Tantor is a generic name for elephants in Mangani, the fictional language of the great apes in the Tarzan novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs. In Burroughs's works a number of elephants appear under the name of Tantor, most notably one particular bull elephant the ape man befriends in his youth in the first Tarzan novel, Tarzan of the Apes.
The Tantor who becomes Tarzan's companion is referred to only in passing in Tarzan and the Apes and its sequel, The Return of Tarzan. Elephants are entirely absent from the third book, The Beasts of Tarzan, but Tantor is featured more prominently in subsequent books. In Tarzan of the Apes, the early relationship between the man and elephant is sketched in just three brief passages: Detailed information regarding Tarzan's early interaction with Tantor appears only in Jungle Tales of Tarzan, the sixth book of the Tarzan series, which relates episodes from the ape man's youth omitted from Tarzan of the Apes. Tantor's next chronological appearance is in the fourth novel, The Son of Tarzan, written and published prior to Jungle Tales. In this book he is befriended by Tarzan's son Korak and becomes a key figure in the plot. At the climax of the novel in chapter 27 he is stopped in the midst of a rampage by a word of command from Tarzan himself. This scene, in which Tantor recognizes his former companion after the latter had been absent many years, confirms that this elephant is the same as the one originally befriended by Tarzan.
Tantor in other media
In the Walt Disney produced animated movieTarzan, Tantor is the personal name of this original elephant companion of Tarzan's rather than a term designating all elephants. In this version, Tantor is a sweet-natured yet highly phobic elephant afraid of many things, such as germs and frightening sounds. His and other elephants' skin color is brown or reddish, instead of gray. Tantor is voiced by Wayne Knight in the first film and by Jim Cummings in subsequent appearances. In books two and three of the Alistair Reynolds series Poseidon's Children, Tantors are the name adopted by a number of cognitively enhanced elephants who are imbued with rudimentary speech and inner monologue, the use of tools, a sense of identity and so on via neural implants, and which travel to the planets Crucible and Orison aboard holoships, supported by members of the Akinya spacefaring family.
