Attain The Eagle Of The Ninth Conveyed By Rosemary Sutcliff Delivered In Leaflet
book is fully as good as I remember, That's a lot to say for a book that I adored from the age of eight until about fourteen, reread at seventeenish, and then haven't read for a few years.
. . In my head, it was always one of the most amazing books of my childhood, and my memory didn't overstate it, It is written for children, so it's very easy to read and perhaps a little less than subtle, in places particularly with foreshadowing, "Little did he know how important this piece of information was going to become" sort of thing,
But Marcus and Esca are still the bright, real characters I remember, I always loved the parts that show the bond between them, the friendship, that transcends the initial fact of Esca's slavery, In fact, reading it again, it kind of amazed me how strong their friendship was realistic, yes, and with boundaries, but strong, I can picture both of them as characters, down to the way they move, can almost hear their voices, Part of that is years of imagination as a child, but I wouldn't have bothered if I didn't have good material to work on,
It's been a while since I did Classics, and longer since I learnt anything about the Roman occupation of Britain, but I think the historical details are reasonably accurate, too.
I like the development of the two mysteries the entombed Roman Eagle, and the disappearance of the Hispana,
One thing I did notice was similarities in description and ideas to The Capricorn Bracelet, which I read for the first time last week, That was a little disappointing,
Edit: Reread again because I'll be getting the rest of this series for Christmas,
Each book stands alone, I gather certainly The Eagle of the Ninth does, in any case, with no trailing plotlines left behind but I wanted to revisit a childhood favourite, and this made an excellent excuse.
For some reason, the moment that sticks in my mind right now is when Esca tells Marcus he saw the march of the illfated Hispana to where they fell, and Marcus replies that his father's crest was the scarlet hackle next after the eagle.
. . I loved this book dearly as a child, and it has lost none of its magic now, Beautifullywritten, discreetly poetic without a single word out of place, it's a thrilling adventure, an excellentlyresearched piece of historical fiction and a fabulous depiction of friendship all in one.
Read it at any age, and marvel at the pacing the gradual buildup, the terrific characterization, the breathless race to the final climax, Sutcliff brings Roman Britain to life as noone else has ever done and her novel is touching, absorbing and quietly haunting until long after the final page has been turned.
Rating Clarification:.Stars
My first Rosemary Sutcliff book, but it will not be my last, This tale of Roman Britain and the lost Ninth Legion brings the reader into a fully imagined yet realistic world in which honor and duty are sacrosanct and the meeting of two cultures can be either a time of mutual respect or bloody conflict and distrust.
Sutcliff is one darn brilliant writer of characters and settings, I could fully picture the time period, the people and the atmosphere, It rang true, and nothing seemed out of sync or out of period,
Overall, it did surprise me how good this book was, I mean exceptionally good, I don't think I've enjoyed a YA novel more since Suzanne Collins' sitelinkThe Hunger Games there are no similarities between the two books except that both are well written and hard to put down.
Although written primarily for a YA audience back in the mid's, Sutcliff doesn't hesitate to challenge her readers with terms and phrases they might not understand heck, who am I kidding, it was a challenge for me at times.
Very probably young readers of the's were more well read and more grounded in history then I was,
This is a story I wouldn't hesitate to recommend to young and old alike, Although boys might find a greater appreciation for the story, I feel it crosses age and gender lines as well,
And imagine my surprise and delight to find that themovie, "The Eagle" is based on this novel! Now I've got to go put this on my Netflix queue to see if the film makers did the book justice.
Probably not, but hey! Jamie Bell is in it :
InAD/CE, the Ninth Legion of the Roman Army marched into the mists of Caledonia the land known today as Scotland.
They were never seen again,
The standardbearer of the Legio IX Hispana, who held aloft the golden eagle as they marched, was the father of our hero, Marcus Flavius Aquila.
Marcus was a lad of twelve years when his father vanished, Now a young adult eager to prove his mettle, Marcus himself serves as a Roman officer in Britain,
He is discharged after a grievous battle wound that gives him a slight limp, While recuperating in the house of his uncle, Marcus has nothing but downtime in which to ponder the fate of his father and the standard he carried into the Caledonian mists.
He also forms three fast friendships, The first is with Esca, a young Briton whom Marcus purchased as a manservantslave to save him from the gladiator fights, The second is with an orphaned wolf cub, named simply Cub, whom Esca adopted when on a hunting excursion that killed Cubs mother, The third is with Cottia, a British girl being unwillingly raised as a Roman by the family next door,
When he has sufficiently recovered, Marcus, accompanied only by Esca, decides to go north, beyond the wall of Britannia, and follow the trail of the Ninth Legion into Celtic lands unknown.
His intent: to bring back the Eagle, and restore the honor of his fathers Legion,
Content Advisory
Violence: Theres a gladiator combat where men and beasts are slain, although Sutcliff spares us the worst of the gore.
Theres also a battle sequence that focuses more on Marcus state of mind than the carnage around him, Another battle towards the end of the book has minimal bloodshed,
Sex: Marcus nicknames Cottia a "little vixen, " This is a reference to her red hair and ferocity, but he probably also calls her that because he finds her rather, well, . .
Language: Nothing,
Substance Abuse: Everybody drinks wine and beer because the water back then was a sanitation hazard,
Nightmare Fuel: The Celtic Feast of New Spears features some rituals that could be rather frightening to younger kids, including men prancing about wearing dead animals the emblems of their clans on their heads.
The being here called the Horned Hunter also known as Cernunnos or Herne has a strange presence in the bookthe main characters dont believe in him per se, but almost fear that he might spring on them as they go about their taskand hes kind of spooky even though he never materializes.
Conclusions
This is my first Sutcliff book, and my only complaint is that somehow I did not find out about this books existence until recently.
Ah well. Better late than never.
What an outstanding novel, Nearly every aspect of it is perfect, The characters have such vibrancy and depth, especially Marcus and Esca,
Marcus, unlike most young Roman men in fiction, is a gracious and humble fellow who cares so deeply for the honor of his father and people, but thinks nothing of his own pride and even life.
Esca is quiet, observant, loyal, and deep, The way the lads develop over their journey is amazing, from master and servant to brothers in arms, They were able to transcend the prejudices of their respective cultures and have one of the strongest literary friendships Ive ever seen,
These two are the main focus, but the supporting cast is wonderful too, Guern is particularly lovable, Tradui is intriguing, and Tribune Placidus is just one of those smarmy little pseudovillains that one loves to hate,
Cottia reminds me a bit of Éowyn with her desperate desire for freedom, not to mention her penchant for standing in the wind with her bright hair billowing out from under her cloak.
My only complaint with her is that she should have been in more of the story,
But Roman society in those days kept men and women apart most of the time, The only way, unfortunately, that Cottia or any other girl could have participated in an adventure like this one, is by disguising herself as a boy, which wouldnt have worked in this case anyway because Marcus and Esca would have recognized her instantly.
Cub is a delight, the fiercest of all hunters yet the doggiest of dogs, who nearly starved himself to death when his master had to leave him behind, and greeted him with a flurry of tailwagging and slobbery kisses when he finally came home.
The desolation and ferocity of Roman Britannia is the baseline of the story, and Sutcliff paints the environs richly with her wellchosen words, The only way to make the moors, the old forests, and the Lowlands even more forlorn than usual is to step back to this ancient erabefore Heathcliff and Catherine, before Macbeth and the three witches, before even King Arthur rose from the ashes of Rome and Druidism.
The few settlements are lonely little lights in the mist,
And as you can imagine, the people living in those settlements are rather nervous, Rome is far away, and reinforcements take a while to reach the limecliff shores of Britain, A fell sweep of northern Celtic tribes could push the Romans back into the sea, Even the gladiator fights, which were aggressively festive events in Rome itself, are portrayed here as being nearly as nervewracking for the viewers as for the combatants, Sutcliff masterfully evokes the tension and dread that the Roman colonists must have lived with on a daily basis, With all the Biblical fiction Ive been reading lately, its interesting to see how the Western and Eastern frontiers of the Empire paralleled each other, The Celts and the Judeans had nothing culturally in common beyond their fierce independence, and both lands seethed against their overlords,
This was a thoroughly enjoyable book, Im hugely impressed with Sutcliffs storytelling ability, and I cant wait to read the adventures of Marcus and Cottias descendents,
P. S. A movie based on this book came out a few years ago, starring Channing Tatum as Marcus and Jamie Bell as Esca, It looks like a highly enjoyable film in its own right, and I could easily picture those two actors as the heroes of the story, However, Im annoyed that the movie appears to have written Cottia and Cub out of the story entirely, and the subplot about Esca is even worse.
Thats like Frodo turning on Sam in the Return of the King movie, only here it was deemed important enough to be shown in the trailer, Im still curious to see it, but those elements worry me,
P. P. S. Apparently modern scholars are pretty divided about what became of the Ninth Legion, Some say that they never vanished at all, others that they went missing in Parthia during the bar Kokba revolt, at the opposite end of the Empire from Britain.
Isnt this the same legion that wound up in China in the Rick Riordan timeline,