Sutcliff and history
Aug. 24th, 2004 02:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
woodfaceI'm currently reading Rosemary Sutcliff's The Lantern Bearers. It's set when the last roman troops are recalled from Britain. The lead character, Aquila, stays behind in the roman fort of Rutupiae and sets the beacon alight for a last time.
I'm stuck with the image of that fort being left one day and that beacon never being turned on again. Sutcliff often deals with ancient ruins in her books. In Dawnlight the lead characters even stay in an abandoned roman city for a while but this is about a century after it was abandoned. Marcus comes across a roman city in Britain too and can still feel the ghosts of the legions there. In her medieval novel her main character even comes across a post on Hadrian's wall where another character of one of her books was stationed. None of those has had quite the same impact on me as Rutupiae light. People used to seeing it in the evening, maybe even using it to guide their way, looking out across the sea one evening and not seeing it there anymore.
Of course this sort of imagery can easily be connected to why they call the Middle Ages, the Dark Ages. I'm glad though that, in this book and in the earlier book in this sequence, Sutcliff has already indicated a certain alienation between Britain and Rome. In those days Rome certainly wasn't as high and mighty anymore. It's strength was waning and emperors such as Constantine and Diocletianus only temporarily knew to stop the "fall" of the Western Roman Empire. And then I use the term "fall" with great reservations as Rome itself was nothing but a mere city anymore and Milan had taken over its function.
Maybe this is exactly why the image strikes me so. Rarely does one age abruptly go over into another. It flows, it's a steady evolution but the beacon no longer being lit is abrupt. It's a sudden change from one day to another. The end of the Western Roman Empire however was politics, no one woke up the next morning and said "The Middle Ages have begun". They might have felt that things were changing but not quite as definite as that light disappearing on the horizon.
On another note; anyone seen my squee?
I did however squee when I got my pirate paint brush. *pets Grothnorg the Pirate Lupe*
I'm stuck with the image of that fort being left one day and that beacon never being turned on again. Sutcliff often deals with ancient ruins in her books. In Dawnlight the lead characters even stay in an abandoned roman city for a while but this is about a century after it was abandoned. Marcus comes across a roman city in Britain too and can still feel the ghosts of the legions there. In her medieval novel her main character even comes across a post on Hadrian's wall where another character of one of her books was stationed. None of those has had quite the same impact on me as Rutupiae light. People used to seeing it in the evening, maybe even using it to guide their way, looking out across the sea one evening and not seeing it there anymore.
Of course this sort of imagery can easily be connected to why they call the Middle Ages, the Dark Ages. I'm glad though that, in this book and in the earlier book in this sequence, Sutcliff has already indicated a certain alienation between Britain and Rome. In those days Rome certainly wasn't as high and mighty anymore. It's strength was waning and emperors such as Constantine and Diocletianus only temporarily knew to stop the "fall" of the Western Roman Empire. And then I use the term "fall" with great reservations as Rome itself was nothing but a mere city anymore and Milan had taken over its function.
Maybe this is exactly why the image strikes me so. Rarely does one age abruptly go over into another. It flows, it's a steady evolution but the beacon no longer being lit is abrupt. It's a sudden change from one day to another. The end of the Western Roman Empire however was politics, no one woke up the next morning and said "The Middle Ages have begun". They might have felt that things were changing but not quite as definite as that light disappearing on the horizon.
On another note; anyone seen my squee?
I did however squee when I got my pirate paint brush. *pets Grothnorg the Pirate Lupe*
no subject
Date: 2004-08-24 10:00 am (UTC)(If I were more awake I'd comment on your post, which *was* interesting!)
no subject
Date: 2004-08-24 02:45 pm (UTC)(Well feel free to comment when you're more awake ;o)