The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Characters

Lisbeth Salander, known for her "crooked smile," is one of the most intriguing characters to hit bookstores ever. She was born on Walpurgis Night, April 30th. This holiday marks the return of spr...

Blomkvist is the reluctant detective of the piece. He's about 42 years old and, unlike young Salander, he hasn't come to terms with his inner investigator. Blomkvist is managing editor of Millenniu...

Henrik turns 82 years old on the first page of the book. He's a widower and was married to a Jewish woman he helped escape Germany during World War II. This earned him the scorn of his three Nazi b...

Harriet is the mostly unseen star of the chief mystery of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. For most of the novel, the other characters think she's long-dead. Blomkvist is skeptical at first, but wh...

Martin is CEO of the Vanger Corporation, and one of the novel's chief villains. For most of the story, he seems like a pretty nice guy. Even Blomkvist is taken in. Plus, he's on the other side of t...

Wennerström might be a little boring to read about because he never actually appears. None of the other characters meet him. He's a version of a device made famous by Alfred Hitchcock, the Mac...

Erika owns most of Millennium. She's Blomkvist's boss, and his long-time lover. She's also married to Greger Beckman, an artist who understands the irresistible attraction between Berger and Blomkv...

Bjurman is a villain of the first order. When Salander's original guardian has a stroke, Bjurman becomes her new guardian. Immediately he starts messing with her. First he takes away her bank accou...

Dragan runs Milton Security and is Salander's boss. He's protective of her, yet can't protect her. They like each other, but he doesn't quite understand Salander. He's attracted to her, but thinks...

Holger, a lawyer, is Salander's legal guardian until December 2002. He's a nice man who's dedicated his life to helping youngsters with troubles. When Salander's in her late teens, she defends hers...

Salander's mother is about 46 and lives in Äppelviken Nursing Home, where Salander visits her. In this novel, we don't learn her name, or even why she's in a nursing home. She dies when Saland...

Camilla is Salander's sister. All we know about her in this book is that Salander and her mother haven't seen Camilla for some time. Future books provide more details on Camilla.

Mimmi is one of Salander's lovers. We learn that Salander "prefer[s] guys" (18.2), but has a "problem […] finding a guy who was not a jerk, and who was good in bed" (18.2). Mimmi, she thinks,...

Cilla is probably the only friend Salander ever made at school. Cilla introduces Salander to the Evil Fingers, which used to be a teen girl rock band, and now is a group of friends. Salander is a m...

The Evil Fingers used to be a teen girl rock band, and is now a group of friends, which includes Cilla Norén. Mimmi is not a member, but Salander does introduce her to the Evil Fingers. We don...

Plague is one of Salander's hacker associates. He lives in Stockholm. She doesn't consider him a friend. Plague invents the electronic cuff she uses to take control of Hans Erik Wennerström's...

Trinity is a hacker, part of Salander's network. We meet him briefly in London, where he helps Salander and Blomkvist trace Anita Vanger's phone call to Harriet Vanger.

Bob the Dog is another hacker in Salander's network. We meet him with Trinity in London, and he helps trace Anita Vanger's phone call to Harriet Vanger in Australia.

Joshua is hacker. He leaves information on Cochran Farms (Harriet's farm) for Blomkvist at the Melbourne airport. We don't meet him.

Greger is Erika Berger's husband. He's an artist, and something of a scandalous public figure, though we don't get the scandalous details. His marriage with Erika has survived, because he doesn't m...

Pernilla is Blomkvist's daughter, a little older than Harriet was at the time she disappeared. Pernilla seems to love her father, but doesn't see him very often. We think she could definitely follo...

Monica is Blomkvist's ex-wife, "ex" because Blomkvist simply couldn't stay away from Erika Berger, even though he tried, and Monica didn't like it. They're on decent terms now. He goes to her place...

Christer is Millennium's art director and designer, "an exhibitionist gay celebrity" (3.55). He takes over for Blomkvist when Blomkvist exits the magazine after the Wennerström scandal. We don...

Janne is managing editor at Millennium, and something of a bad guy. He's been giving out secret information to Monopoly, a magazine owned by Hans-Erik Wennerström. Apparently he played a major...

Henry is a journalist at Millennium. He's a minor character and seems like a nice guy. He provides the initial proof to Blomkvist that Janne Dahlman is up to no good.

Lotta is another journalist at Millennium. She's a minor character in this novel, and is shown positively.

Sonny is Millennium's advertising executive. He's a minor character in this novel, and is shown positively.

Monika is a journalist at Millennium, another minor character shown positively.

Malin is hired by Erika Berger to replace Janne Dahlman at Millennium.

Ingela is a part-time Millennium employee.

Annika is Blomkvist's sister, an attorney, married with two children. She and Blomkvist are close.

Robert is Blomkvist's high school friend. He's the guy who gets Blomkvist interested in Wennerström to begin with.

Kurt and Anita are Blomkvist's parents, now deceased.

Borg and Blomkvist have been enemies for about fifteen years, since they worked together at a newspaper. Blomkvist outs Borg as a corrupt, irresponsible financial journalist in his book The Knights...

Bertil is Blomkvist's lawyer. We don't meet her in the story.

Cecilia, like Harriet, is Henrik's grandniece. She's 57 now and lives alone on Hedeby Island. Her father is Harald Vanger, Henrik's only living brother, the Nazi who "ruined [her] life when [she] w...

Anita is Cecilia's younger sister, who looks and dresses just like her. She is Harriet's closest female friend – before and after Harriet disappears. But for most of the novel, Blomkvist is b...

Gottfried is Harriet and Martin's father and one of the story's chief villains, though he dies almost forty years before the novel begins. As Blomkvist and Salander discover, he murdered women from...

Isabella is Martin and Harriet's mother, and one nasty character. She knew her husband was raping their children but didn't care, if we can believe Harriet. Harriet says, "My father could have rape...

Edith is Henrik's wife, now deceased.

Birger is Cecilia and Anita's older brother. He seems like a nasty guy, and he resents Blomkvist snooping on the family.

Dirch is Henrik's go-to guy. He handles the investigation and hiring of Blomkvist, and urges Blomkvist to hire Salander to help him solve the mystery of Harriet's disappearance.

Detective Morrell is the same age as Henrik Vanger and shares his birthday. He's also the detective in charge of Harriet's case when she first disappears. Through the years, he works with Henrik, h...

Otto Falk is a pastor, and the last person known to have seen Harriet on the day she disappears. When Blomkvist visits him, he's in the throes of Alzheimer's. When Blomkvist asks him about Harriet,...

Harald is Henrik's only living brother, and the father of Cecilia, Anita, and Birger. He's a Nazi who abused his children. He's over ninety years old in the novel, a hermit who does who-knows-what...

Ingrid is married to Harald, and is the mother of Cecilia, Anita, and Birger. She's deceased, survived by her children and her husband.

Richard and Margareta, now deceased, are Gottfried's parents. Richard is Henrik's oldest brother. He was a Nazi, and he abused his only son, Gottfried.

Greger is already deceased. He's survived by his wife Gerda and son Alexander, both of whom live on Hedeby Island. Greger is Henrik's brother, a Nazi like Richard and Harald.

Alexander is son of Greger and Gerda, and seems like a nice guy. When Blomkvist finds out that Greger took pictures of Hedeby Island the day Harriet disappears, Alexander gives him Greger's father'...

Fredrik and Ulrika Vanger are the parents of Henrik and his brothers.

Johan is Fredrik's brother. He doesn't marry or have children.

Gottfried (yes, another Gottfried) and Birger Vanger are brothers. This Gottfried didn't marry or have children. Birger is father to Johan and Fredrik.

Current pastor at Hedeby, replacing Otto Falk.

Tjorven is Hedeby's resident stray feline. She makes friends with Blomkvist on his first night in town. Sadly, Tjorven becomes Martin's victim when the nutso man burns and mutilates her, presumably...

Jeff is Harriet's oldest son. He's highly educated, and will run Cochran Farm when Harriet becomes CEO of the Vanger Corporation. Harriet has another son and a daughter as well, though we don't mee...

Spencer is Harriet's husband. He died in 1994. They seemed to have had a loving relationship.

Eva is Martin's longtime girlfriend, a beautiful dentist. As far as we can tell, she knew nothing of Martin's secret life. The novel doesn't discuss whether she'll be told about it. Her presence in...

Kurt is the photographer for the newspaper The Courier. He's on duty the day Harriet disappears and takes pictures of Hedeby Island and the tanker accident, and the Children's Day Parade in Hedesta...

Conny writes a rude article about Blomkvist for The Hedestad Courier.

Gunnar is editor of the Hedestad Courier and is on Hedeby Island the day Harriet disappears.

Ana is Henrik Vanger's personal assistant/attendant/secretary at his home on Hedeby Island.

Bodil supervises the Vanger family archives, where Salander does research on the night Martin imprisons Blomkvist.

Magnus was superintendent of many Vanger properties when he was alive. He's present the day Harriet disappeared.

Gunnar is Magnus's son, about the same age as Harriet. He might have had a romance with Harriet.

Helena is Gunnar's wife.

Sixten is a sawmill worker present on Hedeby the day Harriet disappeared.

Gustav is driving the tanker that wrecks on the bridge to Hedeby Island the day of Harriet's disappearance.

Jerker is Gustav's son. He was sixteen and on Hedeby Island the day Harriet disappears.

Astrid is the Vanger family cook in 1966.

Eugene is an eccentric painter who lives on Hedeby Island.

Suzanne is owner of Suzanne's Bridge Café, where Blomkvist eats, on the other side of the bridge from Hedeby Island.

Rebecka is Gottfried's first-known victim, murdered in 1949, when Gottfried would have been about twenty-one. This is the year after Martin is born.

Mari is from Kalmar and is murdered by Gottfried in 1954.

Rakel is murdered by Gottfried in 1957 in Landskrona.

Magda is murdered by Gottfried in 1960 in Karlstad.

Liv is murdered by Gottfried in 1960, in Stockholm.

Lea is murdered by Gottfried in 1964, in Uddevalla. Martin, fourteen at the time, is with his father and watches him rape and murder Lea.

Sarah is murder by Gottfried and Martin in 1964, in Ronneby. This seems to be Martin's first victim.

Lena is murdered by Martin in 1966, in Uppsala. She seems to be the first woman he kills on his own (since dad is dead now) and the last woman he kills using his dad's weird biblical MO.