The World of the Eternal Savage

INTRODUCTION

For the book the Eternal Lover/Savage, ERB created a primeval land filled with dangerous creatures and savage stone-age human cultures. It appears that this world had little relationship with the real world of 100,000 years ago, and because this is merely a piece of fantasy entertainment, that can be forgiven. If the seas were filled with huge marine reptiles and the skies swarming with pterodactyls, and while at the same time men of the Stone Age battled saber-tooth tigers and cave bears, then so much the better for the reader to enjoy a good rousing story.

What the Eternal Savage is about is love and heroics. These were common themes in ERB's writings. What makes this story a little different is that the love of its protagonists was so great that it spanned the ages. At first glance the spirit of Nat-ul, the tragic heroine of the story, seems to be reincarnated in the modern day woman, Victoria Custer. However, the end of the story relates the whole incident of Nu's adventures in the modern world as no more than a three minute dream on the part of Victoria, a girl who cannot find a true love of her own and is certainly frustrated by her lack of love from a man of her choice. The fact that Victoria seeks the perfect mate relates to the perfect love of Nu and Nat-ul. As is the case of many of ERB's lovers, these two people of the Stone Age are meant to be with each other and no other.

Did Nu really visit the twentieth century? Or was his visit simply a sharing of experience and dream with that frustrated modern girl? Was it merely a blending of minds that crossed the fleeting distance of time? A form of telepathy that was more than communication; it was a sharing of experience through a dream medium that bordered on reality. Make your own choice.

What is real about the story is the love shared by Nu and Nat-ul. A tragic love because it is never fulfilled. The couple never culminated its love by joining themselves in a true mating. Still if love is a chain of deeds, and not just a frivolous emotion, then these two people did love each other deeply.

Among the men of Nu's tribe, the Cliff Dwellers, it was common practice for the men to adorn themselves in trophies taken from their most dangerous kills. They also clothed their mates with similar trophies. Women were treasured and treated well among the Cliff Dwellers, a treatment that was not duplicated in any other society of Nu's world, either human or otherwise. Nu's inability to adorn his woman with the greatest trophy he could take from his savage environment was the crowning symbol of the forces that kept this great love apart. It is worth noting that Nu did obtain the trophy, he just couldn't give it to Nat-ul. He was worthy of her love, but outside forces, forces beyond his control, prevented him over and over from fulfilling the requirements that would complete that love.

Did ERB feel this way about some love in his life? I don't know. Perhaps we all feel this way. How envious some of us might be of those special few who can deliver the fangs of Oo to their star crossed lovers. Isn't this the dream of all men and woman. I can only imagine how proud Nat-ul would have been to cavort around with those eighteen inch fangs around her neck. True, she loved Nu without them. Yet with them their love was complete because if fulfilled all the requirements of their personal desires and cultural statutes.

The Cliff Dwellers

Physical characteristics: They were all splendid specimens of humanity, all handsome and strong, with dark eyes and hair. They possessed of unusually keen senses. Nu's sense of smell was only slightly less keen than that of a hound. He could follow a spoor by smell alone. Presumably the rest of his people could do this as well.

There was mention of Nu's fighting fangs. Perhaps the canines of the Cliff Dwellers were a little more pronounced than those of modern man. He uses them very effectively in combat. Nu's people combined the best of beast and man like another of ERB's creations, Tarzan of the Apes(tm*). Here was a tribe of Tarzans(tm*).

The Cliff Dwellers were the finest examples of primeval man and exhibited the invaluable quality of self-reliance. ERB mentioned that heredity, environment and all of Nature's mightiest laws combined to make the Cliff Dwellers strong, handsome and viable.

They were referred to as troglodytes, cavemen. No religion: only a vague fear of natural occurrences like storms etc. Tribe is not far removed from the alaus who were speechless and preceded those who spoke with signs.

Cliff Dweller Characters:

Nu, son of Nu: Son of Nu, a chief of chiefs. Young hunter. Black hair, black eyes, bronze skin but considered a 'white' man by modern man. Or white "nigger'. Hair roughly cropped between sharpened stones. His weapons were the spear, hatchet and knife. All made of stone. He wore the skins of dangerous beasts and a feather in his hair.

Una: sister of Nu

Nu, the Mighty: father of Nu, and leader of the Cliff Dwellers. A wise, powerful warrior and hunter.

Nat-ul: love of Nu, daughter of Tha. Two things terrorized Nat-ul: mice and earthquakes. She was very beautiful and extraordinarily resourceful and brave.

Lu-tan: mother of Nat-ul. An older version of the beautiful Nat-ul.

Aht: Nat-ul's brother

Tha: Nat-ul's father, second in importance to Nu, chief of chiefs.

Kor: the best spearmaker in the tribe

Ra-el, daughter of Kor, interested in Nu as a mate. Liar. Reported that Nat-ul went with Hud willingly when she did not, knowing that if she had gone willingly Nu would have no legal right to pursue her.

Hud: desires Nat-ul, young warrior, kidnapped Nat-ul and was later killed by her on the Barren Cliffs.

Dag: valiant warrior who drew a line on the ground and stated he would not journey further along the tribe's migration away from the Cliffs until they had investigated the fate of Nu, son of Nu. He also saved Nat-ul from Zor the lion in the company of Nu the Mighty, father of Nu.

Technology of Nu's people: Fire and stone. They use a firestick to make fire. They gathered water in skin bladders. With no knowledge of pottery, the Cliff Dwellers boiled water for cooking by chipping out a bowl in the rock floor of their caves and dropping hot pebbles into the water poured there.

They built no houses. Lived in caves or in the trees during an emergency.

Men wear the trophies of their deeds. Fangs, hides of kills etc. Men and women often wear feathers in their hair. Usually just one large feather.

If a man takes a woman by force he can be killed by her love, father or brother. There is a strong believe that the children of women who are mated through love produce better offspring.

Women are rarely beaten among Nu's people. They are valued and protected.

Nu's people did bathe, although cautiously because of predators.

Merciless with captives, but do not torture. Made a quick kill.

Excellent climbers. Semiarboreal.

Description: These people were more technologically advanced than the feral Cliff Dwellers. They had houses of skin an pole, canoes, pottery and other inventions associated with advanced Stone Age people.

Physically they were very similar to modern man. They were not as robust as the Cliff Dwellers and not nearly as feral. Already they have evolved past the powers of the beast and have begun to depend on technology.

Technology of the Boat Builders

Housing: Hide stretched across sapling poles.

Weapons: Stone. Used harpoons for fishing and warfare.

Transportation: Canoes. Made from tree trunks which they hollowed out and burned for hardness. Usually about 15-20 feet long.

Clothing: They wore the skins of beasts that feed on grasses. Their head dresses made of the skull and horns of bison bulls and antelopes

Place of origin: Far to the south. A long march away. Dwelt far to the south at the mouth of a great river that emptied into the Restless Sea. In a great river valley beside the sea where cliffs and caves were an exception. Probably came north in search of new fisheries.

Pottery, bullock sinew to sew with

Misc: They used a wide circle of fires to protect their camp at night from jungle creatures. These fires were tended by young women, and might be the forerunner of vestal virgins tending sacred fires in later times.

Boat Builder Personalities:

Tur: the man who desired Nat-ul. Pursued her as relentlessly as Nu across the Restless Sea and back. Finally killed by his rejected mate, Gron.

Gron: Mate of Tur, mother of his infant son. Hated the mistreatment suffered at the hands of Tur and the men of the Boat Builders, who regarded women as much lower than men. Hated Nat-ul because she was beautiful and desired by Tur. Gron herself was described as young and good-looking. Not nearly as beautiful as Nat-ul, however. She killed Tur, saving Nu, and then killed her self, ending her tortured life. Also, she deserted and killed her own infant son out of jealousy and hate. Loved Nu at end because of his beauty and fine attributes, and because he cared for her just because she was a woman.

Scrab: chief of the Boat Builders. Rude, bully.

Customs:

They killed captives by torture usually by burning. Their society was male orientated. They were harsh, cruel, and laughed at the discomfort of others. Women used by men.

THE LAKE DWELLERS Description: These were men that lived on the largest island in the group of islands SE of the Barren Cliffs. These islands were called the Mysterious Country by Nu's people. Their island was located several miles NE of the one closest to the shore of the Barren cliffs. It must be a very large island complete with mountains, deep valleys and plateaus.

. The Lake Dwellers were herdsman of aurochs. They live on a "floating lake" which is built on poles. This is for protection of themselves and their herds from the many dangerous beasts that live in the jungle. Their auroch herd is herded across a bridge into pens where they are housed for the night.

They also use fire to prevent animals from walking into their village. A fire is located on the shore end of the causeway that leads to the village on the lake. A guard is posted here for the entire night.

Not all of the Lake Dwellers are dark haired. One woman was referred to as having very long red-brown hair.

The Lake Dwellers were also a cruel people, though not as bad as the Boat Builders. They were indisquinqhiable to modern man. Closest thing to 'city folk' in the world of Nu. There were examples of laziness, lack of discipline and stupidity among them. One of their night guards made love to a woman while on duty. Nu killed this man for his weapons.

Lake People Personalities:

Throk: a nightguard of the causeway whom Nu killed in his search for Nat-ul a captive of the Lake Dwellers. Nu slew him by a thrown ax. A very dull witted fellow.

In addition to the large island of the Lake Dwellers, there are many other islands. These islands can be seen from the shore where Nu's people live. They regard it as a distant, unexplored country. On one of these islands lives a race of man-apes called the Hairy People. Pterodactyls live on the cliffs rising above the island.

Hairy People:

Description: They had close set wicked eyes, drooling jaws, pendulous lower lip, reddish hair/fur, wolf fangs all on a giant manlike form. They walked on two feet but were fully arboreal. They had one less rib than true apes. Often referred to as tree-men. They were very quarrelsome among themselves, primitive and brutal with little social structure beyond that of instincts

Animals:

One important point can be made about the wilderness of Nu's world. It was filled with large dangerous animals. These creatures seemed to delight in combat. While this might seem unnatural in the modern world, animals usually avoid useless combat unless they are at a big advantage, it was the setting for high adventure in Nu's world.

All the animals were vigorous and larger than normal. There were herds of aurochs, bison, greater and lesser anthropoid apes, deer, sheep, antelope, hyena, and a thousand other species. There were reptiles both flying and swimming, and perhaps a few land monsters as well. All larger than normal and much more dangerous than their descendants found in modern times.

Beasts by Name:

Oo: sabertooth tiger. This immense beast was also called the Hunter of Men. Its 18 inch fangs were the highest trophy a Cliff Dweller could obtain. It was as big as a bull, extremely massive with lots of muscle. There were black stripes on yellow hide, and its breast and belly were pure white. It is worthwhile to note that 18 inch fangs are longer than any saber-tooth tiger ever had in reality.

Ta: woolly rhinoceros. Big enough to knock down a large tree (more than 50' tall). Again, the largest variety of woolly rhinoceros.

Zor: a lion. Much larger than African lion.

Ur: cave bear

Gluh: mammoth

Pah: the word for man, certainly the most dangerous of all beasts.

Bos: ? perhaps a word for bison.

Nu's tribe lived on the southern cliffs which face the sea. In addition to the sea there is a jungle of fernlike trees of huge stature that stretches in a strip along the coast. It is filled with many dangerous creatures.

. Barren Cliffs: Cliffs that range north of where Nu's people live. Further north, beyond these cliffs, lies a great plain, dotted with occasional trees. A strip of jungle lines a river that runs down to the sea.

Cliffs of Oo: Lava cliffs distant from the Cliffs of Nu's people. Apparently not by the sea, since Nu had to travel deep into the jungle to reach them. It is in the den of Oo located in these cliffs that Nu is trapped and transported in a dreamstate to the present and back again, or whatever happened to him

All this takes place beneath an equatorial moon, by the Restless Sea. A sullen, dull red sun of enormous size hidden by a thick, sticky and hot atmosphere warms this primeval world of tooth and claw.