The heretic

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The heretic is a historical novel by the German writer and actor Peter Berling , which was published by Bastei-Lübbe in 2000 . The novel is considered the prequel of Berling's “Grail Cycle” and tells the youth of a protagonist from the first two volumes of the Grail novels. The historical background is the Albigensian Crusade in the south of France in the early 13th century.

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Laurence, the red-haired daughter of a Norman baron, is inspired by the goal of becoming a knight. In this endeavor, she is encouraged by her godmother Esclarmonde de Foix and Marie de Sinclair, the grand master of the mysterious order of the Prieuré de Sion . To prove himself, Laurence runs away from home to accompany an arms transport to distant Constantinople with her friend Gavin and the adventurous Chevalier du Mont Sion . Arriving there, after a detour via Sicily , Laurence becomes entangled in love affairs that are only ended by her supposedly devout mother, who Laurence wants to take with her to Rome for her better upbringing . On Crete her mother escaped, Laurence love with the ruler of the island, whose psyche is, however, affected by infertility, he with a mystical Minotauroskult compensated.

Escaped from Crete, Laurence spends the next time in the wake of her godmother in Languedoc , from whose Mediterranean culture she is taken. Laurence befriends the equally combative "Loba" and falls in love with the Cathar parfait Alazais. Laurence thus gets into the religious-political conflict between the Roman Catholic official church and the heretical sect of the Cathars , with Laurence taking sides with the latter. Nevertheless, as a chronicler, she is forced to take part in the crusade against the Albigensians with her father in the wake of Simon IV. De Montfort . It is only after her father himself becomes a victim of the crusaders that Laurence joins the underground fight against them as Faydit .

After Laurence kills the wrong person in a failed attempt on her father's murderer, she decides to go to Rome out of remorse for her mother. On the way there, she meets the path of the children's crusade and is captured by the church authorities. Laurence will in Vaucouleurs a Autodafé be completed, but to save them the Staufer is Friedrich in the city (for sealing the Franco-Staufer alliance against the Guelph and Plantagenets ). Since the latter owed her something since their meeting in Sicily, he obtained a pardon for Laurence, who, in penance for her heretical life, went to the service of the leprosy hospital of Maria von Oignies in the Ardennes .

But soon it attracts Laurence back in the Languedoc, where crusaders and Occitans the fateful Battle of Muret meet.

Remarks

As sources of inspiration of the author he served as in almost all his novels, the conspiracy theories about the "Priory of Sion" and the book crusade against the Grail of the SS - esotericist Otto Rahn († 1939). Furthermore, Berling incorporated his own research into medieval history into the plot, which he describes in an extensive appendix.

A large number of the characters appearing in Die Ketzerin , including the main character, appeared in larger as well as smaller roles in Berling's previous works, all of which (with the exception of The Assassin's Paradise ) are chronologically located after Die Ketzerin . Laurence herself appeared in the first work of the author Franziskus or The Second Memorandum (1990), where her biography was recorded in Rome after leaving Languedoc. Finally, Laurence is represented in the first two volumes of the "Grail Cycle" ( The Children of the Grail 1991; The Blood of the Kings 1993) as the protector of the Grail Children, who, after an eventful life as a brothel boss in Constantinople, a slave trader and pirate, was around sixty years old Life as Countess of Otranto leads.

Laurence's character drawing is unusual for the heroine of a historical-medieval novel, so she sometimes appears arrogant and complacent. Her striving for ideals that can only be achieved by men, such as chivalry and its practice, also stand out. These characteristics are also reflected in Laurence's sexual orientation. As a young woman in The Heretic, she is still inclined to both sexes , but in her later biography she leads exclusively lesbian relationships and adopts a negative attitude towards men, which tends to include misandry .

Laurence de Belgrave and her father are described as belonging to the lower Norman nobility, as vassals of Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester. Indeed, from the late 12th century in Anglo-Norman England, there was a Norman family of the landed gentry called "Belgrave". Originally called Merdegrave ("Dung ditch") and the village located on the Soar , after the Norman conquest in 1066 it belonged to the possessions of the Counts of Leicester , who changed the field name to Belgrave ("Beautiful Ditch") . From the year 1200, a landowning family is documented here, who evidently vassaled the counts. In the second half of the 13th century, this family also included a person named Laurence de Belgrave, who was, however, a man. The family continued to exist until the 17th century. Some of their relatives have found their final resting place in the church of St. Peter built next to the manor house (Belgrave Hall). Belgrave Village was incorporated into the City of Leicester in 1892 and is now a separate district and constituency.

Fictional characters

  • Laurence de Belgrave (gen .: Laure-Rouge )
  • Gavin Montbard de Béthune , Laurence Freund and prospective Knight Templar
  • Lionel de Belgrave , Laurence's father, lord of L'Hersmort
  • Lady d'Abreyville alias Livia di Septimsoliis-Frangipane , Laurence mother
  • Loba the she-wolf alias Roxalba de Cab'Aret (Cabaret) , Laurence's friend, an Occitan patriot
  • Alazais d'Estrombèze , Laurence love, a parfait
  • Michael de Montferrat , Despot of Crete
  • Chevalier du Mont Sion alias John Turnbull , Valdemarius von Limburg etc., a versatile adventurer
  • Sicard de Payra , former army of L'Hersmort
  • René de Châtillon , "Laurence Ritter"
  • Sanci de La Roche , mistress of Laurence, René de Châtillon and Guido della Porta
  • Charles d'Hardouin , crusader, murderer of Laurence's father
  • Marie de Sinclair , Grand Master of the Prieuré de Sion
  • Raoul (later Crean de Bourivan), son of the Chevaliers and the Alazais
  • Titus (later Vitus of Viterbo), son of Loba and the Gray Cardinal

Historical fictional characters

Remarks

  1. ↑ See Albert Herbert & George F. Farnham: Belgrave. Transactions of the Leicestershire Archæological Society, Vol. 16 (1929-1930/31), pp. 43-71. ( online )