How we cite our quotes: Chapter, Paragraph
Quote #7
"They betray their own Infidel brothers?" I asked.
"It is strange," admitted Nigel. "There is no understanding what men raised under the sun will do. Perhaps the heat makes them all half mad." (15.3-4)
Here's some more serious superstition. Nigel is explaining to Edmund that the men on the spice ships sometimes lend the Crusaders a helping hand. Which seems confusing because they're part of the other side, right? Nigel gives the excuse that maybe they're crazy because of all that sunlight. Typical comment coming from an Englishman.
Quote #8
I had expected the Holy Land to be a place of miracle, angels at wellheads, saints in caves. It was even better than that. This was a land of wild thyme and date palms, huge trees with wooden plumes for leaves. Bees touched the flowering weeds, and hills lifted and fell to the east, bare of forest. The streams were but a trickle through black stones where they touched the sea. (22.34)
Edmund's expectations of the Holy Land actually don't match up to how beautiful it is. He had this vague sort of idea involving heavenly things (you know, because it's the Holy Land), but he's totally mesmerized by all the exotic plants. Compared to home, it's a tropical paradise. It's like he's walked into the Garden of Eden itself.
Quote #9
"There was your chance to run a pagan through to the heart," said Hubert, "and you traded by-your-leaves, like two wives at a fair."
"He was a knight-at-arms, at his ease," I said, using the lines from a lay about a knight outside his lady's garden, one of Miles's favorites. (25.55)
Here, Hubert is an example of how dangerous it is to see people as the "Other." He and Edmund met a Saracan knight at a well, and since they weren't in the middle of battle, Edmund was polite to him. Hubert thinks that Saracans exist only to be killed, though, and aren't worthy of being treated as human beings. Tsk tsk, Hubert.