Slipping Through Time

A Knight Plagued By Himself

And in the slow decent towards self reflection, he flailed, as so many of us do.

Some of the most moving passages I’ve read this year were a semi-immortal former Crusader reeling with horror at what he had done 200 years before.

Thing to Watch

I read the arc (advanced reader copy), starting in March, and it is shocking how relevant the book has been as this year has played out, especially with recent events in England.

11,000 anti-Islam men in England dressed as Knights Templar (who were largely French and specialized in banking).

Thing To Read

Let me introduce you to Jakob of Thorn: a book came out 6 May of this year, Joe Abercrombie’s The Devils.

Jakob was at one point the head of The Knights Templar, not in name, but in description. I believe in the book they’re called The Golden Knights, with Golden crosses on their white mantles, in place of the Templar’s red.

In the book you only get glimpses of the terror he wrought, but what is very clear is he knows he ruined his life, the lives of his men, and the elves he waged Crusade on. It’s a very well written vision of how deeply wrong the Crusaders were in waging holy war.

I suspect I will think of Jakob for the rest of my life.

Thing to Listen to

If you need some context on what the Crusades dealt with, this is my favorite medieval history podcast, and they do a good job of communicating facts.

Thing to Gift

Is even further investigation into this subject of interest to you or someone you love?

My favorite book reviewer on TikTok, Michael Kist has a history sickos book club on the book social site Bindery, and they recommend The Crusades: Islamic Perspective by Carole Hillenbrand.

The Crusades, like Norse mythology, is often a pet interest of neo nazis, so I think they’re worth being informed of on the scholarly level. Not the mythologizing and self-aggrandizing that fascist pigs like to do.

Thing to Eat

The Georgian flag, like the English flag, is distantly cousins with the Templar cross through Saint George mythology.

Georgians were the first to make wine, allegedly.

So maybe some 8,ooo-year-old craftsmanship with a rotisserie chicken while you inform yourself on the roots of white national anti-Islamic sentiments.

Saint of the Week

Saint George, the Patron Saint of England, for whom the country Georgia is named, and whose red cross is related to the Templar cross, is beginning to be adopted as a saint for white nationalists in England.

This is similar to how white nationalists adopted Joan of Arc in France. As they are two saints whose stories my grandpa read me when I was little, that really rankles.

The idea of defending a home from threats to the weakest and poorest (dragons and The French, as it were) being corrupted into identifying the poor, huddled masses yearning to breathe free as the evil threat is a bastardization of what George and Joan fought for, and I truly hate to see it.

I’ll continue to turn to their stories as protectors of their countrymen— all countrymen— in these miserable times.