Character guide

Tarzan

major

Also known as Tarzan of the Apes, Lord Tarzan, the Lord Viscount Tarzan, Sir Tarzan

Tarzan rules his country less by force than by reputation: porters and askari obey him before they ever see him, and even seasoned adventurers concede they would leave if he asked. He is a guest of no one, yet he extends courtesies — allowing a young photographer to roam freely while expelling a blustering hunter who treats the jungle as a trophy case. His authority, and the vengeance he quietly promises, set the moral weather for everything that follows.

James Hunter Blake

major

Also known as Blake, Jim Blake, young Blake, James

Blake is the reasonable half of an expedition gone sour, the man who listens to the porters and takes Tarzan's warnings seriously while his older partner sneers. When the safari splits, every porter chooses Blake's side — a quiet verdict on his character. His openness to the strange and his willingness to ride toward danger make him the natural lens through which the lost world of Nimmr becomes real.

Sir James Blake

major

Also known as Sir James, James Blake, the last Blake

Sir James belongs to the armored world of Nimmr, where lances settle disputes and a knight's name carries the weight of generations. His connection to the younger Blake becomes one of the novel's quiet puzzles, a knot of identity that neither man can fully untie. Around him gather the loyalties and feuds that make the valley's two cities a stage for honor, betrayal, and mistaken kinship.

Fahd Ibn Jad

major

Also known as Fahd, Ibn Jad, Ibn Jad the sheik

Ibn Jad leads his people through hostile country with the polished manners of a desert noble and the conscience of a scavenger. When Tarzan becomes an obstacle to his plans, the sheik does not challenge him openly but whispers with his brother Tollog about a quiet killing and a fabricated escape. His scheming, and the fear it breeds in his own camp, make him the human menace that stalks the valley's edges.

Sir Malud

supporting

Also known as Malud, the great Sir Malud, Sir Malud of West Castle

Sir Malud belongs to the old code of Nimmr, where a knight's honor is measured in lances broken and challenges answered. He finds Tarzan's methods questionable yet cannot deny their magnificence, and that tension — between tradition and raw effectiveness — defines his role. As the wars between the two cities grind on, his judgments help anchor the valley's chivalric world in something like moral weight.

Nasrany Stimbol

supporting

Also known as Nasrany, Mr. Stimbol, Stimbol, the Nasrany

Stimbol treats the jungle as a private game reserve and its people as servants, and Tarzan's quiet dismantling of that assumption leaves him stripped of porters, dignity, and control. He marches out of the country swearing vengeance he knows is futile, resentment burning hotter than sense. His collision with the ape-man is the novel's clearest study of what happens when entitlement meets a law older than any nation.

Zeyd Ibn Jad

supporting

Also known as Zeyd, the youthful Zeyd, Jad

Zeyd moves through the Beduin menzil as the sheik's son, yet his heart belongs to Ateja, whom Ibn Jad means to give to the mistrusted Fahd. He whispers treason with her in the shadows, naming Tollog's treachery before the words are safe, and his temper flares faster than his judgment. His divided loyalties make him the camp's restless conscience, the youth whose private rebellion may crack the raiding party open from within.

Wilbur Stimbol

supporting

Also known as Stimbol, Wilbur Stimbol of Stimbol & Company

Stimbol arrives in Tarzan's country expecting his money and citizenship to bend the world to his convenience, hunting where he pleases and sneering at the ape-man's authority. When Tarzan strips him of his safari and sends him packing toward railhead, Stimbol's rage curdles into futile schemes for vengeance. His humiliation is the story's sharpest lesson in the limits of privilege, and his resentment keeps a dangerous edge on the expedition's tail.

Ateja Ibn Jad

supporting

Also known as Ateja, Ibn Jad Ateja

Ateja stands at the center of the menzil's quiet war, loved by Zeyd and promised by politics to Fahd, whose loyalty she doubts as fiercely as she doubts Tollog's. She reads the camp's treacheries with a coolness her elders lack, naming traitors her father refuses to see. Her refusal to be traded like plunder makes her the story's moral hinge among the Beduins, and her choices ripple through every scheme the raiders attempt.

Tollog

supporting

Tollog is the sheik's right arm and next of blood, entrusted with the quiet murder of the captive Nasrany and the careful lies that must follow it. He moves through the sleeping menzil with a discretion he boasts of, and his name surfaces whenever Ateja and Zeyd whisper of disloyalty. Whether his loyalty to Ibn Jad is real or merely patient, his presence makes every alliance in the camp provisional and every shadow worth watching.

Sir Richard

supporting

Also known as Richard, IX Sir Richard

Sir Richard rides among the armored warriors whose feuds and tourneys define the hidden valley, a man of honor measuring himself against a stranger who fights like no knight he has ever seen. He questions the ethics of Tarzan's methods even as he cannot deny their magnificence, and that tension between admiration and propriety colors his judgment of the ape-man. His presence anchors the Nimmr chapters in genuine chivalric feeling rather than mere spectacle.

Fejjuan

minor

A Beduin warrior loyal to Ibn Jad.

Prince Gobred

supporting

Also known as Gobred, Prince Gobred of Nimmr

Gobred rules the City of Nimmr and its feud with the Knights of the Sepulcher, a conflict of lances, banners, and fanatical courage that swallows Tarzan the moment he enters the valley. His world is one of ritualized violence and rigid honor, where a stranger's raw jungle tactics both scandalize and astonish. As the battle's fortunes turn, Gobred's city becomes the destination that pulls Blake, Tarzan, and the watching Beduins toward their separate reckonings.

King Bohun

minor

Also known as Bohun, the Great Tourney King Bohun

The king who presides over the great tourney in Nimmr.

Toyat

minor

A tribe of apes that Tarzan encounters.

Bolgani

minor

Also known as the shaggy Bolgani, Bolgani the gorilla

A powerful gorilla that Tarzan fights.

Tantor

minor

Also known as Tantor the Elephant

The wise old elephant, a friend to Tarzan.

Batando

minor

A native warrior or chief encountered in the jungle.

Sir Wildred

minor

Also known as Wildred

A knight of Nimmr who appears in the later chapters.

Edward

minor

Also known as Eddie

A minor character, possibly a servant or companion.

Sir Guy

minor

Also known as Guy, Sir Guy of the Sepulcher

A knight of the Sepulcher who joins the crusade in Nimmr.

Sheykh Ibn Jad

minor

Also known as the great Sheykh Ibn Jad

The patriarch of the Ibn Jad clan, a powerful Beduin leader.

Sir Bertram

minor

Also known as Bertram

A knight of Nimmr who appears in the tourney.

Princess Guinalda

supporting

Also known as Guinalda

Guinalda belongs to a crusader-descended city sealed in the Valley of the Sepulcher, where she is royalty and, to a wandering American, the whole point of coming back alive. Her heart is fixed on Blake, and she makes no secret of it — she tells Tarzan plainly that Nimmr's gates stand open and that she waits for his return. That waiting is her tension: a woman of rank whose desire can only be answered by a man riding through leopard-haunted country. She anchors the romance that pulls the valley's two worlds toward collision.

Michel

minor

A Frenchman or guide encountered in the story.

Manu

minor

Also known as Little Manu, Manu the Monkey

The monkey, a minor jungle creature.

Numa

minor

Also known as Ulala Numa, Ulala, Numa the lion

The lion, a recurring jungle predator and sometimes ally.

Sheeta

minor

The leopard, a dangerous predator of the jungle.

Paul Bodkin

minor

Also known as Paul, Bodkin

A character associated with the American expedition.

Histah

minor

The snake, a jungle creature that poses a threat.

Hirfa

minor

A Beduin woman or minor character in the camp.

Sir Bulland

minor

A knight of Nimmr mentioned in the tourney.

Motlog

minor

An ape or minor jungle character.

Go-yad

minor

A minor Beduin or native character.

Abd el-Aziz

minor

A Beduin or Arab character in the story.

M'walat

minor

A native character, possibly a guide or warrior.

Tabo

minor

A minor native character.

Sir Galahad

minor

A legendary knight referenced in the context of Nimmr.

Kerchak

minor

Also known as old Kerchak

The former king of the apes, mentioned in Tarzan's past.

Abbas

minor

A Beduin or Arab character.

Gayat

minor

A minor character, possibly a Beduin.

Hal Henry II

minor

Also known as Hal, Henry II

A historical figure referenced in the narrative.

Sir Bohun

minor

A knight, possibly distinct from King Bohun.

Zutho

minor

A minor character, likely a Beduin.

Kudu

minor

A minor jungle animal or character.

Peter Wiggs

minor

Also known as Peter

A minor character, possibly a sailor or servant.

Richard Montmorency

minor

A minor character, possibly a knight.

Dango

minor

Also known as Dango the hyena

The hyena, a scavenger of the jungle.

Kala

minor

Tarzan's ape mother, mentioned in memory.

Usha

minor

A minor character, possibly a native woman.

Pand

minor

A minor character, possibly a native.

Sir Jarred

minor

Also known as Jarred

A knight of Nimmr.