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The Three Palladins
Part of the trilogy of Durandal. Originally published in 1923 in Adventure Magazine
244 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1923
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55 people want to read
About the author
Harold Lamb
127 books161 followersHarold Albert Lamb was an American historian, screenwriter, short story writer, and novelist.
Born in Alpine, New Jersey, he attended Columbia University, where his interest in the peoples and history of Asia began. Lamb built a career with his writing from an early age. He got his start in the pulp magazines, quickly moving to the prestigious Adventure magazine, his primary fiction outlet for nineteen years. In 1927 he wrote a biography of Genghis Khan, and following on its success turned more and more to the writing of non-fiction, penning numerous biographies and popular history books until his death in 1962. The success of Lamb's two volume history of the Crusades led to his discovery by Cecil B. DeMille, who employed Lamb as a technical advisor on a related movie, The Crusades, and used him as a screenwriter on many other DeMille movies thereafter. Lamb spoke French, Latin, Persian, and Arabic, and, by his own account, a smattering of Manchu-Tartar.
From Wikipedia
Born in Alpine, New Jersey, he attended Columbia University, where his interest in the peoples and history of Asia began. Lamb built a career with his writing from an early age. He got his start in the pulp magazines, quickly moving to the prestigious Adventure magazine, his primary fiction outlet for nineteen years. In 1927 he wrote a biography of Genghis Khan, and following on its success turned more and more to the writing of non-fiction, penning numerous biographies and popular history books until his death in 1962. The success of Lamb's two volume history of the Crusades led to his discovery by Cecil B. DeMille, who employed Lamb as a technical advisor on a related movie, The Crusades, and used him as a screenwriter on many other DeMille movies thereafter. Lamb spoke French, Latin, Persian, and Arabic, and, by his own account, a smattering of Manchu-Tartar.
From Wikipedia
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
March 13, 2022
I never expected to be giving five stars to a Temujin/Chinggis Khan novel from 1923. On the other hand...
Ages ago I collected Harold Lamb's bio of Chinggis Genghis Khan: Emperor of All Men, which I treated more as a curiosity piece. From our historical knowledge today its history was fairly weird. Recently I've run into a Harold Lamb expert, and learned that the bio had to be dashed off in a fortnight, while his more sustained treatment of the Mongols, March of the Barbarians, might be considered his best book. I am going to allow him that title, since he had to fight to get publishers to back his Genghis content. Said expert (Howard Andrew Jones) has pointed out to me that Genghis and Genghis-related content recurs throughout Lamb's fiction: he was quite invested in the great khan.
The Three Palladins predates the biography, but basically tells the life of Temujin from age fifteen up to the fall of the capital of North China. It first went to print in Adventure magazine, and is written in adventure style. I think he squishes Temujin's career into a series of adventures rather well, and it's a pleasure to read.
Historical accuracy? You can't expect that from history as understood in 1923, and shaped into an adventure novel besides. Be assured, though, it's no further astray from history than often a modern historical novel is, and Lamb does use source material everywhere -- in a turn of phrase, in a quote. He knows his sources.
The palladins in question are Mingan, who is not only a conflation of Yelu Chucai and another Khitan called Shimo Mingan, but also takes over many of Bo'orchu's anecdotes and is the 'first friend' in place of Bo'orchu; Subotei, who's here a gigantic reindeer-riding Tungus; and Chepe Noyon, aka Jebe. Other characters: Toghrul Khan is as Marco Polo presents him, Prester John. Jamuka, strangely enough, is a Turk and a Muslim. He's Bad Jamuka, but at least he's assigned a reason to contest Temujin other than personal ambition, a political difference. Certain people of my acquaintance won't forgive the omission of Hoelun, who is mentioned once as 'Temujin's mother' when she hands somebody a cup of milk. To compensate, Burta/Borte makes several extra-historical jaunts into the story and is an adventurer in her own right. Temujin himself is stoical, unflappable, slightly naive, truehearted, making quick decisions about people and sticking to them. He's recognisable from the sources, with many of his interpersonal actions from the Secret History of the Mongols playing out as the moral cruxes and turns of the plot -- even when the characters involved are jumbled up.
Lamb's treatment has an old world charm that I simply cannot imagine being applied to the subject in contemporary fiction. It has fed fuel to my theory that the 20th-century world wars, mostly the Second World War, had a huge effect on how Western historiography viewed Chinggis Khan. I place Lamb with Rene Grousset who wrote about his Jenghiz in the 1920s-30s. Post-war, there seems to be a break, with their pre-war attitudes inconceivable. Do I mean we Westerners conflate the Mongol wars with our world wars, and their instigator with its figures of evil? Yes, pretty much, I do, in that we can’t look at the Mongol wars without those modern world wars getting in the way, without their lens. You might put it, there is an innocence lost. Or you might wonder wtf a twentieth-century war has to do with a medieval one, and worry about false equivalences.
Ages ago I collected Harold Lamb's bio of Chinggis Genghis Khan: Emperor of All Men, which I treated more as a curiosity piece. From our historical knowledge today its history was fairly weird. Recently I've run into a Harold Lamb expert, and learned that the bio had to be dashed off in a fortnight, while his more sustained treatment of the Mongols, March of the Barbarians, might be considered his best book. I am going to allow him that title, since he had to fight to get publishers to back his Genghis content. Said expert (Howard Andrew Jones) has pointed out to me that Genghis and Genghis-related content recurs throughout Lamb's fiction: he was quite invested in the great khan.
The Three Palladins predates the biography, but basically tells the life of Temujin from age fifteen up to the fall of the capital of North China. It first went to print in Adventure magazine, and is written in adventure style. I think he squishes Temujin's career into a series of adventures rather well, and it's a pleasure to read.
Historical accuracy? You can't expect that from history as understood in 1923, and shaped into an adventure novel besides. Be assured, though, it's no further astray from history than often a modern historical novel is, and Lamb does use source material everywhere -- in a turn of phrase, in a quote. He knows his sources.
The palladins in question are Mingan, who is not only a conflation of Yelu Chucai and another Khitan called Shimo Mingan, but also takes over many of Bo'orchu's anecdotes and is the 'first friend' in place of Bo'orchu; Subotei, who's here a gigantic reindeer-riding Tungus; and Chepe Noyon, aka Jebe. Other characters: Toghrul Khan is as Marco Polo presents him, Prester John. Jamuka, strangely enough, is a Turk and a Muslim. He's Bad Jamuka, but at least he's assigned a reason to contest Temujin other than personal ambition, a political difference. Certain people of my acquaintance won't forgive the omission of Hoelun, who is mentioned once as 'Temujin's mother' when she hands somebody a cup of milk. To compensate, Burta/Borte makes several extra-historical jaunts into the story and is an adventurer in her own right. Temujin himself is stoical, unflappable, slightly naive, truehearted, making quick decisions about people and sticking to them. He's recognisable from the sources, with many of his interpersonal actions from the Secret History of the Mongols playing out as the moral cruxes and turns of the plot -- even when the characters involved are jumbled up.
Lamb's treatment has an old world charm that I simply cannot imagine being applied to the subject in contemporary fiction. It has fed fuel to my theory that the 20th-century world wars, mostly the Second World War, had a huge effect on how Western historiography viewed Chinggis Khan. I place Lamb with Rene Grousset who wrote about his Jenghiz in the 1920s-30s. Post-war, there seems to be a break, with their pre-war attitudes inconceivable. Do I mean we Westerners conflate the Mongol wars with our world wars, and their instigator with its figures of evil? Yes, pretty much, I do, in that we can’t look at the Mongol wars without those modern world wars getting in the way, without their lens. You might put it, there is an innocence lost. Or you might wonder wtf a twentieth-century war has to do with a medieval one, and worry about false equivalences.
May 2, 2016
A very nice historical fiction book. Well written and a very nice read. The characters and interesting and well developed. If you haven't discovered this pulp era writer yet this is a great 1st book. Very recommended
December 21, 2022
A nice adventure story based on the rise of Ghengis Khan. Highly recommended.
November 10, 2014
A 100 páginas del final y no he podido acabarlo. Poca acción, mucha palablería sin fin y con vocablos arcaicos. Muy pesado para un no amante de lo histórico.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews