Star Wars, Star Trek, and Prester John

(Inspired by an episode of the "Gone Medieval" podcast.)

The legend of Prester John is an excellent example of the sort of story that captivated European Christians in Medieval times. (A longer account here.)He was a king far to the east of the "known" world, which would on land have been the Tigris River at the time. They had heard of the Indies or other things of similar name and speculated about them. Goods arrived along the Silk Road, but they often had no more than rumors of those. The Crusades brought them much farther east, and in contact with people who had been farther still.

Prester (or Presbyter) John was a wise and rich ruler. The wall surrounding his city was so wide even at the top that two chariots could ride abreast on it. There were monsters of various sorts would fight in his armies, even dragons from caves there at the edge of the world who had been tamed by dragonmasters. They believed he would march from the east someday to help take Jerusalem, and the Fifth Crusade may have been lost largely by dithering in Egypt, waiting for him to show up. Not that it mattered, as the Mongols were going to show up in a few years and destroy everyone in their path who would not surrender immediately, Muslim or Christian, and holding the Holy Land or not wouldn't have made much difference. The rumor of battles with Muslims out east likely even fed the rumors that it must be one of PJ's descendants.  Who else would be fighting Muslims, after all. 

The Mongols were on their own crusade, as one of their rulers had been told he (or they) had been destined to rule the world, so everyone who didn't acknowledge that was denying an important celestial truth and had no right to live. A much more deadly scourge than the paltry showing the Europeans put up every few decades for a couple of centuries.

We consider them a bit ridiculous now for believing such stories, but there were some records that some of the Mongol rulers had married Christians and become Christians themselves, and their children after them. (So too with Muslim wives and converts, though that was usually omitted.) The defeat of the Muslims by someone from the east, it was believed, must have been at the hands of King David, grandson of Prester John. We now think this was likely Genghis Khan. In the 1200s it was reported that a few decades before a letter from the east had been sent to both the Byzantine and Holy Roman emperors promising aid. That story changed into a letter to the Pope and the Patriarch in some countries.

The story kept coming up as long as Europe didn't actually know what was out east. After they learned more the legend moved PJ's kingdom to Africa for a while, then died out altogether.

So there wasn't much real evidence, but there was something, and wishful thinking plus imagining the fabulous and telling a good story provided the rest. The point of a story was to teach a lesson to someone (even a ruler or a bishop) and/or to entertain. It is clear that some fabulous tales were believed pretty deeply by some, but historical truth in our sense was not a distinction clearly made at the time. (CS Lewis writes about this a few times. The Discarded Image would be the place to start.) And we don't know how many only half-believed, or thought the historical angle unimportant. The lesson and the entertainment parts were the points.

When science fiction got under way it told similar tales, didn't it? Fabulous monsters on other planets (or on the surface floor of the ocean, or deep under the earth), and aliens, some of whom were dangerous and would have to be fought somehow, but others who were much wiser than humans.

But, you will insist, they didn't believe those stories. They were making suppositions about what might be true in order to... 

Yeah, to teach a lesson and to entertain. This is what will happen to mankind if we continue on our current path...These are the moral complications that will arise from intelligent robots...this is what the true nature of humans is, regardless of what environment you put them in. Yeah, I know. Fascinating stuff and I love it. In our current culture, those who grew up on Star Trek or Star Wars use events and characters from those films as illustrations and analogies all the time. There are plenty of people whose personal philosophies were influenced by the former. Roddenberry wasn't kidding about his intention to preach and teach. Star Wars has fewer True Believers in the Force, but that westernised version of eastern religion has certainly encouraged belief along those lines, which has indeed increased in the last forty years. Even without that, just as the stock characters of our culture, present since birth for many and still going strong, used for humor, serious teaching, inspiration, and reflection - you are telling me this is different from Prester John how, exactly? Aliens rescuing entire worlds; fabulous wealth and abilities; monsters that will fight on your side.

I do see some difference, I admit, but when you try and put it into words you start seeing what weak tea it is. The medievals were not so different from us. It is only chronological snobbery that keeps us sneering at them.