- Hardcover: 278 pages
- Publisher: Random House Children's Books; New edition edition (1 Sep 1994)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0099366215
- ISBN-13: 978-0099366218
- Product Dimensions: 18.2 x 13.6 x 3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,468,154 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Book Description
An absorbing historical tale of bravery and friendship, set around 600 AD.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Description
Prosper, son of a British chieftain, is drawn to the fortress of King Mynyddog the Golden, where the legendary Shining Company is massing to fight off invaders. The story tells how Prosper discovers the cruelty and ugliness of war, as well as the valiance of battle.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I picked this up when I was young and never got around to reading it, then stumbled across it a few years back as an adult and this time I got past the beginning and it rapidly picked me up and carried me along it's dramatic course towards a devastating, brilliant conclusion.
It's a fairly simple story, set in the context of 7th century northern british resistance to the encroaching Saxons and leading up to the battle described in the early poem "Y Goddoddin." I knew nothing about the poem and it's background before I read the book and I'm actually glad that I didn't - the sweep and spring of the story from it's joyous opening to the dramatic finale is perhaps even more intense when you don't know where that conclusion is going.
As ever, Rosemary Sutcliff's imagination is so strong that she carries the reader along with her into the time she is writing about, bringing the dark ages to colourful life with her prose. Although she largely wrote books marketed for children, her stories are so strong that - like much of the best young people's fiction - their appeal is far wider than any particular age group.
Highly, highly recommended.
It's a fairly simple story, set in the context of 7th century northern british resistance to the encroaching Saxons and leading up to the battle described in the early poem "Y Goddoddin." I knew nothing about the poem and it's background before I read the book and I'm actually glad that I didn't - the sweep and spring of the story from it's joyous opening to the dramatic finale is perhaps even more intense when you don't know where that conclusion is going.
As ever, Rosemary Sutcliff's imagination is so strong that she carries the reader along with her into the time she is writing about, bringing the dark ages to colourful life with her prose. Although she largely wrote books marketed for children, her stories are so strong that - like much of the best young people's fiction - their appeal is far wider than any particular age group.
Highly, highly recommended.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The Shining Company is one of the last stories published by Rosemary Sutcliff before her death. Fans of her books will no doubt enjoy the tale, told in her familiar setting of the twilight of the Roman World and the birth of the Dark Ages. The story is an imaginative re-telling of Britain's oldest native poem - Y Gododdin. Written around AD 600 by the poet Aneirin, it tells of a battle that took place around Catterick by a Northern British tribe called the Gododdin, and their Anglo-Saxon enemy, the Northumberians.
The ancient poem is an elegy for the warriors who took part in the battle, but very little of it describes the 'what, when, and why' of it taking place. This allows Ms. Sutcliff to weave a fine tale around it.
She tells of a British Chieftain's son, a boy called Prosper, who sets out from his native Welsh valley with his Irish Bodyservant to the court of Mynyddog Mwynfawr, King of the Gododdin at Dun Eidin (Edinburgh). While there he trains for a year in the King's halls with 300 of the finest warriors from across Britain, before they set out to take, and then defend, the old Roman fort of Catteractonium from the armies of the Anglo-Saxon King, Aethelfrith.
It's a pretty simple tale, but it's told brilliantly. Rosemary Sutcliff's descriptions of the lived-in world of the Dark Ages are as evocative as Bernard Cornwell's descriptions of Dark Age warfare; so much so that when you read it you can almost see this long dead world spring to life in your mind's eye.
The book is aimed towards young adults - I'd say for those aged around 13-17, as the writing I believe might be too difficult for younger readers. That shouldn't put older readers off though, as the prose is much better written than many books aimed towards adults!
All in all, a must read for her fans; but a worthy purchase for anyone who enjoys these types of novels. Heartily recommended!
The ancient poem is an elegy for the warriors who took part in the battle, but very little of it describes the 'what, when, and why' of it taking place. This allows Ms. Sutcliff to weave a fine tale around it.
She tells of a British Chieftain's son, a boy called Prosper, who sets out from his native Welsh valley with his Irish Bodyservant to the court of Mynyddog Mwynfawr, King of the Gododdin at Dun Eidin (Edinburgh). While there he trains for a year in the King's halls with 300 of the finest warriors from across Britain, before they set out to take, and then defend, the old Roman fort of Catteractonium from the armies of the Anglo-Saxon King, Aethelfrith.
It's a pretty simple tale, but it's told brilliantly. Rosemary Sutcliff's descriptions of the lived-in world of the Dark Ages are as evocative as Bernard Cornwell's descriptions of Dark Age warfare; so much so that when you read it you can almost see this long dead world spring to life in your mind's eye.
The book is aimed towards young adults - I'd say for those aged around 13-17, as the writing I believe might be too difficult for younger readers. That shouldn't put older readers off though, as the prose is much better written than many books aimed towards adults!
All in all, a must read for her fans; but a worthy purchase for anyone who enjoys these types of novels. Heartily recommended!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
The book: 600 A.D., and a second son of a Welsh lord, Prosper is landed with a body servant, when all he wanted was a pup. He gets a dog anyway, but only by saving his brother's worst dog; and helped by the bodyservant, Conn, and his stepsister. When he grows up he meets Prince Gorthyn and follows him to the wars - the wars against the invading Saxons, in the Northeast of Britain, among a select band of warriors.
The writer: Rosemary Sutcliff wrote some fifty books, mostly historical novels for older children, which are still enjoyed by these - and by older people, too!
My opinion: a curious mixture - the childhood is well-described, with the feelings of insecurity and longing, but for me don't link very much with the second half of the book, which is a re-telling of an old epic. Don't misunderstand me, I thought the second half was great, it is just that the two parts don't hang together very much, for me. Not one of her very best: I would say those are some of the 'Eagle of the Ninth' books, and Blood Feud. Four-and-a-half stars
The writer: Rosemary Sutcliff wrote some fifty books, mostly historical novels for older children, which are still enjoyed by these - and by older people, too!
My opinion: a curious mixture - the childhood is well-described, with the feelings of insecurity and longing, but for me don't link very much with the second half of the book, which is a re-telling of an old epic. Don't misunderstand me, I thought the second half was great, it is just that the two parts don't hang together very much, for me. Not one of her very best: I would say those are some of the 'Eagle of the Ninth' books, and Blood Feud. Four-and-a-half stars
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