The lantern bearers

The Lantern Bearers is the third in the Eagle of the Ninth sequence (or fourth if you include the later novel Frontier Wolf) and is probably my favourite of the lot.

The novel (ostensibly written for young adults but Sutcliff never talks down to her audience and it reads like an adult novel) begins with the last of the Roman Legions leaving Britain, never to return, and our hero, Aquila (a descendant of the previous books heroes. He wears the familiar signet ring.), deserting to stay behind with his family. But his peace is short-lived as the Saxons invade, burning and killing all in their path. Aquila is captured and carried off over the North Sea to serve three years as a Jutish thrall, while his sister is taken prisoner by Saxons. He returns, eventually, and escapes to begin the long journey to redemption by taking service with Ambrosius, Prince of Britain, who seeks to drive out the invaders and unite the tribes of Britain.

The timespan of this story is the longest of any of Sutcliff's Eagle novels, twenty year pass as we follow Aquila from slavery to command of a cavalry wing under Ambrosius. He is a complex character, full of bitterness and regret initially, who finds it difficult to interact with his wife and son in the way he wants to. Some of Sutcliff's best writing is here, detailing the relationships as well as the battles. Every character is fully realised, the story gripping and moving.

The Lantern Bearers also sets the stage for her next novel, Sword At Sunset, which is her take on the King Arthur story, set in a post-Roman Britain. Artos, as Arthur is called here, crops up as Ambrosius's nephew, a brilliant cavalry leader who inspires complete devotion in his men.

There is an air of melancholy that runs through the book too, a sorrow for the loss of the civilisation that Rome brought to Britain. Ambrosius and his followers are left to guard the light of civilisation against the encroaching darkness of the Saxon hordes, which they do, for a time. Hence the title.

It is perhaps a darker novel than her previous books, less a ripping adventure yarn than a meditation on loss - of family, of Rome, of certainty. But quite brilliant all the same.