The Knights Templar (Crusades trilogy)

The Crusades trilogy is a series of books about the fictional character of Arn Magnusson. The series is written by Swedish author and journalist Jan Guillou.

After finishing the Coq Rouge series, Guillou wrote a trilogy about Arn Magnusson, a fictional Swedish character from the Middle Ages who was forced to become a Knight Templar. The series is an account of the life of Arn, a person who becomes witness as well as catalyst to many important historical events, both in his homeland of Götaland, Sweden and in the crusader states.

The trilogy, dubbed the Crusades trilogy, consists of the following books:

Guillou also wrote a follow-up novel, The Heritage of Arn (2001). In Guillou's universe Birger Jarl, the founder of , is fictionalized to be the grandson of Arn Magnusson.

Two films based on the books have been produced. The first film in the series, Arn – The Knight Templar, premiered in the theaters of Sweden in Christmas 2007. Its plot loosely follows the first two volumes of the trilogy. The second film, Arn – The Kingdom at Road's End, followed in 2008.

Arn was born in Arnäs, Västergötland in 1150. At the age of 5, he had a life-threatening accident, and was believed to be saved thanks to his mother's prayers to Saint Bernard of Clairvaux. Since the boy was saved, his parents decided that in recompensation for the miracle, he was to be sent to a monastery. He spent the next twelve years of his life in the monastery Varnhem in Sweden.

He met brother Guilbert, a former Knight Templar, who instructed him in the use of the sword and the art of medieval war being used in the Holy Lands. The Prior, Father Henri, told Arn to witness for himself the outside world, and only after that he would be able to take the eternal vows of poverty, chastity and obedience (q.v. Evangelical counsels). Arn did so, but committed the terrible sin of fornication with Cecelia Algotsdotter, before they had been married (although they were engaged). Cecelia became pregnant and told her sister Katarina what happened between Arn and herself. Katarina, who would now become stuck in the nunnery where they each had spent half their time up till know, became jealous and found a plan for her to get out instead of her sister. Katarina thus told the Abbess that Cecelia had sinned with Arn, and was with child. Further she told, truthfully, about the fact that Arn also had carnal knowledge of her as well, from a party at her parents where a very young and drunk Arn had been seduced. According to the laws of the Church, it was considered especially heinous and scandalous to have sexual intercourse with two women who had the same mother (comparing it to having sex with your own daughter). Arn was condemned to spend 20 years in the Holy Land as a Knight Templar, while Cecelia was kept in the nunnery, and her newborn child taken away from her.

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