Unshockingly, the idea that a man named John, a very classic English name, who is Christian, a very classic English tradition, is the emperor of India, is inherently racist and carries with it the idea that India should be ruled by an Englishman. The idea also that his land is populated with Christians is one borne of the fear of the encroachment of Muslim forces into Christian lands, a fear at least in part motivated by racism. Mandeville describes the land as hard to reach and even talks about the merchants which is a common feature of the travel narrative but not one that is usual within the writing of John Mandeville, as he’s merely a fiction drawn up by the hand of a monk; this is unusual, but can be explained away by acknowledging that Mandeville barely writes about the merchants and only uses their absence to show the richness of his land. While his land is described as not rich, this most likely refers to trade rather than physical mineral deposits. We can see this supported on the end of page one hundred and eight and going onto page one hundred and nine, as Mandeville writes, “they also carry in front of him another vessel, full of gold and jewels, gems like rubies, diamonds, sapphires, emeralds, topaz, irachite, chrysolities, and various other gems, signifying his lordship and his power.” (108-109) The emphasis on the relation of material wealth to his lordship may seem to be a strange one for a Christian knight to espouse. At the time, the Christian beliefs were much more embroiled in the divine right of kings, the idea that if one is rich and noble, then they must have necessarily been ordained by God. His power both comes from God and is then used in his name. The banners of Prester John are crosses, which are representative both of his dedication to religion and of his God’s power. His defense of the standards is fierce and “he has innumerable men when he goes into battle against other rulers.” (108) As I struggle to find the ways that Mandeville is moving through or interacting with this land, I am hard pressed to find any examples. In only one paragraph of this chapter does Mandeville talk about how he is moving through the lands of Prester John, “I was once travelling on that sea and I saw something like a kind of long island with many trees and branches and tree-trunks growing from it. The sailors told me that it was all the big ships that the adamantine had caused to be left there, and all the things that spilt from these ships.” (107) Mandeville has just made up some mineral that is so magnetic and powerful that it would rip iron from the ships, which were at the time being fashioned with enough iron that if they were to pass through the sea of the lands of Prester John. This travel is entirely a rhetorical device to instill a religious fervor within the people of England in order that they may have the fire to sustain a war in the Middle East.

Sincerely,

Gev, the Scaled Scorch