Templars

What is it with men's never ending interest in the Knights Templar? Last night, while watching SyFy, dear hubby and I saw a rather bad, hinting on spectacular "findings", show called "Legend Quest" with Ashley Cole as host. Everything was so obvious staged, that it was almost annoying to look at. Cole was on a quest for the final resting place of the Arc of the Covenant and followed a trail from Jerusalem to Ethiopia, to Italy, to France. We entered the episode shortly before he arrived in Ethiopia, so I don't know how he got there. But the clue to continue the search in Italy was a double headed eagle painted in the search, and the form of the church (which represented a Templar's cross). So the Templars took the Arc from Ethiopia back to Italy. To Tuscany to be precise and to a specific castle which owners use/used the double headed eagle as armorial bearings. And of course there still is a Grand Master of the Templar Order and our dear Cole himself is also a member of this Order. And in the small church there was a hatch for an underground place which should be big enough to hide the Arc in. Sure. Right. The Grand Master points him to France, to Chartres. And in Chartres, in the middle of the maze, there is again a kind of hatch which should be great enough to hide the Arc. Despite an underground search, Cole does not reach the secret hiding place under the maze. But that should be where the Arc is located. Oh come on! There were holes as big as the Arc in his reasoning. I've seen better historical (scientific) shows on National Geographic. This is funny, but nowhere historical or scientific underpinned.


What started this? Oh yes, the Templars. In some way this order still fascinates a lot of people. We are talking about an order which was banned by the pope Clement V in 1312, but not after king Philip IV of France and the pope stripped them of all their wealth under false accusations. So that's 700 years ago!

Can we 'blame' Dan Brown for this? No, not really, although I do think he pushed the Templars back into the public eye. No, even before Brown, Tom Egeland wrote "Circle's end". Strangely enough, this book resembles Brown's "Da Vinci Code" quite a lot. So maybe Brown wasn't so original as people think. And before Egeland there were Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln with their "The holy blood and the holy grail". Not particularly a fiction book, but it deed concern the Templars. A banned order, it's members persecuted as heretics (and more), of course make the perfect background for an action filled book. And that is exactly what some authors write.

I have some of these books on my bookshelves. And yes, they always make a nice read. For instance: Steve Berry with "The Templar legacy" or Raymond Khoury with "The last Templar". I'm sure there are even more (even on my book shelves), but these I could easily locate. The sad thing about these books, however, is although I read them and enjoyed them, I cannot remember the plot or anything that happened. Yes, there was a lot of action and of course our hero saved the day, but that's all. And in some way that's very sad. Because I think that every author wants his book remembered for ever and not ending up in the Cemetery of Forgotten Books.

So yes, Templar can be easily used for a non-historical action book. But please, do take the audience serious.