I always imagine Templar knights to be terribly brooding and serious – but imagine a knight who is also Swedish. Double the brooding! Here is a tall blonde knight – very Scandinavian – whose soul is tortured to the limit of human endurance. He’s six feet of pained, northern European crusader.
And very watchable for that!
Arn The Knight Templar was a surprise hit as a historical movie – based in medieval Sweden and telling the story of a noble youth who becomes a Templar to atone for a forbidden love affair. If you’re never watched the film, I thoroughly recommend an evening in to view it.
Arn Magnusson – our heroic knight – hails from West Gothia and is hopelessly in love with Cecilia. Needless to say they are torn apart from each other and Arn’s quest is not just to be a great knight but also to be reunited with Cecilia.
I have one small sartorial quibble about Arn and that is the cross emblazoned on his white mantle. To me, it more closely resembles the later cross used by the Order of Christ in Portugal after 1314 – over 150 years after Arn would have been alive. The Order of Christ was what the Templars became in Portugal after they were dissolved. The Templar cross was simpler.
Key facts about Arn:
- He is part of the Swedish Folkung aristocratic dynasty, a family originating from Östergötland in the south of the country
- Arn grows up in a Cistercian monastery. This order of monks were very closely related to the Templars, so much so that the Templars have sometimes been referred to as their military wing. The biggest spiritual influence on the knights was a Cistercian abbot in France called Bernard of Clairvaux who led a very severe and self-punishing existence
- Arn has to become a Templar as penance for having premarital relations. It is true that some knights had committed crimes and sought to redeem themselves in the order by fighting for Christ in the Holy Land
- Arn meets Saladin, the great Saracen leader, but is then instrumental in defeating him at the Battle of Montgisard. Unfortunately, Saladin would later inflict an even worse defeat on the crusaders and Templars at the Battle of Hattin
- Arn making friends with Saladin may seem far fetched but the Templars were later accused of being on way too cordial terms with the Muslim enemy, something used against them at their trials from 1307 onwards
- The movie about Arn is based on a trilogy of novels by Jan Guillou, an author and journalist who also writes spy fiction
NEW DEVELOPMENT: On 30 June, 2018, I spoke at the Bradford Literature Festival in the United Kingdom with top medieval expert Professor Helen Nicholson. She was adamant that she’d never found evidence of any Swedish Templars and certainly not any preceptories or commanderies in Sweden. Don’t let that spoil your enjoyment of this story about Arn the Templar knight!
Here’s a reminder of what a great movie Arn is:
What a heartfelt saga. The truest knight there ever was.
With an exception, William Marshall, who lived and did those deeds and more.