40 Fun Facts About The Battle for Skandia

The first Temujai invasion recalled in The Battle for Skandia collapsed when their ruler died of what?

Bad shellfish killed the Sha'shan, and the three kinsmen commanding the invasion hurried home to contest the succession, leaving the army without leaders.

Which Skandian jarl, who once helped Will escape, is elected the nation's new leader in The Battle for Skandia?

Erak wins the vote and promptly promises his ship to his first mate Svengal, after one last voyage to take his Araluen friends home.

In The Battle for Skandia, whom does Will train as a force of one hundred archers against the Temujai?

Slaves promised freedom fill Will's ranks, an idea Ragnak accepts only reluctantly, since Skandian warriors fight hand to hand and have no answer to Temujai arrows.

Will begins The Battle for Skandia newly recovered from addiction to which drug given to Skandian yard workers?

Warmweed takes the edge off the cold but leaves its users caring about nothing else; Evanlyn weaned Will off it over the winter with ever smaller doses.

The Temujai of The Battle for Skandia have a name resembling Temüjin, the birth name of which conqueror?

Genghis Khan was born Temüjin, and like his Mongols the Temujai of John Flanagan's novel are mounted archers who once swept west across a continent.

For whom did John Flanagan write the twenty short stories that became the Ranger's Apprentice series?

His son Michael, then twelve, was a reluctant reader, and Flanagan modelled the hero Will on him: small, agile and fond of climbing.

In The Battle for Skandia, what do the Temujai hope to seize by conquering the Skandians first?

Their wolfships would let the Temujai move an army over the sea to Araluen, which is why Halt chooses to stay and help an old enemy.

At the end of The Battle for Skandia, King Duncan cuts short which punishment he had given Halt?

Banishment for one year was Halt's sentence for insulting the king, an offence he committed on purpose so that he could leave Araluen to rescue Will.

What reward does King Duncan give Horace for his deeds at the close of The Battle for Skandia?

A knighthood comes with a post in the royal guard, keeping Horace at court near the princess while Will rides home.

What did a younger Halt take from the Temujai, a theft he admits in The Battle for Skandia?

Some of their horses went home with Halt to strengthen the Rangers' own breed, which handed the Temujai a grievance against the west.

Which John Flanagan novel, the third in Ranger's Apprentice, comes directly before The Battle for Skandia?

The Icebound Land plants the threat: out hunting, Evanlyn watches a fur-clad rider in the forest, the first sign of the invasion that fills the next book.

The Battle for Skandia is the American title of a John Flanagan novel first published under which name?

Oakleaf Bearers was the original title; other editions went their own way, with the German one named for an attack by Temujai riders.

The Battle for Skandia was first published in which country, the home of its author John Flanagan?

Australia saw the novel almost two years before American readers did; Sydney-born John Flanagan had spent two decades in advertising before turning to fiction.

Near which Skandian capital is the decisive clash with the Temujai fought in The Battle for Skandia?

Hallasholm is a harbour town ringed by a wooden palisade, and Evanlyn had worked in the kitchens of its Great Hall before she escaped with Will.

What title does Ragnak hold as elected supreme ruler of the Skandians in The Battle for Skandia?

Oberjarl is a post won by vote, never by birth: the senior jarls choose one of their own, and Skandians give him no honorifics such as majesty or lord.

Evanlyn, Will's fellow captive before The Battle for Skandia, is the alias of which Araluen woman?

Princess Cassandra, daughter of King Duncan, hides her name in Skandia because Ragnak has sworn vengeance on her whole family.

Where are Will and Evanlyn hiding from the Skandians as The Battle for Skandia opens?

A mountain cabin built for hunters sheltered them all winter, but the coming spring means Skandians could stumble on it at any time.

What is Evanlyn doing in the forest when a Temujai rider seizes her in The Battle for Skandia?

Checking her snares for food, she was dragged off to a Temujai patrol's camp; when she failed to return, Will followed her captor's tracks there.

John Flanagan based the Ranger Halt of The Battle for Skandia on which figure from his own life?

A schoolteacher who taught him in sixth grade inspired Halt, one of several characters John Flanagan drew from real people close to him.

What name do Skandians give the oath of total vengeance Ragnak has sworn against King Duncan's family?

Vallasvow invokes the Vallas, three gods of vengeance who appear as a shark, a bear and a vulture; break it and they take the swearer's own family instead.

In The Battle for Skandia, what does Halt persuade Ragnak to do about his oath against Evanlyn's family?

Postpone it until peacetime was Halt's way out: the oath had no deadline, so Ragnak could fight the invaders first without breaking his word.

How does Ragnak, ruler of the Skandians, meet his death during The Battle for Skandia?

Fighting as a berserker, Ragnak cut down most of the Temujai around him before his wounds told; Skandians believe such a death earns instant entry to their highest heaven.

What does the Skandian traitor Slagor agree to do for the Temujai in The Battle for Skandia?

Carry troops to the rear of the Skandian army: that was the scheme Evanlyn overheard after following Slagor aboard his ship. The Temujai later betrayed him by asking where he was.

Which favourite Temujai trick does Halt predict, letting the Skandians spring an ambush from the woods?

A feigned retreat normally lures an enemy out of line to be cut down, but Halt had the Skandians follow on purpose while a hidden force struck from the trees.

How does Horace protect Will while Will directs the archers under Temujai fire in The Battle for Skandia?

Holding a shield over him, Horace took the arrows that Temujai marksmen aimed at Will, who kept shooting back until they withdrew.

How does Will stop the Temujai deputy commander Nit'zak from killing Evanlyn late in The Battle for Skandia?

Will throws his saxe knife, the heavy blade every Ranger carries, just as Temujai riders break through the Skandian line and reach the archers' position.

Why does the Temujai general finally order his army home in The Battle for Skandia?

Victory would cost too much: with so many riders lost he could not hold the territory already conquered on the long road home, so Halt insists the Skandians never truly won.

How do the Skandians lay Ragnak to rest after the Temujai withdraw in The Battle for Skandia?

On a funeral pyre, still bloodied from the fight: Skandian custom forbids cleaning a warrior's body, and three days of mourning let distant jarls arrive for the vote.

Under the treaty that ends The Battle for Skandia, what do the Skandians promise the kingdom of Araluen?

An end to massed raids was Skandia's side of the bargain; in return Araluen agreed to station a force of archers there in case the Temujai came back.

Will turns down a commission in which Araluen unit to stay Halt's apprentice after The Battle for Skandia?

The Royal Scouts are light cavalry who train the kingdom's archers, and their officers normally come from the nobility, so the offer was a rare honour for an orphan.

The treaty forged in The Battle for Skandia later gives Will what, awarded when he becomes a full Ranger?

His surname, Treaty, honours his part in the peace between Araluen and Skandia; as an orphan of unknown family he had none before.

The Temujai riders of The Battle for Skandia are masters of which weapon, a type apprentice Will also uses?

Recurve bow: Halt learned the design from the Temujai themselves, which is why Ranger apprentices such as Will train with one before graduating to the longbow.

Because his archers are barely trained, what does Will do at each volley in The Battle for Skandia?

Will sets their timing and angle, so a hundred novices loose as one; the first volleys cut down most of a Temujai squadron before the enemy knows where he is.

What grim sight at a Skandian border post warns Halt and Horace of invaders in The Battle for Skandia?

The garrison shot dead, about a dozen Skandians, told Halt everything once he recognised the arrows as Temujai; fearing for Araluen, he followed the killers' tracks.

On what errand to Ostkrag does Ragnak send one of his jarls early in The Battle for Skandia?

To collect unpaid taxes from Sten Hammerhand, a jarl so slow to pay that Ragnak's steward nicknamed him Gluehand; the invasion cut the trip short.

What do the Temujai call their cavalry squadrons, each with one sharpshooter, in The Battle for Skandia?

Ulan is the Temujai word for a mounted squadron; Halt knew they attack in relays of ten, wheeling and shooting until a gap opens in the enemy line.

What are the elite Temujai marksmen who pick off enemy leaders called in The Battle for Skandia?

Kaijin ride one to a squadron and stay out of close combat; when the general masses them against Will's archers, they break and flee under the return volleys.

Which Temujai general, styled Shan of the People, commands the invasion army in The Battle for Skandia?

Haz'kam is a cold realist who hides his feelings as Temujai custom demands, even after losing one of his own family in a probe of Will's archers.

On which barren rock do the Skandians strand a Temujai detachment in The Battle for Skandia?

Fallkork Island is a small rock within a day's sail of the capital; the Skandians tricked about 150 Temujai soldiers into landing there and sailed away.

To which boyhood home does Will ride back with Halt at the end of The Battle for Skandia?

Castle Redmont is where Will grew up as a ward, and Evanlyn and Horace watch from the battlements as he and Halt ride away to it.