Eagle of the Ninth Feelings & Ramblings
Feb. 9th, 2020 08:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
silverinkI’ve been thinking about The Eagle of the Ninth and why I love it so much (as you do), and I ended up writing kind of a long thing about it… It’s a little bit ramble-y, be warned lol!
I first read Rosemary Sutcliff’s The Eagle of the Ninth when I was twelve or thirteen, and to be honest, the first couple of chapters felt a little slow and boring to me. But I was already getting attached Marcus and his personality and his worldview, so I kept going, and of course it got much more interesting from there. I loved Esca, Cub, Cottia, Esca and Marcus’s relationship, and the thrilling adventure of the story so much, and I was so sad when the book was over. As soon as I finished it, I immediately flipped back to the beginning and read it a second time, which took at most three days, and I enjoyed it even more now that I knew and loved the characters and their stories. I think I read it a third time soon after that, too.
I just loved it so much. I loved that it was an adventure story set in ancient Roman Britain, I loved the detail and nature imagery, and most of all I loved the characters, especially Marcus. He was probably one of the first characters in a book/movie/media in general that I really felt like I related to: I’m sure other people have very different interpretations of him, but to me he’s always come across as a dreamer and an optimist, who was good to his friends but sometimes impatient and annoyed, very resilient, rather innocent about the world, and also strong and a badass. These were traits that I really related to, or that I wanted to have. I felt like Marcus was a lot like me only more confident, and that kinda inspired me to try to at least act more confident, which actually helped quite a bit.
It was many years until I actually reread The Eagle again after that, though I still thought about it on and off. But eventually I decided to read it again when my sister brought the book on a family camping/road trip over the summer. The first night of the trip, I was so excited for the opportunity to read it again that I read a good chunk of it in our tent instead of sleeping, while the wind roared outside. The atmosphere felt very fitting for reading The Eagle, and I was so happy that I still adored the story and related to Marcus just as much as before. I discovered new things that I relate to about him as well, like his struggle with not knowing what he’s going to do with his life after being injured. I also had even more appreciation for Esca just in general, and I found new things I related to about him as well, especially his loyalty to Marcus. It almost felt like coming home to realize this book still means so much to me after so long, and I was immediately inspired to write fanfic for it to express just how much I love the characters. I even kinda felt inspired to be more confident like I did when I first read it.
Anyway, I just wanted to talk about how much this book means to me tbh! Hopefully this wasn't too weird to read, and hopefully it was enjoyable! :D
I first read Rosemary Sutcliff’s The Eagle of the Ninth when I was twelve or thirteen, and to be honest, the first couple of chapters felt a little slow and boring to me. But I was already getting attached Marcus and his personality and his worldview, so I kept going, and of course it got much more interesting from there. I loved Esca, Cub, Cottia, Esca and Marcus’s relationship, and the thrilling adventure of the story so much, and I was so sad when the book was over. As soon as I finished it, I immediately flipped back to the beginning and read it a second time, which took at most three days, and I enjoyed it even more now that I knew and loved the characters and their stories. I think I read it a third time soon after that, too.
I just loved it so much. I loved that it was an adventure story set in ancient Roman Britain, I loved the detail and nature imagery, and most of all I loved the characters, especially Marcus. He was probably one of the first characters in a book/movie/media in general that I really felt like I related to: I’m sure other people have very different interpretations of him, but to me he’s always come across as a dreamer and an optimist, who was good to his friends but sometimes impatient and annoyed, very resilient, rather innocent about the world, and also strong and a badass. These were traits that I really related to, or that I wanted to have. I felt like Marcus was a lot like me only more confident, and that kinda inspired me to try to at least act more confident, which actually helped quite a bit.
It was many years until I actually reread The Eagle again after that, though I still thought about it on and off. But eventually I decided to read it again when my sister brought the book on a family camping/road trip over the summer. The first night of the trip, I was so excited for the opportunity to read it again that I read a good chunk of it in our tent instead of sleeping, while the wind roared outside. The atmosphere felt very fitting for reading The Eagle, and I was so happy that I still adored the story and related to Marcus just as much as before. I discovered new things that I relate to about him as well, like his struggle with not knowing what he’s going to do with his life after being injured. I also had even more appreciation for Esca just in general, and I found new things I related to about him as well, especially his loyalty to Marcus. It almost felt like coming home to realize this book still means so much to me after so long, and I was immediately inspired to write fanfic for it to express just how much I love the characters. I even kinda felt inspired to be more confident like I did when I first read it.
Anyway, I just wanted to talk about how much this book means to me tbh! Hopefully this wasn't too weird to read, and hopefully it was enjoyable! :D
