Search - All Adventure: Wanderer's Necklace (Essential Adventure Library)

This is one of Haggard’s later tales of the ancients—part legend, part fantasy, loosely based on history— following “World’s Desire” and “Eric Brighteyes.” This fantasy of the ancient world begins in the Norseland where Olaf, a Dane, robs the grave of an ancient warrior known as “The Wanderer” taking his sword and a necklace that legend has it will mate with the wanderer’s betrothed in the future. With this begins the theme of reincarnation. (Oddly, I had jest finished reading Talbot Mundy’s “I Say Sunrise”: his philosophy that has strong overtones of reincarnation.) After breaking his allegiance to the god Odin, we find that Olaf has wandered to Byzantium where he has become Captain of the Guards to the Empress Irene. Some thirty years have lapsed, much of which Olaf has no recollection. He suffers constantly from these lapses of memory. Here he meets the woman who wears the doppelganger of his necklace, and who, unknowingly, causes him no end of grief. Finally, he trails her to ancient Egypt, finds her, relapses into amnesia, and returns to his homeland. Naturally, expect a great deal of typical Haggard action interspersed between these lines. If you enjoy this tale, I suggest that you explore Talbot Mundy’s “Tros” quintet.