Jirel of Joiry

Jirel of Joiry, C.L. Moore, Ace Books, 1977

This series of fantasy stories, first published in the 1930s, is about the head warrior (for want of a better term) at Castle Joiry, a person who is very fearless and handy with a sword, and has led troops into battle many times. Oh, and Jirel is also a woman.

In one story, Castle Joiry has fallen, and Jirel is captured. She swears eternal hostility against Guillaume, the leader of the enemy troops, in terms that would surprise even a hardened warrior. She escapes from captivity, and through a secret passge beneath the deepest dungeons of Castle Joiry, descends into Hell itself to search for the Ultimate Weapon to use against Guillaume. In another story, Guillaume's soul cries out to Jirel  for mercy, because of the way he was killed, so Jirel returns to Hell to release him.

A further story is about a solo journey by Jirel to a land that is found only at sunset, a place that is violently haunted at night, a place of marshes and quicksand, to search through the ruins of a castle for a thing for which men have searched for hundreds of years that will buy the lives of twenty of her men in captivity, a place with the fitting name of Hellsgarde.

These stories are masterful. No matter when they were first published, swashbuckling fantasy stories with plenty of sorcery do not get much better than this.