“The Walking Drum” is a historical novel set in 12th century Europe and the Middle East. Mathurin Kerbouchard, the main character, learns that his mother has been murdered in Brittany and that his father is now forced into servitude somewhere east of Baghdad and south of Tehran. Young Kerbouchard begins a long journey in search of revenge for his mother’s death and his missing father.tKnowing his mother was murdered by Baron de Tournemine, Mathurin immediately looks for a way to temporarily escape Brittany, so that his life won’t be taken as well. While escaping, he’s captured by Walter and his crew, and is forced to serve as a galley slave for a few months. However, with time, he attains the position of pilot, frees a captured Moorish girl, Aziza, and her companion, then frees his fellow slaves and with their help sells his captors into slavery and escapes to Cádiz in Moorish Spain, where he looks for news of his father.tMathurin travels to Córdoba, where he becomes a scholar, but his scholarship is interrupted when he becomes involved in political intrigue surrounding Aziza and is imprisoned by Prince Ahmed. Scheduled to be executed, Mathurin escapes eastward to the hills outside the city. Mathurin returns to Córdoba and, aided by a woman he chances upon named Safia, he takes a job as a translator. However, the intrigue in which she is involved threatens their lives, and they must flee the city. Safia, known to have various connections, tells him that his father may be alive but was sold as a slave in the east.tLeaving Spain, the two join a merchant caravan, trading and fighting off thieves as they travel through Europe. When they reach Brittany, they attack the castle of Baron de Tournemine, and Mathurin personally kills him, avenging his mother. tAs the caravan continues its travels, Safia has learned that Mathurin's father is at Alamut, the fortress of the Old Man of the Mountain (Assassin), but warns that going there is dangerous. They leave the caravan and go to Paris. Safia remains there, but Mathurin must go on and seek his father.tBefore leaving Paris, Mathurin talks with a group of students but offends a teacher, then needing to flee for his life. While fleeing, he encounters the Comtesse de Malcrais, escaping marriage to Count Robert. They meet up with the caravans again at Provins, which are traveling to Kiev to trade their woolen cloaks and other goods for furs. tAs they journey, they encounter hostile Petchenegs. A protracted battle ensues, by the end of which most of the caravan merchants are killed, but Suzanne may have escaped in a small boat, and Mathurin, wounded, hides in the brush and, barely surviving, nurses himself back to health and travels to Byzantium by land. tIn the marketplace of Constantinople, Mathurin then takes to copying from memory books that he copied in Córdoba. Contacting Safia's informant, he learns that his father is indeed at Alamut, but that he attempted to escape and may be dead. Nevertheless, he is determined to go and find out. Going to an armorer who maintains a room for exercising with weapons, he meets some of the Emperor's guard and drops hints to one of them of the books he is copying, so that the emperor will hear of him. Invited to meet the emperor, Mathurin offers him advice and a book and tells the Emperor of his desire to rescue his father from Alamut. tTwo weeks later, the emperor supplies Mathurin with a sword, three horses he had lost when the caravan was taken, and gold. Mathurin also hears news that Suzanne has returned safely to her castle and strengthened its defenses with survivors from the caravan.tMathurin travels by boat across the Black Sea to Trebizond, changing his identity to ibn-Ibrahim, a Muslim physician and scholar. He finds Khatib, and old friend from Córdoba, who tells him rumors that his father is being treated terribly by a powerful newcomer to Alamut named al-Zawila.tLeaving Tabriz, Mathurin and Khatib travel to Qazvin, where he receives gifts and an invitation to visit Alamut. Before he leaves for Alamut, Mathurin meets the princess Sundari, from Anhilwara, and, learning that she is being forced into marriage, promises, if he escapes Alamut alive, to come to Hind and rescue her from this fate.tArriving in Alamut, Mathurin is admitted but immediately taken captive. Many days later, he’s brought to a surgical room, being told that he has been brought to Alamut on an errand of mercy to save a slave's life, by making him a eunuch. The slave is his father. Pretending to cooperate, Mathurin covertly cuts his father's bonds with a scalpel then, spilling boiling water on some of the guards, draws his sword and engages the remaining guards. Other soldiers break into the room, and Mathurin and his father escape down the corridor and through an aqueduct into the hidden valley.tHiding in the garden for a day, they learn of a nearby gate. During the evening they rush the gate and, assisted by a handful of slaves who are present, slay the guards, but the gate is closed on them. Mathurin then lights the fuses of his prepared pipe bombs (which he brought into Alamut), destroying the gate. He and his father escape out and down the side of the mountain. They soon meet Khatib with horses ready and ride off. t At the end of the book, Mathurin’s father rides toward Basra, seeking the sea again. Mathurin then rides toward Hind, to fulfill his promise to Sundari.tI loved this book! I found it had a bit of everything - romance, action, history, suspense, and so much more. L’Amour was very descriptive, making me feel as if I truly lived in the 12th century. It made me aware of the constant struggle for survival and power you would have to face, depending on your position in society. I found it difficult to put the book down, eager to know of the fate of Maturin’s father and his woman friends.tI would highly recommend this book to those who love historical fiction, adventure. They will definitely be intrigued by the various battle scenes and the knowledge L’Amour gives the reader of the 12th century Europe and Middle East. This book was very exciting, factual, adventurous, keeping me on my toes.
What an educational adventure! Because I had a public school education, I am ignorant of the history of China, India, Russia and Moslem countries. It was fascinating. This is my first book by Louis L'Amour and I now have a great respect for his knowledge of the world and his incredible writing that kept me from putting this book down. Some favorite quotes:Kerbouchard was surrounded by students in France who wanted him to tell them all he knew from his studies..."How much could I tell them? How much dared I tell them? What was the point at which acceptance would begin to yield to doubt? For the mind must be prepared for knowledge as one prepares a field for planting, and a discovery made too soon is no better than a discovery not made at all.""We had met as equals, rarely a good thing in such matters, for the woman who wishes to be the equal of a man usually turns out to be less than a man and less than a woman. A woman is herself, which is something altogether different than a man." I am stubborn, successful in my own business and independent but I love being a woman and being different from a man. In the 12th Century, I wouldn't be a sword weilding crusader!"Up to a point a man's life is shaped by environment, heredity, and movements and changes in the world about him; then there comes a time when it lies within his grasp to shape the clay of his life into the sort of thing he wishes to be. Only the weak blame parents, their race, their times, lack of good fortune, or the quirks of fate. Everyone has it within his power to say, this I am today, that I shall be tomorrow. The wish, however, must be implemented by deeds."These are lessons I want my children to learn!
What do You think about The Walking Drum (1985)?
This was the second L'Amour novel I've read, the first being The Haunted Mesa nearly a decade ago, and I have gained an enormous new respect for the author. Known primarily for his Westerns, L'Amour tackles an entirely different venue with this story that sweeps across all of Northern Europe, the Eurasian Steppes, and on down through Constantinople all the way to Persia and beyond, near the end of the 12th Century. The geography involved is as thorough and accurate as any of Mr. L'Amour's depictions of the American Southwest, and is even displayed as a map on the pages before the first chapter, in much the same fashion used by modern fantasy writers to show the details of their imagined kingdoms. In addition to the landscape, the customs, languages, and even styles of dress of the time are remarkably well-detailed and represented; also, as I'm learning should be expected in a L'Amour novel, the very names and likenesses of Emperors, nobles, and high-class individuals of the period are expertly brought into use. As a student of histories, having earned a double Bachelor's in Archaeology and Classical Civilizations, and routinely indulging my lifelong interest in Medieval times, I must admit to being humbled - Louis Dearborn L'Amour, a man who received no schooling past the age of 15 and no formal training in research, could have put my own abilities to shame.Regardless of the historical accuracy and other technical aspects of the novel, as a reader and lover of stories I was thoroughly entertained by The Walking Drum's hero, Mathurin Kerbouchard, and his adventures and endeavors. L'Amour's work exhibits that rarest of talents in an author, to present great amounts of detail and create a realistic, believable world, while simultaneously keeping the story moving at a very engaging pace. I found myself routinely intending to put down the book and take care of other things, only to continue turning the page and launching into the next chapter. Perhaps the only flaw encountered was the occasional confusion of perception: L'Amour described his own work as more in keeping with oral tradition and intended to be read aloud, likening it to stories told by traveling bards; however, this particular piece is written in the first person. The result is a feeling within the reader that you are more often experiencing Kerbouchard's trials and successes through his own eyes, but occasionally being jerked out of time to view events from the modern perspective, looking back. Still, this being the single qualm I had with the novel, and the transitions being well smoothed-over, it hardly comes close to spoiling a highly enjoyable read of an absolutely stupendous book.The Walking Drum should be on the reading list of any fan of historical fiction, any enthusiast of Crusade-era Europe, anyone who enjoys a thrilling adventure story, and, well, just about anyone else who can read.
—Jesse
L'Amour creates a hero who is not only renowned as a scholar - as a seemingly very young man - but also knows the ways of the corsairs, can fight successfully against pre-Mongol warriors whose lives ARE killing, knows more of alchemy and science than almost anyone in his world, can read and translate books in three or four languages, and knows the Druidic ways enough to sometimes foretell the future with accuracy. Oh, yeah, and every woman he comes across in his adventures happens to be exquisitely gorgeous and also falls under his spell. Kerbouchard falls in love with five women in this book. Please excuse me, Kerbouchard, if it takes me a little while to believe that the last woman you meet is ACTUALLY your lifelong love...you only knew her for about two days, right?Now for the things I liked about this book: Proficient writing, page-turning action all the way through, occasional thought-provoking declarations, and a historical background that seems accurate enough to be interesting. What I really liked was L'Amour's brief discussion and glossary of the historical terms, concepts, and people at the back. He obviously did quite a bit of research for this book, and the time and the people he writes about is fascinating, especially considering he focuses on the Middle East and East rather than Europe, which is deep in its Dark Age at this point. I just wish the protagonist was as believable as the historical setting.
—Kristy
This book was a feast of cultural history research mixed with a hero's journey. L'Amour winds his wealth of information into the story well; I never really felt overwhelmed by extras.Kerbouchard, the main character in this novel, is glorified beyond belief; even the name itself, apart from all glory won by the main character and his father, is said to have a certain ring to it. He is stronger, faster, smarter, wittier, more cultured, more adept at love and more manly than any normal man - and L'Amour makes a point of bluntly reminding you of this, often by simply stating it. If "perfect" protagonists bother you, you might want to steer clear. I personally felt the presentation of Kerbouchard and his features/abilities in such a biased light was reminiscent of heroic tales and mythos, and though it got pretty hillarious at times it didn't detract too much from the novel.
—MnemosynesCall
