The Mark of The Horse Lord By Rosemary Sutcliff

Haven't read a Sutcliff? Quit horsing around and get with the program. Her enthusiasts (almost cult-like) say she's one of the best YA historical fiction writers ever. All I can say is, Sure looks like a book for adults to me! No, no. Get your mind out of the gutter. This does not mean the book is rife with rape, pillaging, and gore. It's clean. But the writing! I'm sorry, but this lady did not write like any YA fare I'm familiar with these days. A real writer's writers, she goes for deeper descriptions, more complex sentences, and all manner of historically-accurate terminology (bothy? breeks?) that will leave you scratching your 21st-century head.

Anyway, all you need know is that it is a gladiator-to-riches story in which Phaedrus is plucked from the Corstopitum and cast in the look-alike role of Horse Lord -- or King of the Dalraidians. The real king was blinded by an evil (Disneyeque) Queen who cackles for us now and again and is marvelously slippery in her escapes. A dangerous mission? Uh, yeah, and Phaedrus learns the hard way.

Reluctant reading teens will be drawn by the fine cover (now that's marketing) but lost in the writing (at least after the fight-to-the-death gladiator scene in Ch. 1). Better to share this with more advanced readers and fans of first-century British history (their numbers are legion, I'm sure!). I read The Mark of the Horse Lord four years ago, and while I did love several aspects of this book, I cannot recommend or even like it because of major content issues. Until now, years later, I have never sought to write a review of it - and though I've always considered writing a review of the content, I've avoided doing so on purpose, because it's a difficult task. But I'm finally reviewing The Mark of the Horse Lord, solely to warn interested readers of the content it contains - especially my friends who will feel the same way as I do about the content and other issues.

Ever since I've read The Mark of the Horse Lord, I've been extremely conflicted about how to feel or think about the book, and what to rate it on Goodreads, and what my opinion should be. The story and characters were wonderful in parts, and I did enjoy the book very much apart from the content. But the content was severe enough to cancel out any enjoyment, as much as I wish I could love the book.

I'm planning to reread this book someday, but I will do so very warily, carefully, and thoughtfully, and at a time when I can handle extreme violence again - I'm too sensitive right now. Perhaps once I reread The Mark of the Horse Lord, I'll be able to better form an opinion on it. I've always been very confused about how many stars I should rate it, and since joining Goodreads a few months after reading the book, I've changed my rating between the full range of available stars, lower and lower as the enjoyable reading experience wore off and the content issues became more obvious and concerning, over the years. I almost cleared my rating when writing this review, but I finally decided to lower my rating to one star. I don't give out one-star ratings often, but I've decided that it's deserving in this case, because the content is so severe - at least for me. I did enjoy the book, but the content cancelled that out, for me personally.

Despite my formerly conflicted opinion, I have no doubt of my opinion on most of the content, and I was definitely not okay with many things the book includes. The content is still clear to me in my mind, and I've finally decided to list it here.

Regardless of what I think overall, I don't recommend The Mark of the Horse Lord to anyone because of content, and I especially don't recommend it to anyone who is avoids any kind of content or is sensitive to it, like I am. It is definitely a young adult or adult book, written for an older audience than most of Rosemary Sutcliff's books - many of which I love unreservedly, unlike this one.

I must note that the reason the content bothers me, in this and other books, is because of my faith. Rosemary Sutcliff did not share my faith, and she was writing from a secular perspective. From the perspective of her worldview, the content wasn't as much of an issue. So I have much less of a problem with her writing it than I would with an author who shared my beliefs. But I still have a problem with reading this sort of content myself. Also, I would argue that the biggest content issue in the book - an event in the last chapter, which I discussed below - is severe and harmful and wrong no matter what the author's and reader's views are.

Another note: I'm writing this review from the perspective of a die-hard Rosemary Sutcliff fan - she's one of my top five favorite authors. I love her juvenile fiction and young adult books, and I've read 20 of her works so far. (However, as my reaction to this book shows, it's harder for me to enjoy her books for older readers, and I may not read another because of content.) Miss Sutcliff is tied for the honor of my favorite historical fiction author, and I respect her very much and love her writing. So I'm objecting to this book as someone who enjoys her works, not criticizing her as a non-fan. The fact that I am a fan of her works is all the more reason why I'm disappointed with this one. If I merely disliked the book on its own, without being familiar with the author, it wouldn't matter to me so much.

One more important note: It's been a while since I read The Mark of the Horse Lord , and I'm writing this solely from memory. I don't have a copy of the book on hand to refer to. However, a lot of the instances of content remain vivid in my mind, even if at least one is a bit vague after almost four years. I'm sure there are definitely smaller instances of content that I've failed to remember entirely, but I'm fairly confident that I've managed to cover all the severe and huge ones. Some of the content that I listed did not bother me, but I included it because it may bother other people. I've left out more minor instances of content intentionally. In this review, I seek to cover only the most important things. It's an incomplete summary of select content, and only the most concerning content is included.

I will say that the sexual content and romance was very clean and chaste, for the most part - nothing inappropriate. I actually enjoyed the romantic relationship in Mark of the Horse Lord more than anything else in the book. However, it's a young adult book, and there is a kiss or two, and some other mild things I'll mention below.

But I was pretty horrified and concerned, or in some cases just disappointed, by some of the other content the book contains. There are MAJOR SPOILERS involved in sharing and reading these warnings. I've marked the biggest ones in spoiler tags, below. Read at your own risk, still - but if you care about content, it's better to know these things than to go in blind, without spoilers. I always appreciate being informed beforehand with things like this, rather than read a book without knowing what's in it. It's impossible to know what content a book contains unless someone says so, but it's very important for sensitive readers to be informed.

*

Content Summary:

- The protagonist begins the book as a slave and a gladiator. The first chapter or two is about how he wins his freedom by winning a fight to the death in the arena. It's a duel against his best friend, and he is forced to kill his best friend. It was pretty horrifying, especially because of that spoiler. I don't recall how graphic the description was, but it was very, very violent, and as with the rest of the book, there was description of blood and killing.

- The protagonist is required to enter into an arranged marriage. I actually liked this part of the book, and I had no problem with it content-wise. The author handled the romance and the relationship in a very clean, chaste, subtle and sensitive way, and I never felt like she implied things I didn't want to know about. There was at least one brief, barely described kiss between a married couple. I remember one clearly, but I don't remember if there was another, very occasional kiss or two - if there was, it only happened a couple of times. Of course it's heartbreaking to me that the characters were forced into an unwanted arranged marriage - especially the girl, who feared it and was unwilling, but was forced into it for political reasons. And the fact that she would have been forced into marriage with someone else, if that hadn't happened, is sad too. But I liked that although the main couple started out fearing, mistrusting, and almost hating each other, they came to love and understand each other, and to have a healthy, loving, caring, and supportive marriage built on mutual love and trust. However, it's very, very subtly implied that after the main couple comes to a better understanding of each other, and comes to love each other, they have consummated their marriage and begun to act like husband and wife, whether or not they did before. As far as I remember, it is impossible to figure out whether or not they've consummated their marriage before that point, and I've always assumed they didn't, until then, based on what I read. The most we ever see is that the girl lies down next the male protagonist when he is wounded - but nothing happens there, and they're fully clothed, etc. Also, the wife becomes pregnant later in the book. The husband doesn't know what's wrong, at first, when he finds her throwing up. Again, unlike the other things I'm listing here, I had no problem with any of this content-wise, as an adult reader in my very late teens - though I'd feel differently with a younger teenager. There was no objectionable or inappropriate sexual or romantic content involved in any of this.

- What I did have an issue with was the fact that the main character forcibly kissed the girl without permission, on the day of their wedding. (It was a Celtic wedding, with no kiss in the ceremony.) She kissed him back, and it's implied that means she was probably attracted to him too, but I still had a big problem with it, cause she obviously wouldn't have wanted him to kiss her, based on the context of the surrounding events and their relationship. Kissing him in return didn't justify it, in my mind. On a related note, the protagonist is shown flirting with a barmaid (or some such girl) early in the book. I don't remember how she responded. I can't remember if he kissed her without asking, or not, and if so, this was the only instance of a kiss between an unmarried man and woman. But whether or not there was, it was the same spirit - from what I remember, the interaction was to show that he was the type of guy who would flirt with a girl even if she didn't like it. I won't go into details, but my big takeaway from this aspect of the book was that the protagonist had a terrible view of women and didn't respect them enough, especially at first. That's not all right, and it bothered me greatly. I did not like this aspect of his character, even if it fit with who he was as a person, with both good and bad qualities. But I was very glad that that was only true of him at the beginning of the book, before he underwent a lot of growth and change.

- The protagonist is the offspring of an illegitimate relationship. His father was the owner of his mother, a slave, and the protagonist was also a slave. After his father's death, he was sold into the arena to be a gladiator and fight to the death. He's understandably bitter about all this, and bitter toward his father. This may bother some readers, though I didn't have a huge problem with it, at least since it wasn't prominent. It was mentioned, but only briefly.

- The sidekick character (the third most important one, after the main couple), a young man whom the protagonist becomes best friends with, is probably gay. It's very subtly implied based on the somewhat flamboyant way he acts and dresses, and nothing is ever stated or conclusive - but I felt like I was correct in assuming that without being told. I actually didn't have too much of a problem with this, but I know some readers will. Most readers will not have a problem with this at all, and will see it as a positive thing, and others won't notice it at all - but I'm just seeking to objectively inform those who are interested. I actually really loved, liked, enjoyed, and cared about this character, regardless of that. Also, another character who was close to this character may have been gay as well, though it was impossible to tell. I just suspected based on the barest hints that they were a couple at one point. It's very subtle, and impossible to know for sure - much less obvious even than the first character being gay. The context of their lives and experiences also made sense with that assumption.

- The single biggest content issue in the book: The protagonist ***giant spoiler*** commits suicide on the last page of the book. This was portrayed as an honorable, glorious, thing, with a justified purpose, since he was sacrificing himself to save his people. It evoked a lot of emotion in me as the reader, since it was powerfully written, and since I had come to care about the main character so much. This event was doubly alarming to me because of the way it was portrayed - as a good and honorable thing - and because the way it was written made me feel that it was, even though at the same time, I knew that, according to my beliefs, the opposite was true. I personally do not believe this action is ever morally justified, though I also do not think it's unforgivable - but nothing is. This was my single biggest issue with the book. It was very, very concerning to me. I do not believe this should ever be glorified or portrayed in a positive light. It's a horrible thing. No matter who the reader is, or what their beliefs are, it's harmful for every person to read about. As much as I respect Sutcliff, I cannot agree with her choice to write about this issue in this way. I don't think it's justified even for a secular author. This action is never, ever okay, for a character and in real life. It's not just fiction, and it's extremely harmful. And portraying it in fiction as a positive thing is dangerous.

- Pagan Celtic/Druidic beliefs, religion, and practices are referenced and portrayed, such as detailed portrayal of rituals and sacrifices. I won't discuss all of them, and this is one thing for which I don't remember all the details. But it's important to mention, because certain readers are sensitive to this and affected by it.

- There was one major instance of content with regard to the previous point. A very violent sacrifice took place in a ritual ceremony of the book. It involved killing a horse in a very violent and bloody way. As part of the same ceremony, there was a duel to the death between two people. I don't remember the details, but I do remember that this duel and the resulting death was basically a ritual human sacrifice............ I'll leave it at that. Unlike the other major instances of content, this one is very hazy in my memory, instead of clear. I only remember that it took place, and that it was bothersome to me in both inclusion of extreme violence and in the pagan religious/spiritual content.

- Another one that didn't bother me too much, but might bother other readers - it's subtly implied that several young adult main characters were abused their entire lives by the female villain - who is very evil and frightening, for this reason above all others. The abused main characters were this villain's daughter and two nephews. Abuse is normally a trigger topic for me, but I was mostly fine with it in this book. The author handled it subtly and sensitively, even though it was still alarming and uncomfortable.

- This is a very, very violent book. Battles, blood, death, and killing are described and sometimes graphic. I won't go into all the violence, but let that suffice. If you're sensitive to extreme violence, I strongly recommend you don't read this book. (The violence is about on level another of Sutcliff's books, Frontier Wolf, even though this one is much worse with regard to other content. Both books are much, much more violent than Sutcliff's other Roman Britain books.)

- The language was too mild and insignificant to mention or remember, but it was about the same as Sutcliff's other books. Even though I don't remember details for this specific book, I can be very sure that the characters swear by gods or other things and spiritual figures of their respective pagan religions. This is typical of Sutcliff's pagan characters. There's usually no swearing equivalent to modern swear words.

*

Again, The Mark of the Horse Lord has a lot of content that will be concerning to readers who care about that sort of thing. I cannot recommend it to anyone, and especially not to those who are affected by any kind of content. Unless this content doesn't bother you at all, I would warn you away from reading this book. I definitely caution anyone who is below adult age - though it may be okay for some mature older teens, depending on what they're used to. For reference, I have not yet given it to my youngest brother, who is in high school, and I would not be comfortable allowing him to read it, since he's not very mature. I'll probably give it to him when he graduates high school, but not before - since I'll no longer have the task of protecting him from content at that point, even if I wish to. However, most families aren't as careful about content as mine is, and that's fine. I read this book shortly after I turned 18, and I don't regret it - but I was still concerned by the content.

If you're looking for a Roman Britain book or a Rosemary Sutcliff book without this level of content, I recommend reading Eagle of the Ninth and several of its sequels. Eagle of the Ninth, , The Shield Ring, and most of the other Dolphin Ring series sequels are much cleaner, apart from mild violence, and suitable for a teenage audience as well as for adults. Frontier Wolf is shockingly violent, graphic, and bloody, but has no other content. However, another Sutcliff book that I absolutely cannot recommend, that I warn people away from, and that I will never read myself - because of content even worse in some ways than Mark of the Horse Lord - is Sword at Sunset.

One last note - I did not set out to review the story, characters, themes, etc. of Mark of the Horse Lord. These aspects of the book were usually very good and well-written - though sometimes problematic - and I enjoyed them, for the most part. However, as I touched on above, some of the events, characters, and themes were concerning to me, and could be harmful for some readers, in addition to the content above. I will warn that there were issues with the themes and some other things that I didn't discuss above, except in some cases that I went into very briefly.

Though I've avoided reviewing The Mark of the Horse Lord for a long time, I've decided it's important to make this content information available to individuals who need to know, including my friends. That's my sole purpose in writing this review. I hope this review will be helpful for people who are seeking content information about The Mark of the Horse Lord. Fiction, Children s Books, Memoir The Mark of the Horse Lord is about a freed gladiator, Phaedrus, in second-century Britain, whose accidental resemblance to the king of the northern tribe of Dalriada involves him in a plot to replace that king and enter into a war with a rival tribe, the Caledones.

As with many of Rosemary Sutcliff’s novels, The Mark of the Horse Lord is beautifully written, her characterization subtle, her sympathies even. Her respect is as great for the Roman fort commander, Titus Hilarius, as it is for Phaedrus.

The main conflict of the tale involves a clash of cultures, as it often does in Sutcliff’s fiction. This time, the clash arises between the patriarchal Dalriads and the matriarchal Caledones. The Dalriads have a monarchy in which kingship is inherited by the dead king’s eldest son; the Caledones have a queen, whose king is sacrificed every seven years. Into this cultural mix come the businesslike Romans, who just want peace on the frontier.

I don’t actually know if this story is historically accurate. Very little is known about this area at this time period, and it’s possible that Sutcliff has invented much of the cultural background to her tale. Most likely, she reconstructed it by comparing the Dalriads and Caledones (known historically as the Scotti and the Picts) to other tribes at a similar stage of cultural and technological development.

Ultimately, though, historical accuracy, even if this is possible in a book on this subject, is of very little importance. What is important is that Phaedrus is, like many of Sutcliff’s protagonists, on a journey. It is an inner journey, a journey that is as important to us today as it would have been in second-century Britain. When we first meet Phaedrus, he is dead inside, a slave to his animal passions to kill, preserve himself, and make love. The substitution thrusts him into a situation in which he has to act like a king, and it is not until the endâ€"by a beautifully-handled piece of symbolismâ€"that we see he has finally found the secret of what it means to be a king, and has internalized it to such an extent that he becomes capable of self-sacrifice.

Sutcliff proved, many years ago, that literature about the distant past can be not merely relevant, but important to the present.
The Mark of The Horse Lord I am cheating a little, I have read this one long ago and far away, and I have no idea when or if I shall reread it but the other day while I was casually browsing on the smartphone and even more casually whistling, I came across a conservative appreciative essay about Rosemary Sutcliff helpfully on a website called the imaginative conservative though I personally thought that one of the points of being conservative was to avoid being imaginative, but never mind though if I was being sly I might dare to venture to suggest that conservatives have to be the most imaginative seeing as they deal wholly in fictions .

Anyway the author wrote:...Sutcliff's work displays clear distinctions between good and evil, right and wrong, civilised conduct and barbarism. There is no post-modern ambiguity, equivocating or hedging of bets here. We also find a firm commitment to the value of law and order (inherited from the Pax Romana) and an overarching belief in the significance and intrinsic worth of Judeo-Christian civilisation. as read here

It struck me that as readers we often find that books are uncannily accurate mirrors that reflect back our own preconceptions cough, cough , but also that perhaps the author of that essay had not read The Mark of the Horse Lord. It's a romantic imperial adventure - think The prisoner of Zenda, or The Man Who Would Be King featuring a washed out ex-gladiator with nothing but death to look forward to, who has an uncanny resemblance to the man who ought to have been king of a people beyond the Roman empire. It's an ambiguous story of very dirty political machinations between a matrilineal and a patrilineal society which the Romans try cynically to take advantage of. It's a story with different conceptions of law and order, right and wrong, and our brief glimpses of life in the Roman empire don't show it in a very noble or positive light, on the other hand the tribal societies beyond its borders are no edenic paradises of noble savages either, there is a lot of equivocation, we root for our hero and while he is heroic above all in his absolutely non-Judeo-Christian end he is at the same time a desperate adventurer in search of meaning and purpose for his own life to which end he is prepared to destroy the stability and peace of others.

Oh and by the way, this is a children's book, and a rather fun one at that. If you have read several of other books you will notice several of her favourite themes - her the golden bough inspired conception of a seven year king, ideas about matrilineal and patrilineal societies, a central character who is an outsider, the idea that profession is profounder than personality (a person is their job, and they have to reinvent themselves if they loose it), and probably many many others that don't come to mind so quickly across the distant years. Fiction, Children s Books, Memoir Roman Britain, circa 180 or 190 A.D. Red Phaedrus has been a slave his whole live. After his first master died, Phaedrus was sold to a new master and then changed hands a few more times. His last master sold him to a gladiator's school to repay a debt.

The story opens four years later when Phaedrus has become a popular gladiator. To his dismay, he and his best friend are paired together. He manages to kill his friend in a fight that stirs the crowd into a frenzy. In fact the fight was such a sensation that Phaedrus is granted his freedom. Free at last! But he's never experienced freedom before.

That's when things start happening. At loose ends, Phaedrus falls in one evening with a rowdy bunch of drunken Romans who take him bar hopping. They attack the owner of a wine bar because he refuses to sell them more wine. The Romans flee but Phaedrus is arrested. Then the next evening a mysterious stranger has him released in a most unofficial way.

It turns out that the stranger, a merchant named Sinnoch, is helping a tribe called Dalriads (aka Scots) in what is now western Scotland. Some years ago their queen usurped the throne and her husband -- King Midir, the horse lord -- went missing. Phaedrus is a spitting image of Midir and the Dalriads want Phaedrus to impersonate Midir, help assassinate the queen, and rule their tribe as Midir, the rightful king and horse lord. The challenge gives Phaedrus a purpose in life, and he agrees. He has to be careful, though, because â€" except for the people who are in on the conspiracy â€" the Dalriadains can never learn that he is an impostor. Phaedrus must play the role for the rest of his life.

Things go wrong for Phaedrus from the beginning of the assassination attempt, and he soon finds himself and the Dalraids opposing the queen and her powerful allies in a war the Dalriads can't hope to win. But Phaedrus takes his position as horse lord seriously and devotes his life to defeating the queen. Toward the end, unexpectedly on the crest of victory, the situation takes an unexpected and terrible turn when the Romans intervene, and Phaedrus has to find a way to obtain freedom for his tribe.

For me, the book was a page turner until the very last page. During his time as horse lord, Phaedrus has to make choices that require personal sacrifices. He also finds love in an unexpected place. At the end, Phaedrus is faced with a horrible choice that results in a conclusion that is totally unexpected. But, looking back on the story, his choice was the only one he could make as the legitimate horse lord.

The Mark of the Horse Lord is one of Sutcliff's darker YA novels. After I read a book, I usually don't think much about it afterwards. But the way this one ended, I thought about the novel for quite some time. But the theme -- a person finding an identity and a place to belong -- is powerful in this book.

By the way, even though The Mark of the Horse Lord was published in 1965, in 1985 the it won the inaugural Phoenix Award from the Children's Literature Association. 216

At first he had been wild with loathing of his new life, but in four years it had become part of him, so that whether he hated or loved it no longer mattered. It ran in his veins like the fiery barley spirit that the tribesmen brewed: the roar of the crowd that set one’s pulses jumping, the warmth of sunlight and the sweetness of cheap wine and the fierce pleasure in one’s own strength and skill, heightened by the knowledge that tomorrow, next week, in an hour’s time, it might all end on the squared point of a comrade’s sword.

I re-read this to fulfill the 2017 Popsugar reading challenge category, book you loved as a child. I first read this when I was around 10-12 yo, and I remember two scenes clearly: the part where Phaedrus pursues and captures his wife on horseback, and the ending. I am amazed that I remember it so clearly now, almost forty years later. I remember the ending clearly, but not the events leading up to it, so it was just as suspenseful for me on this second reading, and just as moving. It is such a delight to revisit childhood classics and discover that they are truly awesome books. I had good taste!

It is interesting for me to see how I misinterpreted this story. I read a lot of fantasy back then, and so I read this as a fantasy, not realizing that it's straight-up historical fiction. I read passages like this, and just assumed these were made up fantasy names and words, not realizing they were real and I just hadn't seen them before:

The eyes of Forgall the Envoy were dark and opaque, as those of the Old People, whose blood ran strong in the Caledones; but little red sparks glowed far back in them, and his face was beginning to have the same pinched whiteness round the nostrils that had been there last night in the Fire Hall. “The claim of Liadhan the Queen holds good according to the Ancient Law. It is yourself, Midir Mac Levin, no more than the son of a son of a son, who sit where you have no right to be! You have forsaken the Mother and the True Way to follow strange Gods, and the curse of the Cailleach lies on such as youâ€"on all the Dalriadain who would seek to drive her from her rightful place in the heart of men!”

I have an especially vivid memory of the section describing when Phaedrus chases Murna on horseback to ritually kidnap her and make her his wife. It's not an actual kidnapping, but still, Murna is not happy about it. It's kind of disturbing now, but at the time I read it as magical and romantic. Hey, I was, like, 12. A rather long excerpt:

The red horse snorted and stretched out his neck, and the foam flew back from his muzzle to spatter against Phaedrus’s breast and thighs; the mealy silver of the mane flowed back across his bridle wrist as the land fled by beneath the pounding hooves. Excitement rose in them all; laughter and hunting cries began to break from the men behind him. He guessed that in the ordinary way of things, the girl’s flight would have been only a pretense, like the wailing of the Women’s Side. But this was different; if he wished to catch the Princess Murna, then he would have to hunt her in good earnest; and pity twinged in him, not for her, the She-Wolf’s daughter, but for the weary mare she rode.

...The girl had turned with a cry of fury and lashed him across the face with her horse-rod; but he had her reins and they were racing along the flank of the bog, perilously locked together, floundering in and out of solid ground and sinking pocket, but drawing steadily away from the livid greenness of the hungry mire. Then with a sound between a laugh and a sob, Phaedrus had an arm round the Princess Murna and dragged her across the red horse’s withers. The wild-eyed mare, lightened of her load, sprang away and went streaking back toward the hills, with a couple of the Companions in pursuit. And Phaedrus, still riding full gallop, was clamping the Royal Woman against him with his free arm, while she struggled to break free and fling herself off.

Then quite suddenly the fight seemed to go out of her as they slackened pace from that wild gallop to a canter. Phaedrus freed one handâ€"he was controlling the panting stallion with his knees nowâ€"and caught at the red mareskin mask.

Just for an instant, as his hand touched the hairiness of the hide, he wondered if it were the Moon Diadem trick over again, and the face beneath it would not be Murna’s. Wondered with a little shiver of cold between his shoulder blades whether it would be a human face at all, or something else, something that was not good to see…. Then he pulled away the mask and flung it behind him among the following horsemen. It was Murna’s face looking up at him, gray-white and somehow ragged, as though in pulling off the bridal mask he had torn holes in something else, some inner defense that she was naked and terrified without. And for that one instant, despite the dusk, he could look into her face instead of only at the surface of it. Still feeling rather sick from the nearness of the bog, he laughed in sudden triumph, and bent his head and kissed her.

Surprisingly, she yielded against him and kissed him back. But as she did so, he felt her hand steal out, light as a leaf but not quite light enough, toward the dagger in his belt.

His own hand flashed down and caught her wrist, twisting the weapon from her grasp before she well had hold of it, and sent it spinning into a furze bush. “Softly, sweetheart! Maybe we shall do better if we are both unarmed,” he said, gently dangerous. She could have no other weapon about her, or she would not have gone for his dagger.

She gave a sharp cry of baffled fury, and became a thing as rigid and remote as one of the stocks of wood, charmed into human shape, that the People of the Hills left behind in its place when they stole a child of the Sun Folk. And yet the odd thingâ€"Phaedrus knew it beyond all doubtâ€"was that the kiss she had given him had been as real as her hand feeling for his dagger.

Words I had to look up:
Net and trident men - a type of gladiator, who fought with weapons inspired by fishermen, including a weighted net, a trident, and a dagger
Strigil - an instrument with a curved blade used, especially by ancient Greeks and Romans, to scrape sweat and dirt from the skin in a hot-air bath or after exercise; a scraper.
Gralloch - to disembowel
Bothy - a small hut or cottage
Gleeds - glowing coals
Heron-hackles - long slender, often glossy feathers from the back of the neck of a male heron.
Corrie - circular hollow in the side of a mountain (Scottish); cirque.
Goad - (horse) whip


*******

LOVED this book, one my favorite books of all time. Maybe I need to create a new bookshelf for ya because this isn't exactly a children's book ...

I know I read every Sutcliff book that my library had in the young adult section, but this is the only book I remember clearly. This is shocking for me with a Rosemary Sutcliff book, especially one a lot of other people loved, but I didn't really like this. I somehow didn't really care. I didn't much like Phaedrus, which helped, but I'm sure I would've got to like him in the normal way of things with one of Sutcliff's books, but nope. Maybe it's the fact that I've been working on Sword at Sunset for my dissertation for months and either I'm burnt out on Sutcliff or this just doesn't compare, or even a bit of both.

Plus, the central theme being Bad Woman Needs Putting Down and Matriarchal Rule Is Inferior To Patriarchal Rule Because The Menz Say So is a bit... off putting. Sutcliff's never that wonderful with female characters, really, but that aspect really took the cake. English I am fully aware that I just read this book in September and that reading it again is adding nothing to my reading challenge and that the whole of life is just a shout in the void but I had a very good reason:


Conory and his cat
As I said in my review of Frontier Wolf, I read these two books back-to-back, and the combined effect was devastating. In some sense, they are both about decisions that make a man who he is; and these decisions are often forced by circumstances, with a bad choice and a worse choice.

At the very beginning of this book, Red Phaedrus, an Arena gladiator, must kill his closest friend in order to survive. That should give you an idea of what sort of things are at stake in this book!

As always with Sutcliff, Roman-era Britain comes completely to life, with a level of detail that is both evocative and yet not at all dense. This book has more of the numinous than many of her others, more of a feeling of the supernatural world that underlies the world of men, but it is a very real-feeling animistic supernatural, believable in context. This is also one of her rare books in which women have more of a role, and I loved reading of the warrior women of the Dalriadain. Fiction, Children s Books, Memoir Anyone looking for a truly excellent YA historical read should look no further than Rosemary Sutcliff's The Mark of the Horse Lord, set in the second-century A.D. in Roman Britain, or more accurately in the non-Roman north, beyond the North Wall (the second wall that was north of Hadrian's Wall). MHL is the story of Red Phaedrus, a former slave of mixed Celtic-Greek ancestry who begins the story as a gladiator in a fight against his best friend,Vortimax. He kills Vortimax and thereafter finds himself free in a world that he's never been free in. Time for an adventure. Very quickly Phaedrus lands in jail after a drunken fight with Roman legionaries. When his freedom is bought by Gault and Sinnoch, two tribesmen of the Dalriadain, he's ready and willing to adopt a new persona as Midir, dispossessed heir to the Sun Lord's tribe. Phaedrus' time as The Horse Lord over the next year show his growth from a friendless young man with not much reason to live and no place to belong into a worthy king of a loyal, passionate tribe of Celts.

Sutcliff is a tremendous writer, effortlessly transporting the reader to the era so that both Romans, who are tangential characters, and the native peoples that they subdue and keep at bay come to life. Her language is rich and her voice unique, capturing the rhythm and syntax of modern Irish speakers (e.g., I'll not be wanting you to) without turning the characters into anachronistic caricatures. She also manages to walk that hard-to-find line between YA and adult fiction that I daresay many writers and editors either don't know about or are only too happy to push. Although Phaedrus is typical YA age (20),and his struggles for identity and place in the adult world worthy of YA fiction, the situations that he faces and the decisions he must make are, of a necessity, very grave and weighty. Phaedrus is very grown up and is at home among adults older than he. His growth as a character is less an internal one to maturity, but more that of a young man who is prepared, tested, and found worthy. Sutcliff also writes at a higher reading level than many adult books while simultaneously eschewing excessive graphic or mordant details that seem too often to stand in for adult-level complexity. The Mark of The Horse Lord

Phaedrus is a Roman gladiator who has won his freedom. By chance, he is also the exact double of Midir, the Horse Lord, lost King of the Dalriad tribe. To rid the Dalriads of the usurping Queen Liadhan, Phaedrus agrees to a daring pretence -- he will impersonate Midir and become the Horse Lord. Knight's Fee is an exciting story of Norman England, which tells how Ranald the servant boy strives to achieve his ambition and become a knight. The Mark of The Horse Lord