The Knights Templar

The Knights Templar: Discovering the Myth and Reality of a Legendary Brotherhood, by Susie Hodge, is a well-illustrated overview of the origins of the Templars, the Crusades, the success of the Templars, and their eventual destruction - not by the hands of the Muslims but by the French crown and the Papacy. One detail of their story that I was not aware of is the belief that the Templars may have reached Nova Scotia in 1398, well before Columbus. I was also not aware that the Shroud of Turin has been linked to the Templars. The claim that the Templar fortress known as Krac des Chevaliers, in Syria, "is considered the greatest fortress in the world," certainly tempts me to put visiting the fortress on my "bucket list."

The Crusaders: Warriors of God, by Georges Tate, is also well-illustrated but provides more background regarding the Crusades. I remember when I finished reading this having a better understanding of "how the bloody 200-year confrontation between two worlds [Christian and Muslim] resulted in a mutual hostility and lack of understanding that persists to this day."

Of course many many novels have been written about the Templars and their secrets. Last April I read Raymond Khoury's The Last Templar and enjoyed it as an intriguing piece of escapist fiction. On the other hand, when my 9th-grade English teacher, Miss Spell, assigned Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe for me to read, I struggled through it somehow. I couldn't have told you, as Susie Hodge says in The Knights Templar, that Ivanhoe "reinforced the idea that the Templars were arrogant and overbearing and the possessors of esoteric anti-Christian secrets."

Finally, an excellent movie that deals with the Crusades and the Knights Templar is "Kingdom of Heaven." If you like movies directed by Ridley Scott ("Gladiator", "Robin Hood"), you'll like this one.