Matthew Hudson’s Reviews > Travels of Sir John Mandeville > Status Update

I am beginning to think that John Mandeville likely visited Jerusalem, Egypt, and quite possibly China (Cathay as he calls it, under the rule of the Great Kahn.) In these places the customs seem most reasonable, and the descriptions, although exuberant, strike me as lifelike and ring true. But, for the rest of the places he has mentioned, I suspect he is simply repeating other legends.

The further from Jerusalem Sir Mandeville travels, the wilder his accounts become. Yet, every bizzare creature and caricature is balanced by strangely well thought out details.

Also, he mentions a story of a man who, travelling far enough, arrived at a land where they spoke his own language, and suggests that the man had circumnavigated the globe unawares. This reminds me of Chesterton's comments in Orthodoxy