In “The Lion of the North” the main character is a soldier named Malcolm, who is a Scottish boy who lived with his uncle. When the uncle’s old friends showed up asking him to join them in the 30 year’s war (which was waging in Germany between the Catholics and the Protestants between 1618 and 1648) he agrees, and Malcolm wanted to join as well, so he was immediately joined in higher up, just under the uncle’s friend.
He was initially very curious when he was a lower soldier, but he lost that curiosity pretty quickly as he figured out what he had to do. This could also be because the author wanted to explain things quickly and only once, so he had him ask many questions upfront.
He normally avoids doing harm to the peasantry that wasn’t fighting (even being a guard who stopped other soldiers from burning for burnings sake.), and had the utmost abhorrence of the bandits that took advantage of the wartime to raid villages, having been captured and mistreated by a band early on in the book. But, when the villages that were on the Catholic side of the war killed and captured him and his soldiers, he had no trouble killing near 40 of them, despite him being the one who was invading them and his army often pillaging them, because that’s what armies did to keep up on supplies.
He always acted like a veteran, even when he first joined the army, because he was always imitating the way they talked and acted, and this helped lead him to his quick promotions. Evidence of this is that he made it to captain in only a few years.
I think that he was a very methodical thinker, only doing the most simplistic things and using simplistic tactics, but he does it consistently. This means that when other people are at a loss as to what to do, he has a plan, and when other people are panicked he still has a plan, simple as it is. He did this is when the bandits were riding to raid a village he recommended they dig a hole, so that the horsemen fell in. Or, when he decided to swim across a large, freezing river to get a boat on the other side, instead of throwing a hook, or even building a boat, which would probably have been easier.
He is also very awkward with just about everyone, making him painfully polite. This is often evident when his officer Munro talks to him, because he (Munro) is extremely jovial. It is also evident when he is talking to his wife-to-be, because there is absolutely no love evident, especially since the book is narrated by the author, not Malcolm, but both of those things are common in G. A. Henty books.
It is unclear throughout the book whether or not he believes in the Protestant cause, partly because of his painful formality, and while he does join in when others are talking about the “Catholic monstrosities” I feel that he joined the war more because everyone else in Scotland was, especially since he left to go home with his wife with absolutely no fuss about leaving while the Protestants were losing.
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