The Ranger's Apprentice series and the Brotherband Chronicles are both great book series by John Flanagan. Until now, to the best of my knowledge, it has mostly been unknown as to when the events in each book took place relative to each series. So I delved back into each and every book to find out where each character was in each book and about how long the events in the book had taken. I decided to make a combined timeline of events for both book series.
Warning: Spoiler Alert!
Warning: Spoiler Alert!
All events in the Brotherband Chronicles take place after Erak's Ransom but before the Lost Stories as Gilan is in that book. This puts the fourth and fifth book during the time of the Kings of Clomnel, Halt's Peril, and the Emperor of Nihon-Ja. But since Erak's kidnapping is almost never talked about that means it must have been at least a year since the event this puts the first, second and third book around the time of the Kings of Clomnel, but since the first and second book took about a year and both the Kings of Clomnel happened within the same year as Halt's Peril, that means that the fourth and fifth books are either in the middle of Halt's Peril or at the beginning of The Emperor of Nihon-Ja. With this information we can find out a round-about time when they get back. Since now all of the information is based on the Lost Stories, and the Lost Stories isn't a full book but instead a collection of short stories within a book, a timeline of these stories needs to be put into place in order to complete the full timeline. I'm only going to include the most important stories: the “Purple Prose,” “The Dinner for Five, and “The Bridal Dance.” |
Based on the information given, the chronological order of these is the same order as they appear in the book: “Purple Prose,” “The Dinner for Five, and “The Bridal Dance,” “The Purple Prose” is before the wedding, but during the wedding, Jenny and Gilan seem closer than before the wedding which means that something must have happened to cause this, putting the “Dinner for Five” right in the middle of the two other stories, this also means that Gilan would have needed to be there for the first story so that puts the Brotherband Chronicles ending, right before the “Purple Prose Story,” since we don't see Will in any of the Brotherband books. The timeline for the two series progresses as follows:
Ruins of Gorlan
Burning Bridge
Icebound Lands
Battle for Scandia
The Sorcerer of the North
The Siege of Macindaw
Erak's Ransom
Kings of Clomnel --> The Outcasts --> The Invaders
Halt's Peril -->The Hunters
The Emperor of Nihon-Ja --> The Slaves of Soccoro --> Scorpion Mountain
The Lost Stories:
“The Purple Prose”
“Dinner for Five”
“The Bridal Dance”
The Royal Ranger
Submitted by Thomas C.
Burning Bridge
Icebound Lands
Battle for Scandia
The Sorcerer of the North
The Siege of Macindaw
Erak's Ransom
Kings of Clomnel --> The Outcasts --> The Invaders
Halt's Peril -->The Hunters
The Emperor of Nihon-Ja --> The Slaves of Soccoro --> Scorpion Mountain
The Lost Stories:
“The Purple Prose”
“Dinner for Five”
“The Bridal Dance”
The Royal Ranger
Submitted by Thomas C.