Product Description

Much has been written about the group of 14th-century warrior monks known as the Knights Templar. Some authors, such as Dan Brown in The Da Vinci Code, portray them as folk heroes wrongly accused. Others disagree, saying the Templar story is ultimately one of greed, deception, and idolatry.

Just who were the Knights Templar? And what is their legacy?

In The Templar Papers, author and historian Oddvar Olsen has assembled a veritable Who's Who of experts to unravel the mystery. Instead of rehashing previous scholarship, this book delves into new aspects of Templar lore, such as the origins of the order and its supposed survival after 1314.

It attempts to answer the following:

• Were the Templars devil worshippers who venerated a mysterious head? • Was the head that of John the Baptist? • What exactly did they find in Solomon's Temple? • Did they keep, and later hide, the Holy Grail and the Ark of the Covenant?

You'll also discover the Templar link to Mary Magdalene and the Freemasons, including answers to questions such as:

• Were Jesus and Mary lovers or, in fact, husband and wife? • Did Mary give birth to a child after Jesus' death? • Did Freemasonry originate from the Templars?

The Templar Papers offers the inquisitive reader several lifetimes of research and insight. This is a distinctive and truly unique compilation that will stimulate your mind and settle the controversy.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #503980 in Books
• Published on: 2006-03-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 254 pages

About the Author
Oddvar Olsen has studied mystery traditions and mythology since the late 80s, when he decided to specialize in the Knights Templar. In 2002 Olsen started The Temple, a successful periodical on the Knights Templar and related subjects, which he still edits and publishes. He lives in Somerset, England.

Customer Reviews

The Templar Papers
This is the 3rd book I have read on The Templars. The text is a hodge-podge of interesting facts and spectulations on The Knights Templar. The disorganization and disjointed style makes the information difficult to follow. There is entirely too much repetition and too many rhetorical questions in every chapter. There is virtually no chronologic order to the material. It would have been very helpful to the reader if the author provided a simple map to indicate the location of the many places, temples, churches etc. mentioned in the text. It was difficult to know without searching other references if the location of the place, incident, battle, or refuge referred to was in the Middle East(holy lands), France, SCotland or England!

In Chapter 6, one of the contributing authors(Defoe)gives a history of the Canadian Masonic Templars and later in the same chapter, R. Lomas, presents a brief history of Freemasonary. This was a bit perplexing and again, this underscores the disorganization of the text material.

Finally, given the problems that quickly become obvious to the reader, the editor must take some blame or responsibility for the poorly organized material of the text.

Ralls vrs Olsen
I didn't get a feeling that the authors answered the questions set out on the jacket to any great satisfaction. I definitely prefer reading Karen Ralls, as a scholarly author, rather than the popular history authors presented here.

More Templar Stories
For Templar buffs, the accumulation of the different
perspectives of this collection of author's theories is worth the read.

As in all books, there are kernels of truth. In reading this,
I gleaned some new concepts of the history of the Knights Templar.
Bettye Johnson,author, Secrets of the Magdalene Scrolls.