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The Riddle and the Knight: In search of Sir John Mandeville
In 1322, Sir John Mandeville left England on an extraordinary thirty-four year voyage. He returned and wrote a book claiming it was possible to circumnavigate the globe.
For centuries none doubted Sir John, and many regarded him, not Chaucer, as the father of English prose.
But in the nineteenth century, sceptics questioned his voyage and suspected that he never left England at all. They said that The Travels was a work of imaginative fiction.
The Riddle and the Knight unearths clues about Mandeville's voyage and reveals the The Travels is built upon a series of riddles which have, until now, remained unsolved.
The Riddle and the Knight draws on Sir John Mandeville's Travels and the accounts of contemporary adventurers to bring the hitherto unexplored areas of the medieval world vividly to life.
For centuries none doubted Sir John, and many regarded him, not Chaucer, as the father of English prose.
But in the nineteenth century, sceptics questioned his voyage and suspected that he never left England at all. They said that The Travels was a work of imaginative fiction.
The Riddle and the Knight unearths clues about Mandeville's voyage and reveals the The Travels is built upon a series of riddles which have, until now, remained unsolved.
The Riddle and the Knight draws on Sir John Mandeville's Travels and the accounts of contemporary adventurers to bring the hitherto unexplored areas of the medieval world vividly to life.
291 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1996
32 people are currently reading
434 people want to read
About the author
Giles Milton
40 books587 followersBritish writer and journalist Giles Milton was born in Buckinghamshire in 1966. He has contributed articles for most of the British national newspapers as well as many foreign publications, and specializes in the history of travel and exploration. In the course of his researches, he has traveled extensively in Europe, the Middle East, Japan and the Far East, and the Americas.
Knowledgeable, insatiably curious and entertaining, Milton locates history's most fascinating—and most overlooked—stories and brings them to life in his books.
He lives in London, where he is a member of the Hakluyt Society, which is dedicated to reprinting the works of explorers and adventurers in scholarly editions, some of which he uses in his research. He wrote most of Samurai William in the London Library, where he loves the "huge reading room, large Victorian desks and creaking armchairs". At home and while traveling, he is ever on the lookout for new untold stories. Apparently he began researching the life of Sir John Mandeville for his book The Riddle and the Knight after Mandeville’s book Travels "literally fell off the shelf of a Paris bookstore" in which he was browsing.
Copyright BookBrowse.com 2007
Knowledgeable, insatiably curious and entertaining, Milton locates history's most fascinating—and most overlooked—stories and brings them to life in his books.
He lives in London, where he is a member of the Hakluyt Society, which is dedicated to reprinting the works of explorers and adventurers in scholarly editions, some of which he uses in his research. He wrote most of Samurai William in the London Library, where he loves the "huge reading room, large Victorian desks and creaking armchairs". At home and while traveling, he is ever on the lookout for new untold stories. Apparently he began researching the life of Sir John Mandeville for his book The Riddle and the Knight after Mandeville’s book Travels "literally fell off the shelf of a Paris bookstore" in which he was browsing.
Copyright BookBrowse.com 2007
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 77 reviews
October 14, 2020
If he really existed Sir John Mandeville was once one of the most influential authors in all of Christendom. His book of 'Travels', in he which detailed his 34 year pilgrimage (1322-56) through the Near East, Middle East and Far East, was published shortly after his return home. When first published only a few Europeans had ever visited or knew anything about these regions, meaning that his tales of fantastic animals and of the legendary characters seemed highly plausible. In fact, Shakespeare is said to have influenced by it whilst Christopher Columbus and Sir Walter Raleigh are purported to have used it as justification for their own journeys of exploration.
However as more and more Europeans began to visit these places many found Mandeville's more colourful observations quite fanciful. Similarly literary critics realised that great swaths of the book had been lifted from the writings of others, whilst this practice that was quite common at the time, it allowed his critics to sow further doubts over its truthfulness. In fact over the intervening centuries many of his harshest critics questioned whether or not he actually existed let alone travelled abroad.
Giles Milton became captivated with Mandeville and his writing and so sets out retrace Mandeville's journey, whether real or fictional, from Constantinople to Cyprus, to Syria, Jerusalem and the Sinai recounting his own adventures and misadventures along.
Given that the original book was written over 500 years ago it is quite amazing how many of the sites that Mandeville "visited" still exist and that in nearly every one of them is a monk from England. Gradually, Milton builds a case for both the genuine existence of Sir John and for the authenticity of his travels throughout the Near and Middle East but even he dismisses the idea that Mandeville ever visited the Far East as he claimed. Rather he sees this section of the book as a crafty dig at how Christians treated these so-called infidels.
Milton's enthusiasm for Sir John and his writing shines through, his solution seems well argued and plausible yet somehow I was left feeling rather confused as how to regard this particular book. Should I take it as a piece of historical research or as a modern day travelogue? Overall an interesting read but not a particularly riveting one.
However as more and more Europeans began to visit these places many found Mandeville's more colourful observations quite fanciful. Similarly literary critics realised that great swaths of the book had been lifted from the writings of others, whilst this practice that was quite common at the time, it allowed his critics to sow further doubts over its truthfulness. In fact over the intervening centuries many of his harshest critics questioned whether or not he actually existed let alone travelled abroad.
Giles Milton became captivated with Mandeville and his writing and so sets out retrace Mandeville's journey, whether real or fictional, from Constantinople to Cyprus, to Syria, Jerusalem and the Sinai recounting his own adventures and misadventures along.
Given that the original book was written over 500 years ago it is quite amazing how many of the sites that Mandeville "visited" still exist and that in nearly every one of them is a monk from England. Gradually, Milton builds a case for both the genuine existence of Sir John and for the authenticity of his travels throughout the Near and Middle East but even he dismisses the idea that Mandeville ever visited the Far East as he claimed. Rather he sees this section of the book as a crafty dig at how Christians treated these so-called infidels.
Milton's enthusiasm for Sir John and his writing shines through, his solution seems well argued and plausible yet somehow I was left feeling rather confused as how to regard this particular book. Should I take it as a piece of historical research or as a modern day travelogue? Overall an interesting read but not a particularly riveting one.
May 7, 2017
You may have heard long ago about mediaeval European beliefs concerned cyclopes, monopedes and dog-faced men thought to inhabit the antipodes--or perhaps you recall references in the short fiction of Borges. In any case, the source for much of this was one Sir John Mandeville, an English adventurer of the 14th century whose account of travels to the East has had considerable impact on English letters and early European geography.
Little is known of Mandeville. Some have even doubted his existence. Author Milton has done some research, tracing portions of his purported journeys and has come up with some plausible theories concerning the man and the purpose of his writing. But this isn't biography, it's a travel book, amusingly written, albeit slight and sketchy.
Little is known of Mandeville. Some have even doubted his existence. Author Milton has done some research, tracing portions of his purported journeys and has come up with some plausible theories concerning the man and the purpose of his writing. But this isn't biography, it's a travel book, amusingly written, albeit slight and sketchy.
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September 14, 2017John Mandeville's 14th century account of his travels inspired Columbus, Frobisher and Ralegh, but as the world opened up, all those giants and dog-headed men saw him increasingly dismissed as a fraud who'd likely never got further than France. Milton sets out to prove otherwise...and oh joy, is it really 20 years now that non-fiction has been lumbered with the Personal Journey? Helped by being a travel journalist, Milton follows the trail through the Mediterranean and Middle East, offering such startling observations as: the rooms were a bit grubby! and: if you turn up in a town off the beaten track hoping to be directed to historical obscurities, you may have difficulty finding somebody helpful! Well, thanks for those invaluable insights, Giles. The only merit of these sections is accidental and melancholy; minority religious communities in Syria, for instance, may not have been having the best time in 1996, but we all know now that things were about to get a lot worse. Milton does manage a bit of decent historical detective work along the way, which would have made for a nice long essay maybe a third of this page count. But then after the Holy Land, where - aided by a bit of legerdemain - Milton concludes that the first part of the Travels is basically legit, one can only presume that the expensed journeys dried up. The second part of the Travels - which is to say, the interesting stuff, the marvels and monsters - are apparently a satire! Appended to a serious travel book why, exactly? Also, they're a series of minor misunderstandings (dog-faced men = baboons, &c)! Also, the bit about about the world being circumnavigable inspired Mercator et al, so was that true, or a really lucky guess? Milton offers no conclusion. There's a great story there about how, as so often, fantasies laid the road for real discoveries...but Milton is far too prosaic* to tell it. So instead his story ends in a morass of self-contradiction. Never before has a cover recommendation from John Julius Norwich sent me so far wrong.
*An accusation he himself levels at Marco Polo, of all people.
*An accusation he himself levels at Marco Polo, of all people.
November 15, 2019
Loved this fascinating history research of a very old travel guide. More on Bookwinked at: https://bookwinked.wordpress.com/2019...
February 16, 2020
There is some very interesting information in this book. Unfortunately, you have to read this book to get it. The set-up for this supposed History book is fantastic. There was a knight in the Middle Ages who wrote an amazingly popular book, considered (until the Victorians did their darnedest to re-write history) to be the "father of English" before that honor was given to Chaucer. The book he wrote chronicled his adventures into the Holy Land and beyond, to India, to China, and even to Sumatra. But, was it real?
Great. I'm in. Let's do a deep dive into Medieval knights, travel, literature, politics, etc. Yes. Let's go.
Alas, no. What we get is a kind of haphazard travel journal of a decidedly British (in the worst way) man, with a few seemingly random observations on the knight in question, Sir John, and the whys and wherefores of his writing of The Travels. The author's classically British xenophobia drips from almost every page when he writes about...well, nearly everyone not British (occasionally he's not completely dismissive or outright hostile to a few non-Brits who have the decency to still be Anglicans).
I could maybe (maybe!) put aside the condescending, patronizing, or straight-up racist depictions of nearly everyone he meets if maybe the book managed to feel like a thorough and well researched look at the subject. Yet this feels like someone asked Rick Steves to do a biography of Charlemagne. Wasn't there ANYone better to do the job?
Somewhere around the mid-point, I was half expecting the author to up and say "Ha! Fooled you! I never actually did any of the traveling or researching I talked about. I made it all up, just like Sir John."
In the end, Sir John comes out seeming like a really interesting person that I'd love to see a better historian explore, and the story of his book, The Travels, and its long (world changing) shadow is impressive. Even the author's ultimate interpretation of The Travels, its veracity, etc. is intriguing. I simply don't think it was well argued.
The subject deserves better.
Great. I'm in. Let's do a deep dive into Medieval knights, travel, literature, politics, etc. Yes. Let's go.
Alas, no. What we get is a kind of haphazard travel journal of a decidedly British (in the worst way) man, with a few seemingly random observations on the knight in question, Sir John, and the whys and wherefores of his writing of The Travels. The author's classically British xenophobia drips from almost every page when he writes about...well, nearly everyone not British (occasionally he's not completely dismissive or outright hostile to a few non-Brits who have the decency to still be Anglicans).
I could maybe (maybe!) put aside the condescending, patronizing, or straight-up racist depictions of nearly everyone he meets if maybe the book managed to feel like a thorough and well researched look at the subject. Yet this feels like someone asked Rick Steves to do a biography of Charlemagne. Wasn't there ANYone better to do the job?
Somewhere around the mid-point, I was half expecting the author to up and say "Ha! Fooled you! I never actually did any of the traveling or researching I talked about. I made it all up, just like Sir John."
In the end, Sir John comes out seeming like a really interesting person that I'd love to see a better historian explore, and the story of his book, The Travels, and its long (world changing) shadow is impressive. Even the author's ultimate interpretation of The Travels, its veracity, etc. is intriguing. I simply don't think it was well argued.
The subject deserves better.
August 20, 2019
It's surprising to read a book that goes into the detailed history of a book that I haven't read, but not to worry...
The Travels of Sir John Mandeville is a mediaeval travelogue unlike any other. It starts off well enough, as a guide-cum-memoir of a trip to the Holy Land in the mid 14th century. But then it continues, with the protagonist travelling to India, Java, China, and beyond, meeting and describing – in the same reasonable voice as previously – a range of people and creatures straight out of a mediaeval bestiary. The question has always been: what's going on? Is the whole thing a fraud? An elaborate satire? A prank? That these questions exist for what was, at one time, the single most-read book in the English language is a huge challenge.
Milton doesn't exactly nail the solution: that's probably impossible after all this time. But he does do some heroic research both in the archive and in the real world. In the former, he traces many of the original sources from which Mandeville (if indeed this is the author: even his identity is disputed and mysterious) derived some of his stories, and shows how he elaborated them far beyond what any mere copyist would do. In the latter he find confirmation for elements in the Travels that have been perplexing, including (for example) verifying that Mandeville's descriptions of certain statues in Constantinople, while now wrong, were correct for the dates he claimed to be there. Some of the most dramatic scenes occur in St Catherine's monastery in Sinai, difficult to reach even now, where Milton searches through Crusader graffiti looking for a Mandeville coat of arms, as well as viewing manuscripts that have remained untouched for over a thousand years.
Altogether this is literary history of the highest order. While it remains tantalisingly un-definitive, it adds extra layers to the reading of the Travels, which is at the top of my holiday reading list.
The Travels of Sir John Mandeville is a mediaeval travelogue unlike any other. It starts off well enough, as a guide-cum-memoir of a trip to the Holy Land in the mid 14th century. But then it continues, with the protagonist travelling to India, Java, China, and beyond, meeting and describing – in the same reasonable voice as previously – a range of people and creatures straight out of a mediaeval bestiary. The question has always been: what's going on? Is the whole thing a fraud? An elaborate satire? A prank? That these questions exist for what was, at one time, the single most-read book in the English language is a huge challenge.
Milton doesn't exactly nail the solution: that's probably impossible after all this time. But he does do some heroic research both in the archive and in the real world. In the former, he traces many of the original sources from which Mandeville (if indeed this is the author: even his identity is disputed and mysterious) derived some of his stories, and shows how he elaborated them far beyond what any mere copyist would do. In the latter he find confirmation for elements in the Travels that have been perplexing, including (for example) verifying that Mandeville's descriptions of certain statues in Constantinople, while now wrong, were correct for the dates he claimed to be there. Some of the most dramatic scenes occur in St Catherine's monastery in Sinai, difficult to reach even now, where Milton searches through Crusader graffiti looking for a Mandeville coat of arms, as well as viewing manuscripts that have remained untouched for over a thousand years.
Altogether this is literary history of the highest order. While it remains tantalisingly un-definitive, it adds extra layers to the reading of the Travels, which is at the top of my holiday reading list.
April 17, 2019
I loved this book! I’ve previously read the author’s Nathaniel’s Nutmeg, so had a pretty good idea of what to expect from his writing, and he didn’t disappoint.
The story of Sir John Mandeville’s book The Travels, published in 1357, has intrigued people for centuries. Did he really tour Europe and Asia for 34 years? Did he really reach China? Did he even exist?
Giles Milton follows in the enigmatic knight’s footsteps as far as the Sinai peninsula (via Turkey, Cyprus, Syria, and Israel), comparing his account with those of contemporary historians and with what modern-day proof is still available, in an attempt to determine how much truth The Travels really held, if any. Intermingled with the description of Milton’s journey, are what few snippets are known about John Mandeville’s life, plus an insight into the lives of people he meets on his own voyage.
I very much enjoy Giles Milton’s writing: he manages to be present without dominating the narrative, and in The Riddle and the Knight he strikes an excellent balance between a travelogue and a history book.
The story of Sir John Mandeville’s book The Travels, published in 1357, has intrigued people for centuries. Did he really tour Europe and Asia for 34 years? Did he really reach China? Did he even exist?
Giles Milton follows in the enigmatic knight’s footsteps as far as the Sinai peninsula (via Turkey, Cyprus, Syria, and Israel), comparing his account with those of contemporary historians and with what modern-day proof is still available, in an attempt to determine how much truth The Travels really held, if any. Intermingled with the description of Milton’s journey, are what few snippets are known about John Mandeville’s life, plus an insight into the lives of people he meets on his own voyage.
I very much enjoy Giles Milton’s writing: he manages to be present without dominating the narrative, and in The Riddle and the Knight he strikes an excellent balance between a travelogue and a history book.
March 1, 2009
Sir John Mandeville was the basis for Baron Von Munchausen, due to his stories in his book.
Giles goes on a journey to some off the places as discribed in Mandevilles book, and finds enough evidence to suggest the he actually made it to the Holy land.
You really can go an find graffiti from the times of the Crusades, in some of the monasteries there.
The book opens with Giles visiting the cathedral in St Albans, and seeing a dedication to Sir John.
As I was working only 5 minutes away I went to have a look, but the staff I spoke to never seemed to have noticed it.
You go in the main that is closest to the Centre of St Albans, you will enter at the back of the Cathedral, looking towards the Altar. Take a few steps forward , and look to your left at 10'clock, and there should be the first column, and about 4m up, you can see the inscription, written in black paint, on a white background.
Giles goes on a journey to some off the places as discribed in Mandevilles book, and finds enough evidence to suggest the he actually made it to the Holy land.
You really can go an find graffiti from the times of the Crusades, in some of the monasteries there.
The book opens with Giles visiting the cathedral in St Albans, and seeing a dedication to Sir John.
As I was working only 5 minutes away I went to have a look, but the staff I spoke to never seemed to have noticed it.
You go in the main that is closest to the Centre of St Albans, you will enter at the back of the Cathedral, looking towards the Altar. Take a few steps forward , and look to your left at 10'clock, and there should be the first column, and about 4m up, you can see the inscription, written in black paint, on a white background.
January 31, 2008
Milton's first historical book. An account of his trail of Sir John Mandeville, whose Travels are widely believed to be wholly made up. Of Milton's books to date, this is the least interesting as far as I'm concerned. He is a good writer and spins a good tale from his evidence, but ultimately this was unrewarding. Samurai William and Nathaniel's Nutmeg bear little comparison with this early effort. Both are far superior to this and well worth reading. For the truly intrigued only I would say. Mandeville's Travels are worth reading though so don't let this have put you off doing so if you've read this but not the book by the author Milton tracks.
January 10, 2025
The Riddle and the Knight is a light, enjoyable read about the author trying to vindicate the life and tale of Sir John Mandeville. Not only does Milton find proof that Sir John could have at least travelled to the Middle East, but he also unearths the possibility of The Travels (Sir John Mandeville's book) not being a Itinerary of the Medieval knight's life but a sermon or moralistic story, turning the mirror on the christian to show how much he is like the savages (of the east). If Giles Milton is right in assuming he was a clerk, this form of literature would have fit the knight exactly.
March 22, 2025
Milton might not find the clue that leads him to the real Sir John Mandeville, but he does help us peel back the layers of myth and legend to get a tiny bit closer.
July 6, 2024
Good fun, part history- part travelogue.
January 22, 2025
Interesting journey following Sir John’s footsteps. The personal experiences of the author helped to give the book narrative.
December 21, 2020
An amazing book(The Riddle and the Knight: In Search of Sir John Mandeville) that descries author's journey persuing the route taken by the famous knight of the mediaeval era, Sir John Mandeville, who wrote 'The Travels'; to check how much true was Mandeville in his statements regarding his journey from Constantinople to Cyprus, further to Syria, Jerusalem, Sinai desert and far East till he claimed to reach China after crossing India.
The author, definitely, included his own feelings, memories, description of places as well as comments.
In the beginning, I found Giles Milton (the author), somhow little bit biased (people may differ with me), while he criticised upon Istanbul's Muslim government or former governing authorities, the Ottoman Sultans. But later he seemed to describe impartially about Muslims ruling in Syria in that era, also describing their great architectural works. He also mentions Prophet Hazrat Muhammad (S.A.W) and 2nd caliph in Islam, Hazrat Omar Farooq(R.A).
This was an interesting read that I enjoyed very much!
The author, definitely, included his own feelings, memories, description of places as well as comments.
In the beginning, I found Giles Milton (the author), somhow little bit biased (people may differ with me), while he criticised upon Istanbul's Muslim government or former governing authorities, the Ottoman Sultans. But later he seemed to describe impartially about Muslims ruling in Syria in that era, also describing their great architectural works. He also mentions Prophet Hazrat Muhammad (S.A.W) and 2nd caliph in Islam, Hazrat Omar Farooq(R.A).
This was an interesting read that I enjoyed very much!
October 7, 2015
This is an interesting but curious mix of history, biography, travel writing, and journalism that entertains but does not quite fit comfortably or excel in any of these genres, written about a subject (a 14th-century travel writer whose existence, as well as some of his claimed journeys, is disputed) that intrigues, but does not enthral. Mandeville himself works as a peg on which Milton manages to hang a number of hats; and, while the extent of the author's research both in the library, and in the countries to which Mandeville travelled, is impressive, he is aided a remarkable number of times by happening to be in the right place at the right time to meet just the right person who can give him the information he needs to take the next step in his journey of discovery. Given that this is a book about a writer of tales, some of which may be a little taller than others, this is probably as it should be.
January 25, 2019
I bought this book more interested by the history of Sir John Mandeville than by Milton's travel writing, and was therefore somewhat disappointed. It is very readable, but focuses much more on Milton's attempt to follow Mandeville's footsteps than on the history and writing of the man himself. Given that so much time has elapsed and that so much of Mandeville's book was fiction or plagiarism in the first place, it isn't that surprising that Milton didn't find very much trace of him on his journey and ended up with a travel book with a history sideline. That said, Milton's conclusions on how far Mandeville actually travelled (I won't spoil it!) are probably better researched and evidenced than anyone else's view on the subject. The last chapter is also very effective in describing Mandeville's lasting impact on literature and explorers.
July 20, 2015
Milton takes what could be a dry and academic subject -- following the religious pilgrimage of 14th cen. knight, Sir John Mandeville -- and turns out an incredible story. This is a good mystery, as Milton traces Sir John's footsteps and tests the knight's veracity against all forms of available evidence. When recounting his experiences at holy sites, Milton strikes a good balance between kindness and skepticism. It's true that this book has some structural awkwardness (is it a travelogue or not?) and sometimes meanders away from Sir John's story, but Milton's truly great writing is what matters. Highly recommend.
August 23, 2020
Giles Milton goes on a long road trip to discover if John Mandeville visited at least some of the places he wrote about in his book. Unfortunately, Milton gives very unflattering descriptions to most of the non-English people he meets. Such racist characterisation would not be acceptable in today's progressive culture. Some readers might find his travels interesting, but to me, they seem like a privileged person taking his own leisure time to visit places the rest of us can never go because we lack the right connections or are simply not born in the right first world country. Finally, he never really answers the 'riddle' in the title of the book.
February 8, 2009
Is this a travel book, or a history book? Its not clear if even the author knows. Milton follows in the footsteps of Sir John Mandeville, 14th century world traveller, or possibly charlatan. In fact, so little is known about Sir John that there is some doubt that he existed at all, so the footsteps are very faint and often seem a weak excuse to travel the middle east. But the result is OK and on a par with many similar "micro-histories" written by journalists.
December 18, 2015
In the 13th century, Sir John Mandeville wrote a book about his travels in the Middle East and Asia. He described fantastical creatures and strange human habits that he was witness to but was he just a fabulist. Milton sets off in Mandeville's footsteps to try and uncover the truth. This was quite amusing in parts and rather informative. At times, Milton is terribly British which is sort of endearing.
May 31, 2019
A bit disappointing. It is an easy and fun read, but it feels like that on the subject matter of John Mandeville there is just not enough substance to fill a book. That’s why it’s padded with a lot of personal travel anecdotes of the author and for me this doesn’t work. Some interesting tidbits of history, but that’s about it. Still, I liked his writing style enough to try another one of his books to see if it is better again!
May 17, 2014
An amusing and simple enough book, in which the author visits some of the locations in Mandeville's The Travels, and tables various research to determine whether Mandeville really travelled there, or whether the book is made up, or plagiarised from other contemporary accounts.
April 23, 2024
The greatest and most influential traveller you have never heard of, a man who travelled across the Middle East, into Africa, through Asia and on into the Pacific. Most people in the west will have heard of Marco Polo but few will have heard of his near contemporary Sir John Mandeville. That is because although he wrote a phenomenally successful book (in medieval terms) and was well known for several centuries his account was debunked in the 19th century and sunk into obscurity. In the Riddle and the Knight Giles Milton attempts to unpick how much of Mandeville’s travels may actually have occurred. To sift fables and tall tales from real history. In the process he dives into how people in the middle ages wrote books and investigates what may actually have been possible.
If you are someone who thinks of normal people in the past - say pre-invention of railways, or further back pre-columbian era exploration - as staying pretty much in one place then this book may be eye opening into how much someone in the middle ages could travel. It also presents insights into what Mandeville thought of other civilisations and cultures.
I can't say I am particularly taken with travelogues in the disguise of history books. Adding a travel element to a history book often seems pointless; often the infrastructure, and even the culture will have significantly changed. It also nearly always cuts into the narrative to move from history to current place and back. Fortunately that is not the case here. While it does roughly follow the structure, and so journey, of Mandeville’s own book The Riddle and the Knight does not really have a historical narrative element to cut into. When it comes to decoding someone else’s travels following their footsteps is very much a sensible approach. The element of detective work investigating whether Mandeville actually visited a place also fits. That said if just looking for a history or the narrative of a journey in the [13th Century] then this does considerably constrain the proportion of the book spent on these elements.
In terms of the content the biggest disappointment for me was how focused Milton was on the middle eastern part of Mandeville’s journey. The more fantastical East Asian and Pacific parts are much less well covered despite Milton showing there are parts of it that may well not have been made up despite the medieval style tales of monstrous humans. However, it is understandable that the more detailed parts where we know dates and specific locations are easier to go about investigating. But it does present a problem in then ignoring these elements from the investigation which is a limiting factor to it.
Milton’s writing style is light and breezy making it a nice easy read. I am not always the fastest of readers but got through it very quickly. It is also not a very long book.
A good quick read on a figure you may well not have heard of before. Particularly in the era before the printing press when we mostly know about Kings, Queens, and Popes (and saints) it is always nice to get a book about a relatively normal person doing extraordinary things. The riddle and the knight provides an riveting investigation into the existence, or otherwise, of Sir John.
If you are someone who thinks of normal people in the past - say pre-invention of railways, or further back pre-columbian era exploration - as staying pretty much in one place then this book may be eye opening into how much someone in the middle ages could travel. It also presents insights into what Mandeville thought of other civilisations and cultures.
I can't say I am particularly taken with travelogues in the disguise of history books. Adding a travel element to a history book often seems pointless; often the infrastructure, and even the culture will have significantly changed. It also nearly always cuts into the narrative to move from history to current place and back. Fortunately that is not the case here. While it does roughly follow the structure, and so journey, of Mandeville’s own book The Riddle and the Knight does not really have a historical narrative element to cut into. When it comes to decoding someone else’s travels following their footsteps is very much a sensible approach. The element of detective work investigating whether Mandeville actually visited a place also fits. That said if just looking for a history or the narrative of a journey in the [13th Century] then this does considerably constrain the proportion of the book spent on these elements.
In terms of the content the biggest disappointment for me was how focused Milton was on the middle eastern part of Mandeville’s journey. The more fantastical East Asian and Pacific parts are much less well covered despite Milton showing there are parts of it that may well not have been made up despite the medieval style tales of monstrous humans. However, it is understandable that the more detailed parts where we know dates and specific locations are easier to go about investigating. But it does present a problem in then ignoring these elements from the investigation which is a limiting factor to it.
Milton’s writing style is light and breezy making it a nice easy read. I am not always the fastest of readers but got through it very quickly. It is also not a very long book.
A good quick read on a figure you may well not have heard of before. Particularly in the era before the printing press when we mostly know about Kings, Queens, and Popes (and saints) it is always nice to get a book about a relatively normal person doing extraordinary things. The riddle and the knight provides an riveting investigation into the existence, or otherwise, of Sir John.
February 6, 2023
I admit that I was disappointed in this book and would give it 2.5 stars. The writing was good and the subject matter was interesting, but the tone was incongruous with modern sensibilities and the research of further afield (aside from that which was clearly of personal interest to the author) was lacklustre.
The synopsis talks of a phenomenal tale of a medieval knight who supposedly circumnavigated the globe a century before Christopher Columbus set out to discover the alternative route to India. I was fascinated by this idea, particularly given that he refers to far-flung places such as China and Malaysia, (although clearly he can't have got to Australasia or the Americas). I was interested to know more about what Mandeville actually said and where, if he circumnavigated, he departed from and arrived back to but Giles Milton doesn't discuss this, nor even mention it (if my memory is correct).
There were a few things which frustrated me with this book, the primary of which was the bias Milton seemed to show towards Christians and against Muslims. While at no stage does he outwardly say anything Islamophobic, the whole tone of the book was one of general positivity towards the historical Christians, and even the Crusades, and general negativity towards historical Muslims. He didn't seem to realise how hypocritical he was being at times when defending the actions of the Crusaders and yet talking about the barbarism of Muslim rulers.
Casual racism aside, I appreciated the amount of effort that Milton went into to research Mandeville's life and how honest he was about the difficulties of knowing for sure whether the Mandeville he was reading about was the same he was interested in. The thorough research, and his explanations of the research he undertook, up until the Sinai desert section were the saving grace of The Riddle and the Knight and it's thanks to this that I read the book pretty quickly. What was frustrating was how he only seemed to deem certain places Mandeville supposedly visited as worth researching, and I suspect that those were the specific places that Milton himself was interested in visiting. Why did Milton go no further than the Sinai Desert? Why is the entirety of the second half of Mandeville's account relegated to only 23 pages? Milton could have been more honest and open about this and declared that he didn't think Mandeville had travelled there and that the he himself wasn't interested in travelling there. It's presented in the book as a brief "either/or" scenario which I think is disingenuous.
Perhaps I didn't appreciate that Milton's goal in undertaking the research and writing the book was to ascertain whether Mandeville really had travelled to all these places; for me, the appeal was more in Medieval perceptions of other cultures and I would have liked more of the book to focus on The Travels rather than Milton's perceptions of these cultures and places. Perhaps in a few hundred years, The Riddle and The Knight will in itself be interesting for its 20th century perceptions.
All-in-all, I was disappointed with the book particularly given the grand claims and "click-bait style" synopsis:
...bestselling historian Giles Milton unearths clues about Mandeville's journey and reveals that The Travels is built upon a series of riddles which have, until now, remained unsolved.
Is it?! Has it now been solved?! Not in my opinion.
The synopsis talks of a phenomenal tale of a medieval knight who supposedly circumnavigated the globe a century before Christopher Columbus set out to discover the alternative route to India. I was fascinated by this idea, particularly given that he refers to far-flung places such as China and Malaysia, (although clearly he can't have got to Australasia or the Americas). I was interested to know more about what Mandeville actually said and where, if he circumnavigated, he departed from and arrived back to but Giles Milton doesn't discuss this, nor even mention it (if my memory is correct).
There were a few things which frustrated me with this book, the primary of which was the bias Milton seemed to show towards Christians and against Muslims. While at no stage does he outwardly say anything Islamophobic, the whole tone of the book was one of general positivity towards the historical Christians, and even the Crusades, and general negativity towards historical Muslims. He didn't seem to realise how hypocritical he was being at times when defending the actions of the Crusaders and yet talking about the barbarism of Muslim rulers.
Casual racism aside, I appreciated the amount of effort that Milton went into to research Mandeville's life and how honest he was about the difficulties of knowing for sure whether the Mandeville he was reading about was the same he was interested in. The thorough research, and his explanations of the research he undertook, up until the Sinai desert section were the saving grace of The Riddle and the Knight and it's thanks to this that I read the book pretty quickly. What was frustrating was how he only seemed to deem certain places Mandeville supposedly visited as worth researching, and I suspect that those were the specific places that Milton himself was interested in visiting. Why did Milton go no further than the Sinai Desert? Why is the entirety of the second half of Mandeville's account relegated to only 23 pages? Milton could have been more honest and open about this and declared that he didn't think Mandeville had travelled there and that the he himself wasn't interested in travelling there. It's presented in the book as a brief "either/or" scenario which I think is disingenuous.
Perhaps I didn't appreciate that Milton's goal in undertaking the research and writing the book was to ascertain whether Mandeville really had travelled to all these places; for me, the appeal was more in Medieval perceptions of other cultures and I would have liked more of the book to focus on The Travels rather than Milton's perceptions of these cultures and places. Perhaps in a few hundred years, The Riddle and The Knight will in itself be interesting for its 20th century perceptions.
All-in-all, I was disappointed with the book particularly given the grand claims and "click-bait style" synopsis:
...bestselling historian Giles Milton unearths clues about Mandeville's journey and reveals that The Travels is built upon a series of riddles which have, until now, remained unsolved.
Is it?! Has it now been solved?! Not in my opinion.
March 30, 2021
During my school years in England in the 1960s I heard many tales of the exploits of Raleigh, Drake, Frobisher, Magellan, Columbus and the like but never the name of John Mandeville. So it was of great interest to me to learn of this intrepid knight who took of on a journey to distant lands and wrote what became the iconic travelogue for many years after. As the author points out it seems doubtful that he actually did travel to the Far East, but rather plagiarized sections from other writers who actually did travel to India and China. Nevertheless, it seems that he did indeed visit the Holy Land and St. Catherine's monastery in Sinai. The author traced his footsteps to those locations and while he can't find actual traces of Mandeville there, Mandeville's detailed descriptions would seem to offer veracity to his claims of being there. Surprisingly, at the end of the day, Mandeville's greatest contribution to exploration was that his writings inspired many of those others listed above to set out on explorations of their own. In fact it was a copy of Mandeville's book, given to the King and Queen of Spain, that got Columbus the backing he needed for his venture. This was both a fascinating piece of historical detective work and also an interesting travelogue at the same time.
April 20, 2023
Seriously a great book. It was about a guy who tracked sir John mandevilles supposed travels across the known world. Sir John was supposedly a knight who spend 34ish years away from st albans England (where he was buried supposedly too) and went to Cyprus, Syria, Jerusalem, the Sinai desert, China, India, Sumatra, Java and maybe more places. He likely did go as far as the Sinai desert to st Catherines. The proof he showed was consistent and didn’t have mistakes and he did explain right things he would’ve seen during the time. The author tracked him and tried to find the correct John mandeville but as he was alive, the author dates, from 1290s to the 1360s then he found out he likely was real and likely traveled to Jerusalem. The evidence for China and the east is a lot different and not true because he lifted a lot from other sources about those places and it was wrong a lot of the time but the China and east part of sir Johns book is a different format than the first half. It is a huge juxtaposition. But I will eventually read his book “the travels” but this book was super good and the authors interactions with people who were helping him find clues was amazing. Short, quick and fun read.
4.5/5
4.5/5
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 5, 2023
An unanswerable riddle
For hundreds of years the travels of Sir John Mandeville veered from inspirational to dubious. Some doubted the man's existence, never mind his travels. One man was able to muddy the waters by claiming that Sir John came from Liège rather than from England. Now the only potential proof of his existence is a barely visible inscription in St. Albans cathedral.
Giles Milton wanted to see if he could prove that Sir John Mandeville had existed and whether he had travelled to the places that he claimed to have visited. To that end Milton visited various locations in the Near and Middle East. He also did a lot of research in the UK, comparing Mandeville's writing with that of other medieval travellers. What he found doesn't answer the riddle, but I didn't really expect it to. I won't talk about Milton's conclusions (spoilers!) but his journey to reach those conclusions is an interesting one. It was also interesting to read how Mandeville's writing inspired other travellers, including Christopher Columbus.
A fair attempt to solve an unanswerable riddle.
For hundreds of years the travels of Sir John Mandeville veered from inspirational to dubious. Some doubted the man's existence, never mind his travels. One man was able to muddy the waters by claiming that Sir John came from Liège rather than from England. Now the only potential proof of his existence is a barely visible inscription in St. Albans cathedral.
Giles Milton wanted to see if he could prove that Sir John Mandeville had existed and whether he had travelled to the places that he claimed to have visited. To that end Milton visited various locations in the Near and Middle East. He also did a lot of research in the UK, comparing Mandeville's writing with that of other medieval travellers. What he found doesn't answer the riddle, but I didn't really expect it to. I won't talk about Milton's conclusions (spoilers!) but his journey to reach those conclusions is an interesting one. It was also interesting to read how Mandeville's writing inspired other travellers, including Christopher Columbus.
A fair attempt to solve an unanswerable riddle.
April 1, 2018
En 1322, Sir John Mandeville aurait quitté l'Angleterre pour entreprendre un pèlerinage de 34 ans. A son retour, il écrivit le récit de ses aventures ('The Travels'), affirmant ainsi qu'il serait possible de faire le tour du monde...
Giles Milton nous embarque à travers sa quête de vérité, à savoir si les récits de Sir John Mandeville tels que racontés dans son livre 'The Travels' sont réels ou pures fantaisie.
C'est avec une écriture simple et dénuée de toutes fioritures, que l'auteur nous plonge dans son enquête, nous faisant voyager à travers le temps et les lieux.
Une quête de vérité, mais aussi de connaissances s'offre ainsi au lecteur, qui féru d'histoire et d'anecdotes sera comblé.
Lire ce livre en 2018, alors qu'il a été publié pour la première fois en 1996, nous ramène indubitablement à la réalité de notre monde actuel, où les lieux visités par Sir John Mandeville en son temps et par Giles Milton ont hélas beaucoup changé.
Giles Milton nous embarque à travers sa quête de vérité, à savoir si les récits de Sir John Mandeville tels que racontés dans son livre 'The Travels' sont réels ou pures fantaisie.
C'est avec une écriture simple et dénuée de toutes fioritures, que l'auteur nous plonge dans son enquête, nous faisant voyager à travers le temps et les lieux.
Une quête de vérité, mais aussi de connaissances s'offre ainsi au lecteur, qui féru d'histoire et d'anecdotes sera comblé.
Lire ce livre en 2018, alors qu'il a été publié pour la première fois en 1996, nous ramène indubitablement à la réalité de notre monde actuel, où les lieux visités par Sir John Mandeville en son temps et par Giles Milton ont hélas beaucoup changé.
February 10, 2022
This book was a lot of fun to read through! It's a bit different from the other books by Giles Milton because it's partly autobiographical, narrating his travels and his digs through archives to find the man who wrote one of the most important pieces of English literature. I found the history of *The Travels of Sir John Mandeville* to be fascinating, as well; it was considered more important than Canterbury tales until a cultural movement that saw it as telling lies. Milton considers the first half of the book a real account of Mandeville's pilgrimage, and the second half a fantasy piece meant to encourage open-mindedness to other cultures. For many years, though, the fantasy half was thought to be real as well, and explorers went looking for the fantastical kingdoms described there.
July 18, 2025
Is this a travel book, or a history book? Its not clear if even the author knows. Milton follows in the footsteps of Sir John Mandeville, 14th century world traveller, or possibly charlatan. In fact, so little is known about Sir John that there is some doubt that he existed at all, so the footsteps are very faint and often seem a weak excuse to travel the middle east. But the result is OK and on a par with many similar "micro-histories" written by journalists.
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