The Shining Company (30 page)

It was not the first time that I had seen him wearing a girl’s favour, and I guessed that it would not be the last; but I was as glad as a sentimental old hen-wife that he should wear the Princess’s favour as he rode away. Glad for her sake, and also, I think, for his …

So we settled down to ride. Behind us Catraeth and all the life that we had known; and ahead Caer Luil and some merchant ship that did not yet know she was waiting for us, and unknown roads and strange lands and whatever of good or ill was written on our foreheads. The faint road lifted over a ridge and there was heather round our horses’ feet. The west wind blew my hair across my face and the taste of it seemed already salt on my lips.

Beside me I heard Cynan laugh. He was riding head up into the wind. He glanced at me over his wolfskin shoulder easily as a man looks at a comrade in arms. ‘We may not look like the flower of an emperor’s bodyguard,’ he said, ‘but Constantinople, make ready for our coming!’

About the year 600 AD, Mynyddog, King of the Gododdin, gathered three hundred warriors together to his tribal capital of Dyn Eidin, where Edinburgh now stands. He housed them for a year, during which they were trained and hammered into a fighting brotherhood, and loosed them against the invading Saxons of what is now Yorkshire and Northumberland. One of the few survivors was the poet Aneirin, who rode with them and recorded the whole epic tragedy of the raid in
The Gododdin
, the earliest surviving North British poem.

I have based
The Shining Company
on this poem; but since Aneirin was really more interested in producing a string of elegies for young men killed in battle than in telling us what actually happened, I have had to invent a good deal of the story-line for myself. In doing this I have tried always to keep as close as possible to the way a raid of that kind might in truth have worked out.

Except for Prosper, who tells the story and is not one of the three hundred but a shieldbearer - something very like a squire - all my warriors are to be found in the original poem. But in three cases I have combined the exploits of two men under the name of one of them; therefore three of the brotherhood have been left nameless, and for this I ask their forgiveness.

Rosemary Sutcliff was born in 1920 in West Clanden, Surrey.

With over 40 books to her credit, Rosemary Sutcliff is now universally considered one of the finest writers of historical novels for children. Her first novel,
The Queen Elizabeth Story
was published in 1950. In 1972 her book
Tristan and Iseult
was runner-up for the Carnegie Medal. In 1974 she was highly commended for the Hans Christian Andersen Award and in 1978 her book,
Song for a Dark Queen
was commended for the Other Award.

Rosemary lived for a long time in Arundel, Sussex with her dogs and in 1975, she was awarded the OBE for services to Children’s Literature. Unfortunately Rosemary passed away in July 1992 and will be much missed by her many fans.

THE CHRONICLES OF ROBIN HOOD
THE QUEEN ELIZABETH STORY THE ARMOURER’S HOUSE
BROTHER DUSTY FEET SIMON THE EAGLE OF THE NINTH
OUTCAST THE SHIELD RING THE SILVER BRANCH
WARRIOR SCARLET THE LANTERN BEARERS
KNIGHT’S FEE DAWN WIND
THE MARK OF THE HORSE LORD THE WITCH’S BRAT
THE CAPRICORN BRACELET BLOOD FEUD
FRONTIER WOLF FLAME COLOURED TAFFETA
THE DRAGON SLAYER THE HOUND OF ULSTER
THE HIGH DEEDS OF FINN MACCOOL TRISTAN AND ISEULT
SUN HORSE, MOON HORSE THE LIGHT BEYOND THE FOREST
THE SWORD AND THE CIRCLE THE ROAD TO CAMLANN
BONNIE DUNDEE A CIRCLET OF OAK LEAVES
THE CHIEF’S DAUGHTER THE TRUCE OF THE GAMES
SHIFTING SANDS THE CHANGELING EAGLE’S EGG
“WE LIVED IN DRUMKEEN” (with Maggie Lyford-Pike)
SONG FOR A DARK QUEEN A LITTLE DOG LIKE YOU
THE ROUNDABOUT HORSE LITTLE HOUND FOUND

LADY IN WAITING THE RIDER OF THE WHITE HORSE
SWORD AT SUNSET THE FLOWERS OF ADONIS
BLOOD AND SAND

HEROES AND HISTORY HOUSES AND HISTORY

RUDYARD KIPLING: A BODLEY HEAD MONOGRAPH

BLUE REMEMBERED HILLS

THE SHINING COMPANY
AN RHCP DIGITAL EBOOK 978 1 44817 367 9

Published in Great Britain by RHCP Digital,
an imprint of Random House Children’s Publishers UK
A Random House Group Company

This ebook edition published 2013

Copyright © Rosemary Sutcliff, 1991

First Published in Great Britain

Red Fox 1991

The right of Rosemary Sutcliff to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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