Book Review: Sword Song

[osprey_archer]

Rosemary 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!

Comments

[carmarthen.livejournal.com]

Rosemary 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

THIS.

and failing to make friends.

Hey, he makes A friend! The Welsh thrall, Erp! Who I thought was semi-memorable, but really only friends with Bjarni because Bjarni gave him the time of day, and they didn't seem terribly broken up about parting ways.

While cross-dressing!

SEE I REALLY WANT TO WRITE ABOUT THIS. But I struggle with making Bjarni comprehensible. The thing is, I am 100% convinced he is only into her (and that's a fade-to-black scene towards the end, you can't convince me otherwise) because he thought she was a boy at first, and I think the Norse actually had pretty strict social taboos against women crossdressing? So, like, he should be horrified and disturbed by her ways, but he's not, he's more into her than pretty much any other human he's met, except maybe Onund, whom he totally had a crush on. And genderplay is a fun kink to write. I just can't. write. stupid. Bjarni.

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.

Clearly I have to reread and figure out how to write this, because I am DETERMINED to make Sutcliff f/f work. And I just spent a week and a half tromping around Icelandic scenery (the Tortallan Hill Country is now Iceland in my mind, which makes as much sense as it having a big whonking desert in the middle, I figure). TROLLS, yessssss.

I shall totally have to consider if I can figure out a way to get Angharad onto Lady Aud's ship.

I like Sword Song more than Warrior Scarlet, mainly for the secondary characters, but...yeah. That's not saying much.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Possibly I demand too much, but I generally want my protagonists to be a bit closer to their friends than Bjarni is to Erp. They don't have to be bestest best friends forever, but I want more connection than "We're in the same place and we're both kind of bored. Let's hang out, then part without sorrow when the time comes!"

And yes, that is TOTALLY a fade to black scene at the end with Bjarni and Angharad. I was all O.o I don't even know what to make of Bjarni's crush on Angharad, because he clearly does really like her, and hitherto I hadn't been sure he was capable of that much human emotion. He's got that hero-worship thing going with Onund, true, but there's not the same sense of really liking him as a person.

Maybe he hit his head while he was thrashing about in the sea.

I think part of what makes Bjarni such a frustrating character is that there's an inconsistency between how I think we're meant to perceive him, and how he acts. For instance, the text tells us that he couldn't sell his sword service to someone he didn't believe in, but it's hard to see anything in Bjarni's character that would make that difficult for him.

I'm not sure I agree that Bjarni is into Angharad's cross-dressing. The scene when he starts noticing she's pretty is the one where she's wearing a dress, which suggests he doesn't find her trousers titillating. But at the same time, he's clearly not shocked by her breach of taboo. He just doesn't react, which is puzzling.

Also, yes, I am pretty sure Aud the Deep-Minded and the former Irish queen are the best candidates I've yet seen for f/f in Sutcliff...by which I mean they have one scene together. And there should totally be trolls!

[carmarthen.livejournal.com]

Possibly I demand too much, but I generally want my protagonists to be a bit closer to their friends than Bjarni is to Erp.

No, I agree. But Bjarni the Affectless is not good at feelings, and not in the charming way.

I think part of what makes Bjarni such a frustrating character is that there's an inconsistency between how I think we're meant to perceive him, and how he acts.

Yeah; which arguably may be part of the whole saga hero thing he has going on. I haven't read enough sagas, but the people in them tend to be somewhat incomprehensible from the modern POV. I had a conversation with someone ages ago who really enjoyed Sword Song specifically because Bjarni was like a saga hero.

I'm not sure I agree that Bjarni is into Angharad's cross-dressing. The scene when he starts noticing she's pretty is the one where she's wearing a dress, which suggests he doesn't find her trousers titillating. But at the same time, he's clearly not shocked by her breach of taboo. He just doesn't react, which is puzzling.

I don't think he kinks on the crossdressing in a sexual way, but I think Bjarni is really male-oriented, moreso even than most Sutcliff protagonists: I have these vague thoughts about him being attracted to the masculinity in Angharad, and it's that he meets her as a boy that lets him see her as a real person long enough to become interested in her (insofar as he's ever really interested in anyone). But they're a baffling couple, and there's a reason I haven't figured out how to write it. I should probably reread the book. (I'm guessing he doesn't react because Sutcliff didn't know it was a taboo, but argh, now I have to fanwank it into making some kind of sense.)

(Have your read The Shield Ring yet? It's one of her earliest, and there's a vague reference to Bjarni and Angharad in it: she's described as going with him "half-unwilling", which I think is rather sad.

Also, yes, I am pretty sure Aud the Deep-Minded and the former Irish queen are the best candidates I've yet seen for f/f in Sutcliff...by which I mean they have one scene together.

I ship post-canon Murna/fierce dark girl in Mark of the Horse Lord, too! But it is indeed QUITE a challenge.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Cross-dressing seems to be a pretty common taboo, so it kind of surprises me that Sutcliff didn't think to put in any reaction at all from Bjarni even if she didn't know specifically about Norse opinions of it. Oh, well, inexplicable authorial decisions are inexplicable...

I haven't read The Shield Ring yet, but the local library has it. It has...somebody's bound hands on the cover. Is it supposed to look quite that bondage-y?

And it doesn't surprise me that Angharad is described as half-unwilling. She's basically lost all her other choices by the time they get together, and no matter how much she likes Bjarni that's a bad place from which to start a marriage.

[carmarthen.livejournal.com]

I have no idea about that cover: it has basically nothing to do with the book whatsoever. TSR is interesting because it has co-protagonists, one of whom is a girl (and...maybe? a love interest), and they definitely have the strongest relationship with each other, although there are aspects of it early on that made me eyebrow. It's an early Sutcliff and kind of rough plotwise, but I like it.

Yeah, poor Angharad doesn't really have any other choices. :-/ I hope things work out for them and Bjarni grows feelings somewhere along the way....

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Hmm, this is one I've not read yet - you make the minor characters sound absolutely fascinating, I will have to get to it next!

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I found it a hard go when the minor characters weren't around, but you never know; you might love it.

[carmarthen.livejournal.com]

The minor characters are great! But if you don't like Bjarni, the rest is...kind of tough. It's worth reading, though, I think, if only for a more complete picture of Sutcliff's idea of the Viking world.

Aud the Deepminded

[anne mcfadgen (from livejournal.com)]

Naomi Mitchison wrote a couple of novels based on real people from the "Landamabok", the historical account of families who settled in Iceland during the ninth and tenth centuries. "The Land the Ravens Found" is the story of Aud the Deepminded, her journey and the trials and tribulations of settling in a new land. Although like Sutcliff's "Sword Song", "The Land the Ravens Found" was written as a story for children, it's an equally enjoyable read for adults - more what we would now call young adult fiction.