#HistFicThursdays - The Scribe (The Two Daggers, Book 1) - Elizabeth R. Andersen

 Today for #HistFicThursday, it is my absolute please to welcome Elizabeth R. Andersen and her fantastic series, The Two Daggers. Here, Elizabeth takes us into 13th century Acre, dispelling a few misconceptions and welcoming us to the world of The Scribe and The Land of God...

Acre Harbour, present-day. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Imagine you are in that sacred space between sleeping and waking when your body slowly becomes aware of its surroundings, and the deliciousness of sleep is still with you. As you emerge into consciousness, you notice the hardness of your bed and the chill in the air. Instead of a soft, spring and foam-filled mattress, you feel an unfamiliar crackle of straw when you shift your weight. Something’s not right. You open your eyes and stare at the ceiling – wooden poles and thatch instead of painted drywall. You went to bed in the 21^st century and woke up in the 13^th. Will you be able to blend in, or will you be immediately noticed as an outsider?

No, I don’t write dual timeline historical fiction, but inserting myself into the same setting as my characters is an exercise that every writer of historical fiction engages in to immerse themselves in the landscape of another century. What would seem familiar and what would be alien? How would others respond to me? These are the questions I asked myself when I set out to write The Two Daggers series. I went into the project expecting to delight in the differences between the Middle Ages and the 21^st century. What I didn’t anticipate were the similarities.

The 13^th century was a fascinating period of history that is often overlooked because it is wedged between two significant eras: the beginning of the crusades in the 11^th century and the onset of the Black Death in the 14^th century. But the events that happened in the city of Acre (also known as Akka or Akko, located in current-day Israel) in the year 1291 had political and religious implications for the rest of the world.

At the time, the influence of the Christian crusaders was waning, but their control of Acre, which was considered the last great city in the defunct “Kingdom of Jerusalem”, funneled immense wealth into the French, Frankish, and Italian states. Although the Muslim Mamluks no longer considered the Christians in the Levant to be a particularly serious menace, they knew they must neutralize the fighting men in Acre before they could mount a serious attack on the Mongol hoard, which was their existential threat at the time. An alliance between the Mongol leaders and the Christians in Acre would mean that there would be no safe passage from Egypt, where the Mamluks ruled, to the immense territory of the Mongols in the north. Without giving too much away, I can safely say that things didn’t go very well for the Christians that year.

This is the historical backdrop of my series, but inside of the sweeping political change, there were real people with lives that changed because of what happened in 1291, and they often get lost when one only looks at battles and political intrigues.

There is a misconception that cities and people were segregated in the Middle Ages and that people never traveled, did not bathe, ate with their hands, and urinated in on the floor. None of this is true. In fact, the major coastal cities in the 13^th century were vibrant and full of different races, languages, and technical wonders that did not yet exist in the so-called West. In Acre, when the Christians, Muslims, and Mongols weren’t fighting, they were engaging in trade and intermarrying with each other. The great Islamic cities were cosmopolitan and far advanced ahead of the major cities of the West, with sanitation, highly engineered irrigation systems, and schools for learning about science, astronomy, and medicine. The technologies and fashions of these cities made it back to England, France, the Italian peninsula, and the Frankish territories when the crusaders and pilgrims returned from their journeys. Men traveled to far-flung parts of their world, not only for missionary reasons, but purely because they could. It was a time of curiosity and fleeting tolerance, as well as staggering injustice and violence at the same time.

In The Two Daggers series, all my characters are misfits. Henri of Maron has immense wealth, but what he really wants is acceptance. His mother’s lowborn status means that he will always be an outsider, because his blood is not “noble”. Sidika is a highly educated young woman. It was not uncommon at the time for girls to be educated – after all, they often went on to manage their husband’s businesses, which required basic math and record keeping. But Sidika’s father educated her to the point where he worried that her intellect would intimidate powerful men. Emre is a stolen child who longs so deeply for his lost family that he cannot accept the new one he has been given, and Yusuf ibn Shihab’s strong moral compass clashes with the corruption that he sees around him. Each of these characters must overcome themselves, not just the turbulent events happening around them. This is a series of books about self-discovery, coming of age, and the tragedy of strict societal hierarchies.

The most common feedback I receive from reviewers and readers is that the first few chapters feel disjointed, because the characters do not seem to have anything in common. So it goes when we first meet our friends and lovers. We travel on separate paths until we find other misfits who eventually become our tribe. Those disconnected paths, which eventually merge, are what I enjoy about this story. I wanted my readers to have time to get to know each of the characters for who they are – not just for how they influence each other. I think it gives a deeper connection, because you can say “I knew Henri before he met Emre,” or “It’s obvious that Henri and Sidika need each other.”

 

Ultimately, people from the past were the same as we are now. Habits and beliefs may have been different, but people loved and hated the same way. They made friends, grieved the loss of loved ones, craved attention and power, ate meals, tucked their children into bed, and relaxed after a long day of work, just as we do now. This is the connection to history that is so intriguing – finding the similarities, not the differences. Taking this long view of humanity has made me a more tolerant human because their history is ours as well, and our present will someday be held up to scrutiny by our children and grandchildren. They will wonder about our lives, attempt to imagine our routines, and yes, they will probably find us primitive and backwards. But perhaps they will also look for the commonalities between us as well.

Meet the book:

All Henri of Maron wanted was to stay with his family on his country estate, surrounded by lemon groves and safety. But in 13th century Palestine, when noble-born boys are raised to fight for the Holy Land, young Henri will be sent to live and train among men who hate him for what he is: a French nobleman of an Arab mother. Robbed of his humanity and steeped in cruelty, his encounters with a slave soldier, a former pickpocket, and a kindly scribe will force Henri to confront his own beliefs and behaviors.

Will Henri maintain the status quo in order to fit into a society that doesn’t want him, or will fate intervene first?

The first book in The Two Daggers series, The Scribe takes readers on a sweeping adventure through the years and months that lead up to the infamous Siege of Acre in 1291 CE and delves into the psyches of three young people caught up in the wave of history.

You can buy The Scribe from Amazon UK - Amazon US - Amazon CA - Amazon AU - Kobo - and several other sites

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Now, meet the author:

Elizabeth R. Andersen's debut novel, The Scribe, launched in July of 2021. Although she spent many years of her life as a journalist, independent fashion designer, and overworked tech employee, there have always been two consistent loves in her life: writing and history. She finally decided to do something about this and put them both together.

Elizabeth lives in the Seattle area with her long-suffering husband and young son. On the weekends she usually hikes in the stunning Cascade mountains to hide from people and dream up new plotlines and characters. Elizabeth is a member of the Historical Novel Society and the Alliance of Independent Authors.

You can find Elizabeth on these social media links: Website - Twitter - Facebook - Instagram - BookBub - Amazon Author Page - Goodreads