Song for a Dark Queen by Rosemary Sutcliff

Be it in a former life or not- she did have to do her bit of soldiering, much more so than other women (with the possible exception of those who had to clean up after the war). Maybe because her life wasn’t that of an average woman, either. I’m currently thinking of Prosper, Jesthyn, Hugh Herriot, Marcus and Esca … While everyone who wants to jump the Slash-theme waggon on that repellant fan-fiction train in those cases will have my sword at his (or more probable her) throat, I’ve often wondered if there are not a good many of Sutcliff’s on feelings about comradery, loyalty and – yes! – love appointed rather to the male characters than to the females. There are some who although they are male exhibit a vaguely female attitude towards other male characters. I experience Artos as a very credible male first-person perspective. I remember reading a comment by Sutcliff on the making of Sword at Sunset, that she lived in the body and mind of a man for 18 months and it took her some time to crawl out of it again. You’re right in saying that there is a certain romantic female sensibilty in Sutcliff’s writing, most notably apparent in her adult novel “The Rider of the White Horse” – she clearly sees Sir Thomas Fairfax in the light of rather breathless romantic hero-worship – but I’m sure that on the whole she identified with male characters because they were free to act in ways women weren’t and so more able to satisfy her necessarily vicarious desire for action and adventure. In these rare cases there’s always an understanding that this friendship will in time become a marriage: Damaris and Peter in “Flame-Coloured Taffeta”, Freya and Bjorn in “Shield Ring”, Hugh and Darklis in “Bonnie Dundee” and Tamsyn and Piers in “The Armourer’s House”. The central pairing of two friends is a very strong element in Sutcliff’s novels and sometimes this pairing is male and female rather than the usual two males.

Again, in “Flame Coloured Taffeta” as in “Shield Ring,” Damaris does not act alone, but with her friend, Peter, though she does get more of a starring role.

Song for a Dark Queen by Rosemary Sutcliff