Arcadia Discussion Zone

"sisterhood of the rose" by Robyn Adams
very good historical fiction -Robyn is from australia and just got this published with an american company.
Jane

Thank you for sharing that Janew...

Cheers

Andrew

When I was in basic training many moons ago, the standard joke was for drill sergeants to tell all the newbies, the Army is yer new sweetheart, yer new mommy, but then sez the drill sergeant forget 'boot the Army being yer wife, if the Army intended ya to have one, they would have issued ya one.

The point here being, ya got 3 hots and a cot, what more could ya ask for in life. Ya were regimented to wake up by reveille, go to bed at taps, do all routines matters in massed formations. This quasi-mothering by the Army was done deliberately to make a dis-connect to a sense of feelings and a connect to following orders.

The idea of a celibate Crusader having a wife is a no-brainer. I can see a book coming out with a shock-schlock title like I was a Crusader camp follower or We really knew how to nurse them back into battle, or some such semi-lurid title.

Who was this wife, the regimental sergeant-major? In the Bundeswehr a 1st Sergeant has the nick-name of Spiess (leader) when ya address him, but out of his hearing range he was called mutti( mom), but more recent arrivals to the Bundeswehr who have a good knowledge of American slang call him muttificker. More in line with what U.S troopies call their 1st Sergeant.

So, if anybody reads this book please let me know if their was just 1 symbolic 'wife' for all of the Crusaders.

Well,I'll have to check out the book sometime.
It is possible that some of the founding members had wives,and after settling their affairs
left their wives and family to form the group.

Also, some of these various orders of knight-monks had also female members, who took vows as nuns and lived in community.A good example is the Teutonic Knights, who still exist as a religious order of priests,brothers and nuns.Also, the Knights of Malta have a convent of sisters belonging to the order on the island of Malta.It's possible the Templars did have some nuns of the order.However, if so, little if anything has ever been mentioned about them ,in any books I have seen on the Templars.Certainly would be very interesting if true.
When the order was disolved, I assume the nuns, if any, might have been joined to other communities like the Augustians, Benedictines, etc.

Thanks for this...might be worth an eyeful...though they say it's a cross between "Urgences" and "P.J au Moyen Age"! -

From the Nouvel Obs -

La Commanderie, polar médiéval

Quand on lui demande de résumer l’histoire de “La Commanderie”, le nouveau projet fiction de France 2, Emmanuel Daucé, producteur chez Tetra Media, sourit : “C’est un peu « Urgences » et « P.J » au Moyen-Age”. Tout commence dans le comté du Périgord, en 1375. Au cœur d’un territoire décimé par la guerre de cent ans, se trouve une ferme fortifiée, la Commanderie hospitalière d’Assier. Sa mission ? Accueillir et soigner les malades. Voilà pour « Urgences ». Mais les membres de cette seigneurie, située sur la route de Saint-Jacques de Compostelle, sont aussi censés faire régner la justice et protéger la population contre les pillards. Voilà pour « P.J ».

“C’est un microcosme, un monde en soi qui concentre tous les enjeux de l’époque (économiques, médicaux, religieux) et dans lequel se croisent les différents acteurs de la société du Moyen-Age”, explique Emmanuel Daucé. En cours d’écriture, le scénario de cette fiction en six épisodes de 52 minutes a été confié à une équipe de scénaristes sous la houlette d’Olivier Szulzynger, qui n’est autre que le directeur de collection de l’indétrônable « Plus belle la vie » sur France 3…

A « La Commanderie », vous croiserez, parmi les personnages récurrents, un moine-soldat, une lingère ou encore une guérisseuse. Un Moyen-Age au quotidien, où chaque jour est une lutte. Mais aussi un univers traversé de mythes bien réels comme celui du Trésor des Templiers derrière lequel courent les héros de « La Commanderie ».

The trailer seems to have been deleted from dailymotion for the moment.