What do you do when you have to choose between loyalty to family and loyalty to country?
A Timeless Classic
The novel takes place during the tumultuous years following the withdrawal of Roman troops from Britain in the 5th century—a time when the isle was battered by the winds of change and upheaval, with many tribes threatening to swallow it up as the old Roman order crumbled.The story focuses on a young British-born Roman cavalry commander, Aquila. He must decide whether to follow orders and withdraw to Rome, or stay with his family and countrymen and hold off the burgeoning tide of barbarian invaders threatening the former Roman province of Britannia. The pivotal decision made by the conflicted Aquila launches the plot. Aquila chooses to desert his unit and stay behind in Britain. He returns to his father’s farm only to witness the death of his father and capture of his sister in a Saxon raid.
Aquila is also taken as a captive by the Saxons and his old life dissolves with the smoke of his father’s burning farm. Aquila spends hard years serving the Saxons as a thrall, (a slave) full of bitterness and the desire for revenge. At last, he locates his sister, who has married a Saxon and—somewhat reluctantly—integrated herself into her new people. She does, however, help Aquila escape.
Once he learns that the man who betrayed his father is already dead, Aquila feels that his life is meaningless: He cannot save his sister nor avenge his father. He can live neither for love nor for hate. Aquila faces a long, weary journey through the shadows of life alone, with no destination. This is a key turning point in the novel that sets up one of its major themes: losing everything isn’t the end. The broken, winding pathways of life that are often so different from what we planned and hoped for, can still, in the end, lead to meadows of peace and contentment.
A chance meeting with a monk helps Aquila discern a new direction: he'll go to serve Ambrosius, the last chieftain of Roman descent in Britain, the last defender of the civilized Roman way, the last bulwark against the straining force of the Saxons and other barbarian invaders. Ambrosius seeks to forge a hodgepodge of different peoples and tribes—Celts and Romans—into one people with a common purpose, a unified Britain resisting the invaders.
The rest of the novel tells of Aquila’s time with Ambrosius. There are battles and skirmishes with the barbarians. There are friendships formed. There’s also Aquila’s somewhat loveless marriage, undertaken in hopes of helping to unite the leading Roman and Celtic families. Finally, there’s Aquila’s uneasy relationship with his son.
Through all this, Aquila struggles to open his heart, let go of the past, and learn to love again. This passage highlights his internal conflict: “There was a small aching need in him for somebody to notice, even if they were not glad, that he had come home. That frightened him, because it was only as long as you did not need anybody else that you were safe from being hurt.”
Unpredictable Blessings
Sutcliff writes in beautiful, elegant, atmospheric prose. Her words powerfully evoke the misty landscape of ancient Britain, providing immediacy and realism that’s tempered with mystery. The fast-paced, action-packed story is communicated through rich poetic language and well-chosen details that signal it’s a serious work about much more than just adventure. Along with the excitement, the book sets a meditative mood.Thematically, the tensions of conflicting loyalties permeate the work, with characters often having to choose between family and tribe, military duty and loved ones, parents and spouse. These make for heart-wrenching decisions and less-than-perfect situations. But in spite of all that, in spite of mistakes and tragedies—and I think this is at the heart of the book—life can still be meaningful and beautiful and unexpected routes to happiness can open up.
“I sometimes think that we stand at sunset ... it may be that the night will come close over us in the end, but I believe that morning will come again. Morning always grows again out of the darkness, though maybe not for the people who saw the sun go down. We are the Lantern Bearers, my friend; for us to keep something burning, to carry what light we can forward into the darkness and the wind.”
Aquila’s life doesn’t turn out at all the way he hoped or planned. But because of the goodness of others and the nobility of Aquila’s heart in spite of his weaknesses, it turns out better, in some part, than he could have planned. It is this fundamental belief in a dawn in spite of the night that gives the characters hope and the novel meaning.
After you turn the last page, you'll want to sit thoughtfully for some time. The book will leave you quiet and reflective, with a delicate mixture of joy and melancholy, a kind of tragic optimism. Sutcliff manages to capture the fragility and transience of hope and happiness in this world, a hope that is, nevertheless, paradoxically unconquerable.
