Comments on: Titles

By: Eleanor Johnson

Eleanor Johnson — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 17:36:04 +0000

Hello Anne

I keep hoping that I will turn up some Roman remains in my garden, but I think our estate is not sited on any actual remains. However, we are about to aquire an allotment near by and Dere Street runs parallel with the field, so you never know. I keep my eyes peeled when we dig – fingers crossed. I think my love of history comes partly from reading Rosemary Sutcliff’s books when I was young. I loved the way she brought history alive through her stories, rather than the dry books we used at school.

By: Anne

Anne — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 19:27:23 +0000

I’m jealous, Eleanor :) It must be wonderful to be able to visit ancient sites like yours and experience history so close at hand.

By: Eleanor Johnson

Eleanor Johnson — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 20:38:48 +0000

Hello Anne

Thank you for your reply, it was really helpful. I have no idea what information this letter was based on. I have sent a very polite reply which is going to be printed in the next village newspaper. I suppose I reacted a bit to this misinformation but I have been reading Rosemary Sutcliff’s books for over forty years and couldn’t let this inaccuracely stand.

It would have been really exciting to live in a place named in EOTN, we have an unexcavated Roman fort and vicus a few minutes walk from my house and Dere Street runs across the top of the village
boundary.

By: Anne

Anne — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 23:31:29 +0000

Hi Eleanor

I’m wondering if your local paper got Lanchester mixed up with Silchester (called by its Roman name Calleva Atrebatum in the book), where quite a bit of the action in EOTN takes place. The novel was at least partly inspired by the Silchester or Calleva Eagle, a Roman artifact discovered near Silchester, athough it was not originally part of a military standard. RS even made her fictional eagle wingless like the Silchester Eagle.
Image here:
http://romanhistorybooks.typepad.com/files/sileagle-38.pdf

There is a list of place-names which appear in “Eagle of the Ninth” at the back of the book and Lanchester/Longovicium is not among them.

It seems that most of the filming of the movie took place in Hungary and Scotland.

By: Anne

Anne — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 21:02:44 +0000

Hi Anjy :) Although there are some Anglo-Saxon refugees like Frytha, mostly the settlers in “Shield Ring” are Anglo-Scandinavian rather than Anglo-Saxon, though the ways they lived were in many ways similar. According to local legend, Buttermere was originally “Buthar’s mere”, the holding of Jarl Buthar, a Norse chieftain who settled peacefully in Cumbria during the 10th/11th centuries as did many other Norsemen.

“Shield Ring”, although Sutcliff’s own inimitable take on the story, was closely modelled on a fictionalised history of Jarl Buthar and Norse-era Buttermere called “The Secret Valley”, written by Lakeland historian Nicholas Size.

By: Anjy

Anjy — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 09:22:54 +0000

Also “The Shield Ring”

By: Anne

Anne — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 17:58:27 +0000

“Saxon Settler” was part of a children’s history series published by the Oxford University Press called “People of the Past”. It’s very hard to find copies and is priced accordingly, though I did spot a p/b edition at Amazon UK for £12.95 (which is still pretty expensive for a smallish p/b).
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/0198345569/ref=tmm_pap_used_olp_sr?ie=UTF8&qid=1333562081&sr=1-1&condition=used

Your best bet might be to ask your local library to get a copy for you through the interlibrary loan service.

Just a suggestion, but if you haven’t read it, RS’s story “Dawn Wind” has a lot of detail about life for Saxon settlers and might be worth a look.

By: Eleanor Johnson

Eleanor Johnson — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 14:55:05 +0000

Hello Anthony, thanks for this information. I have been reading Rosemary Sutcliff’s stories for over forty years and she remains one of my favourite authors. I was sure that I would have known of any association between my village and The Eagle of the Ninth, but wanted confirmation. I will be replying to this letter and putting the record straight and will let you know if this person responds with anymore information. It may take a while, our village newspaper is quaterly!

By: Anthony

Anthony — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 09:58:18 +0000

I am delighted of course that you enjoyed re-reading it. If you are so minded, maybe you could write a few sentences here about what you enjoyed about it, why …?

By: Gillian Buchanan

Gillian Buchanan — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 09:50:47 +0000

Anthony, I obtained a copy of The Witch’s Brat – thank you so much for that – and really enjoyed re-reading it! I should have posted before.

The Eagle is indeed available on DVD and is on sale on Amazon. I don’t have a copy though.