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Book Review: Sword Song
Aug. 21st, 2012 12:08 pmRosemary Sutcliff’s Sword Song stands out among her oeuvre in that the hero’s most important relationship is with his female love interest. I liked Angharad a lot, and if she’d shown up earlier than four-fifths of the way through the novel, I probably would have liked the book a lot too.
However, the pre-Angharad four-fifths are a hard slog, so as much as I like her I can’t recommend it. The story, such as it is, concerns the picaresque adventures of Bjarni Sigurdson, as he drifts around Norse Scotland and Ireland and possibly Wales, selling his sword and failing to make friends.
There are characters in the world so fascinating that you don’t really need strong supporting characters (switching genres completely: Judy Abbott in Daddy-long-legs), but Bjarni is so far from being one of them that one could march a troop of elephants through the gap. He doesn’t much like anyone but his dog, at least until he meets Angharad. Oh, and he briefly has a friend called Erd or Erp or something, but as my confusion indicates, Er-whatsit was not very memorable.
ALSO. It is ENTIRELY CLEAR to me that Angharad’s life has been infinitely more interesting and tragic than Bjarni’s - her cousin wanted to marry her! Her father let her go to a nunnery to escape! At which nunnery she learned herblore, until she returned home when her brother died! Now everyone suspects she’s a witch, but she heals them anyway! While cross-dressing!
Clearly far more interesting protagonist material than boring, self-centered Bjarni.
In fact, all the female characters in this novel are far superior to their male counterparts. The various jarls and ship-lords run together (though I have a soft spot for Onund Treefoot, who is captain despite his pegleg), but I loved the Lady Aud: Aud the Deep-Minded, they call her, for she is very wise. She has a former Irish queen as her handmaiden, and they are clearly BFFs in the Marcus & Esca mold. She sails gracefully out of the story to Iceland, and how I longed to go with her instead of Bjarni. Especially if she meets trolls or something.
(Seriously, wouldn’t that be cool? The Adventures of the Lady Aud, Who Is Like Sixty but Still Has Adventures. Pity I don’t know any Icelandic folklore.)
But yeah, that doesn’t happen. Instead we continue to follow Bjarni, and he remains dull until we meet Angharad. I am pretty sure she only likes him because he’s the only person in three leagues who doesn’t think she’s a witch. Wouldn’t it be a better story if...I don’t know...Angharad ended up on Lady Aud’s ship somehow? Because ICELAND!
However, the pre-Angharad four-fifths are a hard slog, so as much as I like her I can’t recommend it. The story, such as it is, concerns the picaresque adventures of Bjarni Sigurdson, as he drifts around Norse Scotland and Ireland and possibly Wales, selling his sword and failing to make friends.
There are characters in the world so fascinating that you don’t really need strong supporting characters (switching genres completely: Judy Abbott in Daddy-long-legs), but Bjarni is so far from being one of them that one could march a troop of elephants through the gap. He doesn’t much like anyone but his dog, at least until he meets Angharad. Oh, and he briefly has a friend called Erd or Erp or something, but as my confusion indicates, Er-whatsit was not very memorable.
ALSO. It is ENTIRELY CLEAR to me that Angharad’s life has been infinitely more interesting and tragic than Bjarni’s - her cousin wanted to marry her! Her father let her go to a nunnery to escape! At which nunnery she learned herblore, until she returned home when her brother died! Now everyone suspects she’s a witch, but she heals them anyway! While cross-dressing!
Clearly far more interesting protagonist material than boring, self-centered Bjarni.
In fact, all the female characters in this novel are far superior to their male counterparts. The various jarls and ship-lords run together (though I have a soft spot for Onund Treefoot, who is captain despite his pegleg), but I loved the Lady Aud: Aud the Deep-Minded, they call her, for she is very wise. She has a former Irish queen as her handmaiden, and they are clearly BFFs in the Marcus & Esca mold. She sails gracefully out of the story to Iceland, and how I longed to go with her instead of Bjarni. Especially if she meets trolls or something.
(Seriously, wouldn’t that be cool? The Adventures of the Lady Aud, Who Is Like Sixty but Still Has Adventures. Pity I don’t know any Icelandic folklore.)
But yeah, that doesn’t happen. Instead we continue to follow Bjarni, and he remains dull until we meet Angharad. I am pretty sure she only likes him because he’s the only person in three leagues who doesn’t think she’s a witch. Wouldn’t it be a better story if...I don’t know...Angharad ended up on Lady Aud’s ship somehow? Because ICELAND!
