Book Review- The Riddle & The Knight, In Search of Sir John Manderville
April 29th 2008 22:07
In the year 1322, the person known to history as Sir John Mandeville ostensibly left England on a pilgrimage to the holy lands and beyond. Thirty-four years later he returned and wrote what for several hundred years was one of the classics of the English language: The Travels of Sir John Mandeville.
It's a book that has largely been discredited (since the stark scientific light of Victorian times) as containing anything factual - apart from what the author 'borrowed' from other chroniclers of his time and before. In fact there is even strong reason to doubt that such a person as Mandeville even existed.
Despite the dubious pedigree and the lack of details concerning its author, the book put forward some novel new ideas - not the least of which was the contention that it was possible to circumnavigate the world - and displayed such a beautiful use of language that for five centuries 'Sir John' was known as the 'father of English prose'.
In his new work, The Riddle and The Knight, Giles Milton sets out to uncover the truth about Sir John. Did such a person really exist? And if so, did he travel to the unknown ends of the Earth as claimed? Or is there possibly a hidden meaning within The Travels that makes such questions irrelevant?
Being somewhat of a history buff, this book intriged me as I had actually heard of Sir John Manderville years ago but never took much interest at the time. The book starts off with a basic background of the period and Sir John before following in the footsteps of his travels.
As its all well and good saying that this place or that looked just the same as in his day but without a picture, its very hard for the reader to really get drawn into what is being told.
Overall an interesting piece of work but could have been so much more and by the end you are left feeling wondering what the actual conclusion was?.
This subject would be worth further investigation though for anyone interested in history.
kiwiauthor rating 5/10
In his preface the compiler calls himself a knight, and states that he was born and bred in England, of the town of St Albans.
Travel
In the body of the work, we hear that he had been at Paris and Constantinople; had served the sultan of Egypt a long time in his wars against the Bedouin, had been vainly offered by him a princely marriage and a great estate on condition of renouncing Christianity, and had left Egypt under sultan Melech Madabron (al-Muzaffar Sayf-ad-Din Hajji I who reigned in 1346-1347); had been at Mount Sinai, and had visited the Holy Land with letters under the great seal of the sultan, which gave him extraordinary facilities; had been in Russia, Livonia, Kraków, Lithuania, "en roialme daresten" (? de Daresten or Silistra), and many other parts near Tartary, but not in Tartary itself; had drunk of the well of youth at Polombe (Quilon on the Malabar coast), and still seemed to feel the better; had taken astronomical observations on the way to Lamory (Sumatra), as well as in Brabant, Germany, Bohemia and still farther north; had been at an isle called Pathen in the Indian Ocean; had been at Cansay (Hangchow-fu) in China, and had served the emperor of China fifteen months against the king of Mann; had been among rocks of adamant in the Indian Ocean; had been through a haunted valley, which he places near "Milstorak" (i.e. Malasgird in Armenia); had been driven home against his will in 1357 by arthritic gout; and had written his book as a consolation for his "wretched rest". The paragraph which states that he had had his book confirmed at Rome by the pope is an interpolation of the English version.
(net sourced)
Haghia Sophia, Constantinople
Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem
St Catherines monastery, Sinai Desert
St Catherines
Seeing these pics makes you want to travel, doesn't it?
Heath
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