Did you know that Columbus was looking for a mysterious Christian king of India when he stumbled upon the New World? Most people know that he was looking for India, of course. However, most don’t know why he was looking for “the Indies” (as in, many Indias). In fact, there were three possible Indias that he could have been looking for.
As I do research for my novels, I love to look at the way people used to imagine faraway lands in a fantastical mode. In the medieval times in particular, travelers told tales of the most incredible creatures and places, things that would not be out of place in a Star Trek episode. Those of you who have read Laurus know about the many fascinating medieval legends of Alexander the Great. Some of the most interesting of these legends involve a mysterious figure called Prester John.
The mythical kingdom of Prester John, and the medieval legends surrounding it, form the basis for the far Eastern lands of the world of my own novels. It looms large in book three, The Heart of the World, and it will play an even more important role in book 5 (as yet untitled).
Who is Prester John?
There is a long-standing Christian tradition about Apostle Thomas preaching in India. Itself based largely on oral tradition, it has given rise to many legends of a faraway and mysterious India. This India was a Christian kingdom, ruled by a certain “Prester (priest) John.” This legend, widespread especially in the late middle ages, even reached Russia, where the legendary priest-king was known as “The Tsar and Priest Ivan.”
The first historical mention of Prester John is found in the “Chronicle” of Otto, Bishop of Freising. In an entry dated to 1145, Otto explains that he heard an interesting story in Rome. The Bishop of Gabala told of a Christian ruler in the distant lands of the East. At roughly the same time, someone calling himself “Prester John” wrote a letter to the Byzantine Emperor Emanuel Comnenos.
The Three Indias
The “India” ruled by this Prester John was a half-legendary country. Even its place wasn’t clear, and different maps showed it in different places. In Medieval Europe, there were as many as three Indias. The Prester John who wrote the letter claimed to be ruler of all three, including the one where the body of Apostle Thomas was buried.
Fascinated by this mysterious Christian ruler, travelers and missionaries from Europe repeatedly tried to find his descendants. Even Marco Polo was one of these.
Strange Lands and Creatures
The lands of this Prester John are filled with all manner of strange creatures and peoples:
Our land is the home of elephants, dromedaries, camels, crocodiles, meta-collinarum, cametennus, tensevetes, wild asses, white and red lions, white bears, white merules, crickets, griffins, tigers, lamias, hyenas, wild horses, wild oxen, and wild men — men with horns, one-eyed men, men with eyes before and behind, centaurs, fauns, satyrs, pygmies, forty-ell high giants, cyclopses, and similar women. It is the home, too, of the phoenix and of nearly all living animals.
It is a land of unexplained and mysterious phenomena:
In our territory is a certain waterless sea consisting of tumbling billows of sand never at rest. None have crossed this sea — it lacks water all together, yet fish of various kinds are cast up upon the beach, very tasty, and the like are nowhere else to be seen.
It even holds the secret of immortality, the Fountain of Youth itself:
At the foot of Mount Olympus bubbles up a spring which changes its flavor hour by hour, night and day, and the spring is scarcely three days’ journey from Paradise, out of which Adam was driven. If anyone has tasted thrice of the fountain, from that day he will feel no fatigue, but will, as long as he lives, be as a man of thirty years. Here are found the small stones called Nudiosi which, if borne about the body, prevent the sight from waxing feeble and restore it where it is lost. The more the stone is looked at, the keener becomes the sight.
Russian Legends of Prester John
The Old Slavonic version of Prester John’s letter to Emperor Emanuel, called “The Legend of the Indian Kingdom,” appeared in Russia in the thirteenth century. In it, “The Tsar and Priest Ivan” is called a “champion of the Orthodox Faith in Christ.”
During the Tatar-Mongol invasions, new life was breathed into the legend. In the first quarter of the thirteenth century, rumors abounded of Genguis Khan’s many conquests. After Crusaders took back the Egyptian city of Damietta, a certain bishop began to preach that Genguis Khan was actually David, the ruler of the “two Indias.” Soon he would come with his savage armies and help the Christians destroy the Saracens.
However, when Batu-Khan systematically destroyed the Russian princedoms, the idealistic hopes that the Mongols were the warriors of “King David” quickly disappeared.
The “African India”
Not having found the legendary kingdom in Asia, Europeans from the end of the thirteenth century began to seek it in Africa. The “third India” was supposed to be located there. So, in 1321-1324, a missionary Dominican named Jordanus de Severac wrote a book called the Mirabilia. In it, he described the “far India,” which he equated with the Ethiopia of Prester John.
Interestingly, the search for the treasures of the Indies was at least partially a search for the kingdom of Prester John. The Portuguese Prince Henry the Navigator traveled to Africa for this reason. In his wake, other Portuguese explorers followed him to Ethiopia, where they did find a Christian kingdom. However, this kingdom paled in comparison to the legend. There were few treasures and even fewer miracles.
Soon, Ethiopia began to lose its luster and its association with the Kingdom of Prester John.
Modern Versions of the Legend
1530 was the last year that a “letter from Prester John” made its way across Europe. People were basically fed up with the legend. All the same, in European cartography, the kingdom of Prester John continued to be drawn until the seventeenth century. Even today, the legend continues to fascinate. Umberto Eco’s wrote a novel inspired by it (Baudolino). The Russian rock legend Boris Grebenshchikov wrote songs about Prester John. Perhaps the most interesting is Catherynne M. Valente’s fantasy novel The Habitation of the Blessed.
The “children of the Priest-king” in my own The Heart of the World are based on this legend. But I put my own twist on the legend that’s going to come to full fruition in book 5 of the Raven Son series.
I get a lot of ideas for my own writing from Russian fairy tales. Today, I have a special invitation for you — I want to offer you a free copy of my essay, “A Passport to Russian Fairy Land”!