The Adventurer by Mika Waltari

Review by Samantha M. Siciliano

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Quick Summary:

The Adventurer is a historical fiction piece following the life of a church scholar/trying to practice doctor, Michael. It spans Michael’s young life, from childhood up to the age of 25, during the early 1500s. There is plenty of political intrigue, religious fascination, inequality (rich/poor, men/women, unequal statuses), strong friendships, and terribly heartbreaking moments. The secondary characters were weaker than they were in Waltari’s first book, The Egyptian, but Barbara and Andy are fun to follow. 

The Review:

Honestly, reading about Medieval times isn’t that exciting to me. I don’t know whether it is because that time period is just not my cup of tea, whether I have trouble keeping track of all the rulers and underlings and how they intertwine, or both. 

Michael’s story was similar to Sinuhe’s in Mika’s first historical fiction book The Egyptian. Both the main characters were orphans, both were adopted, they both had a trusty male companion that seems slightly less intelligent by many standards but are really talented at a thing that is advantageous to the main characters, both of their male companions are treated poorly by the main characters, both deal with the loss of a female lover that they have, both are educated (and they do have a similar profession at one point), both travel vast distances to explore the world, and both lose faith in their religion.

There is plenty of fresh material that is accurately depicted in history. A plethora of names, places, dates, and events in the book that had taken place in history. With Michael, we travel from Abo, Finland to France, to Germany, Sweden, Spain, and lastly Italy! 

There are two major events from the book that have stuck with me even after I had long ago turned those pages. First, the German Peasant’s War. This war had taken place in 1524 to 1525. This conflict occurred because of tense feudal relationships between the rich and peasants, people suffering from economic pains, and the creation of the Ninety-Five Theses by Martin Luther. The Theses is known for the start of the Reformation and the battles between the Catholic church and peasants. Peasants were fed up with the church and the rich taking advantage of them. The leader of the peasant armies was Thomas Müntzer, who had a prominent voice and was able to round up fellow dissenters of the church. Luther had made himself famous, snuggled up to the elites, and separated himself and his beliefs from these armies. He did not condone violence. As much as I was cheering for the peasants, I had a feeling it wasn’t going to end well. If you want to know more, you are going to have to read the book or do your own research! 

The second event that has pinned itself in my overworking brain is the witch hunt of Barbara. It is unfathomable to me that people can be so cruel. Cruel isn’t even the best word to describe these situations. The torture that Barbara went through was God awful. People accused of being a witch went through hell.  This part of the book is very brutal and made my whole body tense up and my brain mighty uncomfortable because this torture ACTUALLY happened. In this case, Barbara was sought out by a witch hunter. He looked at her for less than a minute and left. Then he claimed she was a witch and the whole world falls apart for Barbara and Michael. At some point, a witch is asked to either indict herself and answer the following (and more) questions: where did you meet other witches, where did you have relations with the devil and how many times, and who else is a witch? These answers were made up by the accused! So, the witch either creates false information or is tortured until they die or agree they are a witch. If one agrees they are a witch, they are required to talk, or they will be tortured until they do. It doesn’t matter what option a witch chooses, because in the end, they are killed. There is absolutely no way to save oneself or prove their innocence in the eyes of the court/council/church. This scene in the book was graphic, heartbreaking, and very real. 

While I was in the classroom, I taught about the Salem Witch Trials. I had an activity for the very first day where I cut little scraps of paper that had “not a witch” printed on them. After I had passed out each scrap, each student was allowed to look at their paper but not allowed to talk. Then I had them form a circle and said, figure out the witches. They immediately turned on each other and it was a frenzy of accusations flying around the room with the most ridiculous examples. “I saw so and so make a funny face when they read their scrap,” “so and so was fidgety after they read their paper,” “I saw so and so’s paper when they looked.” After about 20 minutes of them arguing they must vote on 3 witches. 

After the three selected witches head to the front of the class, everyone takes a seat, and I ask the three at the front of the class if they have anything to say for themselves. Almost always the three students adamantly deny they are a witch (they cannot show the paper as proof). I ask them if they have any information as to if there are any witches still in the town. Some say the name of their main accuser, while many pick others in the class for other various reasons. Then I have those students who were called out by the original 3 to come up and ask if they know of any more witches in the classroom. They must give a name, and they have to explain why they chose that person. I do this until we either get repeat names or most of the class has been called to the front of the room as witches. 

When we are nearing most or all the class joining the front of the room, I ask all students to go to the back of the room if they had a paper that had “not a witch” written on it. Everyone moves and they look confused. There are usually a lot of mumblings and people saying that someone is a liar. I then explain that this was the frenzy of witch hunts during Medieval/ Witch Trials. The students then usually discuss how this is ludacris, and I then start my lesson on how one was accused of being a witch. Talk to dogs? Witch. Float in water? Witch. Someone could claim that they were being controlled by unseen forces? They accuse someone and the accused is a witch. Birthmark? The mark of the devil! Witch! Often, people were accused of being a witch because they were different, a loner, or an outcast. The kids really get into this lesson, and I usually taught it around Halloween.

This book was well written and researched, I was just not a fan of the time period and this history. I also wish that Andy would have been more visible in the book and not conveniently for Michael and the story. I will give it a 3.5/5. 

IN CONCLUSION, MAYBE? READ THE FRACKING BOOK!

Up Next: Running on Empty: Overcome Your Childhood Emotional Neglect by Jonice Webb (Author), Christine Musello (Contributor)