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Title: The Riddle and the Knight: In Search of Sir John Mandeville by Giles Milton ISBN: 0-7490-0395-2 Publisher: Allison & Busby Pub. Date: 01 April, 1998 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.95

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Average Customer Rating: 4.2 (5 reviews)

Rating: 4
Summary: Charlatan or Visionary?
Comment: John Mandeville's writing of 1370 proved pivotal in the flurry of exploration that followed in the wake of 1492. His assertion that the world was a globe (flying in the face of accepted dogma) and that it was possible to travel by sea to the Far East, was THE incentive that drove the expeditions of hundreds of explorers and merchants.
Later, the book was ridiculed as hokum, but Giles Milton felt there were enough grains of truth in the manuscript to warrant more research, which he does in his usual comprehensive manner.

The result is a very readable unravelling of the mystery, shrouded as it was by the interfering pens of earlier 'editors'. Given the extent of the tinkering, we may never know the truth behind the 'Travels', but Mr milton uncovers enough evidence to show that Mandeville almost certainly DID travel to the Levant, but casts doubt on the veracity of his claims to have travelled to the Far East. The latter is understandably not well-researched, given the ambiguity of the literary data and lack of physical evidence, so only 4 stars.

However, in South America 300 years later, Drake describes strange people with almost identical characteristics to Mandeville's 'imaginary' creatures - are we being swayed by modern interpretations of medieval descriptions? We may never know, but this uncertainty and the nuggets of truth unearthed by Mr Milton's research in the Middle-East prompted me to order a copy of the 'Travels', so I could judge for myself whether Mandeville was an early Munchausen or a true visionary.

A worthwhile read to stimulate your imagination.

Rating: 4
Summary: And just what is the riddle?
Comment: Giles Milton, a professional writer/journalist, sets out to retrace the voyages of the legendary fourteenth-century writer, Sir John Mandeville. His reasons for doing so are manifold: 1) to gather material for a book; 2) a personal religious experience; 3) to rehabilitate the good name of Mandeville; and 4) frankly, to enjoy himself hugely. The first and fourth can be judged successful. The second only Milton knows. The third reason is most interesting.

Just who was Sir John Mandeville? Simply put: the alleged author of one of the most famous late-middle-age/early-renaissance books. Although the book is still in print (see the reviews of the Penguin Classic, The Travels of Sir John Mandeville), it is now relative obscure. From about 1350 to 1800 it was one of the most influential books, rivaling the Bible and Euclid's Elements. Then about 1800 scholars began to question whether "Mandeville wrote Mandeville," or indeed whether there ever was such a man. Having seen similar arguments on whether Shakespeare really wrote Shakespeare, I started out viewing the Mandeville controversy with a jaundiced eye. Now I must admit the case against Mandeville is much stronger - stronger, but not conclusive either. This is where Giles Milton can be of help.

Giles Milton seems to have convinced himself that: 1) yes, Sir John Mandeville really did exist, 2) yes, he did write the book, 3) he may or may not have actually undertaken the voyages of the first part of the book, but certainly not those of the second part, and 4) Mandeville lied a lot, but it was for a most worthy cause. Are Milton's arguments for a real John Mandeville convincing? Only partially. His principal evidence is a barely legible inscription (an epitaph) in St. Albans Abbey. But here some rigorous scholarship is missing: What is the earliest mention of this epitaph? To whom is it attributed? Have other scholars noted the inscription, and at what times? What are their opinions regarding its authenticity?

Milton's book is entitled, The Riddle and The Knight. The knight is Sir John, but what is the riddle? Namely this: why the second half of the book is so different from the first? The first part is more or less believable, the second utterly fantastic. Milton's proposes that the entire Travels is an allegory on religious intolerance. The second half is intended to show that creatures, appearing to us quite monstrous, can nevertheless be pious. Conclusion: we must not judge "savages" - too harshly. Hmm...maybe, just maybe.

Gems in Milton's book are some woodcuts taken from a 1481 edition of Mandeville. (Penguin should have included these.) These by themselves make getting the bookworthwhile. But in addition there is plenty of food for thought. Read the book and form your own opinions.

Rating: 5
Summary: Not what I expected but a great read - a travel mystery
Comment: This book was quite a bit different to the other two books of Milton's that I have read so far (the others being 'Nathaniel's Nutmeg', and 'Big Chief Elizabeth') - and I have to say it was rather unexpected. For this, his first book is really a travellers tale cum history. I think the surprise of this rather threw me at first. I didn't really expect or want to read a travel book - and yet as I continued reading I got to enjoy it, and then got thoroughly drawn into it - for really this is a historical mystery more than anything, and Milton knows how to hold us all in glorious suspense.

Milton traces the origins, sources and remaining evidence of Englishman Sir John Mandeville's book of travels written in the middle of the fourteenth century. Mandeville purports to have visited a great many places through the middle east on a pilgrimage (from Turkey, through Syria to Jerusalem). In the second part of his book he talks of the travels which took him further through India, China and into the Southern Asian Islands. This in an age when circumnavigation of the globe was thought impossible and only a few people had ventured as far as China. It was a phenomenal claim and Mandeville's book formed the basis for a great many of the later explorers travels - such as Sir Walter Raleigh.

Milton states many of the problems he had researching Mandeville's trip right from the start. One of the biggest of these is that Mandeville never described any of the routes he took, only the places he arrived at - and then great wodges of the descriptions he used for these places were cobbled together from other printed sources which he would have had access too at the time. So Milton set out to visit the places which Mandeville had been, to look for proof that he had been there - a hard task to undertake some 650 years later. Milton interseperses his description of the modern journey with tracts from Mandeville as well as other supporting evidence discovered in archives in Britain. It is all woven together into an incredibly compelling travel mystery.

Did John Mandeville really make these journeys?, Did he even really exist? And if he did where on earth did he die? Milton answers all these questions, and unlike Sir John Mandeville, Milton knows that the satisfaction of travel is in the journey - not just the destination.