Duane W. Rimel, 1 Apr 1936, LFB 316
Moore herself doesn’t comment on how she felt about this story; but there is a notable gap between “The Dark Land” and the next two (and final) Jirel of Joiry stories, “Quest of the Starstone” (WT Nov 1937) and “Hellsgarde” (WT Apr 1939) and when she returns to the character it is with a very different plot.
“The Dark Land” was published in the January 1936 issue of Weird Tales. Scans of this issue are available on the Internet Archive.
Thanks to Marcos Legaria for his help.
Bobby Derie is the author of Weird Talers: Essays on Robert E. Howard and Others and Sex and the Cthulhu Mythos.
Deep Cuts in a Lovecraftian Vein uses Amazon Associate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Deep Cuts in a Lovecraftian Vein 