A Moment of Appreciation For: The Eagle of the Ninth

 Today, as a follow-up of sorts to Anna's post on Sherlock Holmes, I'm here to bring before you another under-appreciated fandom.

That's right, folks, I'm gonna talk about Rosemary Sutcliff's Eagle of the Ninth. After LotR, this is probably my favorite fandom. No joke.

Now, for everyone who is utterly confused at the moment and considering googling what the heck is eagle of the ninth, I shall explain.

Marcus Flavius Aquila, brand-new cohort centurion to a fort in Roman Britain, has longed all his life to be right where he is. Twenty years before, his father and his father's legion had been lost to the mists of Northern Caledonia, which is somewhere is Scotland, in case you were wondering. The family name had been forever tarnished by the loss of the Eagle standard of the legion. Marcus has a couple of wild hopes that he might find it and restore it to its rightful place in Rome.

But within his first few months at the fort, Marcus is wounded severely and honorably discharged from the army. He is subsequently sent to live with his uncle in Calleva, a town two hundred leagues south.

(Please keep reading, this is the important part.)

While there, his uncle takes him to the Saturnalia games, where a young Briton slave is matched against a trained gladiator. I'm not giving any spoilers, but the slave makes an impression on him and he saves the poor guy's life. Later he buys him out of the arena and Esca, the slave, becomes his body-servant.

Move on a few months. Several things have happened. Marcus decides to go search for the Eagle of the Ninth, and Esca goes with him. Drama and action and fights with natives occur.

Now, if you managed to get through all that, wonderful. My praise for the book is unending, so I'm not going to bore you with much of that. But I will say that you must read it before seeing the movie, as it is infinitely better.

Yes, you heard me right. There's a movie! I was disappointed when I first saw it, I must say. Though they did a great job with the choice of actors and scenery, and it had an authentic feel, they left out and changed a few key parts of the story. It's a good movie anyhow, with great reasons to see it. The foremost being:

IT HAS JAMIE BELL AS ESCA. Esca was my favorite character, so I was THRILLED when I saw who was going to be him. ASDFGHJKL;. Also, it has Channing Tatum as Marcus. Don't like him as much, but he did a good job. Oh. And looks who's Uncle Aquila:

DONALD SUTHERLAND. Good reason to watch. 

Now because I'm awesome, I'm going to show you some amazing fanart. I combed the internet for ages to find these, so be happy. 

This piece is gorgeous. The Seal Prince was cool, if a bit unnecessarily brutal. Evil rat. 

 Cottia and Cub. This is a reason to read the book. They left them out of the movie and I felt like strangling every person involved.

And because I'm super nice, I'll give you a fanfic to read when you get done with the book. Movie fans won't understand it, so hehehhehe:

Heron Feathers by Carmarthen. Note: I did not screen this author or any of their other stories, just this particular one. Thank you for not suing me.

And because I love you all, here is a .gif of Esca laughing among the Seal People.

You're welcome.

Erin 


{Dance Out the Feels does not claim ownership to EOT9, the pictures, fanarts, or fanfiction shown in these posts. They belong to their respective owners, despite how much we long to own them.} 

The Horror of Reality: an EotN fanfic

Okay everyone, Erin here. I just wrote this little oneshot while talking to Anna and she said I should post it...so...here it is. This is sort of embarrassing (posting something like this), but hey. Blame Anna.
Just so you're warned, this is borderline crack!fic and not meant to be taken seriously. Tongue-in-cheek, and all that. Anyway, enjoy it. :)


The Horror of Reality (an Eagle of the Ninth oneshot) 

Marcus winced as his leg twinged in irritation. He really shouldn't be wandering about just now, so soon after the quest for the Eagle and the whole running-from-the-Seal-people thing, but the spring air and his restless nature insisted he be outside. He lowered himself carefully onto the stone bench in the garden, looking out over the pond and smiling as he remembered all the times he and Esca had fished in it before they had left for the north.
   His reminiscing was shattered cruelly by the sound of a slammed door in the house. Heavy, rushed footsteps pounded through the atrium and burst through the back entrance. Esca appeared on the steps, panting and looking about himself wildly. The Briton caught sight of him and instantly ran over.
   “Esca,” he said, his brow furrowing in worry as he stood up. “What's going on? You look like you've seen a—”
   “I had a dream, Marcus,” Esca broke in. His hands were shaking; he ran them nervously through his already mussed hair. His eyes darted around frantically, as if making sure everything was the same. “I had this horrible dream, there was a woman, she was in strange clothes and sat in some sort of odd chair and her face was painted with a lot of cosmetics and—”
   “Wait, wait, calm down.” Marcus gripped his former slave's arms tightly and forced him to sit down. “Just calm down and tell me slowly, eh? What did the woman do?”
   Esca gulped down air as if he had had none for hours. Gradually his limbs stopped shuddering, though his eyes were still frightened and muscles tense. “I dreamed—I dreamed that she...created us,” he whispered in horror.
   Marcus's eyebrows lifted in confusion. “Created us?” he asked slowly. Do I really want to know what this means? he added in thought.
   “She imagined us,” the Briton explained with a shudder. “We were nonexistent and she—she invented us in her mind. I dreamed that we—we were only characters in some created story. I dreamed—I dreamed—” His voice broke and he bent over, as if in pain. “I dreamed that we aren't real.”
   The Roman's eyes widen in sudden horrific understanding. “You mean—you mean that we're—we're just a figment of someone's imagination?”
   Esca nodded solemnly, the despair evident in his face. “What if it's true? What if we're just shadows in somebody's mind and they things we say and do are not our own?”
   “I will pray to Mithras,” Marcus said abruptly, standing and beginning to make his way to the house. “Surely he will show us what to do.”
   “But don't you see?” Esca gasped desperately. “If what we do is made up by this woman—then how do we know she does not control our prayers as well?”
   Marcus stopped short, the terror creeping up on him and hunching over him like a ghost. “No—no it can't—it can't be possible...” Tears flooded his eyes and he fell to his knees. “I'm not real! I'm not real! I'm not real...”

* * *
Years later, a woman in a wheelchair bent over her desk and scribbled away at a scrap piece of paper. Her powdered face bent in concentration as she emptied her creativity onto the page. Now, if only this one scene would come out correctly...
   With a curse she let fly the crumpled paper. It hit the wall with a smack and fell to the floor. “In the name of all that is holy, Marcus,” she muttered through her teeth. “I wish you wouldn't be so dramatic!”

Top Ten Fanfics of the Month

Hey everyone! Here I am with our first post, a look at my top ten favorite fics over on fanfiction.com.

(1) Shouldering the Guilt by LaylaBinx The Eagle (2011)

(2) I Remember by OneDarkandStormyNight Merlin 

(3) Sleep Brother by Philothei The Eagle (2011)

(4) A Greater Mission by OneDarkandStormyNight Back to the Future 

(5) Sesquipedalian by Emachinescat Merlin 

(6) Atheists in Foxholes by honu59 Hawaii Five-O (1968-79 series) 

(7) Another's Favor by ebhg Merlin 

(8) Before I Forget by Elfpen Merlin 

(9) The Right Assistant for the Job by OneDarkandStormyNight Back to the Future 

(10) Grace Alone by honu59 Hawaii Five-O (1968-79 series) 

Check them out! They're totally worth it.

Erin