Characters section for by
Erik L¶nnrot
Erik L¶nnrot is a detective who is highly cerebral in his methods, modelling himself
on Edgar Allan Poes Chevalier C. Auguste Dupin.says that although L¶nnrot regards himself as a
creature of pure thought there was something of the adventurer in him, and even of the
gamester. L¶nnrot is convinced that Dr. Yarmolinskys death is best approached as an
intellectual puzzle rather than (as Commissioner Treviranus believes) an accident occasioned by
the failure of a jewel theft. He begins to attempt a solution by studying Yarmolinkys books in
depth, and devotes three months to sedentary investigation, during which time the elaborate
patterns which provide the clues to and links between the crimes gradually become clear to him.
Ultimately, however, L¶nnrots brilliance in discovering theoretical patterns leads him to act
without practical forethought and makes his own behavior easier to predict.
Dandy Red Scharlach
Dandy Red Scharlach
is initially described as the most illustrious gunman in the South. He criticizes Commissioner
Treviranuss handling of the murders, stating that such crimes would never occur in the district
under his control. He is theand nemesis of Erik L¶nnrot, whom he has hated since L¶nnrot
arrested his brother three years before the story takes place. In the fight that occurred on the
Rue de Toulon that night, Scharlach was severely wounded and lay, apparently dying, in the villa
of Triste-le-Roy for nine days afterwards. During this time, he developed a delirious fixation
with labyrinths and swore to weave a labyrinth around the man who had imprisoned my brother.
Despite plotting his revenge so long and so meticulously, Scharlach seems wearily indifferent to
his accomplishment of it. L¶nnrot hears in his voice a fatigued triumph, a hatred the size of
the universe, a sadness no smaller than that hatred. This does not prevent him from explaining
his plans and motivations in considerable detail and with obvious pride in his own intellectual
superiority.
Commissioner Franz
Treviranus
Commissioner Treviranus is a high-ranking
professional policeman who considers himself a practical man and has no use for L¶nnrots
abstruse and elaborate theories. He is particularly irritated by the apparently bookish and
cerebral nature of the two murders and the disappearance, remarking after Yarmolinskys murder
that he has no time to lose in Jewish superstitions.
The Editor
of the Yiddische Zeitung
The Editor of the Yiddische Zeitung
is described as a timid man and, despite his editorship of a Jewish paper, an atheist. He
interviews L¶nnrot and publishes an article stating in three columns, that the investigator
Erik L¶nnrot had dedicated himself to studying the names of God in order to "come up
with" the name of the assassin. He later publishes an editorial after the disappearance of
Gryphius-Ginzberg-Ginsburg, stating that he does not believe, as everyone else apparently does,
that an anti-Semitic plot is afoot.
Dr. Marcel
Yarmolinsky
Dr. Yarmolinsky is the delegate from Podolsk to
the Third Talmudic Congress. He is described as a stoical man with a gray beard and gray eyes.
He brings many books (including some of which he is the author) but few other possessions with
him to the Hotel du Nord. He is the first victim to be found murdered, wrapped in a cape with a
stab wound in his chest.
Daniel Simon
Azevedo
Daniel Simon Azevedo is the second victim. He is a
bandit and "political tough" and possibly an informer. He is found lying in the shadow
of a paint shop in the citys Western suburbs. Like Dr. Yarmolinsky, he is wrapped in a cape and
has a stab wound in his chest, a method of killing described as particularly appropriate for the
"last representative of a generation of bandits who knew how to handle a dagger, but not a
revolver."
Gryphius-Ginzberg-Ginsburg
A caller who
identifies himself as Ginzberg or Ginsburg tells the Commissioner that he can explain the two
sacrifices of Azevedo and Yarmolinsky. He turns out to be operating under a double cover,
staying in a seedy room on the Rue de Toulon under the name of Gryphius, which is in itself a
cover for the identity of Red Scharlach.
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