Illustration from the first edition.
King Solomon's Mines is an adventure novel by H. Rider Haggard, first published in 1885.
Allan Quatermain is a hunter and wilderness guide in Africa. He is contracted by Sir Henry Curtis to find Curtis's brother George, who disappeared somewhere in Darkest Africa in search of the legendary diamond mines of The Bible's King Solomon. Quatermain has no interest in diamond mines and isn't particularly interested in a wild goose chase either, but Sir Henry's promise of a very hefty reward that Quatermain can send to his son back in England gets Quatermain to agree. Also agreeing to go on the journey is Captain John Good, a former naval officer, and a native named Umbopa, who has a strangely proud, regal bearing, and an agenda of his own.
It was enormously successful, launching the Jungle Opera genre, and was followed by over a dozen sequels and prequels featuring the protagonist Allan Quatermain, including a crossover with Haggard's other most famous novel, She. It has been adapted many times.
King Solomon's Mines provides examples of:
- Battle Cry The Kukuana battlecry is the name of their leader and the word "Kili!", meaning "Smite!".
- Boring Return Journey: Lampshaded by Quatermain, who says that the journey back was just as hard as the outbound journey, but that telling it would be boring.
- Bulungi: "Kukuanaland", the imaginary valley where they journey to find the mines.
- Convenient Eclipse: Quatermain and his party persuade the Kukuanas to support Ignosi over evil King Twala by deploying an almanac that Cpt. Good just happens to be carrying, detailing a lunar eclipse that will occur the following night. The credulous natives, believing that the Europeans put out the moon, agree to support them. (In the original edition, Haggard described a convenient solar eclipse that somehow was visible all over Africa and Europe. Finding out that solar eclipses are total only over a very narrow range, Haggard had later editions changed to a lunar eclipse.)
- Gagool, being old enough to have seen lunar eclipses before, sees the ploy for what it is immediately and attempts to calm the frightened Kukuana. However, she is less scary than the eclipse and fails.
- Cluster F-Bomb: When askes to do his part in ”cursing” the moon, Good does so. For ten minutes. In multiple languages. Without repeating himself. Hearing his tirade leaves Quatermain, who is noted to loathe harsh language, incapable of other feelings than awe.
- Cowardly Lion: Quatermain repeatedly states, in both dialogue to others and his own narration, that he considers himself to be a coward but he never once fails to step up and aid his friends and others in need when required.
- Crossing the Desert/Thirsty Desert: Quatermain's party must cross a wide desert to reach the mountains. They nearly die of thirst before one of their African servants finds a pool of water at the top of a hill.
- The Dandy: Quatermain describes Good's routine while they traipse through the jungle—washing his collar, washing and folding his pants, coat, and vest, shining his boots, carefully combing his hair, and shaving with a hunk of fat for shaving cream.
- Darkest Africa: The mountains are described as being in a remote place where, as the original 1590 letter by the Portuguese explorer explains, "no white foot ever pressed before or since".
- Deadpan Snarker: Quatermain, almost constantly, and frequently at his own expense.
- Doomed Predecessor: In the mountains, the protagonists find the frozen body of José da Silvestra, the 16th-century explorer who drew the map that led them to Kukuanaland.
- Elderly Immortal: Gagool the evil witch is apparently very, very old. She won't admit how old she is but she was apparently there when the Portuguese fellow entered the mine 300 years ago.
- Gentleman Adventurer: Sir Henry Curtis and Captain John Good, two refined Englishmen who ask the much more experienced Quatermain to lead them into the wilderness in an effort to find Curtis's brother, who disappeared while looking for the mines.
- Great White Hunter: Allan Quatermain. He is irritated that after killing 65 lions, the 66th chewed on him and gave him a bad leg.
- Having a Gay Old Time: Haggard uses "ejaculate" in its old meaning of "exclaim" or "shout out".
- High-Class Glass: Captain John Good, who takes care to keep his eye-glass and the rest of his kit in perfect order, even in the jungle. His glass stays in place even while rolling down a hill after he escapes from the mine.
- Hollywood Natives: Downplayed to the point of being an Unbuilt Trope. The Kukuanas are savage natives of unexplored Africa who attack all trespassers. They're easily convinced into accepting Quatermain's party as great white "visitors from the stars" by their false teeth, glass eyes, and pale uncovered legs. Also, Ignosi is one, though he makes no attempt to correct this misconception until he speaks one-on-one with Infadus and is not quick to inform anyone else. However, while they are xenophobic and somewhat superstitious they also are a well-rounded culture that does things other than trying to kill outsiders. Quatermain finds a lot about Kukuana to admire. He compliments the skill of the Kukuana dancers, the beauty of their metalwork, their leaders' skill at oratory, and the skill and discipline of their soldiers. While he finds their poetry to be needlessly repetitive, he does not find it otherwise lacking.
- Jungle Opera: Trope Maker, Ur-Example and source of many an Unbuilt Trope. Also not a literal example as the bulk of the novel doesn't take place in a jungle.
- Lineage Ladder: Witch Doctor Gagool insists at various times that she knew "your father, and your father's father's father." The oldest member of the tribe remembers her as an old woman when he was a child. If she is the same Gagool who Da Silvestri warned about in his letter, as is hinted many times, then that would make her over four hundred years old, and if anything she could add a few more "fathers" to the pattern.
- Living Forever Is Awesome: Despite her wizened old crone status Gagool takes pleasure out of watching other people die while she doesn't.
- Living MacGuffin: Sir Henry forms his party to search for his brother George, who disappeared two years ago after going off in search of the mines. About halfway through the novel, after they reach Kukuanaland, Sir Henry is told that George never arrived. Henry then writes George off as dead and George is forgotten—until they randomly stumble on George at the end, marooned in the desert due to an injured leg but still alive (he and his companion were able to hunt and sustain themselves from their camp but George's injury left them unable to cross the desert on their own).
- Lost World: The novel's jungle civilization is one of the Ur Examples of the trope.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Gagool was apparently already ancient when the grandfather of the Kukuana king's eldest advisor was a boy, and it's hinted she's well over 400. That said, she dryly suggests the Gagool Da Silvestri met was her grandmother with the same name, which would explain it...except she does have intimate knowledge of what happened with Da Silvestri, including the exact location of the bag of diamonds he dropped centuries ago in a sealed room that hasn't been visited since. She also claims she will curse anyone who kills her to a swift end soon after, and fatally stabs poor Foulata after she indirectly kills Gagool by delaying her exit.
- Mighty Whitey: Sir Henry Curtis feels obligated to tell Ignosi not to conduct human sacrifices. He also manages to go toe-to-toe with several of Twala’s soldiers with Kukuana weapons in spite of never having trained with them.
- Mutual Kill: Relatively early in their trek the gang hears a lot of commotion and sees some animals spilling out of the brush. It's a lion and an antelope, and they mutually killed each other. The lion got speared by horns when it pounced on the antelope, but still had enough life left to rip the antelope's throat out.
- National Geographic Nudity: Quatermain somewhat obliquely describes this at the great festival, when the girls come out to dance."...company after company of Kukuana girls, not overdressed, so far as clothing went..."
- One Twin Must Die: This is the custom of Kukuanas. Twala was supposed to be killed at birth, but was saved by his mother to usurp the throne once he grew up. Umbopa, the heroes' companion, turns out to be the son of the murdered brother, come to reclaim his kingdom.
- Proud Warrior Race Guy: Ignosi. He is described as "dignified" and addresses the whites as an equal even before he reveals his identity.Ignosi: How dost thou know that I am not the equal of the Inkosi whom I serve?
- Reckless Gun Usage: Invoked. Quatermain stores his guns in the way most likely to cause a discharge, in order to discourage the person whom he leaves them with from stealing or otherwise tampering with them.
- Rightful King Returns: Umbopa the servant is actually Ignosi, the rightful king of the Kukuanas, come back to retake the throne from his evil uncle. (Evil King Twala killed Ignosi's father and put Ignosi and his mother to flight.)
- Sealed Room in the Middle of Nowhere: Gagool flips the lever on the stone door to the treasure room, leaving Quatermain and company buried alive deep within the mountain.
- Tested on Humans: The king of the Kukuana people asks Allan Quatermain to show the effects of his rifle upon his assembled warriors. Quatermain replies by telling the king he would be glad to do so if the king volunteers to be the subject of the experiment. At this point it is decided to use an ox instead.
- This Is My Boomstick: Quatermain pacifies a group of Kukuanas by taking his rifle, which they are completely unfamiliar with, and shooting an antelope at long range.
- Treasure Map: Quatermain has one to the mines, given to him by a dying Portuguese adventurer. He doesn't think much of it and never had any inclination to use it, but when Sir Henry needs to find his brother that went off after those same mines, they use Quatermain's map.
- We Are as Mayflies: Umbopa/Ignosi launches into a speech in which he gives this as the reason he is accompanying the whites on their dangerous trek."Like a storm-driven bird at night we fly out of the Nowhere; for a moment our wings are seen in the light of the fire, and lo! we are gone again into the Nowhere."
- Witch Hunt: King Twala gets his rocks off by executing people that Gagool picks out as witches. He doesn't seem to really think they're witches—it's all about killing people who he sees as threats or appropriating their property.
- Worthless Yellow Rocks: The gold and diamonds, when the men are trapped in the treasure room.Quatermain: There around us lay treasures enough to pay off a moderate national debt, or to build a fleet of ironclads, and yet we would have bartered them all gladly for the faintest chance of escape.
Haggard's sequels and prequels provide examples of:
- Blood Knight: Umslopogaas in Allan Quatermain. Henry is a bit like this in King Solomon's Mines as well but not to the extent of Umslopogaas.
- Character Title: Allan Quatermain
- Inevitable Crossover: She and Allan
- Interquel: Some of the later Quatermain novels.
- Lost World: Allan Quatermain found several; Haggard was one of the trope makers.
- Mental Time Travel: The Ancient Allan and Allan and the Ice Gods
- Noble Savage: Umslopogaas, son of Chaka, in Allan Quatermain.
- Proud Warrior Race Guy: Umsloppagaas in Allan Quatermain.
- Raised by Wolves: Hendrika the Baboon Woman from Allan's Wife is, as might be guessed from her name, a woman who was raised by baboons. She is a servant to Stella's family, but the feral is never far from the surface in her.
- Serenade Your Lover: Good 'makes the night hideous' with his interminable ballad to Queen Sorais of Zu-Vendi - who Quatermain sincerely pities.
- Wild Child: Hendrika the Baboon Woman from Allan's Wife