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Another Homage to Rosemary Sutcliff in KoA
Nov. 1st, 2007 08:28 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
kilerkki.livejournal.comI have just realized again how brilliant MWT is, and how very, very, very much I love Costis.
I loved him before, of course. But I have just finished reading Rosemary Sutcliff's brilliant book The Mark of the Horse Lord, and found another of MWT's tributes to Sutcliff's incredible work.
From The Mark of the Horse Lord, page 281:
They had taken his dirk, of course--odd that no one ever thought of a brooch with a pin as thick as a corn stalk and longer than a man's forefinger as a weapon, even in a camp of the Eagles where they learned, just as one did in the Gladiators' School, that two inches in the right place were enough.
From The King of Attolia. page 2:
They had left his cloak pins, his plain everyday one and his fancy one with the amber bead. He had been a little surprised. His good pin was fibula-shaped with a shaft four inches long and as thick as a cornstalk. It would be as effective as a sword, if Costis chose to use it. Even the smaller pin would do; two inches in the right place was all it took.
I adored MWT's use of the flawed emerald dolphin-ring in The Thief (from Sutcliff's The Eagle of the Ninth and The Lantern-Bearers). But somehow this homage is all the more poignant, because I love Phaedrus the Gladiator and Sutcliff's writing beyond all reason. And though I love Costis dearly for his own sake, when I see him as Phaedrus's literary descendant, I love him just that little bit more.
If you love MWT's books, you owe it to yourself to read Rosemary Sutcliff's.
I loved him before, of course. But I have just finished reading Rosemary Sutcliff's brilliant book The Mark of the Horse Lord, and found another of MWT's tributes to Sutcliff's incredible work.
From The Mark of the Horse Lord, page 281:
They had taken his dirk, of course--odd that no one ever thought of a brooch with a pin as thick as a corn stalk and longer than a man's forefinger as a weapon, even in a camp of the Eagles where they learned, just as one did in the Gladiators' School, that two inches in the right place were enough.
From The King of Attolia. page 2:
They had left his cloak pins, his plain everyday one and his fancy one with the amber bead. He had been a little surprised. His good pin was fibula-shaped with a shaft four inches long and as thick as a cornstalk. It would be as effective as a sword, if Costis chose to use it. Even the smaller pin would do; two inches in the right place was all it took.
I adored MWT's use of the flawed emerald dolphin-ring in The Thief (from Sutcliff's The Eagle of the Ninth and The Lantern-Bearers). But somehow this homage is all the more poignant, because I love Phaedrus the Gladiator and Sutcliff's writing beyond all reason. And though I love Costis dearly for his own sake, when I see him as Phaedrus's literary descendant, I love him just that little bit more.
If you love MWT's books, you owe it to yourself to read Rosemary Sutcliff's.
