The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1904-06-04
OUR LITERARY TABLE
THE TALISMAN."

Although the Age of Chvalry has passed. fiction
stin weaves upon her loom the shimmering of
romantic deeds wrought by gallant knights whose
have long since ceased to throb beneath their
broken shields
No master hand has more skfully taken up the
threads of medieval and modern events or woven
them into elaborate designs upon the sombre
background of history than Walter Scott.
Though the first star of fiction rise upon the
horizon of the nineteenth century. the dawn the
twentieth still finds Walter SCOTS brightness I'M
eclipsed by the myriad hosts lumnaries that
adorn the literary heavens.
Could the romancer have chosen a richer epoch in
the worlds history around which weave his fancy
than the Third Crusade-an epoch in which the whole
Christian world throbbed with the same grand de-
sire: epoch which shone with the deeds of chval-
rous knights and the virtues of unsullied woman
hood; epoch which could glory in the exploits of
hero incapable of aught but the bravest and nobIest
of herosm?
Among that vast host of Crusaders, in whose heart
did the noble of the combat burn with more
unselfsh fire than in that of Richard Plantagenet,
the most colossal figure in The Talisman."
On the battlefield of that long-contested strife
around which the story is woven more striking
figures stand out opposing elements than Galadin
the nobest type of the Mohammedan East, and Rich
ard the ideal Goliath of the Christian West.
Filled with the resolve Of Christianty-the noble
resolve to keep sacred the land where the Daysar of
Redemption had risen Richard the lion hearted the
proudest boast of Europe displays his Norman might
and strength, which strangely contrasts with the
keen alertness of his noble enemy, Saladn.
skillfuy does Scott illustrate the great conflict
in the incident of the mace and veil. WELDING his
ponderous battle ak, Richard ceaves in twain the
steel-mace woodman might sever a sapling from
the bough while equally skilled in Oriental
of swordsmanship Saladn lays his veil loosely
his saber while with exquisite dextery he sewers it
in two with single stroke.
The real hero of the Taisman is David of Hunt
ingdon scotlands heir, story of whose career is
interviewer with some of the finest touches of char
acter portrayed quality which places Walter SCOTS
novels pre-eminently above the average.
Throughout the story this interesting character
mains yelled under the unassuming title of THE
Knight of the Sleeping Leopard champion
of the Christian faith he makes the luminous glory
of the cross outshine the fiery splendor of the
crescent
What stronger parallel could be drawn between
the belief the Saracen scattering his love among
the slaves who form his harem and the Christians
faith which binds his love whole and entire to
noble woman, than Scott has drawn in the dialogue
between Saladin and the Christian Knight at the
fount of the Crystal Spring?
In this the hero ably defeats the argu-
ments of the infdel when he compares ''the love
which binds true knight to only fair and faith
full to the gem entire, while the scattered affection
the nfdel filings away among his ensaved wives and
half welded slaves worthless the sparkling shiv
of the broken diamond
The thread deepest interest running through
the romance is the homage paid the influence of
womanhood in the person of Edith P1antagenet,
who is truly modelled after the Mother Divine"
Our tainted natures solitary boast
Did royalty ever place diadem upon a worthier
head, the blood of kings flow in robler than
Edith PIantagenets?
To her the worthy of
knights devotion the hero pays the homage of
noble heart and to her he the noblest victories
his weaker self
The character of the Grand Master of the knights
Templar, although viewed from bgoted standpoint,
gives picture of the evil engendered by greed
of wealth, which was undermining the very founda-
ton of an order once such staunch pillar of the
Christian faith.
Although Scott is as varied and original as the
theme with which his fancy deals, yet none of his
works does he present striking picture of the
past, tinted with the brilliant hues of chivalry
and romance, than in THE Tasman,"
When consider the number of SCOTS works
and realize his characters never duplicated
cannot fail to appreciate his wonderful gift of
story telling. What glamour of romance surrounds
the principal characters that figured in the Third
Crusade particularly that of the villain who is set
forth with great dramatic force.
Perhaps other writer rivaled Scott in his
power of blending the realistic of history
the imaginative pictures of fancy, which leave such
an indeble impression the mind
Who forget the weird spell the Wizard of
the North casts around the midnight scene in the
Hermit of Engaldis' cell. In this age, in which the
novel plays important part on the stage of lit
erature. since it is the form in which almost every
author expresses his thoughts, whether they in
the lighted streams of fiction in the deeper cham
nels of philosophy the novels of Walter Scott still
enhance the brightness of passing pageantry on
the worldwide stage of literature.
MARY DONAGHY O4.
Sacred Heart Academy, Ogden, Utah.