Eagle's Honour ( A Circlet of Oak Leaves and Eagle's Egg )
This is a short book with two stories in it, and if I'm honest, it only makes a book even then because the font is LARGE and there are a lot of pictures. The two stories are : A Circlet of Oak Leaves and Eagle's Egg - I think both have been published elsewhere.
I decided to get this particular edition because it was described as containing two second-century stories, same period as Eagle of the Ninth roughly, but this description was wrong anyway : Eagle's Egg is very definitely first century: it tells the story of the defeat of Calgacus at the battle of Mons Graupius in 83AD.
Eagle's Egg
The narrator is a grandfather, telling his grandchildren the fireside tale of how he met their grandmother, Cordaella - another of Sutcliff's red-headed British ladies.
Although it's a retelling of one of Tacitus's great historical moments, the subjugation of Caledonia, it's framed as a love story, and all the grand political and military stuff is just a backdrop to the story of Quintus and Cordaella, (which of course is much more important to Quintus).
This feels very reminiscent of Kipling to me: Quintus is not a high ranking officer, or particularly well educated, and the voice has a slightly rough soldierly feeling to it. He is the the Eagle-bearer of the Ninth Legion, but that's not a command post - and he doesnt' have any of EO9 Marcus or even Frontier Wolf Alexios's ambitions - he's just a soldier trying to get through life and back to his girl, and when he finally achieves the promotion to Centurion that will allow him to marry her, it's not for conspicuous valor, it's for being well organised and making a joke that diffused tension in the ranks at the right moment. But as Cordaella says "... people who make bad jokes at the right moment are maybe much easier to be married to, than heroes".
Although there isn't that much of Sutcliff's usual theme of cultural divide here, it's a nice touch that Quintus assumes that Cordaella will have to marry the British man from Lindum that her brother Vedrix has picked out and that he needs to talk to Cordaella's brother about the marriage, not direct to her - whereas Vedrix is quite clear that he has no chance of being able to tell Cordaella to do anything and that whether she wants to marry, or to wait for Quintus is her decision!
Vedrix is a maker of mosaic pavements and is another of Sutcliff's heroes with a disability, this time a 'short leg' . As usual, the disability is acknowleged and is a restriction, but it doesn't define Vedrix's whole character - he's nicely sketched for a minor character in a first-person tale. There's a moment of contrast with Quintus, who identifies very much with his job, as 'a soldier' - whereas Vedrix says that his people don't divide themselves up 'into bundles' in that way : Vedrix is a person who makes art, he's not self-identifying as 'an artist'. Interesting. Reminded me a bit of the protagonist of Sun Horse, Moon Horse, whose personality is very much shaped by his need to draw, but again, he's not an artist :his role in life is not the same as his talent.
----------------------------------------------------
A Circlet of Oak Leaves
I left this till second to witter on about, because although it's bound first in my book, I'm not sure why.
Chronologically, it is set later than Egg : there are Dacian auxiliaries in it, so it must be at least second century, though I'm not sure there is much other dating evidence. It seems to me much a more complex piece of writing, with more difficult emotions in it. ( I kind of wish I'd read this before I started writing about Sutcliffian Dacian auxiliaries, though I think Sutcliffs are a bit later and more Romanised, so maybe it doesn't matter).
The hero is Aracos, a horse trader - and he has surely to be Sutcliff's loneliest hero, whose kindness and heroism is not known or appreciated by anyone.
Well, anyone apart from Felix. Felix is a soldier who, operating in dangerous conditions and under severe tension, has an attack of combat stress just before an important battle, leaving Aracos to take his place and save the day.
Only Felix knows about the substitution. But I didn't get the feeling that Felix and Aracos were quite the usual Sutcliff-style brothers in arms- maybe the implication is that they could have been, if it were not for Aracos's condition putting a barrier between them?
They knew each other and were friends, but I don't think there is an implication that there was anything really Thousandth Man going on - not in the way there is with Esca and Marcus, Hilarion and Alexios, Justin and Flavius... Aracos spends years afterwards feeling a little bitter about how he was the real hero that won the circlet of oak leaves for bravery, but nobody can ever know. He had no contact with Felix after Aracos left the army.
Aracos has got so much to feel bitter about! He doesn't get to join the Eagles as a proper auxiliary, because he has a ?? heart defect that means he can't exercise as vigorously, so he joins up as a medical orderly, and it's quite clear that medical orderlies aren't really one of the lads, and are looked down on by 'real' auxiliaries. Finally when he gets the chance, he shows that he's as brave as any of them, but it's very clear when he faints afterwards that he can never do this again. And although Aracos leaves the army and goes off to get a job as a horse-trader (is horsetrading really physically that much easier???) you don't feel that he does it because he really wants to. It's just a job.
Mind you, I think poor Felix has a tough time too - Aracos places a huge load of guilt on his shoulders in return for making him a hero, and I think it's fairly clear that Felix spends the rest of his life trying to live up to Aracos's expectations, even if Aracos has no idea where he is or what he is up to. In fact, it's implied that Felix was finally killed in combat trying to be the man that Aracos was...
It's quite a powerful and bitter story, but full of ideas. I particularly liked that right at the end, Aracos resolves to go back to the wineshop where he was humiliated and ignore any jibes: those don't matter because he knows the truth and so did Felix and they are the only two that matter. Shades of Alexios in Frontier Wolf, staring his troops in the eye as if he did not care a broken sandal strap...
-----------------------------------------
My copy of Eagle's Honour is illustrated by Victor Ambrus - I'm not the hugest Ambrus fan myself, but I think anyone who was would be really disappointed with
this particular 1981 edition: the matt black reproduction of the images has ironed out all the delicacy of his work and left it just looking really splotchy and flat. If there were world enough and time, I would really want to create my own illustrations for A Circlet of Oak Leaves, which is definitely one of Sutcliff's tales that is really going to stay with me.
... Oh multifarious and many-headed mods! I cannot tag this with the titles as I cannot make new tags, you might want to tag this up?
I decided to get this particular edition because it was described as containing two second-century stories, same period as Eagle of the Ninth roughly, but this description was wrong anyway : Eagle's Egg is very definitely first century: it tells the story of the defeat of Calgacus at the battle of Mons Graupius in 83AD.
Eagle's Egg
The narrator is a grandfather, telling his grandchildren the fireside tale of how he met their grandmother, Cordaella - another of Sutcliff's red-headed British ladies.
Although it's a retelling of one of Tacitus's great historical moments, the subjugation of Caledonia, it's framed as a love story, and all the grand political and military stuff is just a backdrop to the story of Quintus and Cordaella, (which of course is much more important to Quintus).
This feels very reminiscent of Kipling to me: Quintus is not a high ranking officer, or particularly well educated, and the voice has a slightly rough soldierly feeling to it. He is the the Eagle-bearer of the Ninth Legion, but that's not a command post - and he doesnt' have any of EO9 Marcus or even Frontier Wolf Alexios's ambitions - he's just a soldier trying to get through life and back to his girl, and when he finally achieves the promotion to Centurion that will allow him to marry her, it's not for conspicuous valor, it's for being well organised and making a joke that diffused tension in the ranks at the right moment. But as Cordaella says "... people who make bad jokes at the right moment are maybe much easier to be married to, than heroes".
Although there isn't that much of Sutcliff's usual theme of cultural divide here, it's a nice touch that Quintus assumes that Cordaella will have to marry the British man from Lindum that her brother Vedrix has picked out and that he needs to talk to Cordaella's brother about the marriage, not direct to her - whereas Vedrix is quite clear that he has no chance of being able to tell Cordaella to do anything and that whether she wants to marry, or to wait for Quintus is her decision!
Vedrix is a maker of mosaic pavements and is another of Sutcliff's heroes with a disability, this time a 'short leg' . As usual, the disability is acknowleged and is a restriction, but it doesn't define Vedrix's whole character - he's nicely sketched for a minor character in a first-person tale. There's a moment of contrast with Quintus, who identifies very much with his job, as 'a soldier' - whereas Vedrix says that his people don't divide themselves up 'into bundles' in that way : Vedrix is a person who makes art, he's not self-identifying as 'an artist'. Interesting. Reminded me a bit of the protagonist of Sun Horse, Moon Horse, whose personality is very much shaped by his need to draw, but again, he's not an artist :his role in life is not the same as his talent.
----------------------------------------------------
A Circlet of Oak Leaves
I left this till second to witter on about, because although it's bound first in my book, I'm not sure why.
Chronologically, it is set later than Egg : there are Dacian auxiliaries in it, so it must be at least second century, though I'm not sure there is much other dating evidence. It seems to me much a more complex piece of writing, with more difficult emotions in it. ( I kind of wish I'd read this before I started writing about Sutcliffian Dacian auxiliaries, though I think Sutcliffs are a bit later and more Romanised, so maybe it doesn't matter).
The hero is Aracos, a horse trader - and he has surely to be Sutcliff's loneliest hero, whose kindness and heroism is not known or appreciated by anyone.
Well, anyone apart from Felix. Felix is a soldier who, operating in dangerous conditions and under severe tension, has an attack of combat stress just before an important battle, leaving Aracos to take his place and save the day.
Only Felix knows about the substitution. But I didn't get the feeling that Felix and Aracos were quite the usual Sutcliff-style brothers in arms- maybe the implication is that they could have been, if it were not for Aracos's condition putting a barrier between them?
They knew each other and were friends, but I don't think there is an implication that there was anything really Thousandth Man going on - not in the way there is with Esca and Marcus, Hilarion and Alexios, Justin and Flavius... Aracos spends years afterwards feeling a little bitter about how he was the real hero that won the circlet of oak leaves for bravery, but nobody can ever know. He had no contact with Felix after Aracos left the army.
Aracos has got so much to feel bitter about! He doesn't get to join the Eagles as a proper auxiliary, because he has a ?? heart defect that means he can't exercise as vigorously, so he joins up as a medical orderly, and it's quite clear that medical orderlies aren't really one of the lads, and are looked down on by 'real' auxiliaries. Finally when he gets the chance, he shows that he's as brave as any of them, but it's very clear when he faints afterwards that he can never do this again. And although Aracos leaves the army and goes off to get a job as a horse-trader (is horsetrading really physically that much easier???) you don't feel that he does it because he really wants to. It's just a job.
Mind you, I think poor Felix has a tough time too - Aracos places a huge load of guilt on his shoulders in return for making him a hero, and I think it's fairly clear that Felix spends the rest of his life trying to live up to Aracos's expectations, even if Aracos has no idea where he is or what he is up to. In fact, it's implied that Felix was finally killed in combat trying to be the man that Aracos was...
It's quite a powerful and bitter story, but full of ideas. I particularly liked that right at the end, Aracos resolves to go back to the wineshop where he was humiliated and ignore any jibes: those don't matter because he knows the truth and so did Felix and they are the only two that matter. Shades of Alexios in Frontier Wolf, staring his troops in the eye as if he did not care a broken sandal strap...
-----------------------------------------
My copy of Eagle's Honour is illustrated by Victor Ambrus - I'm not the hugest Ambrus fan myself, but I think anyone who was would be really disappointed with
this particular 1981 edition: the matt black reproduction of the images has ironed out all the delicacy of his work and left it just looking really splotchy and flat. If there were world enough and time, I would really want to create my own illustrations for A Circlet of Oak Leaves, which is definitely one of Sutcliff's tales that is really going to stay with me.
... Oh multifarious and many-headed mods! I cannot tag this with the titles as I cannot make new tags, you might want to tag this up?