The Road to Jerusalem

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The Road to Jerusalem
Author	Jan Guillou
Original title	Vägen till Jerusalem
Country	Sweden
Language	Swedish
Series	The Knight Templar (Crusades trilogy)
Genre(s)	Historical novel
Publisher	Norstedts Förlag
Publication date	July 1998
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback) & Audio Book & E-book
Pages	366 pp
ISBN	ISBN 91-1-300565-0
OCLC	40467730
Followed by	The Knight Templar

The Road to Jerusalem (Swedish: Vägen till Jerusalem) is the first book in Jan Guillou's The Knight Templar (Crusades trilogy) book series. The book follows the fictional character of Arn Magnusson from his birth and until he sets off to Jerusalem.

Arn is born in Arnäs, Sweden in the year 1150. At the age of 5, he has an accident while climbing a scaffold and is saved due to his mother's prayers to Saint Bernard of Clairvaux. The conditions stated in the prayer for their sons salvation is that he will be donated to Gods work on earth. He is to be sent to Varnhem Abbey, to which his mother has donated the land and is so counted as its founder. Because of a dispute of the validity of the donation the Queen of the Swedes harasses the Cistercian monks into flight. The abbot and his subjects relocate to Denmark awaiting the excommunication of the Swedish royals.

One of the brothers of Varnhem and Danish Vitae Scholae is brother Guilbert, a former Knight Templar, who instructs him in the use of the sword and the art of medieval warfare in the Holy Lands. After relocating back to Varnhem again, the Prior of the convent, Father Henri, instructs Arn to witness the outside world for himself before taking the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. Arn does so, but falls into sin by having sexual intercourse with two sisters before marriage. One of these women, his fianceé's sister, Katarina, gives this fact away, and Arn and Katarinas sister, Cecilia, are sentenced to 20 years of penance. Cecilia in the convent of Gudhem, and Arn in the Holy Lands as a Knight Templar.