The Lost Baron

The Lost Baron, Allen French
(1940; Bethlehem Books 2001), 297 pp, pb

Wow! Another homerun from Allen French! After Rolf and the Viking Bow, The Red Keep and now the Lost Baron, French has become one of our favorite authors. French really knew how to tell a story. We tend to blow through these books because they are so much fun that we don’t want to put them down. All the while we cover what life was like in feudal Britain.

This story is set in Cornwall in the year 1200. The structure of the story bears the closer resemblance to The Red Keep. A young girl is left the heiress of a castle and its lands after the death or disappearance of her father, but another man holds power over the lands. Further in both stories the young woman is eventually helped by a local young man as he comes to age. These similarities in no way detract from either story in my opinion, or in the opinion of my boys.

In this story Martin is the young hero and he provides a great example of various qualities including bravery, honor, loyalty, humility and wisdom. French also clearly seeks to advocate a concern for the common people from those of the nobility. This story pulled in my 6 year old as well as my 9 and 8 year olds. Even my 3 year old repeated portions of the story to me along the way!

This is another great book and we give it our highest recommendation.

The Red Keep

The Red Keep: A Story of Burgundy in 1165,
by Allen French (1939; reprint, Bethlehem Books, 1997), 370 pp.

My boys (ages 9, 8 and 6) and I came to this book with much anticipation having greatly enjoyed French’s Rolf and the Viking Bow (see previous post; my 3 year old wasn’t much interested!). This book though is a bit longer than Rolf, and it did start a bit slowly. It was good to see that they had learned the discipline of persevering with a book long enough to allow it to come into full bloom. The reputation of the previous book helped.

Once we got a few chapters in, however, we were all rapt in attention- reading much further into the night than I intended at times! The story takes place, as the subtitle states in 12th century France. Thus, a good sense of basic medieval life is given (French and his wife apparently spent six weeks in this area in preparation for writing).The place of nobles, the role of holding a castle and governing a fief, the journey of a young man from page to squire to knight and various other aspects of life in that time are well portrayed- and a glossary is included to explain unfamiliar words. The story concerns a young man, Conan, as he matures into knighthood, a young heiress to a fief and castle, Anne, who has been displaced by the evil plotting of two castle-holding brothers, the Sauval, and the clash between good and evil which ensues. The story, rich in adventure and intrigue is told with relish. My boys were captured by the battles, the secret passage way and the struggle to see truth prevail.

Along the way medieval spirituality is evident. There is no modern effort to ignore or suppress the religious element. This comes especially into view in the closing chapters and opened discussion for us of the reality of the gospel and the need for salvation. Of course it is cast in the light of Medieval Catholicism verging on mysticism at points. I edited some things and paused to explain others. I took the opportunity to explain that people at this time (and some today) thought they were to pray to Mary, etc. In this latter section one of the main bad guys says in his thoughts “damn them” (p. 359). It is said in the context of death and hell so I do not think it is meant to be profane. Rather the character is, I think, in actuality hoping for the condemnation of the others. Still, I chose to edit this part, and it is likely something other parents will want to be aware of.

Lastly, this book is more graphic in the description of the violence than was Rolf. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but something one might want to bear in mind in light of the audience. Though we have read many accounts of battles, I did edit portions.

We found this book to be a fun read, one we eagerly looked forward to each day and a good way to learn about the era. I hope you may enjoy it as we did.

The Story of Rolf and the Viking Bow, Allen French

The Story of Rolf and the Viking Bow(originally published early 1900’s; Bethlehem Books, 1993), 244 pages.

This was a great story! It did seem to start slowly, and the language is different (they talk in Elizabethan English and various Icelandic or Norse terms). However, there is a glossary to help in getting started, and the story is well worth the work. There is grand adventure, battles, intrigue and an underlying theme, as typical in the old tales, of honor, nobility, courage and faithfulness. The closing even drew together points from the story to make a strong point concerning endurance without complaint and the value of humility and being willing to ask forgiveness. French, according to the introduction, was steeped in the ancient sagas and lore, and this shows in the style and quality of his writing. This was another story that made it difficult on the next book we turned to.

The story follows the life of Rolf a young boy in Iceland around 1010 AD, about a generation after Christianity was introduced to the island. In addition to the positive qualities just mentioned, the story is helpful in becoming familiar with this era in history in Northern Europe which has significant connections to the development on British and therefore American history.

This is one of the really good ones. My 9, 8 and 6 year old boys loved it. It is probably too complicated for children younger than 6.