Shortly after my sisters and I finished reading “In the Reign of Terror” we commenced reading “The Lion of the North” by G. A. Henty.
George Alfred Henty was an Englishman who lived from December 8, 1832 – November 16, 1902. He was a married man with children. Mr. Henty was the author of at least 144 books, many of which, if not all, are written to impart real history to the reader. His works include “A March on London”, “A Knight of the White Cross” and “Bonnie Prince Charlie”. For reasons best known to himself, Mr. Henty chose to use his first initials and his last name for a pen name thus becoming known as “G. A. Henty”.
“The Lion of the North” was first published by Blackie & Son, London. It was published in the year 1886. I had no access to any copies of “The Lion of the North” in book form, so I obtained a copy that could be read on our Palm from Project Gutenberg. The book was first released on the site on April 16, 2002. The book is 25 chapters in length.
“The Lion of the North – A Tale of Gustavus Adolphus and the Wars on Religion” starts out with a young Scottish lad of about sixteen named Malcolm Graheme saving the life of two soldiers by swimming across a swollen and raging river to show the safe way to cross it with their horses. The two soldiers have come to try and find men willing to fight in Sir John Hepburn’s Scottish Brigade under the King of Sweden: Gustavus Adolphus. He is fighting in Germany for the rights of the Protestants there to worship their LORD as they see fit, whereas Ferdinand of Austria is determined to take over the entire place and make them all Catholic. Malcolm with his Uncle join the brigade and the book follows the boy as he fights bravely under the Swedish king. Malcolm fights in nearly every battle that is fought in the five years he is in Germany during the Thirty Years War but not quite all. When he hears that his friend, the Count of Mansfeld has been thrown into prison with his wife and young daughter Thekla, can he save them or will they – specifically Thekla – be forced to become a Catholic or suffer the consequences?
This book details the battles fought under the Gustavus Adolphus in a manner that is very interesting to read and very easy to follow. The continuous adventures of Malcolm prevent boredom from arising from the continued conflicts for every few chapters, Malcolm manages to either be kidnapped or sent with twenty men to recover their strength in a village after a severe attack of fever and therefore just as you begin to tire of the battles, Malcolm is off on another adventure!
Warning: This book, unfortunately, has, near the end, a section or two with an astrologer (one who claims to tell the future by reading the stars.). Mr. Henty does not condemn this man in any way, rather he mixes him up with Malcolm in a most disappointing way. (I skipped most of that chapter when I read the book to my sisters.)
Otherwise this is a great book but due to the above warning, I would recommend this book with caution.
To the KING be all the glory!
Sounds interesting.