Sword at Sunset
| Sword at Sunset | |
|---|---|
| Author(s) | Rosemary Sutcliff |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Historical novel |
| Publisher | Hodder & Stoughton |
| Publication date | 1963 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback) |
| Pages | 492 pp |
| Preceded by | The Lantern Bearers |
| Followed by | Dawn Wind |
Sword at Sunset is a best-selling 1963 novel by Rosemary Sutcliff. One of her few historical novels written specifically for adults, it is her interpretation of the legend of King Arthur.
This is the first novel that Sutcliff wrote using a first-person singular point of view for her story. In an interview with Raymond H. Thompson (in 1986), she explained that she actually spent the eighteen months while writing this story thinking like a man, and felt that the story was being fed to her.
Unlike most of the The Eagle of the Ninth series, it does not follow either the inheritor of the dolphin seal ring or the person who will eventually marry said inheritor; although the current inheritor, the son of the protagonist of The Lantern Bearers, is a minor character in the book, the action follows the character of Artos (Arthur) as established in The Lantern Bearers.
[edit] Plot
The action of the novel continues that of The Lantern Bearers. Artos (Sutcliff's version of Arthur) recalls his life as he lies near death, from when he served under his uncle, the British high king Ambrosius. He has gathered a core cavalry group that will become Artos' Companions, and win a major victory. During this activity, he meets a girl who drugs and seduces him. He is unaware that the girl is his sister, and that her seduction was a deliberate plan from her mother to gain revenge against their father: Ygerna, the girl, like Artos, is Uther's child. Artos' seduction and the conception of Medraut is Ygerna's means of bringing ruin to Artos.
Artos marries Guenhumara in order to bolster his forces with much needed troops, and his best friend Bedwyr (combining both the roles of Bedivere and Lancelot) eventually betrays Artos by his involvement with Artos' wife.
Sutcliff presents a more realistic story than some Arthur legends, removing Merlin and many of the fantastic elements, and grounding Artos and his followers as clinging to Roman ways after Rome has left Britain to fend for itself. The battles in particular are described realistically, and show her knowledge of Roman fighting techniques.
[edit] External links
- Interview with Rosemary Sutcliff by Raymond H.Thompson in 1986 Rosemary Sutcliff discusses her experience of writing Sword at Sunset
- Hic Jacet Arthurus Rex Quondam Rexque Futurus by Francis Brett Young. Sutcliff used this poem as the foreword for Sword at Sunset. In an interview with John Withrington, published in Quondam et Futurus, Vol.1, No. 4 (Winter, 1991) pp 53–60, she commented, "I had thought of, begun to think of, the reconstruction of the historical Arthur, and then I came across this poem....it sort of rang bells for me in all directions".
- Who's who: a list of the people and places mentioned in Sutcliffs Sword at Sunset
- Official Rosemary Sutcllff website with more on book and author
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