Date: June 1, 1895, through June 7, 1895
Event: The Oparians capture and lead Jane to Opar.
Source: "For many days they traveled through the dense forest." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan. "In a day and a night he covered the same distance that the fifty frightful men had taken the better part of a week to traverse." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan
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| Joe Kubert |
Date: morning June 1, 1895
Event: Monsuire Thuran's (Nickolas Rokoff) fever becomes worse. William Cecil Clayton goes hunting. Jane is captured by the men of Opar.
Source: "The next day Thuran was worse." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan. "The Englishman had extracted the heavy spear from the body of the lion, so that when he went into the forest to hunt that morning he had a feeling of much greater security than at any time since they had been cast upon the savage shore." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.
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| Frank Frazetta |
Event: The tribe of Kerchak comes to the amphitheater and discovers Tarzan.
Source: "On the afternoon of the third day he returned early." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.
Chat: Again, Edgar Rice Burroughs, the author, informs us Tarzan has been gone from the jungle for two years. "There were no greetings such as would have taken place among men after a separation of two years." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.
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| The Return Of Tarzan |
Date: June 1, 1895
Event: William Cecil Clayton returns from hunting and finds Jane gone. The Englishman searched for the missing girl until dark.
Source: "until dark the Englishman searched the nearby jungle for a trace of the missing one for a sign of the trail of her abductor." ERB: The Return Of Tarzan.
Source: "until dark the Englishman searched the nearby jungle for a trace of the missing one for a sign of the trail of her abductor." ERB: The Return Of Tarzan.
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| Joe Kubert |
Date: June 1, 1895
Event: William Cecil Clayton is treed by a lion and forced to spend the night alone in the jungle.
Source: This put an end to his search for the balance of the afternoon, as the lion paced back and forth beneath him until dark. ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.
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| Joe Kubert |
Event: William Cecil Clayton returns to camp.
Source: "The next morning he returned to the beach, relinquishing the last hope of succoring Jane Porter." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.
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| Russ Manning |
Date: June 2, 1895, through June 9, 1895
Event: William Cecil Clayton hunted and tended Monsieur Thran (Nickolas Rockoff)
Source: "During the week that followed, Monsieur Thuran rapidly regained his strength, lying in the shelter while Clayton hunted food for both." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.
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| Russ Manning |
Event: The Oparians and Jane arrive at Opar.
Source: "Late afternoon she saw the ruined walls of a mighty city looming before them." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.
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| Joe Jusko |
Date: June 7, 1895, through June 14, 1895
Event: Jane is held captive in Opar.
Source: "For a week she saw only some of the women whose duty it was to bring her food and water." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.
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| Christopher Schenck |
Event: William Cecil Clayton was tossed with delirium but Monsieur Thuran (Nickolas Rokoff) would not care for him.
Source: "For days he lay tossing in delirium and suffering, but not once did the Russian come near him." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.
Chat: "For days," is not enough information to provide an exact date for this event. Therefore, any non-Edgar Rice Burroughs provided date is merely speculation. My theory is since Rokoff's fever lasted a week that is approximately how long Clayton's would last. Since the description says "For days" that means less than a week. I used five days in the belief the described events are occurring rapidly back-to-back.
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| Thomas Yeates |
Date: June 15, 1895
Event: A returning Mangani tells Tarzan about Jane's capture.
Source: "Half a moon since." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.
Chat: The moon's cycle is twenty-nine and one-half days. Approximately two weeks.
Event: A returning Mangani tells Tarzan about Jane's capture.
Source: "Half a moon since." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.
Chat: The moon's cycle is twenty-nine and one-half days. Approximately two weeks.
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| John Buscima |
Event: Monsieur Thuran (Nickolas Rockoff) abandons William Cecil Clayton. The Russian finds the Greystoke cabin.
Source: "That same day he came to a little cabin by the beach." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.
Chat: "That same day," is not enough information to provide an exact date for this event. Therefore, any non-Edgar Rice Burroughs provided date is merely speculation. My theory is that these undatable events are happening in back-to-back time sequences with little time passage occurring between each.
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| Joe Kubert |
Event: Day and night Tarzan raced to Opar
Source: "Day and night Tarzan of the Apes raced through the primeval forest toward the ruined city in which he was positive the woman he loved lay either a prisoner or dead." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.
Chat: Edgar Rice Burroughs does not offer an exact date for this event. Anyone that knows Tarzan, however, knows he would have left immediately in search of Jane no matter what time of the day or night it was. In fact, the ape-man "traveling day and night" show his urgency.
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| N.C. Wyeth |
Date: nearly noon June 16, 1895
Source: "In a day and a night he covered the same distance that the fifty frightful men had taken the better part of a week to traverse, for Tarzan of the Apes traveled along the middle terrace high above the tangled obstacles that impede progress upon the ground." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan. "It was nearly noon when he reached the great boulder at the top of which terminated the secret passage to the pits beneath the city." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.
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| The Return Of Tarzan |
Event: Monsieur Thuran (Nickolas Rokoff) remains at the Greystoke cabin for a few days.
Source: But he did not know, and so he remained a few days to enjoy the security and comparative comforts of the cabin." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.
Chat: These dates are not provided by Edgar Rice Burroughs, the author. Many dates actually work and all are acceptable as long as they do not disagree with Burroughs' description. As (working dates only} I used three days for Rokoff's stay at the Greystoke cabin.
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| The Return Of Tarzan |
Event: Tarzan rescues Jane and she regains consciousness.
Source: "Late in the afternoon Jane Porter regained consciousness." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan. "It cannot be that such happiness can be true after all the hideous things that I have passed through these awful months since the Lady Alice went down." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.
Chat: Here Jane tells us months (which is two or more) have passed since the Lady Alice sunk. This 1872 timeline shows a passage of four months since that event, so it agrees with Jane's provided information.
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| Thomas Yeates |
Date: the night of June 16, 1895
Event: Tarzan and Jane sleep in the jungle.
Source: "That night Tarzan built a snug little bower high among the swaying branches of a giant tree, and there the tired girl slept, while in a crotch beneath her the ape-man curled, ready, even in sleep, to protect her." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.
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| Zedenek Burian |
Date: June 17, 1895
Source: "It took them many days to make the long journey to the coast." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.
Chat: Other passages indicate a better part of a week. We know Tarzan and Jane did not linger on their journey. "Had it not been for their anxiety to reach and secure Clayton they would have drawn out the sweet pleasure of that wonderful journey indefinitely." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.
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| Thomas Yeates |
Event: Monsieur Thuran (Nickolas Rokoff) leaves the Greystoke cabin and travels north. Lord Tennington realizes he loves Hazel Strong. Monsieur Thuran (Nickolas Rockoff) finds the Porter party.
Source: "Then he took his northward journey once more." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan. "and to think all this time we have been separated by but a few miles - scarcely a day's march." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.
Chat: Although this passage again gives nothing for establishing an exact date, Edgar Rice Burroughs, the author, finally offers a dating clue. "He started lamely a couple of times, cleared his throat, became red in the face, and finally ended by remarking that he hoped the cabins would be finished before the rainy season commenced." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.
This passage clearly informs us that the rainy season has not yet set in, but is quickly approaching. The rainy season in Portuguese Angola is September through April. From this info, we can conclude the described undatable events occurred sometime between June 12, 1895, through early August 1895. |
| Frank Frazetta |
Event: Tarzan and Jane run into the Waziri.
Source: "On the last day before they reached the coast Tarzan caught the scent of men ahead of them - the scent of black men." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan. "For weeks they had been searching for him, they told him." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.
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| Thomas Yeates |
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
James Michael Moody is a lifelong fan and collector of Edger Rice Burroughs. Over the past forty-five years, Moody has contributed over two hundred articles to various ERB-related fanzines. He also manages an unauthorized Tarzan blog titled Greystoke Chronologist: James Michael Moody. There, the researcher chronologies the Tarzan books starting in May 1872 (known as the pushback theory) instead of the more accepted date, May 1888.
James Michael Moody also authorizes the action-packed Sci-Fi fantasy adventure Unium series. Pioneers On Unium, published December 31, 2019, Exiled On Unium, published August 25, 2022, and Swordsman On Unium, published on July 15, 2024.
