Review: The Lantern Bearers by Rosemary Sutcliff

[Robert Vermaat]

Hi Ben,

Thank you for a great review of a great book. I agree with you on most if not all your conclusions, it’s one of my favourite books by Rosemary Sutcliff, and perhaps the best written about this particular period.

A few remarks:

The story begins in 410 AD, more than a century after the events that took place in [i]The Silver Branch. This was the year when, in a desperate attempt to shore up its defences closer to home, Rome withdrew the last of its troops from Britain.

Actually, the book starts in 450 AD. I’ve made an internal chronology, which is only possible if you read both ‘Lantern Bearers’ as well as ‘Sword at Sunset’. Rosemary Sutcliff apparently followed Ian Richmond and the earlier writings of JNL Myres, who theorized that Roman troops continued to stay in Britain after 410, or perhaps returned later. This was for a long time discredited, but more recently, some signs or a revival have been noticed. Sutcliff dated Vortigern to 440.

Poignantly, Aquila’s first real chance to escape comes by chance, when he meets Flavia, his sister. She has become the wife of a Saxon noble, and because of her young child, she dares not flee with Aquila, instead aiding him to do so.

It’s interesting that you’ve read it that way. I think it’s one of the key elements in the book that Flavia declines to flee with Aquila, just because she has developed roots in the Saxon community. Her erstwhile captor and father of the infant son has become her husband, whom she won’t leave, even when Aquila proposed to raise the child.
Indeed the very choice has to be made by Ness, whom Ambrosius aranges to marry Aquila, even though she had someone dear to her heart in Gwynedd. It’s Ness who understands Flavia’s choice (where Aquila couldn’t) and helps him to understand as well. When he has to make a hard choice later (after the battle of Guoloph), Aquila does the right thing towards his sister’s son, even though that decision brings danger to himself.
I think Sutcliff described this transition from Britain to England extremely well. It’s a theme that should be read by a lot of people who are stuck in the notion that Britons and Saxons always remained enemies, the one exterminating the other.