ABOUT
THE BOOK

The first volume of the phenomenal bestselling Swedish Crusades trilogy. An epic tale of courage, of Holy War, of an emotional and physical journey and a hero in Arn Magnusson well worthy of telling.
In 1150, Arn Magnusson is born to an aristocratic Swedish family and spends his childhood and education at the Cistercian monastery of Varnhem where he is taught the best of spiritual and worldly learning, as well as being trained to become a master archer and swordsman by the giant Brother Guilbert, a former knight.
At seventeen, equipped to become a monk and a warrior, Arn returns home, a young man and yet an innocent in the ways of the world. Two sisters cross his path: he is seduced by one and falls deeply in love with the other, Cecilia. In loving two sisters he has committed a crime punishable by both civil and clerical authorities, and he is sentenced to serve twenty years as a Knight Templar in the Holy Land.
The remaining two novels in this trilogy are The Knights Templar, which recounts Arn’s experiences as an occupation officer in Palestine, and The Kingdom at the End of the Road, when Arn leaves Jerusalem and returns to a Sweden torn apart by feudal infighting, and to Cecilia, the love of his youth.