[Les Sarrasins du Nord: une histoire de la croisade balte par la littérature (XIIe - XVe siècles). Loïc Chollet] : recenzija

ENLoïc Chollet is one of a number of those scholars who made (very) good use of Paravicini’s masterpiece. By choosing to focus on the literary side of the crusading story, he has sought to kill two birds with one stone. Generally, the material is marshalled in chronological order, and the respective literary works are taken into consideration along the way in presenting the main historical developments. The reader starts the journey from the modest beginnings of the crusades in the north of Europe in the late 12th century, then climbs up to reach the pinnacle of crusading military and literary activities in the 14th century, and, after having passed the turning point of the Battle of Tannenberg (1410), enjoys a comfortable descent into the lush meadows of cultural memory, where the din of battle reverberated long after the heroes of the actual fighting and romance had been laid to rest in peace. The 300-year-long story presented by Chollet reflects faithfully the vicissitudes of crusading, the most salient feature of which may rightly be seen in the volte-face of the Lithuanians, from the target of the crusades in their pre-conversion life, to their post-conversion role as welcomed allies in the pan-European crusade scheming against yet another infidel in the guise of Tatars and Turks (especially pp. 311–331). In the first place, francophone students will be thankful to the author for providing them with up-to-date coverage of crusading activities in the north. [...]. [Extract, p. 213-214]