The Rosewood Chalice: A Novel of the First Crusade

The Rosewood Chalice revisits the deep animosities and simmering hostilities between Christians and Muslims that culminated in Pope Urban II's call for a Crusade to free the holy places. The Sandersen brothers, from a small village in Norway, traveled to the middle east to join the Crusade by different routes: Peter, the eldest son, by joining the sixty-ship fleet of King Sigurd, first European monarch to 'take the cross.' His brother Eric, faced with banishment for killing his best friend (albeit in self-defense) by leaving abruptly and traveling through Sweden and Russia to Constantinople, where he joined Emperor Alexius' Varangian Guard, Byzantium's elite fighting force of western Europeans.Early in his odyssey, Peter is driven by a quest for the Holy Grail, Christendom's most sacred relic, the cup used by Jesus and his disciples at their last communion together. Eric admires Constantinople's grandeur and history. He vows to defend it against encroaching Muslims, and ultimately rises as high in the military hierarchy as is possible for a non-Byzantine, becoming the consort of the Emperor's daughter.The Rosewood Chalice sheds light on the origins of Christian-Muslim hostility that exists even today.