📚MARCH 2026 The Eagle of the Ninth An Introduction

Rosemary Sutcliff was born in Surrey in 1920. Her father was an officer in the Royal Navy and she spent her childhood on various naval bases. Sutcliff used a wheelchair for most of her life due to Still's disease. While her health and the family's travels interfered with her formal schooling, she learned many Celtic and Saxon legends from her mother.

Sutcliff graduated from art school and painted miniatures before publishing her first novel, The Chronicles of Robin Hood, in 1950. She soon became a celebrated author of children's historical fiction and went on to write dozens of books for both children and adults, including the Carnegie Medal-winning The Lantern Bearers, the third book in the Eagle of the Ninth trilogy. Sutcliff was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire for her services to children's literature. She died in 1992.

Originally published in 1954, The Eagle of the Ninth tells the story of a Roman soldier who, after suffering a career-ending injury, sets out to discover the fate of the Ninth Legion.

The Eagle of the Ninth has proved Sutcliff's most popular work, and has been adapted multiple times: twice for radio, once for television, and once as a feature film.

Sutcliff's Wikipedia page
The Eagle of the Ninth on Wikipedia

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Thread Book
Introduction (this thread)
Chapters 1-7
Chapters 8-14
Chapters 15-21
Final Thoughts

Oops. Chapters 1-7 links back to this message.

LOL, when I set up Maurice, I spent ages getting all those links to work right. So i know how much to appreciate that you've done that work. Ugh, it is an icky chore. But really handy for readers.

>1 amanda4242: Ooo I look forward to digging into all the background information you've so kindly provided. I know zip about the Ninth Legion going in, so that will help a lot.

>2 DebiCates: Should be fixed. Thanks!

I have no idea why it was doing that because I had the correct url pasted in.

>4 amanda4242: I haven't ever encountered that, but I have encountered the same issue with Touchstones not working as they should. But an edit (taking it out and putting the same thing back in) has fixed it. Weird.

>5 DebiCates: Gremlins. It's gremlins.

>6 amanda4242: Yep it's fixed. Before the movie Gremlins came out, what did we blame weird stuff on?

In my family we blamed it on "the bear." My mother, like me, like my daughter, was a computer programmer. At some point a visiting child left behind a plastic little bear and never came back for it. Someone put it up on the shelf, the shelf with the manuals (back when computers had hefty paper manuals) and thereafter whenever a program didn't work right, my mother and her coworkers would say, "The bear did it."

Before my mom retired, she gave me the bear and it followed me and performed all sorts of mischief on my perfect programs.

I have given the bear to my daughter and it is now sits in her office on the shelf. The bear has never once stopped smiling through every mishap. Silly old bear.

>7 DebiCates: Gremlins have been blamed for at least a century. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gremlin Before that, it was probably various elves, sprites, pixies, etc.

Love the bear story!

>8 amanda4242: Aha! Wikipedia to the rescue. God bless Wikipedia. I recently read a quote that illustrates my humble admiration for Wikipedia and the ability to share links,

“And I think I’ve found the real benefit of digital memory. The point is not to prove you were right; the point is to admit you were wrong.”
― Ted Chiang, The Truth of Fact, The Truth of Feeling

Great bear story.
Great interwebs quote.

I'm going to tweak something so your chapter threads come up in order if you don't mind?
...Also, I'm going to do it before you answer.

>11 TonjaE: Did they not?

ETA: Oh, are you sorting by topic? I sort by last message, so I'm currently seeing them in the order they were created.

>7 DebiCates: This is adorable! At my place these things get blamed on "That Effing Fairy".

>1 amanda4242: Great to have this background information, and set out so well. Thank you Amanda.

>14 TonjaE: You're welcome! To be honest, most of it is just pasted from a reading challenge I did a few years ago.

>13 TonjaE: ha! I'll remember that, since I no longer have the bear to blame. I need an effing fairy.

>12 amanda4242: Ah, I didn't realise you could sort them differently. Mine appear in alphabetical order, I'm sorry I interfered with them. After many months of use I still learn new things about LT!

>17 TonjaE: No problem! I've been here for years and still learn things!

>1 amanda4242: FYI I'll be starting this book this weekend. Woohoo! Are you re-reading it, Amanda?

>19 DebiCates: Yep. I have a book to finish before my kindle unlimited membership ends and then I'll be starting.

>20 amanda4242: Great! I'm finishing up a book this week too.

Hello all! Who is reading this with us, besides me and Amanda?

>22 DebiCates: Me! I'll catch up.
My copy of Eagle of the Ninth is another Folio Society volume. I think it has some illustrations too. It is great to have this motivation to get these 'pretty' books off the shelves and out of their cases!

>24 TonjaE: Lovely! I'd read almost anything if it were in a Folio edition. Thank you for sharing again.

P.S. I'm not sure I've ever seen a Folio edition in person.

>24 TonjaE: Cool!

I was gifted a nice paperback OUP edition a few years ago. You can't really tell from the picture, but it's done with copper foil.

>25 DebiCates: You're welcome. Years ago I used to be a member of the Folio Society, the books were much more affordable than they are now, and they no longer have the membership set up... a shame. These days I pick them up second hand on my book hunts, it's a lot of fun to find them at a bargain price.

>26 amanda4242: It's lovely! I can imagine the copper foil. :)