Plea for help from anyone who has read Jan Guillou's Swedish Crusade Trilogy

Thanks to a recommendation here I picked up the first two books; I enjoyed them a lot. The third book I couldn't get; the date on Amazon.uk was pushed back to November this year as soon as I ordered it. The rest of the books were done in 2002. This seemed so odd I emailed the English version's publisher (Orion) and they replied that they are not going to translate the third book because they lost money on the first two! Argh!

:goes down on her knees and begs: Can anyone tell me if there is another English translation of the third book? Maybe there is an American one not listed on amazon.uk? Failing that can someone give me a nice, long indepth account of what happens in the third books? Please? I'm desperate! I can't leave it like this, two books out of three with no ending! ~:mecry:

After looking on the net I can say that a deep friendship with Anna Paterson (the translator ~;) ) or a quick course in Swedish seems to be your best choise. ~D

I've might have missed something but I don't think so.


I've red it, but it was a while ago and I don't have time to read it again and write a comprehensive summary ATM. :sad:

Is it possible that they've translated it to another language? I recall that you speak french, right? I know it's a long shot but it might work...
Otherwise you'd better start practising your Swedish as previously suggested ~D

Poor Miss Froggy, I hope this helps. http://www.bestprices.com/cgi-bin/vl...source=adwords

Here's one from Amazon, half priced used, http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...791341-9602438 the descriptions don't say that they are translated into English.
If it's what you are looking for, and for some strange reason this book is only available for shipment in the US, pm me and I'll help you. :bow:

If, you don't find it anywhere else, I could try and translate it for you. But as I also have alot of course material to learn, I can only do it in the afternoon, so it might take a while before I get each chapter finished.

But seeing as you have read the two first books, you should get to read the third as well, so if I am your last hope, please let me know and I'll try not to dissapoint.

~:)

:wipes tear from her eye: Thanks, folks.

I'm not much of a linguist; my French never passed GCSE level and that was the best I managed with any language. I am not even sure if there are any Swedish languages courses available where I live. Swedish is now on the list of languages I wish I know, between Japanese and Latin.

Yes, those are the books, but I strongly suspect both they are in Swedish rather than English. The English two I have, and the third which never appeared (:shakes fist at Orion publishing and curses them creatively and at some length:), were all given English titles. The third book is called 'The Kingdom at the End of the Road'.

Dîn-Heru, thank you, :bow: I really do hope you will not need to undertake such a mammoth task, but I admit I would love to read the third book properly instead of just a summery. However any ending is better than no ending at all, and I'm dying to see how exactly this ends. It's plainly not a case of 'Arn comes home; he and Cecilia are reunited and live blissfully ever after with their son'

I can't believe Orion only managed to get funding for two of the three books; I would have expected them to pitch the translation as a set or not at all. They even have cover art for the book, page number estimates - the works. It's as if they had it all prepared and then dumped it at the last second.

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Originally Posted by frogbeastegg

:wipes tear from her eye: Thanks, folks.

Dîn-Heru, thank you, :bow: I really do hope you will not need to undertake such a mammoth task, but I admit I would love to read the third book properly instead of just a summery. However any ending is better than no ending at all, and I'm dying to see how exactly this ends. It's plainly not a case of 'Arn comes home; he and Cecilia are reunited and live blissfully ever after with their son'

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It is not really, a big deal. I have read the books two times already, ( can't give more than a very short and not very in-depth summary though as it is a year or so since I last read them, and I don't have the books infront of me). Besides this could serve as an excuse to go out and buy them, which I have considered doing for a while now.

Also, in danger of creating more work for myself, you should see if the epiloque (sp?) of the series is available. It is called 'Arven etter Arn' in norwegian, I think, so possibly 'Arn's Legacy' in English. Which deals with how Arn's family captures the Swedish throne.

The epilogue definitely is not available; I was annoyed but I comforted myself with the knowledge that I would definitely get to finish the main trilogy. Arn's family takes the throne? Wow! :begins to die of curiosity:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by frogbeastegg

I can't believe Orion only managed to get funding for two of the three books; I would have expected them to pitch the translation as a set or not at all. They even have cover art for the book, page number estimates - the works. It's as if they had it all prepared and then dumped it at the last second.

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That may well be the case. If they suddenly got the urge to cut losses there's no sense in printing the third book, is there? Try asking the publisher or the translator for the text, in case they're really nice and want to help a fan.

But it's more likely they'll just tell you to take a hike. They've given up on the third book in silence, just so they can sell more of the ones they did publish. :furious3:

The books Hosokawa dug up seem to be in ... Spanish?

Yes the titles are in Spanish, kind of weird they would translate a Swedish author in Spanish but not in English, then complain they can't sell enough books. The first link is from a company based in California, there is a free customer service number, I'll try calling them and enquire if they have a copy in English. Froggy, try a google search on the author, I noticed an e-book site that you might be able to download an English text version of what you seek. Are you starting to feel like a Hobbit on a mission quest or what? ~D

I called the customer service number and there is no English version of this book that they are aware of. Does the author have his own website? Many now do, couldn't hurt to drop him a line, hopefully he can find another publisher, but looking at the copywrite date of June 2003, maybe not.

Sorry to nag about translating it, but the idea is kind of growing on me.

So since it would seem that the book is not translated, and I have decided to buy the books tomorrow, (hopefully they are still for sale in the bookstore). My offer still stands. However I can probably only manage one chapter a week on avarage, (time limitations due to other activities). So it might take a while, so you must either wait a long time for the whole book, or get it in seqences about a week apart each.

So, if you want to take me up on my offer, don't be afraid to do so.

If, not you could try and get people to bother the publisher by requesting that they get it translated, if enough people demand it they might change their minds just to stop you from writing to them, ( worked in 'the Shawshank Redemtion' ~D ).

~:)

Orion say "Very sadly we're not going to be publishing it. We have been unable to get financial support for translation from either a US publisher or the
Swedish Institute. The translation is very expensive and the sales are
modest. We've lost a load of money on the first two books and we cannot
afford to publish the third." That is almost entirely the contents of thier reply to me; the rest is just a quick thanks for the interest and sorry.

I sent them another email asking if anyone else had brought the rights, if there was any other way to read this in English etc etc. I doubt I'll get a useful answer but if you don't try you don't get anywhere. Anyone else wanting to ask Orion about the trilogy can do so via this address: info@orionbooks.co.uk

Hosakawa Tito, thanks for your efforts. :bow:

Dîn-Heru, thank you. I accept your incredibly generous offer; I'll PM you my email address so you don't have to rely on the org's email forms.

I can sympathize in my limited way -- I fell in love with the story of "Lone Wolf and Cub" when First was publishing it in the late eighties. They got about halfway through the epic and then First folded. I found out that there had been some films made of the story -- very hard to find, or at least they were at that time. I finally got hold of "Shogun Assassin," which took the story about halfway -- and ended.

I spent ten years knowing half the story, ready to go out of my mind. Finally Dark Horse took up the project, and published the entire epic. I finally got to find out how the story ended. I felt as though a terminal pain had been removed from my life.

Best of luck. For what it's worth, I seriously considered learning Kanji just to read the end of the story. Thank God I didn't have to do so.

I got a second reply from Orion; it's really useful.

"I've contacted the rights department and this is their comprehensive
answer:"

Yup, the comprehensive answer is:

:blankg:

Actually Swedish is a very simple and easy to learn language. Even small kids in Sweden speaks it........ ~;)