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THE TALISMAN (1825) by Sir Walter Scott Reviewed by Patrick Killough I. Review for http://www.barnesandnoble.com RATING: FOUR STARS * * * * Review's Title: England's most popular king meets Islam's most courtly Sultan. One way to read Sir Walter Scott's historical novels is as if he were Nostradamus forecasting the 21st Century. In THE TALISMAN the great Saladin boasts that, as a Kurd, he is descended from the mating of seven demons and beautiful human maidens. Saladin admits to the novel's young hero, the Scottish knight Sir Kenneth, that Mohammed had indeed sowed a better faith (Islam) among the Kurds. But Kurds still respected their pre-Islamic demon ancestors. And he chanted: "Dark Ahriman, whom
Irak (Iraq) still
Holds origin of woe and ill! ..... Thine are the waves that lash the rock, Thine the tornado's deadly shock, Where countless navies sink! ..... Each mortal passion's fierce career, Love, hate, ambition, joy, and fear, Thou goadest into sin." (Chapter III) Saladin and all good Muslims opposing the Christian knights of the Third Crusade respect madmen, for they are close to God. Hence their tolerance of the half-mad Carmelite monk Theodoric of Engaddi, who eggs the Crusaders on to recapture Jerusalem. The novel imaginatively explores the social tensions and jealousies that tear the invading Europeans apart far more than the Muslims defeat them in open battle. Dislike of the English for the Scots is epitomized by Richard the Lion Heart's closest knight, Sir Thomas of Gilsland in Cumberland. He has fought Scots all his life and finds it hard to be minimally courteous even to the bravest of them, such as Sir Kenneth. Templars, French, Austrians and Italians all resent the haughty claims of the bravest of them to be their leader -- King Richard I of England. Much of THE TALISMAN is about their efforts to break his hold on them. Sultan Saladin, disguised as El Hakim (the healer) uses a magic talisman to cure the Lion Heart of a wasting fever. Later he gives the talisman as a wedding present when Sir Kenneth, revealed as the heir apparent Prince David of Scotland, weds the royal cousin, Edith Plantagenet. But before that a silly prank by Richard's recent bride, Berengaria of Spain, tempts Sir Kenneth to desert his post guarding the pennant of England. WIthin a hair of having Kenneth beheaded, Richard relents to the pleas of El Hakim and gives the Scot to the Kurd as a present. Later Saladin blackens Kenneth's skin and sends him back to Richard as a mute slave. The slave, in turn, saves Richard from an assassin and the plot grows ever thicker. The tale abounds in songs: by Blondel the Minstrel and by followers of Saladin. THE TALISMAN climaxes in a knightly challenge at the Diamond of the Desert, an oasis near the Dead Sea. Now reconciled to Richard, the Prince of Scotland stands in for England's most popular king and mortally wounds the traitorous Conrade of Montserrat, to whom the finishing touch is then secretly given by an even more evil co-conspirator, the Master General of the Knights Templar. Saladin finishes off the latter off with his scimitar. An ending as bloody as MACBETH or HAMLET. Another rollicking good yarn by the inventor of the historical novel, Sir Walter Scott. -OOO- Also recommended: Sir Walter Scott, IVANHOE, THE BETROTHED. =-=--=-=-=-=--=-=-=--=- II. Review for http://www.amazon.com Reviewer's rating of THE TALISMAN: FOUR STARS * * * * Title of This Review: Sir Walter Scott's Most Philosophical Novel In novel and poem after novel and poem, Sir Walter Scott argues that the past never completely dies. He suggests that what is better (e.g. Reformation and Protestantism, rationalism and peaceful behavior) generally replace what is less good e.g. European Catholicism, superstition, cattle raiding and clan wars). But even "the bad old days" had good things not so apparent today: intense personal loyalties, unquestioning courage, chivalry and unselfish idealism. There are elements deep inside human nature in never ending war with their opposites. This philosophy of history is nowhere more apparent than in Scott's 1825 historical novel, THE TALISMAN, which can be regarded as the second in a trilogy of King Richard I novels, of which the first is THE BETROTHED and the third is IVANHOE. Richard is not the designated hero in any of the three, but this most popular of England's kings dominates any scene in which he appears. Because he is their best warrior, other European Kings and Princes on the Third Crusade to recapture Jerusalem from the great Muslim leader Saladin grudgingly acknowledge Richard the Lion Heart first among equals. But they know that he generally regards them as self-seeking, cowardly and always ready to cut a deal with Saladin and run back home to Austria, France, Italy and elsewhere. Richard's haughty personality inevitably undermines his best intentions to hold a shaky coalition together. The King is accompanied by his recent bride, the young, beautiful, frivolous Berengaria of Navarre. Richard's cousin, Edith Plantagenet, heads the ladies attending the Queen. Edith cannot disguise her growing love for an ostensibly poor Scottish knight, Sir Kenneth of the Couchant Leopard. The Queen teases her for this and succeeds in luring Kenneth away from a post of high honor personally assigned by the Lion Heart. Before this, Kenneth, on a mission from the High Council of the Crusade (Richard lying ill of a devastating fever) rides to the wilds near the Dead Sea to consult with a mysterious Carmelite Priest. En route he meets the disguised Saladin and, after an indecisive combat, the two become friends. Saladin is later introduced in another disguise as El Hakim (the healer) to Richard whose fever he cures with a mysterious talisman. Only the disguised Sultan's intercession prevents the enraged but grateful Richard from executing Sir Kenneth after the latter allows the standard of England to be stolen by the Head of the Knights Templar and the almost equally evil Conrade of Montserrat. Returned in disguise as a black mute, a gift from Saladin, Sir Kenneth saves Richard from assassination and, with the help of his great Scottish deer hound, unravels the plot of the Templar and Conrade. Sir Kenneth is revealed as Prince David of Scotland and thus high enough in rank to marry the King's cousin. Saladin, who had wanted to marry Edith Plantagenet himelf as part of an overall peace treaty, graciously yields to his friend Kenneth/David and gives the young couple the talisman as a wedding present. Where is the philosophy? In his first encounter with Kenneth, Saladin, a Kurd, reveals his traditional belief that Kurds descend from a mixture of demons and beautiful mortal women, from evil and good, that these qualities war in Kurds forever and that even conversion to Islam does not make Kurds honor their demon ancestors the less. Islam allows Kurds to hope the demons will be converted to light in the end. There is much of the dualism of Iranian Zoroastrianism in the novel, a variant of Scott's often repeated view that in every turning point of history, good wars with and defeats evil, but never utterly, never completely-- and rightly so. -OOO- 12/26/2006 Black Mountain, North Carolina =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- III. Review for http://www.epinions.com Reviewer's Rating of THE TALISMAN: FOUR STARS * * * * SUMMARY TITLE: Sir Walter Scott's Second Novel of King Richard the Lion Heart What is not to love about The Third Crusade? In a grisly closing scene of Sir Walter Scott's THE TALISMAN, the great Saladin, Muslim champion and re-conqueror of Jerusalem, strikes off the head of the treacherous Grand Master of the Templar Knights in the presence of Richard the Lion Heart. Are you one of thousands on the trail of Dan Brown's THE DA VINCI CODE? Then enjoy a foretaste when Saladin boasts of a Kurdish ancestry which begins with the mating between seven devils and seven beauteous maidens. Since that genesis good and evil strive unceasingly in the heart of every Kurd. The Knights Templar are suspected by other Crusaders of diabolic rituals. The muslims are absorbing the spirit of Western chivalry. History comes alive. But THE TALISMAN is not historical research but fiction, a novel, at least as far from reality as THE DA VINCI CODE. We have seen the Lion Heart once before, as young Prince Richard in Walter Scott's THE BETROTHED. We shall see him again in IVANHOE. In the first two tales the son of Henry II is just himself: courageous, hot tempered, in love with honor and renown. By the time of IVANHOE, however, Richard Plantagenet will have been frustrated of victory in Palestine and imprisoned in Austria. He is humbled. More strikingly, in IVANHOE, Richard is masked, disguised as The Black Knight. In the wonderful word of Scott-Land, Richard has learned the utility of masks in pages of THE TALISMAN. There Saladin appears first as a simple emir or prince, then as a learned healer, possessed of a mysterious medicinal talisman and only later stands forth in all his glory as Soldan (Sultan) of innumerable Muslim Faithful. The novel's hero, Sir Kenneth of the Leopard Couchant, is till almost the end, seen as merely a poor but extremely brave Scottish knight crusading in the train of the King of England. He loves, apparently without hope, the King's high born cousin, Edith Plantagenet. Tempted from his duty guarding the banner of England, Kenneth loses that flag to villains and therefore deserves to die. About to be executed, he tells in confession a semi-mad Carmelite monk his secret, that he is David, son of King William of Scotland. Before himself discovering that truth, Richard spares Sir Kenneth's life at the urging of his disguised healer (Saladin). The Lion Heart remains ever resentful, however, that Kenneth dares love a high Plantagenet. Later, however, the hero is given by Richard to the Hakim (healer) who had cured his fever. With skin darkened by his new master Saladin, and disguised as a Nubian mute, Sir Kenneth saves King Richard's life from a fanatic assassin. Kenneth is recognized (though not yet acknowledged), however, by the only man brave enough to suck the poison from the Knight's knife wound -- King Richard himself. Kenneth's faithful deer-hound, wounded in the theft of the ensign of England, recognizes its chief thief, Conrade of Montserrat and Richard then challenges that mighty earl to combat. As Richard's champion, Kenneth severely wounds Conrade, who is then stabbed to death by the Templar chief to keep him from revealing details of a larger plot to break up unity among Crusaders and persuade them all to return to mounting problems in Europe. By that time Richard has received independent proof that Kenneth is really Prince David. The Scottish hero then marries the noble Edith. Saladin, who had hoped to marry Edith himself but is true friend of Sir Kenneth/Prince David, gives the happy couple the talisman as a wedding gift. Later this mystical instrument of healing descends as the property to this day of a noble Scottish family. And we readers wait impatiently for the further adventures of Richard, one of England's most popular kings. Think IVANHOE! NOTE: For ease in reading try the recent (2006) large-print reprint of THE TALISMAN by BiblioBazaar, ISBN -1-4264-0583-9. PROS of THE TALISMAN: A turning point in the military career and spiritual development of England's most popular monarch. CONS of THE TALISMAN: Mixes fact and fiction as cunningly as Dan Brown's THE DA VINCI CODE. 12/25/06 Greenville, South Carolina =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= NOTES SUBSEQUENT TO THE THREE BOOK REVIEWS: THE TALISMAN inspired a movie version with Rex Harrison as Saladin. See http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047150/ King Richard and the Crusaders (1954) Directed by David Butler Writing credits Sir Walter Scott (novel) John Twist -OOO- 12/28/2006 |