Tarzan the Terrible · Chapter
Tor-o-don explained
Tarzan battles a Tor-o-don and is saved by Pan-at-lee, who holds him from falling into a chasm.
What happens
Tarzan battles a Tor-o-don and is saved by Pan-at-lee, who holds him from falling into a chasm. Afterward, he hunts a deer but is confronted by a gryf, a massive dinosaur-like creature. Pan-at-lee warns that the gryf will relentlessly pursue them, and they are trapped in a tree with the beast waiting below.
Themes in this chapter
Survival and Adaptation
Tarzan and Pan-at-lee must use cunning and strength to survive attacks from the Tor-o-don and the gryf.
Civilization vs. Primitivism
Tarzan's primal instincts and physical prowess are contrasted with the primitive, beastlike Tor-o-don and the prehistoric gryf.
Characters to notice
- Tarzan
Fights and kills a Tor-o-don, hunts a deer, and is trapped by a gryf.
- Pan-at-lee
Saves Tarzan from falling after the Tor-o-don battle; later warns him about the gryf's persistence.
- Tor-o-don
A bull Tor-o-don that attacks Tarzan and is killed.
- Gryf
A massive horned dinosaur that traps Tarzan and Pan-at-lee in a tree.
- Bara
A deer killed by Tarzan for food.
Key passages
“the opportunity to escape which their preoccupation gave her. She watched and waited, for into her savage little brain had come the resolve to pin her faith to this strange creature who had unlocked her heart with those four words—'I am Om-at’s friend!'”
Pan-at-lee decides to trust Tarzan because he claimed to be Om-at's friend, and she waits for a chance to help him.
Pan-at-lee's loyalty is sparked by Tarzan's connection to Om-at.
“In the effort of turning his antagonist’s body during the fall Tarzan had had to relinquish his knife that he might seize the shaggy body with both hands and now the weapon lay out of reach at the very edge of the recess.”
Tarzan dropped his knife while trying to flip the Tor-o-don during their fall, leaving it just out of reach.
Tarzan loses his weapon in the struggle.
“Fortunate it was for Tarzan that Pan-at-lee had not obeyed his injunction to make good her escape while he engaged the Tor-o-don, for it was to this fact that he owed his life.”
Tarzan survived because Pan-at-lee ignored his order to flee and instead grabbed his ankle to keep him from falling.
Pan-at-lee's disobedience saves Tarzan.
“Weird and terrible as was its appearance Tarzan could not but admire the mighty creature looming big below him, its seventy-five feet of length majestically typifying those things which all his life the ape-man had admired—courage and strength.”
Despite its fearsome look, Tarzan respects the gryf for its embodiment of courage and strength.
Tarzan's admiration for the gryf's power.
“The girl shook her head. 'Never,' she said, 'and then there are the Tor-o-don. They will come and kill us and after eating a little will throw the balance to the gryf —the gryf and Tor-o-don are friends, because the Tor-o-don shares his food with the gryf.'”
Pan-at-lee explains that the Tor-o-don and gryf are allies, with the Tor-o-don feeding leftovers to the gryf.
The alliance between Tor-o-don and gryf adds to their danger.