Characters / Earth's Children - Jondalar

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Jondalar

Appears in: The Valley of Horses | The Mammoth Hunters | The Plains of Passage | The Shelters of Stone | The Land of Painted Caves

The secondary protagonist and Ayla's Love Interest. He is a flint knapper from a tribe called the Zelandonii (implied to be located in modern-day France), whose life is changed forever when he meets Ayla.

Jondalar is the son of Marthona, the former leader of the Ninth Cave of the Zelandonii, and Dalanar, the leader of the Lanzadonii. He is Marthona's second eldest child and her only child with Dalanar. On his mother's side, Jondalar is the younger half-brother of Joharran - the current leader of the Ninth Cave - and older half-brother of Thonolan and Folara; on his father's side he is the older half-brother of Joplaya (though they're referred to as "close-cousins").

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A - D

• Affectionate Nickname: Jonde, which his sister Folara occasionally calls him.
• Afraid of Their Own Strength: Jondalar is afraid of the strength of his emotions, so he has trained himself to not get too attached to anyone (in the backstory he had severely injured another young man, Madroman, when Madroman caught Jondalar getting emotionally attached to a woman who it was culturally taboo for him to connect with). This changes once he meets Ayla, forcing him to face and deal with his emotions properly because of his love for her.
• All of the Other Reindeer: He states that after he beat up Madroman and his secret love for Zolena was revealed, he was publicly shamed and often shunned by others in the Ninth Cave, with parents even taking their children away from him. Things got better after he went to live with the Lanzadonii for a few years, but Jondalar has never forgotten the acute shame and despair he felt as a social pariah, and he never wants to experience it again.
• Amazon Chaser: In regards to Ayla, his One True Love. Though he's attracted to her from the moment they meet, he particularly admires her strength (both physical and mental) and skill with a sling. After they work together to successfully take down an aurochs using their new 'spear throwers', he impulsively kisses her.
• Amicable Exes:
  • With Zolena and Serenio, retaining a respectful and friendly relationship with both of them after they have broken up.
  • Not so much with Marona; he initially tries to be cordial with her, though there's awkwardness between them as Marona is clearly still miffed that he abruptly ended their relationship and went travelling after giving her the impression they would marry. After Marona plays a cruel prank of Ayla out of jealousy, Jondalar avoids her out of disgust. Years later, he does give in her to attempts to seduce him out of loneliness, but he realises this was a mistake and makes it clear he has no interest in any sort of relationship with her going forward.
• And This Is for...: After subduing Charoli, Jondalar punches him square in the face, breaking his nose, and declares "That's for Madenia!", a girl Jondalar had met earlier who was traumatized after Charoli and his gang raped her.
• Anger Born of Worry: When he’s scared or worried, he tends to become irritable and loses his temper easily, especially if he believes Ayla is in danger.
• The Apprentice: He was apprenticed as a flint-knapper to his father Dalanar, in his youth; Dalanar is acknowledged as being one of the best flint-knappers in the region, with even Jondalar saying his father's skill surpasses his own.
• Artists Are Attractive: While not as talented as Ranec, Jondalar himself has some skill in carving, an offshoot of his main skill as a flint-knapper. Ayla is fascinated by this, as the people who raised her don't really create visual art and the idea of making or adding to things purely for decoration hadn't occurred to her. Jondalar is inspired to carve a Mother figurine in Ayla's likeness out of love for her (even though these figurines don't usually have faces); Ayla is deeply touched and cherishes the figurine. In a more practical sense, he also shows her how to make better spearheads, for which she's very grateful.
• Barbarian Long Hair: His hair is long enough that he can tie it back in a ponytail; he is a skilled hunter, occasionally gets into fights and is known to be Hot-Blooded.
• Battle Couple: With Ayla in the fourth book; they work together to take down Charoli’s gang.
• Beauty Equals Goodness: He’s very handsome and is by and large a caring, charming and generous person in spite of his flaws.
• Been There, Shaped History: He helps Ayla with several of her important discoveries and inventions, and is directly responsible for some important inventions or innovations of his own, including 'spear-throwers' (like an atlatl), carving likenesses based on real people and halters for horses.

• Betty and Veronica: Ayla is the Betty and Marona is the Veronica for him. Ayla is a compassionate, nurturing All-Loving Heroine whose primary occupation is being a medicine woman; she's beautiful and talented in many areas, but is modest about her attributes and/or credits them to hard work, and tries to get along with everyone. Marona is also incredibly beautiful and flaunts it while tearing down others (especially women); her most noted traits are her attractiveness and her spitefulness. Marona gets what she wants from others via her sexuality and emotional manipulation, while Ayla endears herself to people through kindness and altruism. Interestingly, Marona is the one who is more 'familiar' to Jondalar, as they're both Zelandonii and were once lovers, while Ayla – who is a foreigner with a highly unusual upbringing – is seen as more 'exotic'.
• Big Damn Heroes: Along with Ayla in the fourth book, rescuing a Clan couple being assaulted by a gang of young men.
• Big Prick, Big Problems: One of Jondalar's Establishing Character Moments is that his penis is seen as too large: during sex, he has to control himself and ensure the woman is fully aroused, because if he didn't his partner wouldn't enjoy it. Some women are also intimidated by the thought of having sex with him once they see him unclothed - even if they find him attractive - because they're afraid it will hurt, so he has to put in a lot of work to reassure them. Part of how he knows Ayla is his One True Love is that she has the anatomical capacity to accept him fully and expresses no concerns about him hurting her.
• Bigot with a Crush: He's a sympathetic example, especially as he learns to overcome his prejudice.
  • Jondalar was raised to believe that Neanderthals are merely animals rather than humans; half-Neanderthal children and sex with "flatheads" are considered especially repulsive. When Jondalar finds out his love interest Ayla was raised by Neanderthals and has a hybrid son, his first response is disgust, upsetting Ayla. However, Jondalar realises he still loves Ayla and could never think of her as tainted. He also realises there's now irrefutable proof "flatheads" are actually human; he'd already begun to suspect this after a close encounter with some Neanderthals and Ayla's upbringing only cinches that. Jondalar feels ashamed of his reaction and apologizes to Ayla; she forgives him as she accepts that it's a culture-wide issue rather than specific to Jondalar (his views are comparatively tame; he doesn't understand why some people get so hostile about "flatheads" and dislikes that some people deliberately bait and attack them for 'sport') and he makes an effort to educate himself about the Clan.
  • That said, the issue doesn't completely go away overnight; he doesn't like Ayla telling other people about the Clan and treats it like a dirty secret despite loving her, as he worries about what other people will think of them. He later realises this is a poor way to treat the woman he loves and the people who raised her, and that he should be standing up for Ayla. He vows not to be a coward about it anymore and tries to educate people about the Clan.
• The Blacksmith: The Stone Age-equivalent; he's a well-trained flint-knapper, which makes it easier for him to survive alone and gives him quite a bit of status in his own right (beyond his family connections) due to his skill being so highly valued.
• Blaming the Victim: In The Valley of Horses, when he first learns that Ayla became pregnant after being raped by Broud, his knee-jerk response is to express disgust that she "let one of them" have sex with her; this is due to Jondalar's people thinking of Neanderthals as animals rather than another type of human, and having sexual relations with "flatheads" and children born of such unions are consequently seen as massive taboos. After Ayla calls Jondalar out on this and storms off, Jondalar moves past his initial revulsion and is instead disgusted with himself for suggesting she was to blame for the rape, especially as she'd willingly shared with him this extremely painful part of her past. He later apologizes to Ayla and she chooses to forgive him.
• Boy of My Dreams: It's all but stated that Ayla dreamt of him before meeting him; during her time in the Valley of Horses she dreams of a man of the Others, whose features she can't distinguish save for the fact he has "yellow" hair.
• Broken Ace: He's handsome, charismatic and skilled in many areas, including hunting, flint-knapping and carving, and his women literally throwing themselves at him. But he can also be moody, insecure and prone to low self-esteem; despite his many attributes he still feels he’s not good enough, struggles to maintain long-term relationships and feels he has to constantly hold himself back out of fear he’ll lose control like he did as a teenager.

• Byronic Hero: He's practically a Stone Age-equivalent of Mr Rochester; handsome, brooding, passionate, prone to angsting, occasionally acts like a jerk but is still a moral person and sometimes feels misunderstood by or at odds with his society.
• Character Development: He is initially uncomfortable and embarrassed (to put it mildly) about Ayla being raised by the Clan and having a half-Clan son, due to his people's prejudice against the Clan. However, after nearly losing Ayla (both to another man and to death) he comes to realize he no longer cares about what others will think of her past, as she matters more to him. He also comes to realize that the Clan aren't just animals like everyone thinks and is grateful to them, because if a clan hadn't taken in Ayla and trained her as a healer, they would never have met and he wouldn't even be alive.
• Chick Magnet: Everywhere he goes, he draws lots of attention from women. At one point in The Valley of Horses, he literally gets swamped by women seeking sexual intimacy from him, though in this particular case it makes him uncomfortable.
• Chivalrous Pervert: He's a flirt who loves sex (though in his culture, that's pretty normal) and is usually a caring and patient lover, who goes out of his way to ensure the women he sleeps with have a good time as well.
• Crazy Jealous Guy: Romantic jealousy is a recurring issue for him, mostly because he's never really learnt how to deal with it healthily; after Zolena he never got especially attached to any of his lovers until Ayla, and he can't bear the thought of losing her. In the past he completely lost it and knocked out a guy's teeth when he revealed his forbidden relationship with his donii-woman, Zolena (the boy also had feelings for Zolena and exposed them from jealousy). He gets extremely jealous of Ranec showing affection to Ayla, to the point he can't even bear to be around them, though he restrains himself from beating Ranec up, even invoking I Want My Beloved to Be Happy when Ayla seems to choose Ranec over himself. He continues to struggle with jealousy when other men show interest in Ayla, though he tries to keep it under control and reminds himself that Ayla still wants to be with him. Then in The Land of Painted Caves, he loses it again and beats up Laramar after he sees Ayla having sex with him (in this case Ayla was intentionally trying to make him jealous, though Jondalar still overreacted and has to make restitution).
• Dark and Troubled Past: He fell in love with Zolena, his donii-woman, as a young teen, which was considered taboo. He would've been happy to mate her despite what everyone thought, but then Madroman, a jealous rival, publicly revealed their Secret Relationship, leading to a huge scandal. Jondalar was so infuriated, he snapped and beat Madroman to the point where he lost teeth and had some permanent disfigurement, making the situation even worse. Jondalar was horrified and deeply remorseful over his actions. He was sent off to live with his father to straighten him out and ever since then has struggled to keep his strong emotions in check, lest he lose control again. He also longs to find true love, but although he's very popular with women, he can never seem to find one who truly understands and accepts all of him; his longest relationship was with a self-centred woman who only likes him for his looks and status.
• Demoted to Satellite Love Interest: In The Land of Painted Caves, Jondalar doesn't really get many of his own storylines independent of Ayla. His story arc of feeling emotionally distant from Ayla due to her commitment to becoming a zelandoni and his disastrous decision to give in to Marona's seductions are all rooted in his relationship with Ayla.
• Didn't Think This Through: When Jondalar is teaching Ayla how to speak while recovering from his injuries, he unthinkingly teaches her his native Zelandonii language, not the language of the Mamutoi, the people who live nearest her cave. They're both dismayed when they realize this; although Ayla can talk to Jondalar just fine, knowing Zelandonii will be useless if she wants to talk to the locals (and the Zelandonii live on the other side of the continent). Luckily, Ayla decides to leave with Jondalar and he can translate for her/give her a crash course in Mamutoi, and she quickly picks up the basics due to her highly-developed memory.
• Disappeared Dad: Jondalar's father Dalanar left when he was a toddler and rarely saw his son growing up, as he was busy founding the Lanzadonii and supporting his new family. They didn't really get to know each other until Jondalar was forced to move in with Dalanar in his early teens.
• Distressed Dude: In The Valley of Horses, when he is mauled by a cave lion, and in The Plains of Passage, where he is kidnapped by a camp of women led by Ax-Crazy misandrist Attaroa. Both times, he is rescued by Ayla.
• Domestic Abuser: He can occasionally be this towards Ayla, mostly in The Mammoth Hunters. It's downplayed in that he's just a jerk rather than truly abusive, though you get the impression he's meant to be seen as a tormented bad boy of sorts and still a perfectly viable love interest for Ayla (indeed, she spends the entire book pining for him and wondering if she did something wrong).
• Drama Queen: At his worst. He tends to feel things very intensely and sometimes reacts very dramatically to situations if he’s particularly stressed out, raging, crying and occasionally engaging in a bit of Percussive Therapy.

E - N

• Eating the Eye Candy: He's utterly taken with Ayla once he gets a proper look at her (seeing as he was half-unconcious from blood loss the first time they met). He finds her so attractive, in fact, it happens more than once even after they've known each other for several weeks.
• Everyone Looks Sexier if French: He’s incredibly attractive and technically French (the area where his tribe lives is implied to be in the same region as modern-day France).
• Everyone Loves Blondes: He has light blonde hair and is crazy good looking. One of the first things Ayla notes about him is that he has "yellow hair" like her, as all the people she grew up around had darker hair.
• Fatal Flaw: His struggle to control his emotions (especially anger) and process them properly. People often say he "feels too much, too strongly", which has been known to push people away who find him overbearing or causes him to make impulsive poor decisions rather than stopping to think. He feels he constantly has to hold himself back (and thus keep people at arm's length) because he's afraid of overwhelming them by being vulnerable.
• The First Cut Is the Deepest: His first real relationship ended in disaster and until he meets Ayla, he had never been able to properly get over it and meet another woman he loved that deeply.
• First Guy Wins: Jondalar isn't only Ayla's first love interest; he's the first man of the Others she's ever met too. Although she becomes fond of Ranec in the third book and nearly ends up marrying him, she ultimately doesn't love him as deeply as Jondalar and chooses him over all other men who show interest. They end up getting married and starting a family.
• First Love: He is Ayla's first experience with romantic love and her true love, to boot. She falls for him so hard that she's certain he's the one she wants to spend her life with; even when she's engaged to another man she realises it's Jondalar she truly wants.
• Florence Nightingale Effect/Rescue Romance: He falls in love with Ayla after she saves him from a cave lion and spends months tending his wounds.
• For Want Of A Nail: If Jondalar hadn't impulsively decided to go travelling across Europe with Thonolan, he would never have met Ayla, the love of his life, which has a huge impact on both of them and alters several other events in the series.
• Good Parents: He adores Jonayla, the first child of his hearth and the child of his spirit (that he's aware of; it's possible he's unknowingly fathered other children, but he knows for a fact Jonayla is his). He's an affectionate, hands-on father, including looking after his daughter while her mother is busy with her training.
• Happily Married: To Ayla from the fifth book onwards discounting their temporary estrangement near the end of the sixth book.
• Has a Type: Jondalar isn’t too fussy in this regard, sleeping with a wide range of women, but the two women he is truly devoted to (Zolena and Ayla) are both beautiful, independent, strong-willed, shamans and/or healers, and — let's be blunt — have enough vaginal elasticity that he can get his whole penis in without causing them pain. Upon meeting Ayla for the first time, some of his friends remark that of course he fell in love with a woman like her, considering who his First Love was.
• Heroes Love Dogs: Double Subverted when it comes to Wolf (who is technically a wolf rather than a dog, though he's treated similarly). Jondalar starts out finding Wolf to be an annoying burden more than anything; he only puts up with the animal because Ayla loves Wolf and insists on keeping him, and much prefers the horses. However, after Wolf saves Ayla's life, Jondalar becomes a lot fonder and more appreciative of Wolf.
• Hot-Blooded: A central trait. His passionate and strong-willed behavior are seen as attractive and compelling to some women, but can also be off-putting to people who find them too much, and Jondalar himself sometimes struggles to deal with his emotions and express them without causing a scene. Luckily for him, Ayla is more than capable and willing to handle him.
• Hot for Teacher: Justified, in that his teacher was his donii-woman – a woman specifically assigned to teach him about sex once he came of age. The problematic part was that he developed an emotional attachment to her, which is considered inappropriate.
• Hunk: His general description and manner strongly suggests he's one - he's very tall and muscular with chiselled facial features, has a few Rugged Scars on his body, often sports either Perma-Stubble or Manly Facial Hair and is a total Chick Magnet.
• Iconic Sequel Character: He first appears in the second installment, The Valley of Horses, and besides Ayla herself, he's probably the most important and well-known character.
• Icy Blue Eyes: His eyes are described as being intense 'glacier blue' and are also described as "magnetic" and "charismatic", capable of seducing nearly any woman he uses them on.
• Insecure Love Interest: He's deeply insecure about his relationship with Ayla in The Mammoth Hunters, to the point it nearly causes him to lose her permanently. When he sees Ranec's obvious romantic interest in Ayla and how well she starts to fit in with the Lion Camp, Jondalar is scared he will lose Ayla. However, his fear of rejection and lack of experience being with someone he desperately wants to be with means he doesn't talk to her about it, instead trying to bottle up his feelings. Inevitably, his anxiety and frustration manifests as irritability and avoidance, causing Ayla - who has no prior experience with relationships - to think he doesn't love her anymore. When Ayla enters a relationship with Ranec, Jondalar hates it but realises he only has himself to blame, because he never told Ayla how he felt out of fear she wouldn't choose him and so she'd naturally pick Ranec, a cheerful, charming man who worships her. He also realises he's taken Ayla for granted and has been merely tolerating her history with the Clan, for which he feels deep shame. Once he and Ayla clear up their misunderstanding, he tries to be better about his insecurities in The Plains of Passage, being more honest with Ayla about his feelings and trying not to be resentful when other men show interest in her.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He has anger and jealousy issues and can be a bit of a judgmental dick at times, but has a kind and generous heart at his core. He regrets causing harm to others, tends to hurt people more out of thoughtlessness than malice and will do his best to make amends.
• Lady Killer In Love: He's had many lovers over the years, but Ayla is the one he falls head over heels for, to the point even he is surprised at the depth of his feelings for her. Many people who know him are eager to learn more about the woman who successfully won Jondalar's heart.
• Like Brother and Sister: An interesting example. Jondalar regards his relationship with his 'close cousin' Joplaya as this; unbeknownst to them, they are actually half-siblings. Joplaya's feelings, however, are romantic in nature, though Jondalar is utterly clueless to this.
• Likes Older Women: Zig-zagged. His First Love Zolena was several years older than him, potentially around a decade older (which was part of the reason their relationship was frowned upon; it was acceptable and expected that an older woman teach him about sex, but not for them to develop actual feelings). Serenio is also older than him, he being between 18 and 20 when they get together while her son Darvalo is implied to be his preteens. However, other women or girls he's been in relationships with are closer to his age; his Second Love Ayla is around three years younger than him, though interestingly she comes across as being Wise Beyond Their Years at times.
• Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places: For most of his youth, he's searching for a woman to be his mate and several characters remark it's strange he still hasn't settled down yet at his age; Jondalar does want to get married but despite having many short-term lovers and being desired by plenty of women everywhere he goes, he still can't fall in love with any of them, much to his frustration. He seriously considers just throwing in the towel and mating Serenio despite not being in love with her; he does care for and respect her, they have a good sex life, he's close to her son and she has many attributes he admires. However, Serenio points out that neither of them would be truly happy and encourages him to keep looking. Part of him fears that the spirits have denied him romantic love because of his past transgression with Zolena. He even briefly wonders if he should be considering men instead, despite feeling no attraction to the same sex. He finally finds true love with Ayla, though as he notes he had to travel across an entire continent and nearly die to meet her.
• Love Epiphany: He has one in The Valley of Horses, in a bizarre sex dream involving Ayla.
• Magnetic Hero: He's explicitly stated to be seen as "magnetic" and picks up a lot of friends (including Friends with Benefits) along his Journey.
• Mangst: Invoked; Jondalar is prone to brooding and is quite emotionally sensitive, but because he doesn't want to embarrass himself or put people off by being more openly emotional, he tries to control his emotions and keep his angsting subtle. He will often go off by himself to rage and cry when it becomes too much for him. Notably, there are several moments where he's more openly angsty, usually around either his brother Thonolan or his love interest Ayla, both of whom don't judge him for it.
• Manly Tears: He's generally quite a manly-man, seeing as he makes tools and weapons for a living, is a capable hunter and is undaunted by wilderness survival, yet he sheds tears on a surprisingly frequent basis when he's sad or overwhelmed. Notably, he sobs in Ayla's arms when his younger brother dies, he cries Tears of Remorse after unthinkingly insulting Ayla's upbringing and son, and he weeps privately when he thinks he's lost Ayla to Ranec.
• Masturbation Means Sexual Frustration: At one point in The Valley of Horses, Jondalar is so overcome with desire for Ayla he rushes off into the bushes, making an excuse about needing to urinate, and masturbates. Ayla appears unresponsive to his flirting, so he assumes she's not attracted to him or has taken a vow of celibacy for religious reasons, leaving masturbation his only outlet. Ayla doesn't buy his excuse and knows what he was really doing, which embarrasses her - not so much because of the act in and of itself but because in the Clan, men would only masturbate to relieve sexual tension as a last resort if there were no suitable women available. Ayla assumes that Jondalar finds her so unattractive he'd rather masturbate than so much as touch her.
• Mood-Swinger: He can switch from stressed to calm, or morose to happy, and vice versa, rather rapidly in some circumstances.
• Mr. Fanservice: Dear god, yes. We get lots of detailed descriptions of Jondalar’s physical appearance, clothed and unclothed, from the perspective of female characters and he’s featured in a lot of sex scenes.
• Must Make Amends: Near the end of the sixth book, after he cheats on Ayla, drunkenly beats up Laramar for having sex with Ayla and Ayla slips into a drug-induced coma, which he blames himself for, believing she would never have risked it if he had only been a better mate. Jondalar makes restitution to Laramar by agreeing to take responsibility for his soon-to-be ex-mate Tremeda and their children, whom Laramar wants nothing to do with anymore (not that he really bothered with them before either), including building them a new home and providing them with food. He makes amends to Ayla by helping bring her out of her coma, reiterating his love for her and vowing he will never sleep with anyone else but her from this point on (in the setting it's considered unusual to restrict yourself to only one sexual partner even if you have a mate, so it's more significant than it sounds).
• Mutually Unequal Relation: He finds Wolf to be a nuisance and only tolerates him for Ayla's sake. Wolf is largely oblivious to this and views Jondalar as a pack mate; he's always friendly and playful towards him. This changes when Wolf saves Ayla from Attaroa, after which Jondalar comes to like and appreciate Wolf more.
• My God, What Have I Done?:
  • In The Valley of Horses, he has this reaction after he unthinkingly insults Ayla's hybrid son as an "abomination" and the Clan who adopted her "animals", causing her to ride off in anger. He realises afterwards he was a complete dick to her, especially after she had gone to great lengths in saving his life and caring for him during his recovery, and also that he has probably blown his chance of having a relationship with her. He throws himself down and cries, asking why the Mother (his people's equivalent of God) didn't stop him. Luckily for him, Ayla eventually forgives him when he profusely apologizes.
  • He also has this reaction when he believes he forced himself on Ayla in The Mammoth Hunters. After having angry sex with her following an argument, he's horrified when he sees Ayla is weeping. Ayla tries to explain she was actually crying in relief, because she thought Jondalar no longer loved her, and that she actually consented to the sex, but Jondalar is too disgusted with himself to listen properly.
• Near-Death Experience: He has one after being mauled by a cave lion; he even believes for a short time he did die and is in the spirit world when he sees a beautiful woman ordering the lion away, then wakes to see the same woman helping a mare give birth. He’s incredibly lucky Ayla was there and that she’s an expert healer, as she manages to save his life and ensures he isn't permanently crippled.

O - Y

• Oblivious to Love: A recurring issue for him.
  • He isn't certain how Serenio feels about him and when she rejects his marriage proposal, he assumes he misread her feelings. She exasperatedly informs him that she is in love with him, but turned him down because she knows he doesn't feel the same way.
  • He's completely blind to Joplaya's love for him, including laughing off her flirting as jokes and banter. It's just as well, as they're actually paternal half-siblings.
  • In The Mammoth Hunters, he believes Ayla no longer loves him and wants to be with Ranec instead. Because being around Ayla hurts too much, he withdraws from her... which leads Ayla to assume he doesn't love her anymore, until they finally talk through their issues at the end and figure out that yes, they are mutually in love.
• One Head Taller: Due to his unusually tall stature (he's around 6'6"), he usually towers over most of his love interests. Even Ayla, who at nearly six feet is no slouch in the height department either, only just comes over his shoulders.
• Opinion-Changing Dream: He has a very surreal dream in which he sees the Earth Mother - whom resembles Ayla - birthing all living creatures, including Neanderthals. And he has sex with her. This leads him to realize that Ayla was right about Neanderthals not being animals, but just another kind of human (which he had already begun to suspect) and he rapidly begins to shake off his culturally-ingrained prejudice towards them. It also brings him closer to Ayla and makes him finally realize he’s in love with her.
• Parental Substitute: Darvalo comes to view him as replacement for his deceased father. As a result, he's very upset when Jondalar eventually breaks up with his mother and leaves the Sharamudoi. They make up in The Plains of Passage, though. Jondalar for his part is fond of Darvalo but wasn't really in the right emotional state to be a father to him.
• The Power of Love: When Ayla and Mamut fall into a comas after consuming a dangerous psychotropic root, Jondalar pleads with the Earth Mother to return Ayla to him, prompting them to wake up. Mamut and many other people believe that Jondalar's strong love for Ayla was what brought them back; Mamut even believes that Jondalar may the only person able to bring Ayla back if her spirit is lost. When the same thing happens to Ayla again in The Land of Painted Caves, Ayla is only able to find her way back and regain consciousness because she hears Jondalar telling her he loves her and pleading with her to come back.
• The Promise: Concerned that a grieving Thonolan is going to get himself killed, Jondalar tries to urge him to return home to see their family again, especially their mother. However, Thonolan says that he and Marthona both knew they'd never meet again and instead makes Jondalar promise he will return, saying he belongs with the Zelandonii deep down and that Marthona won't be able to handle potentially losing them both. Jondalar promises he will return. After Thonolan dies, Jondalar is determined to keep his promise, which takes him another two books.
• Pride: This causes some problems for him and his romance with Ayla in The Mammoth Hunters. Firstly, Jondalar doesn't want Ayla mentioning the Clan and her upbringing with them, and gets embarrassed and irritated when she does things associated with the Clan (such as kneeling before Mamut out of respect) because he's afraid that people will reject them both due to prejudice against "flatheads" (he has personal experience with being shunned by his community and desperately wants to avoid a repeat situation). He's also upset and jealous when Ayla starts to become closer to Ranec, who is obviously attracted to her, but as he later admits to himself, he didn't explain how he felt to Ayla and instead pushed her away because he worried that Ayla would choose Ranec over him, so he tried to avoid the issue entirely and thus inadvertently drove Ayla closer to Ranec because of what she perceived as Jondalar's rejection.
• Romancing the Widow: With the twice-widowed Serenio, though it's more of a Friends with Benefits relationship; although he cares for her and seriously considers taking her as a mate, he never falls in love with her, which eventually leads to them amicably breaking up. Serenio does tell Jondalar that she's grateful to him in spite of him not returning his affections, because it proved to her she could still fall in love in spite of her previous heartbreak.
• Runaway Fiancé: At the start of The Valley of Horses, it's mentioned that many people were expecting Jondalar to mate Marona at the Summer Meeting... but he changed his mind and decided to go travelling with Thonolan instead. Though they weren't formally Promised, Marona was still under the impression he was going to marry her and isn't best pleased when Jondalar is a no-show.
• Scars Are Forever: Although Ayla is able to save both his life and his leg after he's attacked by a cave lion, he retains the scars for the rest of his life. If people doubt his admittedly extraordinary-sounding story of how met Ayla or Ayla's healing skills, he shows them his scars as proof.
• Secret-Keeper: Of a sort. He's one of the few people who knows Ayla was raised by the Clan and has a child of mixed spirits; however, by the fourth book, he's realized he doesn't care what everyone else thinks of Ayla's past. If asked directly, he's prepared tell the truth and defend Ayla if need be, but otherwise, he just doesn't bring it up.
• Sex God: He's generally portrayed as this. It's not because Bigger Is Better in Bed, but rather because the need to arouse his partner fully (so that she has even a hope of accepting all of him) has resulted in him becoming an expert at foreplay. Besides, he's hot: even villainous women have been known to find him attractive.
• Sex with the Ex:
  • He mentions that after he and Zolena ended things, they slept together a few times, but they never again allowed their relationship to become serious.
  • When he and Ayla have technically broken up in The Mammoth Hunters due a misunderstanding and lack of communication, they end up having sex following an argument. Unfortunately, this still doesn't result in them getting back together until the end of the novel, as Jondalar thinks he was too forceful with Ayla and tries to stay away from her to protect her, despite her insistence that she definitely wanted to have sex with him too.
  • Played for Drama in The Land of Painted Caves, where it's revealed Jondalar has been secretly having sex with Marona, his former girlfriend, although he's now mated to Ayla. However, the moment Ayla finds out, he breaks things off and makes it clear he only slept with her out of loneliness and frustration (especially because Marona kept throwing herself at him).
• Simple, yet Opulent: The tunic Ayla made him for their Matrimonial is described as being this. She dyed the leather pure white using a secret technique Crozie taught her and added ermine tails. Although nowhere near as Pimped Out as Ayla's wedding dress, onlookers state that it stands out anyway for its striking colour and the obvious skill and time it took to make it, with its comparative simplicity in fact complimenting Ayla's outfit.
• Starcrossed Lovers: With Zolena. To say it ended badly would be a major understatement. As his donii-woman (an older woman assigned to introduce him to sex), them having an emotional attachment was considered highly inappropriate. Jondalar didn't care at the time and wanted to marry Zolena, who briefly considered abandoning her calling as a donier to do just that. However, Madroman - who also loved Zolena and was jealous of her closeness with Jondalar - learned of their feelings and publicly exposed them. Jondalar badly beat Madroman in retaliation and was sent away as punishment. After this incident, Zolena came to her senses; even when Jondalar returned and they had sex a few times, Zolena never allowed their relationship to become anything more, which Jondalar sadly accepted. They still have feelings for each other, but have long ago accepted that a romance between them cannot be.
• Strong Family Resemblance: He strongly resembles his father Dalanar, with many characters commenting that he is obviously a child of Dalanar's spirit. When Ayla first meets Dalanar, he reminds her so strongly of Jondalar she even briefly feels a confused attraction to him because he looks so much like the man she loves.
• There's No Place Like Home: Although he mostly enjoys his long journey across Europe, getting to see new places, meet new people and experience different cultures, after three years Jondalar admits that he wants to return to the Ninth Cave of the Zelandonii. His brother Thonolan remarks that while he can feel at home anywhere, he thinks Jondalar will always be a Zelandonii in his heart. While Jondalar lives with several groups of people for extended periods (the Sharamudoi for around two years, the Mamutoi for a year), makes friends among them and is invited to stay permanently, he always feels a pull back to the Zelandonii. Although he's prepared to live anywhere that he and Ayla can be happy together, what he truly hopes for is that she will be accepted by the Zelandonii and settle down with him at the Ninth Cave. Luckily for him, Ayla decides she wants that too, with the fourth book detailing their journey to Zelandonii territory.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: In The Mammoth Hunters, he becomes a lot more irritable, sullen and passive-aggressive than is typical for him, especially towards Ayla, due to his jealousy and insecurities about her relationship with Ranec and his anxiety about the Mamutoi accepting them even knowing Ayla's background. After some soul searching and the realisation that Ayla still loves him even after how he's been acting, he gets better and tries to deal with his issues in a more mature and constructive way.
• Tragic Keepsake:
  • A necklace belonging to his sister-in-law, Jetamio, which he keeps to remind himself of her and his brother after they both die. He keeps it with him until he reaches his home again and then passes it on to his mother.
  • He keeps a piece of opal that falls from the rock pile his brother is buried under, which Ayla says he should keep in his amulet, as it may be a sign from his brother's spirit. It becomes a Memento MacGuffin in the fifth book, involving a subplot where Jondalar uses it in a ritual to contact Thonolan's spirit and ensure he moves onto the afterlife.
• Troubled, but Cute: Although his physical appearance (over 6ft tall, muscular and strong-featured) doesn't quite fit the usual description of this trope, he's notably a very handsome man with a good heart, who has a fair amount of emotional baggage.
• Understanding Boyfriend: Played with. He tries to be an understanding and supportive mate to Ayla whilst she’s training as a zelandoni, but he sometimes struggles with it, especially when she prioritizes her training over him and their family. In the end, however, it's made clear he loves her no matter what and will always be there for her.
• Undressing the Unconscious: A justified example; when Ayla first encounters the unconscious and badly wounded Jondalar, she has to cut his clothes off him to treat his injuries. Once she has done this, she does look at his naked body out of curiosity as she's never encountered a Cro-Magnon man before; she gets a bit flustered and covers him up when she sees his genitals. She later goes to the effort of sewing his clothes back together as best she can, or creating replicas if the clothing is damaged beyond repair.
• Ungrateful Bastard: After he makes insulting remarks about Ayla's adoptive family and her son because they're Neanderthals, causing her great offense and hurt, he quickly realises what an utterly ungrateful asshole he's been; Ayla singlehandedly saved his life, tended his wounds, let him live in her cave, sleep on her furs and eat the food she gathers and prepares, while he's not only given her back nothing (besides teaching her his language and providing her with companionship), he has gravely insulted her and her family. He apologizes profusely to Ayla and tries to make it up to her by assisting her as much as he's physically able.
• Waking Up Elsewhere: After being attacked by a cave lion in a gorge, Jondalar falls unconscious from shock and blood loss. He wakes up hours later in an unfamiliar cave and is shocked to see a young woman – his rescuer – helping a mare give birth. Jondalar initially thinks he's died and gone to the spirit world, until he realizes how much pain he's in and sees his wounds have been tended to. He also soon notices that his brother – who was also attacked – isn't here and realizes he didn't make it, much to his distress.
• What Beautiful Eyes!: His deep blue eyes are his most striking feature; people frequently comment on how lovely and compelling they are.
• What Does He See in Her?: Everyone had this reaction when Jondalar was considering mating Marona and tell him so after they broke up. Jondalar confesses he found her attractive, the sex was good and... well, that's it really. He only considered mating her out of convenience and social expectation, due to them having been together so long, but he never loved her and is increasingly relieved he didn't go through with it — especially as he ends up meeting Ayla, who he truly loves and is much more compatible with.
• Wouldn't Hit a Girl: The only time he comes close is when he pushes down a woman who was getting too grabby with him against his wishes. This bites him in the ass when he gets taken captive by the Three Sisters Camp, who are full of women lead by the man-hating Attaroa.
• You No Take Candle: He initially speaks the Sharamudoi language like this. His grasp of Clan sign language is also apparently reminiscent of this, to his embarrassment, though Ayla points out it would take too long to teach him the full, substantially more complicated language, and the Neanderthals they meet are empirically impressed that he knows how to sign at all.

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