It is the time of the Crusades during the Middle Ages - the world shaping 200-year collision between Europe and the East. A blacksmith named Balian has lost his family and nearly his faith. The religious wars raging in the far-off Holy Land seem remote to him, yet he is pulled into that immense drama. Amid the pageantry and intrigues of medieval Jerusalem he falls in love, grows into a leader, and ultimately uses all his courage and skill to defend the city against staggering odds. Destiny comes seeking Balian in the form of a great knight, Godfrey of Ibelin, a Crusader briefly home to France from fighting in the East. Revealing himself as Balian's father, Godfrey shows him the true meaning of knighthood and takes him on a journey across continents to the fabled Holy City. In Jerusalem at that moment--between the Second and Third Crusades--a fragile peace prevails, through the efforts of its enlightened Christian king...
Godfrey of Ibelin Be without fear in the face of your enemies. Be brave and upright that God may love thee. Speak the truth always, even if it leads to your death. Safeguard the helpless and do no wrong. That is your oath.
Godfrey of Ibelin: [cuffs Balian with the back of his hand] And that's so you remember it.
Hospitaller: Arise a knight and Baron of Ibelin.
King Baldwin IV Come forward. I am glad to meet Godfrey's son. He was one of my greatest teachers. He was there when, playing with the other boys, my arm was cut. It was he, not my father's physicians, who noticed that I felt no pain. He wept when he gave my father the news... that I am a leper. The Saracens say that this disease is God's vengence against the vanity of our kingdom. As wretched as I am, these Arabs believe that the chastisement that awaits me in hell is far more severe and lasting. If that's true, I call it unfair. Come. Sit.
[they sit down on opposite sides of a chessboard]
King Baldwin IV: Do you play?
Balian of Ibelin: No.
King Baldwin IV: The whole world is in chess. Any move can be the death of you. Do anything except remain where you started, and you can't be sure of your end. Were you sure of your end once?
Balian of Ibelin: I was.
King Baldwin IV: What was it?
Balian of Ibelin: To be buried a hundred yards from where I was born.
King Baldwin IV: And now?
Balian of Ibelin: Now I sit in Jerusalem, and look upon a king.
King Baldwin IV: [Baldwin chuckles] When I was sixteen, I won a great victory. I felt in that moment I would live to be a hundred. Now I know I shall not see thirty. None of us know our end, really, or what hand will guide us there. A king may move a man, a father may claim a son, but that man can also move himself, and only then does that man truly begin his own game. Remember that howsoever you are played or by whom, your soul is in your keeping alone, even though those who presume to play you be kings or men of power. When you stand before God, you cannot say, "But I was told by others to do thus," or that virtue was not convenient at the time. This will not suffice. Remember that. Balian of Ibelin: I will.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5bHsrD0wic
- Are you going to Scarborough Fair?
- Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme,
- Remember me to one who lives there,
- She once was a true love of mine.
- Tell her to make me a cambric shirt,
- Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme,
- Without no seam nor needle work,
- Then she'll be a true love of mine.
- Tell her to find me an acre of land,
- Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme,
- Between the salt water and the sea strand,
- Then she'll be a true love of mine.
- Tell her to reap it with a sickle of leather,
- Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme,
- And to gather it all in a bunch of heather,
- Then she'll be a true love of mine.
- Are you going to Scarborough fair?
- Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme,
- Remember me to one who lives there,
- She once was a true love of mine.
The song is also believed[2] to refer to the black plague, with parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme being four herbs used to ward off the smell of the dead or dying. It was popular belief in Medieval times that the smell of the plague(s) was responsible for infecting somebody and that herbs could be used to cleanse air. Sage, rosemary, and thyme are also common ingredients used in Four Thieves Vinegar, said to protect a group of thieves from the plague.
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