So, lately I’ve been noticing these Sunday Salon badges popping up all over the litblogosphere. I figured that since today happens to be Sunday, and I happen to be in the middle of a book that I can’t wait to tell about, I might as well add myself to the network.

The book is Baudolino, by Umberto Eco. I’m only a third of the way through, so this won’t be a full review. However, I can tell you already that it is an absolute riot! Historical fiction at its finest: educational and entertaining at the same time. I’m learning all about the latter half of the twelfth century: the political intrigues, the wars, the Crusades — and I can’t stop grinning while I read.

The main character, Baudolino, reminds me a little of Forrest Gump. He’s everywhere — and he’s creating history everywhere. This rogue turns out to be responsible for the story of the Three Magi, as well as Charlemagne’s canonization and the Letter of Prester John, and more, I’m sure, that I haven’t yet gotten to. Baudolino is a great liar storyteller — and he understands the power of storytelling. For example, when Baudolino discovers the relics of the three Magi he immediately realizes their value. Their origin is dubious at best:

I knew it couldn’t be true, because the Magi are spoken of in only one Gospel, the Gospel of Matthew, and he says very little about them. He doesn’t say how many there were, where they came from, whether they were kings or wise men. . . . He says only that they reached Jerusalem following a star. No Christian knows what their origin was or where they returned to. Who could have found their grave?

But as Baudolino points out,

a relic is valid if it finds its proper place in a true story. Outside the story of Prester John, those Magi could have been the trick of some rug merchant; within the true story of Prester John they became genuine testimony. A door is not a door if it does not have a building around it; otherwise it would be only a hole — no, what am I saying? — not even a hole, because a void without something surrounding it is not a void. I understood then that I had the story in which the Magi could have a meaning. I thought that if I said something about Prester John to the emperor to lure him to the Orient, having the confirmation of the magi, who surely came from the Orient, would support my argument. These poor three kings were asleep in their sarcophagus . . . hadn’t they set out from God knows where to follow a star? It was up to me to give those three bodies a new Bethlehem.

Woo-hoo!

This whole Prester John story is pure delight, too. Have you ever heard of him? The name was vaguely familiar to me, but I didn’t know the story until now. Prester (or Presbyter) John was a legendary Christian king who ruled a kingdom somewhere in the Orient? India? that included, among other things, the ten lost tribes of Israel, the Garden of Eden, an amazing array of mythical creatures, and a mirror that allowed him to see everything in the world. People believed in Prester John and continued to search for his kingdom for several hundred years. The Letter of Prester John (supposedly written by him to the Emperor of Byzantium) was considered proof of his marvellous existence. You can read all about it at the online Museum of Hoaxes <giggle>.