As Robert R. Barrett points out in his excellent preface to “Minidoka” entitled “Introduction to a Historical Fairy Tale,” Burroughs even appears to adopt Lear’s method of combining syllables taken from normal words to create new, more humorous ones. And his own facility in concocting names that were rhythmic, colorful, and humorous, that made his later stories work so well is strikingly evident in this early experiment. Burroughs had a wonderfully keen ear and, even this early in his life, he displays a penchant for experimenting with phonetic jargon and odd syllables, combining them to create new, and strange words that sounded realistic within the context of the worlds he created.”

With this fact in mind, I take up my pen in an investigation of the names Burroughs employed in his novel “The Eternal Lover.” This is a very early novel, the two parts being written in 1913 and 1914. All of his clever forces of naming are here displayed in full array.

I do not intend this to be a scientific study of ERB’s word formations since this would be impossible without getting into the mind of the author himself, but rather, it is an entertainment that employs guesses about the reasoning behind some of the names found in this novel.

The title “Eternal Lover” itself has always reminded me of H. Rider Haggard’s ubiquitous theme of reincarnated lovers who are reunited after eons of time. Perhaps Burroughs had Haggard’s theme in mind when he wrote this book.

• Nu, the son of Nu = new the son of new = early man
• Oo = saber-tooth tiger - what you say when you see one, “Oo!”
• Nat-ul = natural woman, or natal mother
• Zor, the cave lion = roar - later reincarnated as a friend of David Innes, a Barsoomian city-state was named after this lion as well.
• Old Raffles, sheep stealing lion = Raffles the fictional thief
• Terkoz = wolf-hound = name of ape in TA (who stole Jane and was killed by Tarzan, so its funny to find him here transmogrified into his dog. Brady says he was named after Tarzan’s foster brother.)
• Tha = Nat-ul’s father, later “reincarnated” as a priest of Opar in the Return of Tarzan.
• Hud = the “dud” who wanted to mate with Nat-ul. Duh!
• Tur, the warrior of the Boat-Builders later became Tur the god of Phundahl (fundamental) on Barsoom.
• Scarb = wicked chief of the Boat Builder tribe, a scar and a scab combined
• Throk = sleepy guard killed by a hand-axe = ”Throk!”
• Ur, cave bear = ursa - bear in Latin
• Gluh, mammoth = glutton because it eats so much, or gluteus muscle because of its large buttocks
• Sheik Ibn Aswad = ”I been a swad”
• Beatrice, Nebraska = hometown of ERB’s best friend, Bert Weston
• Barney Custer = Bert Weston, and General Custer was the ultimate Westerner
• Victoria Custer = Queen Victoria, or “Vik” to her friends, actually named after her mother, Victoria Rubinroth, a princess of the royal house of Lutha
• Gron, mate of Tur, saved Nu, but committed suicide in the end. Too bad she didn’t have a lovely name like Nat-ul or Ra-el (Rachel) or Una (The One!). She was just a groan.