The Lantern Bearers by Rosemary Sutcliff

[parthianbow]

The Lantern Bearers by Rosemary Sutcliff was first published in 1959, and in a remarkable testament to its appeal, it is still in print. It should also be noted that this is the novel that won the author the Carnegie Medal, a prestigious award for outstanding children's books. It's the third part of the loosely linked Roman Britain trilogy that began with The Eagle of The Ninth and continued with The Silver Branch. Readers are probably well aware that the first novel has been dramatized into a movie, The Eagle, which is currently opening and showing in cinemas all over the world.

 

The Lantern Bearers is set more than a hundred years after the events of The Silver Branch. Its main character is Aquila, a young cavalry officer, who, when ordered to leave Britain when the legions leave for the last time, deserts his unit. Tragedy upon tragedy befalls Aquila, who quickly loses his family, and then his own freedom. Finally escaping slavery, he joins the service of Ambrosius, last hope of Roman Britain. The story follows the embittered Aquila for nearly 20 years, and culminates in a huge battle to drive the Saxons from Britain.

 

The Eagle of the Ninth was one of the main influences in my choosing to write about Rome and its legions. I have read it many times, and although I cannot say why, the same cannot be said of the second two books. I recently read The Silver Branch for the second time specifically to review it, and while I enjoyed it greatly, I didn't think that it quite matched the first book in calibre. I expected that also to be the case with The Lantern Bearers. How wrong could I have been?

 

The Eagle of the Ninth fuelled my boyish imagination with pictures of stealing back an eagle standard from wild Scottish tribes, and to this day, I remember and enjoy and honour it for that. I had few childhood memories of The Lantern Bearers, however. Rereading it over the last few days was akin to reading it for the first time. To my surprise and joy, it gripped me not just with the richness of its prose, but also with the depth and accuracy of its description of human emotions and relationships. I was moved to tears on numerous occasions, and I now regard this finely crafted novel to be every bit as good as The Eagle of the Ninth. If anything, it's aimed at an older audience than the first two parts of the trilogy. In my opinion - and I write this as a man rather than a boy - it is a better book than either of the others. The Lantern Bearers stands four square with any piece of adult historical fiction that I have ever read. Indeed, it's superior to most of them.

[Lanista]

I tried to read this as a kid and could never get through it.

 

to the library, batman!

[Centurion-Macro]

I remember reading it as a kid, but I do not remember the details of the story. However, I do remember that I enjoyed it immensely. I like those stories that are set in the days of Rome's downfall, because they do have more emotion and depth to their stories.