Customer Reviews

Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle

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I first encountered this book via a very loose adaptation as an episode of the Saturday morning cartoon _Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle_, namely, "Tarzan and the Knights of Nimmr", which took the idea of a lost civilization founded by Crusaders, then oversimplified it while coupling it with a different plot (that is, changing the specific characters involved and the manner in which an outsider discovers the lost valley).

Burroughs often played with the idea of civilizations in which two cities, locked into patterns of eternal warfare, remained cut off from the rest of the world, but they're all different. The two cities occupying the isolated African valley where this story takes place were settled centuries ago by a few shiploads of lost crusaders, who had picked up some women on their travels, soldiers being soldiers even on crusade. The Crusaders split into rival factions when they discovered the valley, one faction (insisting that they had achieved the Holy Grail and thus the Crusade) founding the City of the Sepulcher, the other (denying it) founding the city of Nimmr, guarding the valley's only exit and preventing the rival faction from going home.

While officially the issues haven't changed, in fact the two cities continue to fight because that's what they've always done. (That seems realistic enough, considering Ireland, the Middle East...) The valley is the only home they've ever known, and if either ever really 'won' the war, they know that proceeding to either the Holy Land or to England would be fraught with problems. They've made accommodations with each other for survival, some of which are very far-sighted. For example, periodically a truce is declared and a great tournament held between the two cities, in which the grand prize provided by the losing city to the winner includes 5 highborn maidens. The winning city's ruler arranges honourable marriages for them - thus ensuring that the valley's population doesn't become dangerously inbred.

The specific details of how an outsider stumbles across the lost valley are somewhat less happily handled, although once he's in, the story smoothes out. James Blake is an American explorer with a bad guy for a partner, and their 'native' support team is handled in a stereotypical manner - although the bad guy is the racist, so one might be able to cut Burroughs some slack for the sake of the Nimmr/City of the Sepulcher bulk of the story. (On the plus side, the local villagers are nobody's fools.) Tarzan becomes aware of the party passing through his territory, and when Blake is separated from his crew, Tarzan takes a hand. Tarzan's really a supporting character for most of the story - Blake is the protagonist.

Tarzan has a run in with beduin raiders early on in the story.They fail in their attempt to murder him.They will rue the decision.The beduins are on a raid to loot the treasures of Nimmr a midevil castle in a remote valley in Africa inhabited by The Knights of Nimmr and Seplucher.We learn Prince Gobred of Nimmr is a good chap.Young King Bohun of the Seplucher is a man whom appears to have little honor much to the consternation of several of his own valiant Knights.
A safari has also entered Tarzans domain without his permission and he has a run in with them as well.Wilbur Stimbol is a rich blowhard in the Trump mold. James Blake is a twenty something playboy twenty years younger than Stimbol.The two have a falling out over Stimbols brutal treatment of the native porters.Tarzan orders Stimbol out of his country making an enemy of the old rascal.Stimbol later is taken in by the beduins and is involved in a plot to slay Tarzan.
While on safari tragedy befalls Blake and he is captured by the beave men of Nimmr.He is soon taken in to their society of Brave Knights and is accepted by all but one jealous would be suitor of Gobreds lovely daughter Princess Guinalda.Blake is the perfect depiction of a midevil Sir Knight with the exception of the .45 Colt automatic he wears about his waist.
At the great Tourney where Nimmr and Seplucher Knights compete for prizes of horses,weapons,armor and lovely maidens something goes wrong.The treachorous Bohun steals Guinalda and ride off toward his castle.At the same time the beduins strike.Also at this time Tarzan enters the valley in search of Blake.Tarzans rank of Lord endears him to these men.Soon Tarzans courage and great strength make him a legend amongst these warriors.
The novel follows the pattern set by ERB but I think it will be enjoyed by the fans of Tarzan and midevil enthusiasts.Know this is not the cave man Tarzan of the horrible movies and even more worse Disney cartoon.Tarzan of the novels is an articulate and chivalrous man of mythic proportions.Also keep in mind the story was written over seventy five years ago so it is not PC.
LFS

In this Tarzan novel by Burroughs the protagonist of the story is an American named James Blake. Blake while on expedition in the Congo becomes lost all the while Arab slave traders are also invading what Tarzan perceives as his jungle. Tarzan orders both the American hunter, Blake, and the Arab slave trader to leave his jungle. But as the story progresses they are all trapped in an environment of ancient medieval cities locked in time and still fighting and living as they did seven hundred and fifty years earlier.

These two cities founded by Crusaders are were Tarzan comes to the rescue by becoming involved in the Joust and earning the respect of the Knights. Of the twenty four Tarzan novels by Burroughs I have read this move from the jungle does not work as well as the first time Tarzan encountered a loss civilization and being out of his element this time does not enhance the Tarzan story line. But in the end we have the Tarzan of the jungle that we know with his Golden Lion and a quick summation tying up of the adventures.

Tarzan goes Ivanoe! Two guys on a hunting/photography expedition, and get separated. A lost medieval colony and some Arab slave trades also feature. Tarzan runs around keeping an eye on people after being captured at the start and being rescued by an elephant and a gorilla.

This sums it up:-

"And so it was that Tarzan of the Apes, clad in chain mail, and armed with lance and sword, rode down into the Valley of the Sepulcher just as Bohun put his foul scheme into execution and carried off the Princess Cuinalda."

Tarzan orders Arab slave traders to leave his jungle and follows them to make sure they obey. They all end up in the lost Valley of the Sepulcher, where there is a community of Knights Templar who have been isolated for over seven centuries. The slavers want to loot the place, the Knights want to resume their Holy Crusade to free Jerusalem, and Tarzan wants to rescue the lost James Blake. Despite the title, this 11th Tarzan novel spends more time in the Lost Valley than it does in the Jungle, which is its major problem. Having success with the fabled Lost City of Opar and its beautiful high priestess La, Edgar Rice Burroughs did several Tarzan novels where the Lord of the Jungle discovers other lost cities. This time around it is Crusaders, in two more novels it is Romans, so on and so forth. When Tarzan starts jousting with knights, you know that this is a below average novel in the series.