Rosemary Sutcliff Allusions
Jun. 10th, 2017 12:23 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
ladyadeone.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
queensthiefHi everybody! I've been kind of a lurker for several years - I made a comment or two here or there but I think this is my first post! Thanks for being such a great fandom, it's been a pleasure lurking among you. ;)
There have been a couple of brief discussions about MWT's habit of hiding quotes, items, and other allusions to her favorite authors inside her books. I'm particularly interested in her references to Rosemary Sutcliff, another of my favorite authers. Sutcliff "Easter eggs" (if you will) are discussed in this post from 2010 (and possibly in one or two other places). However, I haven't seen anyone mention Sutcliff allusions in TaT, so I wanted to make a post to mention those as well as hopefully corral all other allusions to this author hidden in MWT's work.
So, without further preamble, here are the ones I'm aware of:
1. The dolphin signet ring in The Thief is probably the most obvious and well-known. Too bad Gen doesn't seem to have kept it.
2. Someone said the moment when Gen pours water on the dead soldier's uniform after that skirmish in the river (again in Thief), to get rid of the dry spot shaped like a leaf, is from a Sutcliff story. I don't think I've seen it though, so can anyone fill in which book that's from?
3. Costis ruminates on the suicide options represented by his fibula pins - a reference to Mark of the Horse Lord in KoA. I think there's a similar moment in another of Sutcliff's books? Minus the actual death though?
EDIT: Found another almost direct quote source in Frontier Wolf: "Two inches in the right place is enough, they teach you". Not minus death though....
4. Thick as Thieves, pg. 161, Costis tells Kamet that their pursuers "skylighted themselves, probably on purpose" on the slope above. This immediately made me think of the careful avoidance of just that mistake in Frontier Wolf (though Sutcliff calls it getting "skylined").
5. TaT pg. 215, Costis sings a "song about about a girl a soldier left behind" while tinning the farmers' pan. In The Eagle of the Ninth, a soldier (also in disguise, by the way) sings about "the girl I kissed at Clusium/Kissed and left at Clusium".
That's all I've got, notice there's nothing yet for QoA or aCoK. Any additions? Is that last one too tenuous?
There have been a couple of brief discussions about MWT's habit of hiding quotes, items, and other allusions to her favorite authors inside her books. I'm particularly interested in her references to Rosemary Sutcliff, another of my favorite authers. Sutcliff "Easter eggs" (if you will) are discussed in this post from 2010 (and possibly in one or two other places). However, I haven't seen anyone mention Sutcliff allusions in TaT, so I wanted to make a post to mention those as well as hopefully corral all other allusions to this author hidden in MWT's work.
So, without further preamble, here are the ones I'm aware of:
1. The dolphin signet ring in The Thief is probably the most obvious and well-known. Too bad Gen doesn't seem to have kept it.
2. Someone said the moment when Gen pours water on the dead soldier's uniform after that skirmish in the river (again in Thief), to get rid of the dry spot shaped like a leaf, is from a Sutcliff story. I don't think I've seen it though, so can anyone fill in which book that's from?
3. Costis ruminates on the suicide options represented by his fibula pins - a reference to Mark of the Horse Lord in KoA. I think there's a similar moment in another of Sutcliff's books? Minus the actual death though?
EDIT: Found another almost direct quote source in Frontier Wolf: "Two inches in the right place is enough, they teach you". Not minus death though....
4. Thick as Thieves, pg. 161, Costis tells Kamet that their pursuers "skylighted themselves, probably on purpose" on the slope above. This immediately made me think of the careful avoidance of just that mistake in Frontier Wolf (though Sutcliff calls it getting "skylined").
5. TaT pg. 215, Costis sings a "song about about a girl a soldier left behind" while tinning the farmers' pan. In The Eagle of the Ninth, a soldier (also in disguise, by the way) sings about "the girl I kissed at Clusium/Kissed and left at Clusium".
That's all I've got, notice there's nothing yet for QoA or aCoK. Any additions? Is that last one too tenuous?
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Date: 6/16/17 12:24 am (UTC)Sorry, Gen, you ARE a boy. (https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bx7CuBgbWmPxODk1eWZ1ZnFBeHM/view?usp=sharing)
Your threats make me laugh. (https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bx7CuBgbWmPxbU9aT091bUJNSms/view?usp=sharing)
I know Megan likes Heyer, maybe this is a shoutout to her.