History Creator / RosemarySutcliff

* BittersweetEnding: Victory is fleeting, but HeroicSacrifice is forever. They'll [[EarnYourHappyEnding Earn Their Happy Ending]] at the least; at worst TheHeroDies. And the dog dies. And the horse.

** Ugly as hell: Piers Caunter, ''The Armourer's House''; Justinius, ''Literature/{{Outcast}}''; Justin, ''The Silver Branch''; Sir Charles Cavendish, ''Literature/TheRiderOfTheWhiteHorse''; Bedwyr, ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''.
** PlainJane: Lucilla, ''Literature/{{Outcast}}''; Bess Throckmorton, ''Literature/LadyInWaiting''; Anne Fairfax, ''Literature/TheRiderOfTheWhiteHorse''; Guenhumara, ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; Anoud, ''Literature/BloodAndSand''.

** Esca, ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth''; Justinius, ''Literature/{{Outcast}}''; Ambrosius, ''The Lantern Bearers''; Regina, ''Dawn Wind''; Rahere, ''The Witch's Brat''; Tristan, ''Tristan and Iseult''; Thormod Sitricson, ''Literature/BloodFeud''; Nessan, ''Literature/SongForADarkQueen''; Alexios, ''Literature/FrontierWolf''; Thomas Keith and Anoud, ''Literature/BloodAndSand''.

** Artists: Piers in ''The Armourer's House''; Jason in ''Literature/{{Outcast}}''; Lucian in ''The Fugitives''; Nick Redpoll and Brother Luke in ''The Witch's Brat''; Lubrin Dhu and Gault in ''Sun Horse, Moon Horse''; Hugh Herriot, his father, and Cornelius van Meere in ''Literature/BonnieDundee''; Colonel D'Esurier, ''Literature/BloodAndSand''.
** TheBard: Rhiada in ''Literature/{{Outcast}}''; Bjorn and Haethcyn in ''The Shield Ring''; Cullen in ''The Silver Branch''; Tristan in ''Tristan and Iseult''; Sinnoch, ''Sun Horse, Moon Horse''; Cadwan of the Harp in ''Literature/SongForADarkQueen''; Aneirin in ''Literature/TheShiningCompany''.

* WalkingTheEarth: Travelling actors belong to the fraternity of itinerant riff-raff, along with pilgrims like [[WanderingMinstrel the Palmer]], [[SnakeOilSalesman Zackary Hawkins]], [[CrazyHomelessPeople the Tom-o'-Bedlam]], and other assorted carnies and ne'er-do-wells. The Tom-o'-Bedlam gives Hugh an InitiationCeremony called the Seisin of the Road.

More historical fiction in shorter form, most originally published as storybooks.

* Bronze Age: "Flowering Dagger" (1977, in ''The Real Thing'')

* 412 BCE: "A Crown of Wild Olive" (1971, originally ''The Truce of the Games'')
* 60 CE: ''The Capricorn Bracelet'' (1973 collection)

* 130 CE: "Swallows in the Spring" (1970, in ''Galaxy'')

* Roman: "The Fugitives" (1964, in ''Miscellany One'')

* 1137 CE: ''We Lived in Drumfyvie'' (1975 collection with Margaret Lyford-Pike)

She published her first books, ''The Chronicles of Robin Hood'' and ''The Queen Elizabeth Story'', with Oxford University Press in 1950. They were followed by three more novels before her breakout bestseller ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth'', which as SchoolStudyMedia became the TropeCodifier of the LostRomanLegion for generations of children, and has inspired several adaptations including the 2011 film ''Film/TheEagle''. It was eventually followed by seven loosely linked sequels sometimes known as "The Eagle of the Ninth Chronicles" or "the Dolphin Ring series", after the signet ring [[GenerationalSaga passed down through the generations]] of a Roman British family.

** Artos, ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; a dozen narrators in ''The Flowers of Adonis''; Dexius in ''Swallows in the Spring''; six generations of Calpurnii in ''The Capricorn Bracelet''; fourteen citizens in ''We Lived in Drumfyvie''; Jestyn Englishman in ''Literature/BloodFeud''; Cadwan and Agricola in ''Literature/SongForADarkQueen''; Quintus in ''Eagle's Egg''; Hugh Herriot in ''Bonnie Dundee''; Prosper in ''Literature/TheShiningCompany''.
* AnimalMotifs: In keeping with her broader focus on nature, lots of people are associated with symbolic animals:
** CanineCompanion: Little John, ''The Chronicles of Robin Hood''; Esca "the Centurion's hound" in ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth''; Cullen "the Hound of Curoi" in ''[[Literature/TheDolphinRing The Silver Branch]]''; Drem is a "Hound of Dumnorix" in ''Literature/WarriorScarlet''; Randal the dog-boy in ''Literature/KnightsFee''; ''The Hound of Ulster'', Cú Chulainn; Jestyn Englishman in ''Literature/BloodFeud''; Hugh Herriot in ''Bonnie Dundee''; Conn in ''Literature/TheShiningCompany''.

** NobleBirdOfPrey: the Roman Legions, or the Eagles; [[Literature/TheDolphinRing the Aquila family]]; the Grandfather of ''Literature/WarriorScarlet''; Captain Faa of ''Bonnie Dundee''; [[Literature/KnightsFee the Montgomery brothers]]; [[Literature/SwordAtSunset Pharic and Maelgwn]].

** "It is in my heart that" this is a long way to say "I think"

** ''The Rider of the White Horse'' and ''Literature/{{Simon}}'': the Civil War campaigns of Sir Thomas Fairfax.
** ''Bonnie Dundee'': the campaigns of Lord Dundee in the Covenanter and Jacobite rebellions.

** Congenital physical defects: Adam Hilyarde, ''The Queen Elizabeth Story''; Robert Cecil, ''Literature/LadyInWaiting''; Drem, ''Literature/WarriorScarlet''; Vadir Cedricson, ''Dawn Wind''; Gwalchmai, ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; Archibald Campbell, ''Heroes and History''; Lovel, ''The Witch's Brat''; the Emperor Claudius, ''Literature/SongForADarkQueen''.
** Acquired physical disabilities: Robin, ''The Chronicles of Robin Hood''; John Carey, ''Literature/{{Simon}}''; Marcus, ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth''; Talore, ''Literature/WarriorScarlet''; Midir, ''Literature/TheMarkOfTheHorseLord''; Lucian, ''The Fugitives''; Timotheus, ''The Flowers of Adonis''; Lucianus Calpurnius, ''The Capricorn Bracelet''; Rory the Dirk, ''We Lived in Drumfyvie''; Jestyn Englishman, Hakon One-Eye, Bardas Schlerus, ''Literature/BloodFeud''; Moon-Eye, ''Shifting Sands''; Hugh Herriot, ''Bonnie Dundee''; Anoud bin Aziz ibn Rashid, ''Literature/BloodAndSand''; Conn, ''Literature/TheShiningCompany''; Onund Treefoot, ''Sword Song''.
** Invisible physical conditions: Sir Thomas Fairfax, ''The Rider of the White Horse''; Aracos, ''A Circlet of Oak Leaves''; Prasutagus, ''Literature/SongForADarkQueen''.
** Mental irregularities: The Tom-o'-Bedlam, ''Brother Dusty-Feet''; the mazelin, ''The Shield Ring''; Cullen, ''The Silver Branch''; Stripey, ''Swallows in the Spring''; Daft Fergie, Old Nannie, and Geordie Breck, ''We Lived in Drumfyvie''.
* CallToAgriculture: Part-time occupation or ultimate destiny of many characters, true to their pre-industrial and often rural settings.
** Robin of Locksley, ''The Chronicles of Robin Hood''; Adam Hilyarde, ''The Queen Elizabeth Story''; Simon Carey, ''Literature/{{Simon}}''; Marcus et al., ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth''; Beric and Justinius (as horse-breeders), ''Literature/{{Outcast}}''; Bjorn and Frytha, ''The Shield Ring''; Flavius, ''The Silver Branch''; Drem, ''Literature/WarriorScarlet''; Aquila (as a slave), ''The Lantern Bearers''; Sir Thomas Fairfax, ''The Rider of the White Horse''; Randal and the d'Aguillons, ''Literature/KnightsFee''; Owain, ''Dawn Wind''; Artos (horse-breeding), ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; Aracos, ''A Circlet of Oak Leaves''; Lovel (physic gardening), ''The Witch's Brat''; Jestyn Englishman (cow herd), ''Literature/BloodFeud''; Damaris Crocker and Peter Ballard, ''Flame-Coloured Taffeta''; Bjarni and Angharad, ''Sword Song''.

** Trusty, ''The Chronicles of Robin Hood''; Bran and Peterkin, ''The Queen Elizabeth Story''; Bunch, ''The Armourer's House''; Argos, [[Literature/TheSongOfRoland Roland and Oliver]], ''Brother Dusty-Feet''; Jillot and Joram, ''Literature/{{Simon}}''; Cub, ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth''; Gelert and Canog, ''Literature/{{Outcast}}''; Garm, ''The Shield Ring''; Whitethroat, ''Literature/WarriorScarlet''; Cabal, ''The Lantern Bearers'' and ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; Math, ''The Bridge-Builders''; Bran and Gerland, Joyeuse, Matilda, Math and Mathonwy, ''Literature/KnightsFee''; Boatswain, ''Houses and History''; Dog, ''Dawn Wind''; Syrius, ''The Fugitives''; Dexius's hound, ''Swallows in the Spring''; Garm, ''Tristan and Iseult''; Brindle, ''Literature/BloodFeud''; Caspar, ''Bonnie Dundee''; Gelert, ''Literature/TheShiningCompany''; Astrid and Hugin, ''Sword Song''.

** The Washer at the Ford, a forerunner of death, appears (or is thought to appear) in ''The Hound of Ulster'', ''Literature/SongForADarkQueen'', ''Literature/FrontierWolf'', and ''Bonnie Dundee'', and is perhaps alluded to in ''Flowering Dagger'' and ''The Changeling''.

* ChildhoodFriendRomance: Romance is not a prominent element, so if anyone does get together, it's probably two longtime platonic friends, and frequently via LastMinuteHookup.
** Robin and Marian, ''The Chronicles of Robin Hood''; Perdita Pettle and Adam Hilyarde in ''The Queen Elizabeth Story''; Tamsyn and Piers Caunter in ''The Armourer's House''; Simon Carey and Susanna Killigrew, and Amias Hannaford and Mouse Carey in ''Literature/{{Simon}}''; Marcus and Cottia, ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth''; Frytha and Bjorn, ''The Shield Ring''; Drem and Blai, ''Literature/WarriorScarlet''; Randal and Gisella, ''Literature/KnightsFee''; Owain and Regina, ''Dawn Wind''; Gault and Levin, ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; Hugh Herriot and Darklis Ruthven, ''Bonnie Dundee''; Damaris Crocker and Peter Ballard, ''Flame-Coloured Taffeta''; Conn and Luned, ''Literature/TheShiningCompany''.

** ''Literature/{{Simon}}''; ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth''; ''Literature/{{Outcast}}''; ''The Shield Ring''; ''Literature/WarriorScarlet''; ''Literature/KnightsFee''; ''Dawn Wind''; ''Literature/TheMarkOfTheHorseLord''; ''The Witch's Brat''; ''A Crown of Wild Olive''; ''The Capricorn Bracelet''; ''The Changeling''; ''Literature/BloodFeud''; ''Sun Horse, Moon Horse''; ''Flowering Dagger''; ''Literature/FrontierWolf''; ''Bonnie Dundee''; ''Literature/TheShiningCompany''; ''Sword Song''.

** ''The Eagle of the Ninth'': Esca, a British rebel, owes his life and personal service to Marcus, a Roman soldier.

** ''Frontier Wolf'': Alexios fights his best friend in a blood feud and the Arcani desert to the tribes.

** ''Sword at Sunset'': Bedwyr and Guenhumara leave Artos over their TriangRelations.

** ''The Rider of the White Horse'' and ''Literature/{{Simon}}'': the English Civil Wars.
** ''Bonnie Dundee'': Hugh fights his rebel family as a redcoat.

** OopNorth: ''The Chronicles of Robin Hood'', ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth'', ''The Shield Ring'', ''The Silver Branch'', ''The Rider of the White Horse'', ''Literature/SwordAtSunset'', ''Literature/TheMarkOfTheHorseLord'', ''A Circlet of Oak Leaves'', ''The Capricorn Bracelet'', ''We Lived in Drumfyvie'', ''Literature/FrontierWolf'', ''Literature/TheShiningCompany'', ''Sword Song''.
** UsefulNotes/BonnieScotland: ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth'', ''Literature/SwordAtSunset'', ''Literature/TheMarkOfTheHorseLord'', ''A Circlet of Oak Leaves'', ''The Capricorn Bracelet'', ''The Changeling'', ''We Lived in Drumfyvie'', ''Shifting Sands'', ''Literature/FrontierWolf'', ''Eagle's Egg'', ''Bonnie Dundee'', ''Literature/TheShiningCompany'', ''Sword Song''.

** Celts vs. Romans: ''Literature/SongForADarkQueen'', ''Eagle's Egg'', ''The Eagle of the Ninth'', ''Frontier Wolf'', ''The Bridge-Builders''
** Roman Britons vs. Anglo-Saxons: ''The Silver Branch'', ''The Lantern Bearers'', ''Sword at Sunset'', ''Dawn Wind''

** Beric in ''Literature/{{Outcast}}''; Evicatos, ''The Silver Branch''; Drem in ''Literature/WarriorScarlet''; Owain, ''Dawn Wind''; Midir, ''Literature/TheMarkOfTheHorseLord''; Stripey, ''Swallows in the Spring''; Tethra, ''The Changeling''; Alexios, ''Literature/FrontierWolf''; Hugh Herriot, ''Bonnie Dundee''; Tom Wildgoose, ''Flame-Coloured Taffeta''; Bjarni Sigurdson, ''Sword Song''.

** Elizabeth Tudor, ''The Queen Elizabeth Story''; Amias Hannaford, ''Literature/{{Simon}}''; Cottia, ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth''; Drem One-Arm, ''Literature/WarriorScarlet''; Gisella, Hugh "Goch" Montgomery, Robert de Bellême, William Rufus, ''Literature/KnightsFee''; Elizabeth Percy, Lady Ogle, ''Houses and History''; Bryni Beornwulfson, ''Dawn Wind''; Phaedrus and Midir Mac Levin, ''Literature/TheMarkOfTheHorseLord''; Iseult of Ireland, ''Tristan and Iseult''; Thormod Sitricson, ''Literature/BloodFeud''; Essylt, ''Literature/SongForADarkQueen''; Connla, ''Literature/FrontierWolf''; Alan Armstrong, ''Bonnie Dundee''; Aethelfrith the Flame-bringer, ''Literature/TheShiningCompany''.

** Crossing and coming back: ''The Eagle of the Ninth'', ''Literature/FrontierWolf'', ''Literature/TheMarkOfTheHorseLord'', ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''

** Robin Hood and Little John, ''The Chronicles of Robin Hood''; Robin Pettle and Adam Hilyarde, ''The Queen Elizabeth Story''; Simon Carey and Amias Hannaford, ''Literature/{{Simon}}''; Marcus and Esca, ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth''; Justin and Flavius, ''The Silver Branch''; Drem and Vortrix, ''Literature/WarriorScarlet''; Androphon and Cador, ''The Bridge-Builders''; Randal and Bevis d'Aguillon, ''Literature/KnightsFee''; Artos and Bedwyr, ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; Tristan and Gorvenal, ''Tristan and Iseult''; Amyntas and Leon, ''A Crown of Wild Olive''; Jamie and Johnnie Douglas, Eckie Brock and Donal Dhu, Johnnie Forsyth and Hugh Maitland, ''We Lived in Drumfyvie''; Jestyn Englishman and Thormod Sitricson, ''Literature/BloodFeud''; Lubrin Dhu and Dara, ''Sun Horse, Moon Horse''; Alexios and Cunorix, ''Literature/FrontierWolf''; Darklis Ruthven and Jean Cochrane, ''Bonnie Dundee''; Thomas Keith and Tussun Bey, ''Literature/BloodAndSand''; Prosper and Conn, ''Literature/TheShiningCompany''; Achilles and Patroclus, ''Black Ships Before Troy''.

** Alcibiades stars in ''The Flowers of Adonis'' and is referred to in ''Bonnie Dundee''.

** Queen Elizabeth I features in ''The Queen Elizabeth Story'', ''Literature/LadyInWaiting'', and ''Houses and History'', and ''The Armourer's House'' and ''Brother Dusty-Feet'' also take place during her lifetime.
** Sir Walter Raleigh, a local hero of Sutcliff's native Devonshire, makes a cameo in ''Brother Dusty-Feet'', enjoys a gratuitous mention in ''Literature/{{Simon}}'', stars in ''Literature/LadyInWaiting'', and has a chapter in ''Houses and History''.
** Sir Thomas Fairfax is a SupportingLeader in ''Literature/{{Simon}}'', the protagonist of ''The Rider of the White Horse'', and receives a chapter in ''Houses and History''.
** Montrose doesn't get a novel of his own, but he's mentioned in ''Literature/{{Simon}}'' and ''Literature/BloodAndSand'', is the final "Hero" featured in ''Heroes and History'', is the SupportingLeader in "We Sign the Covenant" and "God Be with You" in ''We Lived in Drumfyvie'', and the kinsman and hero of Dundee in ''Bonnie Dundee''.
** Montrose's kinsman John Graham of Claverhouse, Viscount Dundee, in ''Bonnie Dundee''.

** ''The Eagle of the Ninth'': "Let's search the entirety of Scotland for the symbol of my father's lost honour!"

** ''Sword at Sunset'': "I can't possibly assassinate him, it's his destiny to kill me, for my sins. Also I shall let the vengeful children of my defeated enemies go free."

** ''Bonnie Dundee'': "We must fight to the death for our rightful king, who has abdicated"

** MercyKill: [[spoiler:Owain and Dog,]] ''Dawn Wind''; [[spoiler:Artos and Ambrosius,]] ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; [[spoiler:Alexios and Connla,]] ''Literature/FrontierWolf''; [[spoiler:Hugh Herriot and Jock,]] ''Bonnie Dundee''; [[spoiler:Thomas Keith and Musa ibn Aziz]], ''Literature/BloodAndSand''; [[spoiler:Prosper and the white hart, Cynan and Cynran Mac Clydno,]] ''Literature/TheShiningCompany''.

** WeUsedToBeFriends: [[spoiler:Zeal-for-the-Lord Relf and James Gibberdyke,]] ''Literature/{{Simon}}''; [[spoiler:Thormod Sitricson and Anders Herulfson,]] ''Literature/BloodFeud''; [[spoiler:Alexios and Cunorix,]] ''Literature/FrontierWolf''; [[spoiler:Hugh Herriot and Alan Armstrong,]] ''Bonnie Dundee''; [[spoiler:Tussun Bey and Thomas Keith]], ''Literature/BloodAndSand''.

* TheMedic: One of the professions Sutcliff was most interested in, frequently in conjunction with soldiering.
** Jonathan Whiteleafe, ''Brother Dusty-Feet''; Brother Ninnias, ''The Lantern Bearers''; Lovel, Brother Eustace, and Brother Peter, ''The Witch's Brat''; Wattie Aiken, ''We Lived in Drumfyvie''; Brother Pebwyr, ''Literature/TheShiningCompany''.

** ''Literature/{{Simon}}'', ''Literature/{{Outcast}}'', ''The Shield Ring'', ''Literature/LadyInWaiting'', ''Literature/WarriorScarlet''; ''Literature/KnightsFee''; ''Dawn Wind''; ''The Witch's Brat''; ''Sun Horse, Moon Horse''; ''Literature/SongForADarkQueen''; ''Bonnie Dundee''; ''Literature/TheShiningCompany''. ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth'' has an important flashback embedded in its first chapter.

** Beric and Justinius, ''Literature/{{Outcast}}''; Bjorn Bjornsson, ''The Shield Ring''; Carausius/Curoi, Serapion, and the Flavius family, ''The Silver Branch''; Blai and the Half People, ''Literature/WarriorScarlet''; the Minnow and Mull, ''The Lantern Bearers''; Artos, Bedwyr, Ygerna, and Cerdic, ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; Randal, ''Literature/KnightsFee''; Uncle Widreth, ''Dawn Wind''; Phaedrus, Sinnoch, and Liadhan, ''Literature/TheMarkOfTheHorseLord''; Tethra (by adoption), ''The Changeling''; Jestyn Englishman and Erland Silkbeard, ''Literature/BloodFeud''; Lubrin Dhu, ''Sun Horse, Moon Horse''; Prasutagus and Nessan, ''Literature/SongForADarkQueen''; Alexios, ''Literature/FrontierWolf''; Darklis Ruthven, ''Bonnie Dundee''.

** Artists: Piers in ''The Armourer's House''; Jason in ''Literature/{{Outcast}}''; Lucian in ''The Fugitives''; Nick Redpoll and Brother Luke in ''The Witch's Brat''; Lubrin Dhu and Gault in ''Sun Horse, Moon Horse''; Hugh Herriot, his father, and Cornelius van Meere in ''Bonnie Dundee''; Colonel D'Esurier, ''Literature/BloodAndSand''.

** Lucilla and Valarius Longus, ''Literature/{{Outcast}}''; Gille and Gerd, ''The Shield Ring''; Anne de Vere and Thomas Fairfax, ''The Rider of the White Horse''; Aquila and Ness, ''The Lantern Bearers'' and ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; Philip de Braose and Aanor, ''Literature/KnightsFee''; Artos and Guenhumara, ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; Phaedrus and Murna, ''Literature/TheMarkOfTheHorseLord''; Boudicca and Prasutagus, ''Literature/SongForADarkQueen''; Thomas Keith and Anoud bin Aziz ibn Rashid, ''Literature/BloodAndSand''; Aud the Deep-Minded and Olaf the White, Onund Tree-foot and Aesa, Groa and Dungadr, ''Sword Song''.

** The Wise Woman in ''The Armourer's House''; Unna in ''The Shield Ring''; Ancret and the Norman crone in ''Literature/KnightsFee''; the Old Woman, ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; the Old Man of the Green Hills in ''Literature/TheMarkOfTheHorseLord''; Cordaella, ''The Capricorn Bracelet''; Old Effie and Old Nannie in ''We Lived in Drumfyvie''; Dark Thorn in ''Literature/BloodFeud''; Darklis in ''Bonnie Dundee''; Genty Small, ''Flame-Coloured Taffeta''.

** ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth'''s Esca is borrowed from George Whyte-Melville's ''The Gladiators''.

*** Marcus Flavius Aquila of ''The Eagle of the Ninth'' was inspired by Parnesius, the similarly bushy-browed young Romano-British officer of auxiliaries from ''Puck of Pook's Hill''.

*** The Dacian Cavalry, who appear in ''The Eagle of the Ninth'', ''The Capricorn Bracelet'', ''A Circlet of Oak Leaves'' and ''Swallows in the Spring'', was not a historical unit. It's the outfit Parnesius wanted to join in "A Centurion of the Thirtieth".

** Elizabeth I in ''The Queen Elizabeth Story''; Sir Thomas Fairfax in ''Literature/{{Simon}}'' and ''The Rider of the White Horse''; Jarl Buthar and Aikin the Beloved in ''The Shield Ring''; Carausius in ''The Silver Branch''; Ambrosius in ''The Lantern Bearers'' and ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; Philip de Braose in ''Literature/KnightsFee''; Aethelbert and Augustine in ''Dawn Wind''; Alkibiades in ''The Flowers of Adonis''; Rahere in ''The Witch's Brat''; Sir James Douglas and Montrose in ''We Lived in Drumfyvie''; Vladimir of Kiev and Basil "the Bulgar Slayer" in ''Literature/BloodFeud''; Constans in ''Literature/FrontierWolf''; Agricola in ''Eagle's Egg''; Claverhouse in ''Bonnie Dundee''; Muhammad Ali Pasha, Ibrahim Pasha, Tussun Pasha, Abdullah ibn Saud, ''Literature/BloodAndSand''; Mynyddog, Ceredig, Gorthyn, and Cynan Mac Clydno in ''Literature/TheShiningCompany''; Onund Treefoot, Thorstein the Red, and Aud the Deep-Minded in ''Sword Song''.

** Hugh Copplestone, ''Brother Dusty-Feet''; Simon Carey, ''Literature/{{Simon}}''; Frytha, ''The Shield Ring''; Justin, ''The Silver Branch''; Bess Throckmorton, ''Literature/LadyInWaiting''; Anne Fairfax, ''The Rider of the White Horse''; Randal, ''Literature/KnightsFee''; Timotheus, Arcadius, Timandra et al., ''The Flowers of Adonis''; Jestyn Englishman, ''Literature/BloodFeud''; Blue Feather, ''Shifting Sands''; Lubrin Dhu, ''Sun Horse, Moon Horse''; Hugh Herriot, ''Bonnie Dundee''; Prosper, ''Literature/TheShiningCompany''; Bjarni Sigurdson, ''Sword Song''.

** [[spoiler:Randal and Bevis,]] ''Literature/KnightsFee''; [[spoiler:Artos and Bedwyr,]] ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; [[spoiler:Conory and Midir,]] ''Literature/TheMarkOfTheHorseLord''; [[spoiler:Eckie Brock and Donal Dhu, Johnnie Forsyth and Hugh Maitland,]] ''We Lived in Drumfyvie''; [[spoiler:Jestyn and Thormod,]] ''Literature/BloodFeud''; [[spoiler:Lubrin and Dara,]] ''Sun Horse, Moon Horse''; [[spoiler:Thomas Keith & Tussun Pasha,]] ''Literature/BloodAndSand''; Achilles and Patroclus, ''Black Ships Before Troy''.
* TryingNotToCry: MenDontCry, and neither do women or children if they have any self-respect.

** Antagonists: the Abbot of St. Mary's and Abbess Ursula, ''The Chronicles of Robin Hood''; the wandering druid, ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth''; Merddyn the Druid, ''Literature/{{Outcast}}''; the Church, ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; Liadhan, ''Literature/TheMarkOfTheHorseLord''; the Covenanters, ''We Lived in Drumfyvie''; Long Axe, ''Shifting Sands''; Morvidd the Oak Priest, ''Literature/FrontierWolf''; the Covenanters, ''Bonnie Dundee''; the Wahabis, ''Literature/BloodAndSand''; Asmund and Thara Priestsdaughter, ''Sword Song''.

** Literature/TheDolphinRing: The Flavius family's signet ring, a dolphin on a flawed emerald, is passed down through ''The Eagle of the Ninth'', ''The Silver Branch'', ''Literature/FrontierWolf'', ''The Lantern Bearers'', ''Literature/SwordAtSunset'', ''Dawn Wind'', ''Sword Song'', and ''The Shield Ring''.

** A song called "The Girl I Kissed At Clusium" in ''The Eagle of the Ninth'', ''A Circlet of Oak Leaves'', and ''Eagle's Egg''.

** ''The Eagle of the Ninth'': "I am the Centurion's hound, to lie at the Centurion's feet."

** ''Sword at Sunset'': "I ran off with your wife but left her to come back to you"

** ''The Rider of the White Horse'': Sir Thomas Fairfax, Parliamentarian general, rides them
** ''Dawn Wind'': the Saxons set white stallions as the 'kings' of the horse herds and sacrifice them in place of men
** ''Sword at Sunset'': Artos rides white stallions and is crowned on the White Horse of Uffington
** ''Literature/TheMarkOfTheHorseLord'': Phaedrus sacrifices a white stallion at his coronation
** ''Sun Horse, Moon Horse'': a prince ransoms his tribe with the White Horse of Uffington

[[folder: Young Adult Novels]]

* TheJester: HistoricalDomainCharacter Rahere is King Henry I's Jongleur or minstrel, a role with which he is not entirely content.

* PatronSaint: After nearly dying of malaria in Rome, Rahere decides to found a hospital for the poor in London. In a dream, St. Bartholomew tips him the nod that if he throws in a priory as well, he can get the devout King Henry to pay for the lot.

* ActionGirl: Marian uses a sword and bow [[spoiler:and dies in battle defending her ancestral castle, leading to Robin's return to the Greenwood.]]

* DisguiseTropes: [[MasterOfDisguise Robin]] poses as a minstrel and a potter; Marian runs away [[SweetPollyOliver in drag]]; Much pretends to be [[ObfuscatingStupidity a halfwit]]; Will Stukely claims to be a thatcher (he hasn't got the hands for it); [[KingIncognito King Richard]] disguises himself as a monk; Guy of Gisburne dresses up as the Phantom Horse of Barnsdale, and Robin steals his costume.
* TurbulentPriest: Friar Tuck is a hard-hitting priest who's been kicked out of his monastery. Robin is first stitched up by the local abbot who wants his land, and spends his career as an outlaw specially targeting rich churchmen. He is finally betrayed by the acquisitive Abbess Ursula, his own cousin.

* ChekhovMIA: Piers's hopes of becoming a sailor went down with his elder brother Kit's ship.

* ChristmasMiracle: Kit returns alive and well on Christmas Eve, after a miraculous rescue plus all-expenses-paid two-year round trip to India, no opt-out.

* TheRunaway: Hugh aims for Oxford, the demi-paradise where his father went to university, but the Joyous Company does just as well for him. Eventually he is spotted by an old friend of his father's and offered a settled home and the tuition, an opportunity which the actors insist he seize.

!!''Bonnie Dundee''
Hugh Herriot becomes galloper to Claverhouse, leader of government forces against the Scottish Covenanters. When William of Orange takes the English throne, Claverhouse's men become rebels in turn.
* AnArmAndALeg: Hugh retires from soldiering in France when he loses an arm. So the obvious thing to do is take up painting instead.
* ConflictingLoyalties: Young Hugh initially wavers between his extremist Scottish Covenanter family and the forces of law and order, which his FieryRedhead cousin Alan quickly resolves for him by executing a wounded Government soldier in front of him. He feels some misgivings about following Claverhouse back into his native country in a red coat, but quickly resolves that for himself by killing Alan in battle.
* ForWantOfANail: Happens with great regularity to Hugh – the news of his grandfather's death on a particular day sends him into Jean's household; replacing a sick rider one day makes him Claverhouse's galloper; the sight of a beggarwoman's hands holding a flower leads him to his second career and his reunion with Darklis.
* FreakierThanFiction: "Roof falls; everybody dies"
* GiveMeLibertyOrGiveMeDeath: The Scottish Covenanters complain about Claverhouse attacking poor farmers who only want freedom of religion. Claverhouse's men retort that if they want to be left in peace, they should stop shooting at government troopers.
* HeterosexualLifePartners: Jean and Darklis, an unusual female example for Sutcliff.
* HistoricalDomainCharacter: John Graham of Claverhouse, Viscount Dundee; other lords and officers.
* IShouldWriteABookAboutThis: Hugh writes his account of the career of his beloved commander Bonnie Dundee at the behest of his wife, who wants to defend the reputation of their erstwhile employer. Dundee also has a TagalongChronicler, real person James Phillip of Amryclose, who wrote ''The Graemiad'' on which the novel is partly based.
* TheLadysFavour: The pin Darklis gives to Hugh for a token is also what shows the Tinklers that he's under her protection.
* LiteraryAllusionTitle: The title and epigraph come from the version of the folk-song ''Bonnie Dundee'' written specifically about Claverhouse by Creator/WalterScott.
* ManInAKilt: Highlander Coll [=MacDonald=] of Keppoch, an anachronism even in 1689.
* MixedAncestry: Darklis's family background is based on a ballad about a Scottish noblewoman who ran off with a Tinkler (gypsy). Though she lives with her kinswoman Jean, her Tinkler kinsman Captain Faa keeps a protective eye on her.
* PropheciesAreAlwaysRight: Darklis has a vision of the collapse of the Castle of Antwerp Inn in a pool under an elder tree on Midsummer's Eve about a decade before it happens. Given the freak nature of the accident, which really happened, the novel needed something to set it up.
* SupportingProtagonist: Hugh and his LoveInterest Darklis are both the SideKick to Claverhouse and ''his'' LoveInterest Jean respectively. Darklis needles Hugh about being too much of a follower, and he retorts that she's no different. They don't commit to each other until their prior obligations to the first objects of their loyalty are moot.

!!''The Rider of the White Horse''
Sir Thomas Fairfax, followed by his wife Anne, commands Parliamentarian forces in the northern campaign of the UsefulNotes/EnglishCivilWar, culminating in the battle of Marston Moor.
* ArrangedMarriage: Anne and Thomas. She eventually fell in love with him, and he feels bad that he didn't.
* BasedOnATrueStory
* FlorenceNightingaleEffect
* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Anne Fairfax, Sir Thomas Fairfax, etc.
* OopNorth
* ShoutOut: "Young Relf" is a reference to Corporal Relf from 1953's ''Literature/{{Simon}}'', if not the man himself.
* WhiteStallion

* 1642 CE: ''The Rider of the White Horse'' (1959)
* 1683 CE: ''Bonnie Dundee'' (1983)

Sutcliff was commended six times for the UK's most prestigious award for children's writing, the UsefulNotes/CarnegieMedal. ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth'' (1954), ''[[Literature/TheDolphinRing The Shield Ring]]'' (1956), ''The Silver Branch'' (1957), and ''Literature/WarriorScarlet'' (1958) were shortlisted before ''The Lantern Bearers'' won in 1959. After a rule change that allowed repeat winners, she received her final commendation for ''Tristan and Iseult'' in 1971.

** Cats: Conory, and the Wild Cats in ''Literature/TheMarkOfTheHorseLord''; Erland Silkbeard in ''Literature/BloodFeud''. Tussun Bey in ''Blood and Sand'' is lion-like.

** ''Lady in Waiting'': the career of Walter Raleigh

** ''Blood and Sand'': Ottoman campaigns in Arabia and the career of Thomas Keith.

** Congenital physical defects: Adam Hilyarde, ''The Queen Elizabeth Story''; Robert Cecil, ''Lady in Waiting''; Drem, ''Literature/WarriorScarlet''; Vadir Cedricson, ''Dawn Wind''; Gwalchmai, ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; Archibald Campbell, ''Heroes and History''; Lovel, ''The Witch's Brat''; the Emperor Claudius, ''Literature/SongForADarkQueen''.
** Acquired physical disabilities: Robin, ''The Chronicles of Robin Hood''; John Carey, ''Literature/{{Simon}}''; Marcus, ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth''; Talore, ''Literature/WarriorScarlet''; Midir, ''Literature/TheMarkOfTheHorseLord''; Lucian, ''The Fugitives''; Timotheus, ''The Flowers of Adonis''; Lucianus Calpurnius, ''The Capricorn Bracelet''; Rory the Dirk, ''We Lived in Drumfyvie''; Jestyn Englishman, Hakon One-Eye, Bardas Schlerus, ''Literature/BloodFeud''; Moon-Eye, ''Shifting Sands''; Hugh Herriot, ''Bonnie Dundee''; Anoud bin Aziz ibn Rashid, ''Blood and Sand''; Conn, ''Literature/TheShiningCompany''; Onund Treefoot, ''Sword Song''.

** ''The Hound of Ulster'': retells the life of Cú Chulainn, including the [[Literature/TainBoCuailnge Táin Bó Cúailnge]] and [[Literature/TheExileOfTheSonsOfUisnech the Exile of the Sons of Uisnech]]. He's also mentioned in ''Literature/FrontierWolf'' and ''Sword Song''.

** ''Blood and Sand'': Thomas Keith converts to Islam.

** Aversions: ''The Flowers of Adonis'', ''A Crown of Wild Olive'', ''Literature/BloodFeud'', ''Black Ships Before Troy'' and ''The Wanderings of Odysseus'' (Greece); ''Literature/{{Outcast}}'' (Italy); ''Beowulf'' (Scandinavia); ''Blood and Sand'' (Ottoman Egypt).

** Esca, ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth''; Justinius, ''Literature/{{Outcast}}''; Ambrosius, ''The Lantern Bearers''; Regina, ''Dawn Wind''; Rahere, ''The Witch's Brat''; Tristan, ''Tristan and Iseult''; Thormod Sitricson, ''Literature/BloodFeud''; Nessan, ''Literature/SongForADarkQueen''; Alexios, ''Literature/FrontierWolf''; Thomas Keith and Anoud, ''Blood and Sand''.

** Robin Hood and Little John, ''The Chronicles of Robin Hood''; Robin Pettle and Adam Hilyarde, ''The Queen Elizabeth Story''; Simon Carey and Amias Hannaford, ''Literature/{{Simon}}''; Marcus and Esca, ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth''; Justin and Flavius, ''The Silver Branch''; Drem and Vortrix, ''Literature/WarriorScarlet''; Androphon and Cador, ''The Bridge-Builders''; Randal and Bevis d'Aguillon, ''Literature/KnightsFee''; Artos and Bedwyr, ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; Tristan and Gorvenal, ''Tristan and Iseult''; Amyntas and Leon, ''A Crown of Wild Olive''; Jamie and Johnnie Douglas, Eckie Brock and Donal Dhu, Johnnie Forsyth and Hugh Maitland, ''We Lived in Drumfyvie''; Jestyn Englishman and Thormod Sitricson, ''Literature/BloodFeud''; Lubrin Dhu and Dara, ''Sun Horse, Moon Horse''; Alexios and Cunorix, ''Literature/FrontierWolf''; Darklis Ruthven and Jean Cochrane, ''Bonnie Dundee''; Thomas Keith and Tussun Bey, ''Blood and Sand''; Prosper and Conn, ''Literature/TheShiningCompany''; Achilles and Patroclus, ''Black Ships Before Troy''.

** Queen Elizabeth I features in ''The Queen Elizabeth Story'', ''Lady in Waiting'', and ''Houses and History'', and ''The Armourer's House'' and ''Brother Dusty-Feet'' also take place during her lifetime.
** Sir Walter Raleigh, a local hero of Sutcliff's native Devonshire, makes a cameo in ''Brother Dusty-Feet'', enjoys a gratuitous mention in ''Literature/{{Simon}}'', stars in ''Lady in Waiting'', and has a chapter in ''Houses and History''.

** Montrose doesn't get a novel of his own, but he's mentioned in ''Literature/{{Simon}}'' and ''Blood and Sand'', is the final "Hero" featured in ''Heroes and History'', is the SupportingLeader in "We Sign the Covenant" and "God Be with You" in ''We Lived in Drumfyvie'', and the kinsman and hero of Dundee in ''Bonnie Dundee''.

** ''Blood and Sand'': Thomas Keith

** MercyKill: [[spoiler:Owain and Dog,]] ''Dawn Wind''; [[spoiler:Artos and Ambrosius,]] ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; [[spoiler:Alexios and Connla,]] ''Literature/FrontierWolf''; [[spoiler:Hugh Herriot and Jock,]] ''Bonnie Dundee''; [[spoiler:Thomas Keith and Musa ibn Aziz]], ''Blood and Sand''; [[spoiler:Prosper and the white hart, Cynan and Cynran Mac Clydno,]] ''Literature/TheShiningCompany''.

** WeUsedToBeFriends: [[spoiler:Zeal-for-the-Lord Relf and James Gibberdyke,]] ''Literature/{{Simon}}''; [[spoiler:Thormod Sitricson and Anders Herulfson,]] ''Literature/BloodFeud''; [[spoiler:Alexios and Cunorix,]] ''Literature/FrontierWolf''; [[spoiler:Hugh Herriot and Alan Armstrong,]] ''Bonnie Dundee''; [[spoiler:Tussun Bey and Thomas Keith]], ''Blood and Sand''.

** Esca, ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth''; Beric and Jason, ''Literature/{{Outcast}}''; Aquila and Flavia, ''The Lantern Bearers''; Owain and Regina, ''Dawn Wind''; Dara, ''The Chief's Daughter''; Timandra, and the Athenian prisoners, ''The Flowers of Adonis''; Jestyn Englishman, ''Literature/BloodFeud''; the Iceni-Epidi tribe, ''Sun Horse, Moon Horse''; Thomas Keith, ''Blood and Sand''; Conn and Aneirin, ''Literature/TheShiningCompany''; Muirgoed and Erp Mac Meldin, ''Sword Song''.

** CombatMedic: Little John, ''The Chronicles of Robin Hood''; Amias and Odysseus Hannaford, ''Literature/{{Simon}}''; Marcus (posing as an occulist), ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth''; Justinius, ''Literature/{{Outcast}}''; Justin, ''The Silver Branch''; Gwalchmai, ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; Aracos, ''A Circlet of Oak Leaves''; Tethra, ''The Changeling''; Jestyn Englishman, ''Literature/BloodFeud''; Donald [=MacLeod=], ''Blood and Sand''.

** ''Literature/{{Simon}}'', ''Literature/{{Outcast}}'', ''The Shield Ring'', ''Lady in Waiting'', ''Literature/WarriorScarlet''; ''Literature/KnightsFee''; ''Dawn Wind''; ''The Witch's Brat''; ''Sun Horse, Moon Horse''; ''Literature/SongForADarkQueen''; ''Bonnie Dundee''; ''Literature/TheShiningCompany''. ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth'' has an important flashback embedded in its first chapter.

** Artists: Piers in ''The Armourer's House''; Jason in ''Literature/{{Outcast}}''; Lucian in ''The Fugitives''; Nick Redpoll and Brother Luke in ''The Witch's Brat''; Lubrin Dhu and Gault in ''Sun Horse, Moon Horse''; Hugh Herriot, his father, and Cornelius van Meere in ''Bonnie Dundee''; Colonel D'Esurier, ''Blood and Sand''.

** Poets and playwrights: Jonathan, ''Brother Dusty-Feet''; Sir Philip Sidney, William Shakespeare, Andrew Marvell, Lord Byron, ''Houses and History''.

** Lucilla and Valarius Longus, ''Literature/{{Outcast}}''; Gille and Gerd, ''The Shield Ring''; Anne de Vere and Thomas Fairfax, ''The Rider of the White Horse''; Aquila and Ness, ''The Lantern Bearers'' and ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; Philip de Braose and Aanor, ''Literature/KnightsFee''; Artos and Guenhumara, ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; Phaedrus and Murna, ''Literature/TheMarkOfTheHorseLord''; Boudicca and Prasutagus, ''Literature/SongForADarkQueen''; Thomas Keith and Anoud bin Aziz ibn Rashid, ''Blood and Sand''; Aud the Deep-Minded and Olaf the White, Onund Tree-foot and Aesa, Groa and Dungadr, ''Sword Song''.

** Susanna Killigrew, ''Literature/{{Simon}}''; Cottia, ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth''; Ness, ''The Lantern Bearers''; Gisella, ''Literature/KnightsFee''; Regina, ''Dawn Wind''; Guenhumara, ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; Alexia, ''Literature/BloodFeud''; Anoud, ''Blood and Sand''; Niamh, ''Literature/TheShiningCompany''; Angharad, ''Sword Song''.

** Esca in ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth''; Beric in ''Literature/{{Outcast}}''; Drem in ''Literature/WarriorScarlet''; Aquila and Flavia in ''The Lantern Bearers''; Randal (as a villein) in ''Literature/KnightsFee''; Owain and Regina in ''Dawn Wind''; the citizens of Eburacum in ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; Phaedrus in ''Literature/TheMarkOfTheHorseLord''; Dara in ''The Chief's Daughter''; Arcadius and Timandra in ''The Flowers of Adonis''; Jestyn Englishman and Anders in ''Literature/BloodFeud''; the Iceni in ''Sun Horse, Moon Horse''; Thomas Keith in ''Blood and Sand''; Conn and Aneirin in ''Literature/TheShiningCompany''; Muirgoed and Erp Mac Meldin in ''Sword Song''.

** Elizabeth I in ''The Queen Elizabeth Story''; Sir Thomas Fairfax in ''Literature/{{Simon}}'' and ''The Rider of the White Horse''; Jarl Buthar and Aikin the Beloved in ''The Shield Ring''; Carausius in ''The Silver Branch''; Ambrosius in ''The Lantern Bearers'' and ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; Philip de Braose in ''Literature/KnightsFee''; Aethelbert and Augustine in ''Dawn Wind''; Alkibiades in ''The Flowers of Adonis''; Rahere in ''The Witch's Brat''; Sir James Douglas and Montrose in ''We Lived in Drumfyvie''; Vladimir of Kiev and Basil "the Bulgar Slayer" in ''Literature/BloodFeud''; Constans in ''Literature/FrontierWolf''; Agricola in ''Eagle's Egg''; Claverhouse in ''Bonnie Dundee''; Muhammad Ali Pasha, Ibrahim Pasha, Tussun Pasha, Abdullah ibn Saud, ''Blood and Sand''; Mynyddog, Ceredig, Gorthyn, and Cynan Mac Clydno in ''Literature/TheShiningCompany''; Onund Treefoot, Thorstein the Red, and Aud the Deep-Minded in ''Sword Song''.

** Hugh Copplestone, ''Brother Dusty-Feet''; Simon Carey, ''Literature/{{Simon}}''; Frytha, ''The Shield Ring''; Justin, ''The Silver Branch''; Bess Throckmorten, ''Lady in Waiting''; Anne Fairfax, ''The Rider of the White Horse''; Randal, ''Literature/KnightsFee''; Timotheus, Arcadius, Timandra et al., ''The Flowers of Adonis''; Jestyn Englishman, ''Literature/BloodFeud''; Blue Feather, ''Shifting Sands''; Lubrin Dhu, ''Sun Horse, Moon Horse''; Hugh Herriot, ''Bonnie Dundee''; Prosper, ''Literature/TheShiningCompany''; Bjarni Sigurdson, ''Sword Song''.

** [[spoiler:Randal and Bevis,]] ''Literature/KnightsFee''; [[spoiler:Artos and Bedwyr,]] ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; [[spoiler:Conory and Midir,]] ''Literature/TheMarkOfTheHorseLord''; [[spoiler:Eckie Brock and Donal Dhu, Johnnie Forsyth and Hugh Maitland,]] ''We Lived in Drumfyvie''; [[spoiler:Jestyn and Thormod,]] ''Literature/BloodFeud''; [[spoiler:Lubrin and Dara,]] ''Sun Horse, Moon Horse''; [[spoiler:Thomas Keith & Tussun Pasha,]] ''Blood and Sand''; Achilles and Patroclus, ''Black Ships Before Troy''.

** Antagonists: the Abbot of St. Mary's and Abbess Ursula, ''The Chronicles of Robin Hood''; the wandering druid, ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth''; Merddyn the Druid, ''Literature/{{Outcast}}''; the Church, ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; Liadhan, ''Literature/TheMarkOfTheHorseLord''; the Covenanters, ''We Lived in Drumfyvie''; Long Axe, ''Shifting Sands''; Morvidd the Oak Priest, ''Literature/FrontierWolf''; the Covenanters, ''Bonnie Dundee''; the Wahabis, ''Blood and Sand''; Asmund and Thara Priestsdaughter, ''Sword Song''.

** ''Blood and Sand'': "My boss sent an assassination squad after me, but we're still best friends"

!!''Lady in Waiting''
Sir Walter [[SpellMyNameWithAnS Ralegh]] spends his life courting royal support for his expeditions to the New World, and his wife Bess spends hers supporting her husband's all-consuming dream.
* HappilyMarried: Despite the fact that their whole family life revolves around Ralegh's dangerous, time-consuming career, they love each other and she doesn't resent it.
* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Elizabeth Throckmorton, Sir Walter Raleigh, their family; Elizabeth I; Sir Robert Cecil; Henry Stuart; many others.

!!''Blood and Sand''
UsefulNotes/TheNapoleonicWars. Thomas Keith, a British POW, is befriended by Tussun Bey, son of the Ottoman Viceroy of Egypt, and serves their family through a power struggle in Egypt and a war in Arabia, rising to become governor of Medina.
* BasedOnATrueStory: Thomas and company were {{Historical Domain Character}}s.
* BraveScot: Thomas is a [[ManInAKilt private of the 78th Highlanders]] who ends up a general of Arab cavalry.
* DuelToTheDeath: Thomas fights a duel of honour with Aziz Bey, a Mameluke rival for Tussun's favour. He's then arrested for murder and has to be rescued by the Vicereine.
* MrExposition: Thomas's new friends Colonel D'Esurier and Zeid ibn Hussein.
* FreakierThanFiction: The author's note highlights the "single-handedly fought off ten assassins" scene as too implausible to invent.
* TheFundamentalist: The second half of the novel follows the events of the Ottoman-Saud War, in which the Ottoman Egyptians set out to retake Mecca and Medina from the puritan Wahabi sect of the Arabian interior.
* GoingNative: Thomas is sent to train as an officer among the Bedouin cavalry of Upper Egypt. Under the influence of his friend Zeid, he adopts the Bedouin as his "second people" and eventually converts to Islam.
* IChooseToStay: When the British prisoners are repatriated, both Thomas and TheMedic Donald [=MacLeod=] have discovered better career prospects in Egypt.
* KillTheOnesYouLove: Mameluke conspirators contrive to get the impetuous Tussun drunk and enraged against Thomas. He orders his assassination. Paradoxically this brings them closer together by clearing Thomas's sense of debt to Tussun.
* LastStand: Thomas leads a small relief force to Tussun's aid at El Rass. He is intercepted by a vastly superior force of Wahabi cavalry. Tussun can't get there in time, and Thomas and his men go out in a SelfDestructiveCharge with only the hope of TakingYouWithMe.
* LoveAtFirstSight: Thomas and Tussun Bey fall in something rather like it. [[HomoeroticSubtext Platonically speaking]].
* MadeASlave: Thomas and Donald [=MacLeod=] are bought from their captors by a Turkish general until their eventual repatriation. This bothers Thomas less than his SlaveLiberation at Tussun's expense, for which [[IOweYouMyLife he feels indebted]].
* MerchantPrince: Muhammed Ali, Viceroy of Egypt and threat to the Ottoman Sultan, started his career as an Albanian tobacco merchant.
* RescueRomance: Thomas rescues a murdered merchant's daughter named Anoud from being assaulted in the street during the looting of Medina. She has nowhere to go, so they enter into a PerfectlyArrangedMarriage.
* SacredHospitality: Muhammed Ali violates it whenever expedient, notably slaughtering the Mamelukes of Cairo at a banquet, arresting the Grand Shariff at a meeting, and impaling twelve surrendered Wahabis before the gates of Mecca.
* SiblingYinYang: Hot-headed Tussun and his elder brother, the coldly capable Ibrahim Pasha.
* TacticalWithdrawal: The disastrous campaign against the hill fortress of Terraba, occupied by a dreaded female sheikh reputed to be a witch, ends in a RunForTheBorder.
* TragicBromance: Thomas is killed coming to Tussun's relief at El Rass. Tussun ends his campaign, goes home, and dies about a year later.
* TrapIsTheOnlyOption: On their first attempt to take Medina, the Egyptian force plans to trigger the inevitable ambush in the Jedaida pass, but they weren't expecting the local tribesmen to be massively reinforced by Wahabi cavalry.

* 1564 CE: ''Lady in Waiting'' (1957)

* 1807 CE: ''Blood and Sand'' (1987)

* Bronze Age: ''The Chief's Daughter'' (1967)

* 60 CE: ''The Capricorn Bracelet'' (1973, collection)

* Roman: "The Fugitives" (1964, in ''Another Six'')
* 1137 CE: ''We Lived in Drumfyvie'' (1975, collection, with Margaret Lyford-Pike)

* ''The High Deeds of [[Myth/CelticMythology Finn Mac Cool]]'' (1965)

** Artists: Piers in ''The Armourer's House''; Jason in ''{{Outcast}}''; Lucian in ''The Fugitives''; Nick Redpoll and Brother Luke in ''The Witch's Brat''; Lubrin Dhu and Gault in ''Sun Horse, Moon Horse''; Hugh Herriot, his father, and Cornelius van Meere in ''Bonnie Dundee''; Colonel D'Esurier, ''Blood and Sand''.

Rosemary Sutcliff (1920-1992) was a British writer of YoungAdult HistoricalFiction, who published some fifty books between 1950 and 1997. She is best-known for her novels set in Roman Britain, particularly ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth''. She was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire for her services to children's literature.

** The looming threat of the Saxon invasions and the imminent [[DarkAgeEurope Dark Ages]] also evokes [[TheHomeFront the Battle of Britain]], which Sutcliff lived through in her early twenties.

** Cats: Conory, and the Wild Cats in ''Literature/TheMarkOfTheHorseLord''; Erland Silkbeard in ''Literature/BloodFeud''.

** Acquired physical disabilities: Robin, ''The Chronicles of Robin Hood''; John Carey, ''Literature/{{Simon}}''; Marcus, ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth''; Talore, ''Literature/WarriorScarlet''; Midir, ''Literature/TheMarkOfTheHorseLord''; Lucian, ''The Fugitives''; Timotheus, ''The Flowers of Adonis''; Lucianus Calpurnius, ''The Capricorn Bracelet''; Rory the Dirk, ''We Lived in Drumfyvie''; Jestyn Englishman, Hakon One-Eye, Bardas Schlerus, ''Literature/BloodFeud''; Moon-Eye, ''Shifting Sands''; Hugh Herriot, ''Bonnie Dundee''; Conn, ''Literature/TheShiningCompany''; Onund Treefoot, ''Sword Song''.

** ''The Hound of Ulster'': retells the life of Cú Chulainn, including the [[Literature/TainBoCuailnge Táin Bó Cúailnge]].
** ''The High Deeds of Finn Mac Cool'': retells the life of Fionn Mac Cumhail, including [[Literature/TheExileOfTheSonsOfUisnech the Exile of the Sons of Uisnech]].
** ''Literature/TheShiningCompany'' is based on the semi-historical Welsh epic ''Y Gododdin''.
** In ''The Queen Elizabeth Story'', an Irish great-aunt retells "[[Literature/TheChildrenOfLir The Children of Lir]]".

** The Roman and Viking heroes of ''Literature/FrontierWolf'' and ''Sword Song'' are familiar with Cuchulainn, and the Viking also hears about [[Literature/TheChildrenOfLir Fionoula]] and Iseult.

** Montrose doesn't get a novel of his own, but he's mentioned in ''Literature/{{Simon}}'', is the final "Hero" featured in ''Heroes and History'', is the SupportingLeader in "We Sign the Covenant" and "God Be with You" in ''We Lived in Drumfyvie'', and the kinsman and hero of Dundee in ''Bonnie Dundee''.

** MercyKill: [[spoiler:Owain and Dog,]] ''Dawn Wind''; [[spoiler:Artos and Ambrosius,]] ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; [[spoiler:Alexios and Connla,]] ''Literature/FrontierWolf''; [[spoiler:Hugh Herriot and Jock,]] ''Bonnie Dundee''; [[spoiler:Prosper and the white hart, Cynan and Cynran Mac Clydno,]] ''Literature/TheShiningCompany''.

** WeUsedToBeFriends: [[spoiler:Zeal-for-the-Lord Relf and James Gibberdyke,]] ''Literature/{{Simon}}''; [[spoiler:Thormod Sitricson and Anders Herulfson,]] ''Literature/BloodFeud''; [[spoiler:Alexios and Cunorix,]] ''Literature/FrontierWolf''; [[spoiler:Hugh Herriot and Alan Armstrong,]] ''Bonnie Dundee''.

** CombatMedic: Little John, ''The Chronicles of Robin Hood''; Amias and Odysseus Hannaford, ''Literature/{{Simon}}''; Marcus (posing as an occulist), ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth''; Justinius, ''Literature/{{Outcast}}''; Justin, ''The Silver Branch''; Gwalchmai, ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; Aracos, ''A Circlet of Oak Leaves''; Tethra, ''The Changeling''; Jestyn Englishman, ''Literature/BloodFeud''.

** Artists: Piers in ''The Armourer's House''; Jason in ''{{Outcast}}''; Lucian in ''The Fugitives''; Nick Redpoll and Brother Luke in ''The Witch's Brat''; Lubrin Dhu and Gault in ''Sun Horse, Moon Horse''; and Hugh Herriot, his father, and Cornelius van Meere in ''Bonnie Dundee''.

** Lucilla and Valarius Longus, ''Literature/{{Outcast}}''; Gille and Gerd, ''The Shield Ring''; Anne de Vere and Thomas Fairfax, ''The Rider of the White Horse''; Aquila and Ness, ''The Lantern Bearers'' and ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; Philip de Braose and Aanor, ''Literature/KnightsFee''; Artos and Guenhumara, ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; Phaedrus and Murna, ''Literature/TheMarkOfTheHorseLord''; Boudicca and Prasutagus, ''Literature/SongForADarkQueen''; Aud the Deep-Minded and Olaf the White, Onund Tree-foot and Aesa, Groa and Dungadr, ''Sword Song''.

*** The phrase "a singing magic", used by Drem in ''Literature/WarriorScarlet'', Flavia and Aquila in ''The Lantern Bearers'' and Ia in ''The Changeling'', is taken from "[[http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/k/kipling/rudyard/justso/chapter11.html#chapter11 The Cat Who Walked By Himself]]" in the ''Literature/JustSoStories''.

** Elizabeth I in ''The Queen Elizabeth Story''; Sir Thomas Fairfax in ''Literature/{{Simon}}'' and ''The Rider of the White Horse''; Jarl Buthar and Aikin the Beloved in ''The Shield Ring''; Carausius in ''The Silver Branch''; Ambrosius in ''The Lantern Bearers'' and ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; Philip de Braose in ''Literature/KnightsFee''; Aethelbert and Augustine in ''Dawn Wind''; Alkibiades in ''The Flowers of Adonis''; Rahere in ''The Witch's Brat''; Sir James Douglas and Montrose in ''We Lived in Drumfyvie''; Vladimir of Kiev and Basil "the Bulgar Slayer" in ''Literature/BloodFeud''; Constans in ''Literature/FrontierWolf''; Agricola in ''Eagle's Egg''; Claverhouse in ''Bonnie Dundee''; Mynyddog, Ceredig, Gorthyn, and Cynan Mac Clydno in ''Literature/TheShiningCompany''; Onund Treefoot, Thorstein the Red, and Aud the Deep-Minded in ''Sword Song''.

** Antagonists: the Abbot of St. Mary's and Abbess Ursula, ''The Chronicles of Robin Hood''; the wandering druid, ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth''; Merddyn the Druid, ''Literature/{{Outcast}}''; the Church, ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; Liadhan, ''Literature/TheMarkOfTheHorseLord''; the Covenanters, ''We Lived in Drumfyvie''; Long Axe, ''Shifting Sands''; Morvidd the Oak Priest, ''Literature/FrontierWolf''; the Covenanters, ''Bonnie Dundee''; Asmund and Thara Priestsdaughter, ''Sword Song''.

Two children in the Sussex smuggling country shelter a wounded Jacobite spy.

UsefulNotes/TheNapoleonicWars. Thomas Keith, a Scottish prisoner of war, is befriended by Tussun, son of the governor of Egypt, and serves them through a deadly power struggle in their court and a war in Arabia, rising to become governor of Medina.
* BasedOnATrueStory: Thomas and company were {{Historical Domain Character}}s. According to the afterword, the only thing made up was his wife Anoud.

* RescueRomance: Thomas rescues Anoud from being assaulted in the street.

** Artos, ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; a dozen narrators in ''The Flowers of Adonis''; Dexius in ''Swallows in the Spring''; six generations of Calpurnii in ''The Capricorn Bracelet''; fourteen citizens in ''We Lived in Drumfyvie''; Jestyn Englishman in ''Blood Feud''; Cadwan and Agricola in ''Literature/SongForADarkQueen''; Quintus in ''Eagle's Egg''; Hugh Herriot in ''Bonnie Dundee''; Prosper in ''Literature/TheShiningCompany''.

** CanineCompanion: Esca "the Centurion's hound" in ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth''; Cullen "the Hound of Curoi" in ''[[Literature/TheDolphinRing The Silver Branch]]''; Drem is a "Hound of Dumnorix" in ''Literature/WarriorScarlet''; Randal the dog-boy in ''Literature/KnightsFee''; ''The Hound of Ulster'', Cú Chulainn; Jestyn Englishman in ''Blood Feud''; Hugh Herriot in ''Bonnie Dundee''; Conn in ''Literature/TheShiningCompany''.

** Cats: Conory, and the Wild Cats in ''Literature/TheMarkOfTheHorseLord''; Erland Silkbeard in ''Blood Feud''.

** ''Blood Feud'': the foundation of Russia and Byzantine conquest of Bulgaria.

** Acquired physical disabilities: John Carey, ''Literature/{{Simon}}''; Marcus, ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth''; Talore, ''Literature/WarriorScarlet''; Midir, ''Literature/TheMarkOfTheHorseLord''; Lucian, ''The Fugitives''; Timotheus, ''The Flowers of Adonis''; Lucius Calpurnius, ''The Capricorn Bracelet''; Rory the Dirk, ''We Lived in Drumfyvie''; Jestyn Englishman, ''Blood Feud''; Hugh Herriot, ''Bonnie Dundee''; Conn, ''Literature/TheShiningCompany''; Onund Treefoot, ''Sword Song''.

** Adam Hilyarde, ''The Queen Elizabeth Story''; Simon Carey, ''Literature/{{Simon}}''; Marcus et al., ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth''; Beric and Justinius (as horse-breeders), ''Literature/{{Outcast}}''; Bjorn and Frytha, ''The Shield Ring''; Flavius, ''The Silver Branch''; Drem, ''Literature/WarriorScarlet''; Aquila (as a slave), ''The Lantern Bearers''; Sir Thomas Fairfax, ''The Rider of the White Horse''; Randal and the d'Aguillons, ''Literature/KnightsFee''; Owain, ''Dawn Wind''; Artos (horse-breeding), ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; Aracos, ''A Circlet of Oak Leaves''; Lovel (physic gardening), ''The Witch's Brat''; Jestyn Englishman (cow herd), ''Blood Feud''; Damaris Crocker and Peter Ballard, ''Flame-Coloured Taffeta''; Bjarni and Angharad, ''Sword Song''.

** Bran and Peterkin, ''The Queen Elizabeth Story''; Bunch, ''The Armourer's House''; Argos, [[Literature/TheSongOfRoland Roland and Oliver]], ''Brother Dusty-Feet''; Jillot and Joram, ''Literature/{{Simon}}''; Cub, ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth''; Gelert and Canog, ''Literature/{{Outcast}}''; Garm, ''The Shield Ring''; Whitethroat, ''Literature/WarriorScarlet''; Cabal, ''The Lantern Bearers'' and ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; Math, ''The Bridge-Builders''; Bran and Gerland, Joyeuse, Matilda, Math and Mathonwy, ''Literature/KnightsFee''; Boatswain, ''Houses and History''; Dog, ''Dawn Wind''; Syrius, ''The Fugitives''; Dexius's hound, ''Swallows in the Spring''; Brindle, ''Blood Feud''; Caspar, ''Bonnie Dundee''; Gelert, ''Literature/TheShiningCompany''; Astrid and Hugin, ''Sword Song''.

** Perdita Pettle and Adam Hilyarde in ''The Queen Elizabeth Story''; Tamsyn and Piers Caunter in ''The Armourer's House''; Simon Carey and Susanna Killigrew, and Amias Hannaford and Mouse Carey in ''Literature/{{Simon}}''; Marcus and Cottia, ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth''; Frytha and Bjorn, ''The Shield Ring''; Drem and Blai, ''Literature/WarriorScarlet''; Randal and Gisella, ''Literature/KnightsFee''; Owain and Regina, ''Dawn Wind''; Gault and Levin, ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; Hugh Herriot and Darklis Ruthven, ''Bonnie Dundee''; Damaris Crocker and Peter Ballard, ''Flame-Coloured Taffeta''; Conn and Luned, ''Literature/TheShiningCompany''.

** ''Literature/{{Simon}}''; ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth''; ''Literature/{{Outcast}}''; ''The Shield Ring''; ''Literature/WarriorScarlet''; ''Literature/KnightsFee''; ''Dawn Wind''; ''Literature/TheMarkOfTheHorseLord''; ''The Witch's Brat''; ''A Crown of Wild Olive''; ''The Capricorn Bracelet''; ''The Changeling''; ''Blood Feud''; ''Sun Horse, Moon Horse''; ''Flowering Dagger''; ''Literature/FrontierWolf''; ''Bonnie Dundee''; ''Literature/TheShiningCompany''; ''Sword Song''.

** ''Blood Feud'': Christian and doctor Jestyn Englishman swears a pagan blood feud.

** The West Country: ''The Queen Elizabeth Story''; ''The Armourer's House''; ''Brother Dusty-Feet''; ''Literature/{{Simon}}''; ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth''; ''Literature/{{Outcast}}''; ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; ''Blood Feud''.
** The Down Country and Selsey: ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth''; ''The Silver Branch''; ''Literature/WarriorScarlet''; ''The Lantern Bearers''; ''Literature/KnightsFee''; ''Dawn Wind''; ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; ''The Witch's Brat''; ''Sun Horse, Moon Horse''; ''Flowering Dagger''; ''Flame-Coloured Taffeta''.
** Aversions: ''The Flowers of Adonis'', ''A Crown of Wild Olive'', ''Blood Feud'', ''Black Ships Before Troy'' and ''The Wanderings of Odysseus'' (Greece); ''Literature/{{Outcast}}'' (Italy); ''Blood and Sand'' (Ottoman Egypt).

** Robin Pettle and Adam Hilyarde, ''The Queen Elizabeth Story''; Simon Carey and Amias Hannaford, ''Literature/{{Simon}}''; Marcus and Esca, ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth''; Justin and Flavius, ''The Silver Branch''; Drem and Vortrix, ''Literature/WarriorScarlet''; Androphon and Cador, ''The Bridge-Builders''; Randal and Bevis d'Aguillon, ''Literature/KnightsFee''; Artos and Bedwyr, ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; Amyntas and Leon, ''A Crown of Wild Olive''; Jamie and Johnnie Douglas, Eckie Brock and Donal Dhu, Johnnie Forsyth and Hugh Maitland, ''We Lived in Drumfyvie''; Jestyn Englishman and Thormod Sitricson, ''Blood Feud''; Lubrin Dhu and Dara, ''Sun Horse, Moon Horse''; Alexios and Cunorix, ''Literature/FrontierWolf''; Darklis Ruthven and Jean Cochrane, ''Bonnie Dundee''; Thomas Keith and Tussun Bey, ''Blood and Sand''; Prosper and Conn, ''Literature/TheShiningCompany''.

** ''Literature/SwordAtSunset'': Artos
** ''The Flowers of Adonis'': Alcibiades
** ''Literature/SongForADarkQueen'': UsefulNotes/{{Boudica}}
** ''Bonnie Dundee'': John Graham of Claverhouse, Viscount Dundee
** ''Blood and Sand'': Thomas Keith
** Sir Walter Raleigh, a local hero of Sutcliff's native Devonshire, makes a cameo in ''Brother Dusty-Feet'', enjoys a gratuitous mention in ''Literature/{{Simon}}'', stars in ''Lady in Waiting'', and has a chapter in ''Houses and History''.
** Sir Thomas Fairfax is a SupportingLeader in ''Literature/{{Simon}}'', the protagonist of ''The Rider of the White Horse'', and receives a chapter in ''Houses and History''.
** Montrose doesn't get a novel of his own, but he's mentioned in ''Literature/{{Simon}}'', is the final "Hero" featured in ''Heroes and History'', is the SupportingLeader in "We Sign the Covenant" and "God Be with You" in ''We Lived in Drumfyvie'', and the kinsman and hero of Dundee in ''Bonnie Dundee''.

** ''Blood Feud'': "I will nurse my sworn enemy though tuberculosis"

** ''The Flowers of Adonis'': Alkibiades who (allegedly) sacrifices himself for Athens is identified with Adonis, a fertility god who symbolically dies every year.
** ''Literature/TheMarkOfTheHorseLord'': the Horse Lords are expected to commit some form of HeroicSuicide if hard times require a HumanSacrifice.
** ''Literature/SwordAtSunset'': Ditto the High King Ambrosius's death
** ''Literature/KnightsFee'': The unexplained death of William II in the New Forest is suggested to have been ditto.
** ''The Chief's Daughter'': Nessan tags in for the friend who's supposed to be the victim, because she's the king('s daughter)

** Robin Pettle in ''The Queen Elizabeth Story''; Martin, Kit, Piers and Tamsyn Caunter in ''The Armourer's House''; Zackary Hawkins in ''Brother Dusty-Feet''; "Demetrius of Alexandria" in ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth''; Aristobulo in ''Literature/{{Outcast}}''; the bronze-smith in ''Literature/WarriorScarlet''; Laef Thorkelson in ''Literature/KnightsFee''; Sinnoch the Merchant in ''Literature/TheMarkOfTheHorseLord''; Thorkel Thorkelsson and John and Anita Anderson in ''We Lived in Drumfyvie''; Hakon Ketilson in ''Blood Feud''; Phanes of Syracuse in ''Literature/TheShiningCompany''; Heriolf Merchant in ''Sword Song''.

** WeUsedToBeFriends: [[spoiler:Zeal-for-the-Lord Relf and James Gibberdyke,]] ''Literature/{{Simon}}''; [[spoiler:Thormod Sitricson and Anders Herulfson,]] ''Blood Feud''; [[spoiler:Alexios and Cunorix,]] ''Literature/FrontierWolf''; [[spoiler:Hugh Herriot and Alan Armstrong,]] ''Bonnie Dundee''.

** Esca, ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth''; Beric and Jason, ''Literature/{{Outcast}}''; Aquila and Flavia, ''The Lantern Bearers''; Owain and Regina, ''Dawn Wind''; Dara, ''The Chief's Daughter''; Timandra, and the Athenian prisoners, ''The Flowers of Adonis''; Jestyn Englishman, ''Blood Feud''; the Iceni-Epidi tribe, ''Sun Horse, Moon Horse''; Thomas Keith, ''Blood and Sand''; Conn and Aneirin, ''Literature/TheShiningCompany''; Muirgoed and Erp Mac Meldin, ''Sword Song''.

** CombatMedic: Amias and Odysseus Hannaford, ''Literature/{{Simon}}''; Marcus (posing as an occulist), ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth''; Justinius, ''Literature/{{Outcast}}''; Justin, ''The Silver Branch''; Gwalchmai, ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; Aracos, ''A Circlet of Oak Leaves''; Tethra, ''The Changeling''; Jestyn Englishman, ''Blood Feud''.
** Wise-women: Lizzy Cobbledick, ''The Queen Elizabeth Story''; Tiffany Simcock, ''The Armourer's House''; Mother Trimble, ''Literature/{{Simon}}''; Rowena, ''The Lantern Bearers''; Ancret, ''Literature/KnightsFee''; Ia, ''The Changeling''; Lovel's grandmother, ''The Witch's Brat''; Old Effie and Old Nannie, ''We Lived in Drumfyvie''; Genty Small, ''Flame-Coloured Taffeta''; Old Nurse, the Queen and Princess Niamh, ''Literature/TheShiningCompany''; Angharad, ''Sword Song''.

** Beric and Justinius, ''Literature/{{Outcast}}''; Bjorn Bjornsson, ''The Shield Ring''; Carausius/Curoi, Serapion, and the Flavius family, ''The Silver Branch''; Blai and the Half People, ''Literature/WarriorScarlet''; the Minnow and Mull, ''The Lantern Bearers''; Artos, Bedwyr, Ygerna, and Cerdic, ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; Randal, ''Literature/KnightsFee''; Uncle Widreth, ''Dawn Wind''; Phaedrus, Sinnoch, and Liadhan, ''Literature/TheMarkOfTheHorseLord''; Tethra (by adoption), ''The Changeling''; Jestyn Englishman and Erland Silkbeard, ''Blood Feud''; Lubrin Dhu, ''Sun Horse, Moon Horse''; Prasutagus and Nessan, ''Literature/SongForADarkQueen''; Alexios, ''Literature/FrontierWolf''; Darklis Ruthven, ''Bonnie Dundee''.

** TheStoryteller: Deborah Caunter in ''The Armourer's House''; Jonathan Whiteleafe in ''Brother Dusty-Feet'', Lord Byron in ''Houses and History''.
** WanderingMinstrel: The Palmer in ''Brother Dusty-Feet''; Pentecost Fiddler in ''Literature/{{Simon}}''; Rhiada in ''Literature/{{Outcast}}''; Bjorn and Haethcyn in ''The Shield Ring''; Cullen in ''The Silver Branch''; Herluin in ''Literature/KnightsFee''; Bedwyr in ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; Rahere in ''The Witch's Brat''; Cadwan of the Harp in ''Literature/SongForADarkQueen''; Shadow Mason in ''Flame-Coloured Taffeta''; Aneirin in ''Literature/TheShiningCompany''.

** Susanna Killigrew, ''Literature/{{Simon}}''; Cottia, ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth''; Ness, ''The Lantern Bearers''; Gisella, ''Literature/KnightsFee''; Regina, ''Dawn Wind''; Guenhumara, ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; Alexia, ''Blood Feud''; Anoud, ''Blood and Sand''; Niamh, ''Literature/TheShiningCompany''; Angharad, ''Sword Song''.

*** Jestyn's rowing song ("A long pull for Miklagard!") in ''Blood Feud'' is inspired by "Thorkild's Song" ("A long pull for Stavanger!") in ''Puck''.

** Esca in ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth''; Beric in ''Literature/{{Outcast}}''; Drem in ''Literature/WarriorScarlet''; Aquila and Flavia in ''The Lantern Bearers''; Randal (as a villein) in ''Literature/KnightsFee''; Owain and Regina in ''Dawn Wind''; the citizens of Eburacum in ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; Phaedrus in ''Literature/TheMarkOfTheHorseLord''; Dara in ''The Chief's Daughter''; Arcadius and Timandra in ''The Flowers of Adonis''; Jestyn Englishman in ''Blood Feud''; the Iceni in ''Sun Horse, Moon Horse''; Thomas Keith in ''Blood and Sand''; Conn and Aneirin in ''Literature/TheShiningCompany''; Muirgoed and Erp Mac Meldin in ''Sword Song''.

** Elizabeth I in ''The Queen Elizabeth Story''; Sir Thomas Fairfax in ''Literature/{{Simon}}'' and ''The Rider of the White Horse''; Jarl Buthar and Aikin the Beloved in ''The Shield Ring''; Carausius in ''The Silver Branch''; Ambrosius in ''The Lantern Bearers'' and ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; Philip de Braose in ''Literature/KnightsFee''; Aethelbert and Augustine in ''Dawn Wind''; Alkibiades in ''The Flowers of Adonis''; Rahere in ''The Witch's Brat''; Sir James Douglas and Montrose in ''We Lived in Drumfyvie''; Vladimir of Kiev in ''Blood Feud''; Constans in ''Literature/FrontierWolf''; Agricola in ''Eagle's Egg''; Claverhouse in ''Bonnie Dundee''; Mynyddog, Ceredig, Gorthyn, and Cynan Mac Clydno in ''Literature/TheShiningCompany''; Onund Treefoot, Thorstein the Red, and Aud the Deep-Minded in ''Sword Song''.

** Hugh Copplestone, ''Brother Dusty-Feet''; Simon Carey, ''Literature/{{Simon}}''; Frytha, ''The Shield Ring''; Justin, ''The Silver Branch''; Bess Throckmorten, ''Lady in Waiting''; Anne Fairfax, ''The Rider of the White Horse''; Randal, ''Literature/KnightsFee''; Timotheus, Arcadius, Timandra et al., ''The Flowers of Adonis''; Jestyn Englishman, ''Blood Feud''; Blue Feather, ''Shifting Sands''; Lubrin Dhu, ''Sun Horse, Moon Horse''; Hugh Herriot,''Bonnie Dundee''; Prosper, ''Literature/TheShiningCompany''; Bjarni Sigurdson, ''Sword Song''.

** Allies: Timothy Pettle, ''The Queen Elizabeth Story''; Peter Copplestone, ''Brother Dusty-Feet''; Zeal-for-the-Lord Relf, Mistress Killigrew, and other Puritans, ''Literature/{{Simon}}''; Anthonius, ''The Silver Branch''; Midir, ''Literature/WarriorScarlet''; Brother Ninnias, ''The Lantern Bearers''; Priscilla and St. Augustine, ''Dawn Wind''; the Archbishop of Venta, ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; Laethrig, ''The Chief's Daughter''; Rahere, the Benedictines of New Minster, and Lovel, ''The Witch's Brat''; Master Gilliechrist, Master Simon, Andrew Beaton, and John Meikle, ''We Lived in Drumfyvie''; Aneirin, ''Literature/TheShiningCompany''; Aud the Deep-Minded, Brother Gisli, and Brother Ninian, ''Sword Song''.
** Antagonists: the wandering druid, ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth''; Merddyn the Druid, ''Literature/{{Outcast}}''; the Church, ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; Liadhan, ''Literature/TheMarkOfTheHorseLord''; the Covenanters, ''We Lived in Drumfyvie''; Long Axe, ''Shifting Sands''; Morvidd the Oak Priest, ''Literature/FrontierWolf''; the Covenanters, ''Bonnie Dundee''; Asmund and Thara Priestsdaughter, ''Sword Song''.

** ''Blood Feud'': "he had whistled me to heel like a hound; and like a hound I had followed"

!!''Blood Feud''
Jestyn, an English Christian, joins his Viking [[BloodBrothers blood brother]] on a pagan feud that takes them to the UsefulNotes/ByzantineEmpire.
* AllFirstPersonNarratorsWriteLikeNovelists
* AluminumChristmasTrees: Hunting with tame cheetahs. It was a thing, apparently.
* BloodBrothers: Jestyn makes Thormod make them blood brothers so that Thormod won't leave him behind on his blood feud. This has the downside that Jestyn actually has to ''carry out'' Thormod's blood feud.
* CadreOfForeignBodyguards: Jestyn, Thormod, Anders, and the rest of their crews are part of the founding of the Byzantine emperor's Varangian Guard.
* CombatMedic: Jestyn starts his career as a cow doctor, then becomes a Viking and a mercenary, then becomes a physician's orderly who's vowed to kill somebody.
* ConvenientlyAnOrphan: Jestyn's parents die when he's a child, which makes the decision to follow Thormod to Denmark and settle in Byzantium simple. He says that his wife worries he's nostalgic for England, but he has no reason to ever return there.
* CycleOfRevenge: Thormod and Jestyn return home to find that Thormod's father has [[HuntingAccident accidentally killed a neighbour]], and his sons, [[WeUsedToBeFriends Thormod's best friends,]] have duly killed him, and expect Thormod to hunt them down in Miklagard for a DuelToTheDeath. Jestyn's blood brotherhood with Thormod obligates him to carry on the feud, and the conflict with his beliefs as a [[TurnTheOtherCheek Christian]] and a [[InconvenientHippocraticOath doctor]] is the ethical crux of the novel.
* ForWantOfANail: Jestyn goes east from his village instead of west because the wind is behind him. It affects the whole outcome of his life.
* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Khan Vladimir of Kiev, Basil II and Anna of Byzantium
* LoopholeAbuse: Though he's put off his InconvenientHippocraticOath for just this moment, when Anders staggers to his door to assassinate him, Jestyn can't bring himself to murder a guy who's already dying of [[IncurableCoughOfDeath tuberculosis.]] He does his best to save him, but assures Anders that he'll still get to Valhalla because Thormod killed him in battle when he stabbed him in the lung and pushed him into the river – it just took longer than usual.
* MixedAncestry: Jestyn Englishman has a Saxon mother and a wandering Celtic blacksmith father. Erland Silkbeard is an early Russian, half Scandinavian and half easterner.
* NeverLearnedToRead: Jestyn speaks Cornish, English, Norse, and Greek, but can't read, so Alexia teaches him with ''Literature/TheIliad'' as setup for an [[HeterosexualLifePartners Achilles and Patroclus]] metaphor.
* PragmaticAdaptation: ''Blood Feud'' was adapted into a 1990 mini-series called ''The Sea Dragon'', a British and Scandinavian co-production. The scenes in Greece and Russia were revised to take place in Scandinavia.
* RescueRomance: When Jestyn meets Alexia, he doesn't just save her from a marauding cheetah, he proceeds to deliver her pet gazelle's fawn by caesarian section. She then takes him in off the street when he's out of a job.
** [[HoYay Platonically speaking]], Thormod "rescued" Jestyn from the slave-market, and Jestyn "rescued" him from a tavern fight, [[IOweYouMyLife which is why Thormod freed him.]]
* ShoutOut: Jestyn's rowing-song, with the chorus "A long pull for Miklagard!" is a riff on Creator/RudyardKipling's "Thorkild's Song" in ''Puck of Pook's Hill.''

* 292 CE: ''The Silver Branch'' (1957) – Literature/TheDolphinRing

* 450 CE: ''The Lantern Bearers'' (1959) – Literature/TheDolphinRing

* 585 CE: ''Dawn Wind'' (1961) – Literature/TheDolphinRing

* 890 CE: ''Sword Song'' (1997) – Literature/TheDolphinRing
* 980 CE: ''Blood Feud'' (1976)

* 1090 CE: ''The Shield Ring'' (1956) – Literature/TheDolphinRing

* 412 BC: "A Crown of Wild Olive" (1971, originally ''The Truce of the Games'')

* Roman: ''The Capricorn Bracelet'' (1973)
* 1137 CE: ''We Lived in Drumfyvie'' (1975, with Margaret Lyford-Pike)

* ''The Chronicles of RobinHood'' (1950)

** Artos, ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; a dozen narrators in ''The Flowers of Adonis''; Dexius in ''Swallows in the Spring''; six generations of Calpurnii in ''The Capricorn Bracelet''; fourteen citizens in ''We Lived in Drumfyvie''; Jestyn Englishman in ''Blood Feud''; Cadwan and Agricola in ''Song for a Dark Queen''; Quintus in ''Eagle's Egg''; Hugh Herriot in ''Bonnie Dundee''; Prosper in ''Literature/TheShiningCompany''.

** ''Song for a Dark Queen'': the Roman conquest of Britain and the rebellion of [[UsefulNotes/{{Boudica}} Boudicca]].

** Congenital physical defects: Adam Hilyarde, ''The Queen Elizabeth Story''; Robert Cecil, ''Lady in Waiting''; Drem, ''Literature/WarriorScarlet''; Vadir Cedricson, ''Dawn Wind''; Gwalchmai, ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; Archibald Campbell, ''Heroes and History''; Lovel, ''The Witch's Brat''.

** Invisible physical conditions: Sir Thomas Fairfax, ''The Rider of the White Horse''; Aracos, ''A Circlet of Oak Leaves''; Prasutagus, ''Song for a Dark Queen''.

** The Washer at the Ford, a forerunner of death, appears (or is thought to appear) in ''The Hound of Ulster'', ''Song for a Dark Queen'', ''Literature/FrontierWolf'', and ''Bonnie Dundee'', and is perhaps alluded to in ''Flowering Dagger'' and ''The Changeling''.

** Using a sword to mark ThisIsMySide of ThereIsOnlyOneBed in ''Literature/SwordAtSunset'' and ''Song for a Dark Queen'' refers to Pwyll of Dyfed's adventures in the ''Literature/{{Mabinogion}}''.

** Celts vs. Romans: ''Song for a Dark Queen'', ''Eagle's Egg'', ''The Eagle of the Ninth'', ''Frontier Wolf'', ''The Bridge-Builders''

** ''Song for a Dark Queen'': UsefulNotes/{{Boudica}}

** Agricola is wistfully looked back to as the height of Roman Britain in ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth'', writes home to Mother as a young man in ''Song for a Dark Queen'', and conquers Scotland as SupportingLeader in ''Eagle's Egg''.

** ''Literature/{{Simon}}'', ''Literature/{{Outcast}}'', ''The Shield Ring'', ''Lady in Waiting'', ''Literature/WarriorScarlet''; ''Literature/KnightsFee''; ''Dawn Wind''; ''The Witch's Brat''; ''Sun Horse, Moon Horse''; ''Song for a Dark Queen''; ''Bonnie Dundee''; ''Literature/TheShiningCompany''. ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth'' has an important flashback embedded in its first chapter.

** Beric and Justinius, ''Literature/{{Outcast}}''; Bjorn Bjornsson, ''The Shield Ring''; Carausius/Curoi, Serapion, and the Flavius family, ''The Silver Branch''; Blai and the Half People, ''Literature/WarriorScarlet''; the Minnow and Mull, ''The Lantern Bearers''; Artos, Bedwyr, Ygerna, and Cerdic, ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; Randal, ''Literature/KnightsFee''; Uncle Widreth, ''Dawn Wind''; Phaedrus, Sinnoch, and Liadhan, ''Literature/TheMarkOfTheHorseLord''; Tethra (by adoption), ''The Changeling''; Jestyn Englishman and Erland Silkbeard, ''Blood Feud''; Lubrin Dhu, ''Sun Horse, Moon Horse''; Alexios, ''Literature/FrontierWolf''; Darklis Ruthven, ''Bonnie Dundee''.

** WanderingMinstrel: The Palmer in ''Brother Dusty-Feet''; Pentecost Fiddler in ''Literature/{{Simon}}''; Rhiada in ''Literature/{{Outcast}}''; Bjorn and Haethcyn in ''The Shield Ring''; Cullen in ''The Silver Branch''; Herluin in ''Literature/KnightsFee''; Bedwyr in ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; Rahere in ''The Witch's Brat''; Cadwan of the Harp in ''Song for a Dark Queen''; Shadow Mason in ''Flame-Coloured Taffeta''; Aneirin in ''Literature/TheShiningCompany''.

** Lucilla and Valarius Longus, ''Literature/{{Outcast}}''; Gille and Gerd, ''The Shield Ring''; Anne de Vere and Thomas Fairfax, ''The Rider of the White Horse''; Aquila and Ness, ''The Lantern Bearers'' and ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; Philip de Braose and Aanor, ''Literature/KnightsFee''; Artos and Guenhumara, ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; Phaedrus and Murna, ''Literature/TheMarkOfTheHorseLord''; Boudicca and Prasutagus, ''Song for a Dark Queen''; Aud the Deep-Minded and Olaf the White, Aesa Onund Tree-foot and Aesa, Groa and Dungadr, ''Sword Song''.

** Hugh Copplestone, ''Brother Dusty-Feet''; Simon Carey, ''Literature/{{Simon}}''; Frytha, ''The Shield Ring''; Justin, ''The Silver Branch''; Bess Throckmorten, ''Lady in Waiting''; Anne Fairfax, ''The Rider of the White Horse''; Randal, ''Literature/KnightsFee''; Timotheus, Arcadius, Timandra et al., ''The Flowers of Adonis''; Jestyn Englishman, ''Blood Feud''; Blue Feather, ''Shifting Sands''; Lubrin Dhu, ''Sun Horse, Moon Horse''; Hugh Herriot ,''Bonnie Dundee''; Prosper, ''Literature/TheShiningCompany''; Bjarni Sigurdson, ''Sword Song''.

!! ''Song for a Dark Queen''
[[UsefulNotes/{{Boudica}} Boudicca]], young queen of the Iceni, eventually makes her peace with her bitterly-resented requirement of a male chieftain and a [[ArrangedMarriage political marriage]]. But when the Roman authorities plan to annex her entire kingdom, she leads the British tribes [[KillEmAll in a bloody uprising]].
* AntiHero: She killed seventy or eighty thousand people, most of them civilians, in real life.
* BasedOnATrueStory
* BelligerentSexualTension: Boudicca is the only belligerent, because Prasutagus is a patient DoggedNiceGuy.
* DefiledForever: The Princesses Essylt and Nessan are part of the line of sacred and untouchable priest-queens, so when there's a danger of the tribe perceiving them this way after they're raped ([[ScreamDiscretionShot off-screen]]) by the Romans, their mother Boudicca stamps down hard. The tactless young warriors who try to take liberties with them narrowly escape HumanSacrifice.
* DeliberateValuesDissonance: The Iceni have uncongenial attitudes to murder. Killing someone completely harmless without making them suffer too much or mounting a WorthyOpponent's head on a stick are noted as gestures of mercy and respect. In the most marked example, Boudicca kills some Roman women in a way that [[GoryDiscretionShot even the narrator finds unspeakable,]] then is horrified. . . that she might have profaned the ritual because she got some political gain out of it.
* DividedWeFall: The Iceni and other surrounding tribes choose not to support the Catuvellauni, the powerful tribe embattled by the Romans, because they've already suffered the Catuvellauni's expansionist policy. It turns out UsefulNotes/TheRomanEmpire is worse than the devil you know.
* ElectiveMonarchy: The Iceni [[{{Matriarchy}} head of state]] is the hereditary Queen, but her husband the King is chosen for her by her parents' Council of chieftains and priests (all of whom seem to be men).
* EpistolaryNovel: Partially – starting about halfway through the novel, the chapters are ended by letters written by [[YoungFutureFamousPeople Gnaeus Julius Agricola]] to his mother, explaining events from the Roman perspective. [[AllFirstPersonNarratorsWriteLikeNovelists The main body of the text is narrated off the cuff by the Iceni's official historian,]] Cadwan of the Harp, as he lies dying under a tree at the end of the story.
* HeirClubForMen: Inverted. Prasutagus won't come into his full power as King until he provides the Queen with a female heir, another reason to be frustrated that Boudicca is having none of him.
* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Boudicca, Prasutagus, their daughters; Caratacus; Agricola, Suetonius Paulinus, Claudius, and other Roman officials and officers.
* HumanSacrifice: Boudicca has the captured women of Camulodunum sacrificed to her mother goddess in some manner [[GoryDiscretionShot too brutal for the narrator to describe]]. She's also interrupted in sacrificing a couple of presumptuous young warriors who hit on her daughters.
* IncurableCoughOfDeath: The first sign of Prasutagus's heart defect and the fever that kills him.
* RapeAsDrama: Boudicca's teenage daughters are raped by the Romans as punishment for the death of a Roman who harassed them, while Boudicca is given ATasteOfTheLash. The incident is part of the Roman traditions about Boudicca's motivations for the uprising.
* RescueRomance: Boudicca rejects Prasutagus until he nearly dies protecting her during a stampede, whereupon she suffers a LoveEpiphany and nurses him back to health, and it turns out they have a PerfectlyArrangedMarriage after all.
* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: In return for Roman offenses, Boudicca reduced Camulodunum, Verulamium and Londinium to smoking ruins, before Suetonius delivered a NoHoldsBarredBeatDown.
* SupportingProtagonist: The two narrators, a bard with an avuncular relationship to Boudicca who reveals virtually nothing about himself otherwise, and a Roman observer who doesn't affect the plot in any way.
* TagalongChronicler: The narrator Cadwan of the Harp has the useful function of following the protagonist Boudicca around on campaign as her official historian, but also of witnessing moments with Prasutagus and Nessan that Boudicca isn't present for. Other than serving as a camera, he is self-effacing.
* ThisIsMySide: Boudicca divides her marriage-bed. The line is her drawn sword. Prasutagus has no intention of forcing her to do anything, so this state of affairs continues for months.
* YoungFutureFamousPeople: Agricola, later the Governor and conqueror of the farthest extent of Roman Britain, happens to have also been around during the Boudiccan Revolt, but not doing too much and free to narrate some of the novel for us.

* 900 BC: ''Literature/WarriorScarlet'' (1958)
* 415 BC: ''The Flowers of Adonis'' (1969)
* 100 BC: ''Sun Horse, Moon Horse'' (1977)
* 25 CE: ''Song for a Dark Queen'' (1978)

* ''The Adventures of RobinHood'' (1950)
* ''Literature/{{Beowulf}}: Dragonslayer'' (1961)

** Artos, ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; a dozen narrators in ''The Flowers of Adonis''; Dexius in ''Swallows in the Spring''; six generations of Calpurnii in ''The Capricorn Bracelet''; fourteen citizens in ''We Lived in Drumfyvie''; Jestyn Englishman in ''Blood Feud''; Cadwan and Agricola in ''Song for a Dark Queen''; Quintus in ''Eagle's Egg''; Hugh Herriot in ''Bonnie Dundee''; Prosper in ''The Shining Company''.

** CanineCompanion: Esca "the Centurion's hound" in ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth''; Cullen "the Hound of Curoi" in ''[[Literature/TheDolphinRing The Silver Branch]]''; Drem is a "Hound of Dumnorix" in ''Literature/WarriorScarlet''; Randal the dog-boy in ''Literature/KnightsFee''; ''The Hound of Ulster'', Cú Chulainn; Jestyn Englishman in ''Blood Feud''; Hugh Herriot in ''Bonnie Dundee''; Conn in ''The Shining Company''.

* BasedOnATrueStory: Most of her HistoricalFiction is set in the context of true events. Though her protagonists are usually fictional characters on the ground, they often cross paths with a real HistoricalDomainCharacter.

** ''The Shining Company'': the Battle of Catraeth.

** Acquired physical disabilities: John Carey, ''Literature/{{Simon}}''; Marcus, ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth''; Talore, ''Literature/WarriorScarlet''; Midir, ''Literature/TheMarkOfTheHorseLord''; Lucian, ''The Fugitives''; Timotheus, ''The Flowers of Adonis''; Lucius Calpurnius, ''The Capricorn Bracelet''; Rory the Dirk, ''We Lived in Drumfyvie''; Jestyn Englishman, ''Blood Feud''; Hugh Herriot, ''Bonnie Dundee''; Conn, ''The Shining Company''; Onund Treefoot, ''Sword Song''.

* CanineCompanion: Sutcliff HeroesLoveDogs, [[AuthorAppeal as she did]]. Besides most of her protagonists having one, several human characters are [[AnimalMotif explicitly identified with dogs]], and many Celtic characters have names including the word for dog, ''cu''.
** Bran and Peterkin, ''The Queen Elizabeth Story''; Bunch, ''The Armourer's House''; Argos, [[Literature/TheSongOfRoland Roland and Oliver]], ''Brother Dusty-Feet''; Jillot and Joram, ''Literature/{{Simon}}''; Cub, ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth''; Gelert and Canog, ''Literature/{{Outcast}}''; Garm, ''The Shield Ring''; Whitethroat, ''Literature/WarriorScarlet''; Cabal, ''The Lantern Bearers'' and ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; Math, ''The Bridge-Builders''; Bran and Gerland, Joyeuse, Matilda, Math and Mathonwy, ''Literature/KnightsFee''; Boatswain, ''Houses and History''; Dog, ''Dawn Wind''; Syrius, ''The Fugitives''; Dexius's hound, ''Swallows in the Spring''; Brindle, ''Blood Feud''; Caspar, ''Bonnie Dundee''; Gelert, ''The Shining Company''; Astrid and Hugin, ''Sword Song''.

** ''The Shining Company'' is based on the semi-historical Welsh epic ''Y Gododdin''.

* ChildhoodFriendRomance: Romance is usually not a prominent element, so if anyone does get together, it's probably two longtime platonic friends, and frequently via LastMinuteHookup.
** Perdita Pettle and Adam Hilyarde in ''The Queen Elizabeth Story''; Tamsyn and Piers Caunter in ''The Armourer's House''; Simon Carey and Susanna Killigrew, and Amias Hannaford and Mouse Carey in ''Literature/{{Simon}}''; Marcus and Cottia, ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth''; Frytha and Bjorn, ''The Shield Ring''; Drem and Blai, ''Literature/WarriorScarlet''; Randal and Gisella, ''Literature/KnightsFee''; Owain and Regina, ''Dawn Wind''; Gault and Levin, ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; Hugh Herriot and Darklis Ruthven, ''Bonnie Dundee''; Damaris Crocker and Peter Ballard, ''Flame-Coloured Taffeta''; Conn and Luned, ''The Shining Company''.

** ''Literature/{{Simon}}''; ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth''; ''Literature/{{Outcast}}''; ''The Shield Ring''; ''Literature/WarriorScarlet''; ''Literature/KnightsFee''; ''Dawn Wind''; ''Literature/TheMarkOfTheHorseLord''; ''The Witch's Brat''; ''A Crown of Wild Olive''; ''The Capricorn Bracelet''; ''The Changeling''; ''Blood Feud''; ''Sun Horse, Moon Horse''; ''Flowering Dagger''; ''Literature/FrontierWolf''; ''Bonnie Dundee''; ''The Shining Company''; ''Sword Song''.

** Robin Pettle and Adam Hilyarde, ''The Queen Elizabeth Story''; Simon Carey and Amias Hannaford, ''Literature/{{Simon}}''; Marcus and Esca, ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth''; Justin and Flavius, ''The Silver Branch''; Drem and Vortrix, ''Literature/WarriorScarlet''; Androphon and Cador, ''The Bridge-Builders''; Randal and Bevis d'Aguillon, ''Literature/KnightsFee''; Artos and Bedwyr, ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; Amyntas and Leon, ''A Crown of Wild Olive''; Jamie and Johnnie Douglas, Eckie Brock and Donal Dhu, Johnnie Forsyth and Hugh Maitland, ''We Lived in Drumfyvie''; Jestyn Englishman and Thormod Sitricson, ''Blood Feud''; Lubrin Dhu and Dara, ''Sun Horse, Moon Horse''; Alexios and Cunorix, ''Literature/FrontierWolf''; Darklis Ruthven and Jean Cochrane, ''Bonnie Dundee''; Thomas Keith and Tussun Bey, ''Blood and Sand''; Prosper and Conn, ''The Shining Company''.

* HonorBeforeReason: Ubiquitous, usually in a heady combination of UndyingLoyalty, HeroicSacrifice, BecauseDestinySaysSo, and GiveMeLibertyOrGiveMeDeath

** Robin Pettle in ''The Queen Elizabeth Story''; Martin, Kit, Piers and Tamsyn Caunter in ''The Armourer's House''; Zackary Hawkins in ''Brother Dusty-Feet''; "Demetrius of Alexandria" in ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth''; Aristobulo in ''Literature/{{Outcast}}''; the bronze-smith in ''Literature/WarriorScarlet''; Laef Thorkelson in ''Literature/KnightsFee''; Sinnoch the Merchant in ''Literature/TheMarkOfTheHorseLord''; Thorkel Thorkelsson and John and Anita Anderson in ''We Lived in Drumfyvie''; Hakon Ketilson in ''Blood Feud''; Phanes of Syracuse in ''The Shining Company''; Heriolf the Merchant in ''Sword Song''.

** MercyKill: [[spoiler:Owain and Dog,]] ''Dawn Wind''; [[spoiler:Artos and Ambrosius,]] ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; [[spoiler:Alexios and Connla,]] ''Literature/FrontierWolf''; [[spoiler:Hugh Herriot and Jock,]] ''Bonnie Dundee''; [[spoiler:Prosper and the white hart, Cynan and Cynran Mac Clydno,]] ''The Shining Company''.

** ''The Shining Company'': Artos's unified Britain has broken into smaller kingdoms.

** Esca, ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth''; Beric and Jason, ''Literature/{{Outcast}}''; Aquila and Flavia, ''The Lantern Bearers''; Owain and Regina, ''Dawn Wind''; Dara, ''The Chief's Daughter''; Timandra, and the Athenian prisoners, ''The Flowers of Adonis''; Jestyn Englishman, ''Blood Feud''; the Iceni-Epidi tribe, ''Sun Horse, Moon Horse''; Thomas Keith, ''Blood and Sand''; Conn and Aneirin, ''The Shining Company''; Muirgoed and Erp Mac Meldin, ''Sword Song''.

** Jonathan Whiteleafe, ''Brother Dusty-Feet''; Brother Ninnias, ''The Lantern Bearers''; Lovel, Brother Eustace, and Brother Peter, ''The Witch's Brat''; Wattie Aiken, ''We Lived in Drumfyvie''; Brother Pebwyr, ''The Shining Company''.

** Wise-women: Lizzy Cobbledick, ''The Queen Elizabeth Story''; Tiffany Simcock, ''The Armourer's House''; Mother Trimble, ''Literature/{{Simon}}''; Rowena, ''The Lantern Bearers''; Ancret, ''Literature/KnightsFee''; Ia, ''The Changeling''; Lovel's grandmother, ''The Witch's Brat''; Old Effie and Old Nannie, ''We Lived in Drumfyvie''; Genty Small, ''Flame-Coloured Taffeta''; Old Nurse, the Queen and Princess Niamh, ''The Shining Company''; Angharad, ''Sword Song''.

** ''Literature/{{Simon}}'', ''Literature/{{Outcast}}'', ''The Shield Ring'', ''Lady in Waiting'', ''Literature/WarriorScarlet''; ''Literature/KnightsFee''; ''Dawn Wind''; ''The Witch's Brat''; ''Sun Horse, Moon Horse''; ''Song for a Dark Queen''; ''Bonnie Dundee''; ''The Shining Company''. ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth'' has an important flashback embedded in its first chapter.

** TheStoryteller: Deborah Caunter in ''The Armourer's House''; Jonathan Whiteleafe in ''Brother Dusty-Feet''.
** WanderingMinstrel: The Palmer in ''Brother Dusty-Feet''; Pentecost Fiddler in ''Literature/{{Simon}}''; Rhiada in ''Literature/{{Outcast}}''; Bjorn and Haethcyn in ''The Shield Ring''; Cullen in ''The Silver Branch''; Herluin in ''Literature/KnightsFee''; Bedwyr in ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; Rahere in ''The Witch's Brat''; Cadwan of the Harp in ''Song for a Dark Queen''; Shadow Mason in ''Flame-Coloured Taffeta''; Aneirin in ''The Shining Company''.

* OfficerAndAGentleman: Most of Sutcliff's heroes are their culture's equivalent, be it Roman army officers, chieftains' sons, or English knights. This is unsurprising, as Sutcliff's father was an officer and she grew up on Royal Navy bases (what is perhaps surprising is that she never wrote about WoodenShipsAndIronMen).

** Susanna Killigrew, ''Literature/{{Simon}}''; Cottia, ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth''; Ness, ''The Lantern Bearers''; Gisella, ''Literature/KnightsFee''; Regina, ''Dawn Wind''; Guenhumara, ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; Alexia, ''Blood Feud''; Anoud, ''Blood and Sand''; Niamh, ''The Shining Company''; Angharad, ''Sword Song''.

* ShownTheirWork: Most of her stories are situated quite precisely in time and geography, though this is usually indicated via CrypticBackgroundReference in her work for children. Her five adult novels are much more explicit about "kings, dates, and battles" (sometimes at the expense of character and plot, which may explain why they're generally less beloved.)

** Esca in ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth''; Beric in ''Literature/{{Outcast}}''; Drem in ''Literature/WarriorScarlet''; Aquila and Flavia in ''The Lantern Bearers''; Randal (as a villein) in ''Literature/KnightsFee''; Owain and Regina in ''Dawn Wind''; the citizens of Eburacum in ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; Phaedrus in ''Literature/TheMarkOfTheHorseLord''; Dara in ''The Chief's Daughter''; Arcadius and Timandra in ''The Flowers of Adonis''; Jestyn Englishman in ''Blood Feud''; the Iceni in ''Sun Horse, Moon Horse''; Thomas Keith in ''Blood and Sand''; Conn and Aneirin in ''The Shining Company''; Muirgoed and Erp Mac Meldin in ''Sword Song''.

** Elizabeth I in ''The Queen Elizabeth Story''; Sir Thomas Fairfax in ''Literature/{{Simon}}'' and ''The Rider of the White Horse''; Jarl Buthar and Aikin the Beloved in ''The Shield Ring''; Carausius in ''The Silver Branch''; Ambrosius in ''The Lantern Bearers'' and ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; Philip de Braose in ''Literature/KnightsFee''; Aethelbert and Augustine in ''Dawn Wind''; Alkibiades in ''The Flowers of Adonis''; Rahere in ''The Witch's Brat''; Sir James Douglas and Montrose in ''We Lived in Drumfyvie''; Vladimir of Kiev in ''Blood Feud''; Constans in ''Literature/FrontierWolf''; Agricola in ''Eagle's Egg''; Claverhouse in ''Bonnie Dundee''; Mynyddog, Ceredig, Gorthyn, and Cynan Mac Clydno in ''The Shining Company''; Onund Treefoot, Thorstein the Red, and Aud the Deep-Minded in ''Sword Song''.

** Hugh Copplestone, ''Brother Dusty-Feet''; Simon Carey, ''Literature/{{Simon}}''; Frytha, ''The Shield Ring''; Justin, ''The Silver Branch''; Bess Throckmorten, ''Lady in Waiting''; Anne Fairfax, ''The Rider of the White Horse''; Randal, ''Literature/KnightsFee''; Timotheus, Arcadius, Timandra et al., ''The Flowers of Adonis''; Jestyn Englishman, ''Blood Feud''; Blue Feather, ''Shifting Sands''; Lubrin Dhu, ''Sun Horse, Moon Horse''; Hugh Herriot ,''Bonnie Dundee''; Prosper, ''The Shining Company''; Bjarni Sigurdson, ''Sword Song''.

** Allies: Timothy Pettle, ''The Queen Elizabeth Story''; Peter Copplestone, ''Brother Dusty-Feet''; Zeal-for-the-Lord Relf, Mistress Killigrew, and other Puritans, ''Literature/{{Simon}}''; Anthonius, ''The Silver Branch''; Midir, ''Literature/WarriorScarlet''; Brother Ninnias, ''The Lantern Bearers''; Priscilla and St. Augustine, ''Dawn Wind''; the Archbishop of Venta, ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; Laethrig, ''The Chief's Daughter''; Rahere, the Benedictines of New Minster, and Lovel, ''The Witch's Brat''; Master Gilliechrist, Master Simon, Andrew Beaton, and John Meikle, ''We Lived in Drumfyvie''; Aneirin, ''The Shining Company''; Aud the Deep-Minded, Brother Gisli, and Brother Ninian, ''Sword Song''.

* TheVerse: Despite a dearth of direct sequels, WordOfGod [[http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/intrvws/sutcliff.htm has it]] that "it is all part of the same series, really", as borne out by consistent world-building and a few recurring details.

** Artos, or KingArthur, in ''The Lantern Bearers'', ''Literature/SwordAtSunset'', ''Dawn Wind'', and ''The Shining Company''.
** Frontier Wolves in ''Literature/TheMarkOfTheHorseLord'', ''The Capricorn Bracelet'', ''Literature/FrontierWolf'', and ''The Shining Company''.

* VestigialEmpire: Britain, where most of her books are set, is of course cut loose from the crumbling Western Roman Empire and its inhabitants left to fend for themselves. ''The Lantern Bearers'', ''Literature/SwordAtSunset'', ''The Shining Company'', and ''Dawn Wind'' are set in the immediately post-Roman period, but even 400 years later the Viking protagonist of ''Sword Song'' can recognise Roman ruins.

!!''The Shining Company''
Prosper, a Welsh shieldbearer, recounts the mustering and destruction of the Gododdin host against the Saxons of Catraeth.
* AllFirstPersonNarratorsWriteLikeNovelists: The Company's has a TagalongChronicler, HistoricalDomainCharacter Aneirin the bard, who will eventually compose the elegiac poem ''Y Gododdin'' in its memory. It is therefore somewhat amusing that an anonymous shieldbearer like Prosper is apparently equally capable of writing a novel about it.
* AlliterativeFamily: Cynan, Cynran, and Cynri Mac Clydno, who originate in Welsh legend.
* AnAssKickingChristmas: Mynyddog's second equipment-giving feast is at Midwinter. The Company and the Teulu, the king's bodyguard, fall to arguing about [[SeriousBusiness the Champion's portion]] of the roast and end up in a mead-fuelled brawl and nearly burn down Dyn Eidin.
* CadreOfForeignBodyguards: Prosper and Cynan ride off into the sunrise to join the Emperor of Constantinople's Varangian Guard, on the pretext of a MacguffinEscortMission.
* CallingTheOldManOut: Aneirin and Prosper's account of the battle in the Hall in Dyn Eidin turns into calling Mynyddog to account for his failure to reinforce them.
* ContinuityNod: Prosper and Co. spend their wakefulness test in the wolf-haunted ruins of Castellum in a Shout Out to ''Literature/FrontierWolf''. The various references to KingArthur are also specifically to ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''.
* DefeatMeansFriendship: Zig-zagged. Prosper accidentally shames a shieldbearer named Faelinn during a TrustBuildingBlunder, and Faelinn [[TheResenter resents it]] until another test exposes the same weakness in Prosper to him. They fall together during the siege of Catraeth and become Cynan's replacement shieldbearers, and though still not exactly friends, they'd rather go into the LastStand together than not.
* DividedWeFall: Mynyddog of the Gododdin is trying to unite a warhost of the kingdoms of the northwest, in the tradition of Artos, to check the expanding Saxon kingdom of Deira. His fellow rulers decline to send troops to his support, and the Shining Company is sacrificed in the hope of killing the dynamic king of Deira.
* DueToTheDead: The earlier dead are buried in mass graves, stripped of their precious equipment but left their personal ornaments. There's no one left to bury the last of the Company, but their memorial will be the song of Aneirin, ''Y Gododdin''.
* EverybodysDeadDave: Prosper and Cynan are the {{Sole Survivor}}s of the Shining Company, and that's by accident.
* FogOfWar: The ability to conjure a concealing fog is said to be an ability of druids, of which Aneirin is one. He actually manages to do it on the night of the LastStand.
* HeroicBastard: Ceredig the Fosterling, captain of the Teulu and the Company. Prosper speculates that Mynyddog may never have publicly acknowledged him as his son until sending him off on his SuicideMission.
* ItHasBeenAnHonor: Part of Ceredig the Fosterling's RousingSpeech.
* KingArthur: Artos (as seen in ''Literature/SwordAtSunset'') is the optimistic precedent for the effectiveness of a Company of three hundred. The other precedent is the Spartans at Thermopylae. ''Y Gododdin'' happens to be the earliest record of Arthur.
* LastStand: When two-thirds of the Company are dead and their reinforcements fail to materialise, the Fosterling decides on a SelfDestructiveCharge in the hopes of TakingYouWithMe, since they have no chance of escaping the encircling Saxons.
* LineInTheSand: The Fosterling offers everyone (still alive) the chance to OptOut of the SelfDestructiveCharge, judgement-free. No one does, of course.
* TheMarvelousDeer: Prosper, Conn, and Luned are the first to sight the white hart that they decide to protect from the prince Gorthyn's hunting. Gorthyn calls off the hunt himself on seeing the deer and thereby wins Prosper's loyalty and his services as shieldbearer.
* ShellShockedVeteran: Cynan is one part concussion, one part the deaths of his brothers, and one part betrayal.
* TheSiege: The Company takes Catraeth to hold it in advance of the British war hosts' arrival. TheCavalry doesn't come, and they find themselves trapped in their ruined fortress.
* SingleGirlSeeksMostPopularGuy: Ladies' man Cynan and his very devoted old friend, the Princess Niamh. He's too damaged to requite her, but he rides away wearing TheLadysFavour.
* TheStoryteller: Aneirin, the poet of ''Y Gododdin'', whose job it is to immortalise the Company in song.
* SuicideMission: Mynyddog knows almost as soon as the Company has left that no help is coming from his neighbours and he can't afford to waste the rest of his war host rescuing them. He doesn't recall them, on the off chance that they might manage to kill the expansionist Saxon king. They have no idea.
* TwoGuysAndAGirl: Prosper's two childhood friends are his cousin Luned with whom he's LikeBrotherAndSister, and his bondservant Conn. Prosper thinks at one point that his father might marry him to Luned, but Conn and Luned are more attracted to each other, and in the end he sends Conn home as a free man to marry her if he can.
* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: The novel is based on ''Y Gododdin'', an elegiac poem allegedly written by an eyewitness of the battle, but since the major drama of the poem is that [[EverybodysDeadDave all the heroes die]], the novel focuses on their unnamed supporters, the shieldbearers like Prosper.
* WeHaveReserves: Subverted. Mynyddog is forced to cut his losses with the Shining Company precisely because, lacking reinforcements from his neighbours, he can't afford to commit the Gododdin host to bail them out and leave his territory defenseless.

* 290 CE: ''The Silver Branch'' (1957) – Literature/TheDolphinRing

* 595 CE: ''The Shining Company'' (1990)

* 1116 CE: ''The Witch's Brat'' (1970)

** Artos, ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; a dozen narrators in ''The Flowers of Adonis''; Dexius in ''Swallows in the Spring''; six generations of Calpurnii in ''The Capricorn Bracelet''; fourteen citizens in ''We Lived in Drumfyvie''; Jestyn Englishman in ''Blood Feud''; Cadwan and Agricola in ''Song for a Dark Queen''; Quintus in ''Eagle's Egg'' ; Hugh Herriot in ''Bonnie Dundee''; Prosper in ''The Shining Company''.

** ''The Rider of the White Horse'' and ''Simon'': the Civil War campaigns of Sir Thomas Fairfax.

** Acquired physical disabilities: John Carey, ''Simon''; Marcus, ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth''; Talore, ''Literature/WarriorScarlet''; Midir, ''Literature/TheMarkOfTheHorseLord''; Lucian, ''The Fugitives''; Timotheus, ''The Flowers of Adonis''; Lucius Calpurnius, ''The Capricorn Bracelet''; Rory the Dirk, ''We Lived in Drumfyvie''; Jestyn Englishman, ''Blood Feud''; Hugh Herriot, ''Bonnie Dundee''; Conn, ''The Shining Company''; Onund Treefoot, ''Sword Song''.

** Adam Hilyarde, ''The Queen Elizabeth Story''; Simon Carey, ''Simon''; Marcus et al., ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth''; Beric and Justinius (as horse-breeders), ''Literature/{{Outcast}}''; Bjorn and Frytha, ''The Shield Ring''; Flavius, ''The Silver Branch''; Drem, ''Literature/WarriorScarlet''; Aquila (as a slave), ''The Lantern Bearers''; Sir Thomas Fairfax, ''The Rider of the White Horse''; Randal and the d'Aguillons, ''Literature/KnightsFee''; Owain, ''Dawn Wind''; Artos (horse-breeding), ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; Aracos, ''A Circlet of Oak Leaves''; Lovel (physic gardening), ''The Witch's Brat''; Jestyn Englishman (cow herd), ''Blood Feud''; Damaris Crocker and Peter Ballard, ''Flame-Coloured Taffeta''; Bjarni and Angharad, ''Sword Song''.

** Bran and Peterkin, ''The Queen Elizabeth Story''; Bunch, ''The Armourer's House''; Argos, [[Literature/TheSongOfRoland Roland and Oliver]], ''Brother Dusty-Feet''; Jillot and Joram, ''Simon''; Cub, ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth''; Gelert and Canog, ''Literature/{{Outcast}}''; Garm, ''The Shield Ring''; Whitethroat, ''Literature/WarriorScarlet''; Cabal, ''The Lantern Bearers'' and ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; Math, ''The Bridge-Builders''; Bran and Gerland, Joyeuse, Matilda, Math and Mathonwy, ''Literature/KnightsFee''; Boatswain, ''Houses and History''; Dog, ''Dawn Wind''; Syrius, ''The Fugitives''; Dexius's hound, ''Swallows in the Spring''; Brindle, ''Blood Feud''; Caspar, ''Bonnie Dundee''; Gelert, ''The Shining Company''; Astrid and Hugin, ''Sword Song''.

** Perdita Pettle and Adam Hilyarde in ''The Queen Elizabeth Story''; Tamsyn and Piers Caunter in ''The Armourer's House''; Simon Carey and Susanna Killigrew, and Amias Hannaford and Mouse Carey in ''Simon''; Marcus and Cottia, ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth''; Frytha and Bjorn, ''The Shield Ring''; Drem and Blai, ''Literature/WarriorScarlet''; Randal and Gisella, ''Literature/KnightsFee''; Owain and Regina, ''Dawn Wind''; Gault and Levin, ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; Hugh Herriot and Darklis Ruthven, ''Bonnie Dundee''; Damaris Crocker and Peter Ballard, ''Flame-Coloured Taffeta''; Conn and Luned, ''The Shining Company''.

** ''Simon''; ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth''; ''Literature/{{Outcast}}''; ''The Shield Ring''; ''Literature/WarriorScarlet''; ''Literature/KnightsFee''; ''Dawn Wind''; ''Literature/TheMarkOfTheHorseLord''; ''The Witch's Brat''; ''A Crown of Wild Olive''; ''The Capricorn Bracelet''; ''The Changeling''; ''Blood Feud''; ''Sun Horse, Moon Horse''; ''Flowering Dagger''; ''Literature/FrontierWolf''; ''Bonnie Dundee''; ''The Shining Company''; ''Sword Song''.

** ''The Rider of the White Horse'' and ''Simon'': the English Civil Wars.

** The West Country: ''The Queen Elizabeth Story''; ''The Armourer's House''; ''Brother Dusty-Feet''; ''Simon''; ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth''; ''Literature/{{Outcast}}''; ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; ''Blood Feud''.

** Robin Pettle and Adam Hilyarde, ''The Queen Elizabeth Story''; Simon Carey and Amias Hannaford, ''Simon''; Marcus and Esca, ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth''; Justin and Flavius, ''The Silver Branch''; Drem and Vortrix, ''Literature/WarriorScarlet''; Androphon and Cador, ''The Bridge-Builders''; Randal and Bevis d'Aguillon, ''Literature/KnightsFee''; Artos and Bedwyr, ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; Amyntas and Leon, ''A Crown of Wild Olive''; Jamie and Johnnie Douglas, Eckie Brock and Donal Dhu, Johnnie Forsyth and Hugh Maitland, ''We Lived in Drumfyvie''; Jestyn Englishman and Thormod Sitricson, ''Blood Feud''; Lubrin Dhu and Dara, ''Sun Horse, Moon Horse''; Alexios and Cunorix, ''Literature/FrontierWolf''; Darklis Ruthven and Jean Cochrane, ''Bonnie Dundee''; Thomas Keith and Tussun Bey, ''Blood and Sand''; Prosper and Conn, ''The Shining Company''.
* Historical Domain Character: Usually limited to cameos, but several novels are based on the lives of real (or [[KingArthur allegedly real]]) people.

** Sir Walter Raleigh, a local hero of Sutcliff's native Devonshire, makes a cameo in ''Brother Dusty-Feet'', enjoys a gratuitous mention in ''Simon'', stars in ''Lady in Waiting'', and has a chapter in ''Houses and History''.
** Sir Thomas Fairfax is a SupportingLeader in ''Simon'', the protagonist of ''The Rider of the White Horse'', and receives a chapter in ''Houses and History''.
** Montrose doesn't get a novel of his own, but he's mentioned in ''Simon'', is the final "Hero" featured in ''Heroes and History'', is the SupportingLeader in "We Sign the Covenant" and "God Be with You" in ''We Lived in Drumfyvie'', and the kinsman and hero of Dundee in ''Bonnie Dundee''.

* KillTheOnesYouLove:
** MercyKill: Owain and Dog, ''Dawn Wind''; Artos and Ambrosius, ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; Alexios and Connla, ''Literature/FrontierWolf''; Hugh Herriot and Jock, ''Bonnie Dundee''; Prosper and the white hart, Cynan and Cynran Mac Clydno, ''The Shining Company''.
** HonorBeforeReason: Simon Carey and Amias Hannaford, ''Simon''; Marcus and Cradoc, ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth''; Cuchulainn and Ferdia, ''The Hound of Ulster''; Phaedrus and Vortimax, ''Literature/TheMarkOfTheHorseLord''; Lubrin Dhu and Cradock, ''Sun Horse, Moon Horse''.
** WeUsedToBeFriends: Thormod Sitricson and Anders Herulfson, ''Blood Feud''; Alexios and Cunorix, ''Literature/FrontierWolf''; Hugh Herriot and Alan Armstrong, ''Bonnie Dundee''.

** A brace of sabres named Balin and Balan appear in ''Simon''.

** CombatMedic: Amias and Odysseus Hannaford, ''Simon''; Marcus (posing as an occulist), ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth''; Justinius, ''Literature/{{Outcast}}''; Justin, ''The Silver Branch''; Gwalchmai, ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; Aracos, ''A Circlet of Oak Leaves''; Tethra, ''The Changeling''; Jestyn Englishman, ''Blood Feud''.
** Wise-women: Lizzy Cobbledick, ''The Queen Elizabeth Story''; Tiffany Simcock, ''The Armourer's House''; Mother Trimble, ''Simon''; Rowena, ''The Lantern Bearers''; Ancret, ''Literature/KnightsFee''; Ia, ''The Changeling''; Lovel's grandmother, ''The Witch's Brat''; Old Effie and Old Nannie, ''We Lived in Drumfyvie''; Genty Small, ''Flame-Coloured Taffeta''; Old Nurse, the Queen and Princess Niamh, ''The Shining Company''; Angharad, ''Sword Song''.

** ''Simon'', ''Literature/{{Outcast}}'', ''The Shield Ring'', ''Lady in Waiting'', ''Literature/WarriorScarlet''; ''Literature/KnightsFee''; ''Dawn Wind''; ''The Witch's Brat''; ''Sun Horse, Moon Horse''; ''Song for a Dark Queen''; ''Bonnie Dundee''; ''The Shining Company''. ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth'' has an important flashback embedded in its first chapter.

** Beric and Justinius, ''Literature/{{Outcast}}''; Bjorn Bjornsson, ''The Shield Ring''; Carausius/Curoi, and the Flavius family, ''The Silver Branch''; Blai and the Half People, ''Literature/WarriorScarlet''; the Minnow and Mull, ''The Lantern Bearers''; Artos, Bedwyr, Ygerna, and Cerdic, ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; Randal, ''Literature/KnightsFee''; Uncle Widreth, ''Dawn Wind''; Phaedrus, Sinnoch, and Liadhan, ''Literature/TheMarkOfTheHorseLord''; Tethra (by adoption), ''The Changeling''; Jestyn Englishman and Erland Silkbeard, ''Blood Feud''; Lubrin Dhu, ''Sun Horse, Moon Horse''; Alexios, ''Literature/FrontierWolf''; Darklis Ruthven, ''Bonnie Dundee''.

** WanderingMinstrel: The Palmer in ''Brother Dusty-Feet''; Pentecost in ''Simon''; Rhiada in ''Literature/{{Outcast}}''; Bjorn and Haethcyn in ''The Shield Ring''; Cullen in ''The Silver Branch''; Herluin in ''Literature/KnightsFee''; Bedwyr in ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; Rahere in ''The Witch's Brat''; Cadwan of the Harp in ''Song for a Dark Queen''; Shadow Mason in ''Flame-Coloured Taffeta''; Aneirin in ''The Shining Company''.

** Susanna Killigrew, ''Simon''; Cottia, ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth''; Ness, ''The Lantern Bearers''; Gisella, ''Literature/KnightsFee''; Regina, ''Dawn Wind''; Guenhumara, ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; Alexia, ''Blood Feud''; Anoud, ''Blood and Sand''; Niamh, ''The Shining Company''; Angharad, ''Sword Song''.

** Elizabeth I in ''The Queen Elizabeth Story''; Sir Thomas Fairfax in ''Simon'' and ''The Rider of the White Horse''; Jarl Buthar and Aikin the Beloved in ''The Shield Ring''; Carausius in ''The Silver Branch''; Ambrosius in ''The Lantern Bearers'' and ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; Philip de Braose in ''Literature/KnightsFee''; Aethelbert and Augustine in ''Dawn Wind''; Alkibiades in ''The Flowers of Adonis''; Rahere in ''The Witch's Brat''; Sir James Douglas and Montrose in ''We Lived in Drumfyvie''; Vladimir of Kiev in ''Blood Feud''; Constans in ''Literature/FrontierWolf''; Agricola in ''Eagle's Egg''; Claverhouse in ''Bonnie Dundee''; Mynyddog, Ceredig, Gorthyn, and Cynan Mac Clydno in ''The Shining Company''; Onund Treefoot, Thorstein the Red, and Aud the Deep-Minded in ''Sword Song''.

** Hugh Copplestone, ''Brother Dusty-Feet''; Simon Carey, ''Simon''; Frytha, ''The Shield Ring''; Justin, ''The Silver Branch''; Bess Throckmorten, ''Lady in Waiting''; Anne Fairfax, ''The Rider of the White Horse''; Randal, ''Literature/KnightsFee''; Timotheus, Arcadius, Timandra et al., ''The Flowers of Adonis''; Jestyn Englishman, ''Blood Feud''; Blue Feather, ''Shifting Sands''; Lubrin Dhu, ''Sun Horse, Moon Horse''; Hugh Herriot ,''Bonnie Dundee''; Prosper, ''The Shining Company''; Bjarni Sigurdson, ''Sword Song''.

** Allies: Timothy Pettle, ''The Queen Elizabeth Story''; Peter Copplestone, ''Brother Dusty-Feet''; Zeal-for-the-Lord Relf, Mistress Killigrew, and other Puritans, ''Simon''; Anthonius, ''The Silver Branch''; Midir, ''Literature/WarriorScarlet''; Brother Ninnias, ''The Lantern Bearers''; Priscilla and St. Augustine, ''Dawn Wind''; the Archbishop of Venta, ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; Laethrig, ''The Chief's Daughter''; Rahere, the Benedictines of New Minster, and Lovel, ''The Witch's Brat''; Master Gilliechrist, Master Simon, Andrew Beaton, and John Meikle, ''We Lived in Drumfyvie''; Aneirin, ''The Shining Company''; Aud the Deep-Minded, Brother Gisli, and Brother Ninian, ''Sword Song''.

* FiveManBand: The Joyous Company – Tobias Pennifeather is TheLeader, Jasper Nye is TheLancer, Benjamin Bunsell is TheBigGuy, Jonathan Whiteleafe is TheSmartGuy, Nicholas Bodkyn in TheChick. Hugh is their TagalongKid.

* WalkingTheEarth: Travelling actors belong to the fraternity of itinerant riff-raff, along with pilgrims like [[WanderingMinstrel the Palmer]], [[SnakeOilSalesman Zackary Hawkins]], [[CrazyHomelessPeople the Tom-o'-Bedlam]], and other assorted carnies and ne'er-do-wells. The Tom-o'-Bedlam gives him an InitiationCeremony called the Seisin of the Road.

!!''Simon''
HeterosexualLifePartners Simon Carey and Amias Hannaford join up on opposite sides of the UsefulNotes/EnglishCivilWar. Simon's estrangement from Amias, and his corporal [[AerithAndBob Zeal-for-the-Lord Relf]]'s vendetta against a treacherous friend, are ultimately tested in the battle of Torrington.
* FightingTheLancer: Simon is TheLancer to [[HeroOfAnotherStory Amias]], and their years-long estrangement forces Simon to become independent of him and weighs their personal against their political loyalties.
* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: The novel's major subplot. Zeal-for-the-Lord Relf, though a fanatical believer in the Puritan cause, goes AWOL from the the Parliamentarian army to avenge himself on a former friend and neighbour who has stolen from him, deserts ''again'' after being recaptured and given ATasteOfTheLash, and then joins the Royalist army in order to get close enough to the traitor to kill him. He genuinely doesn't understand why he isn't allowed to do any of this.
* SeriousBusiness: The thing that the neighbour stole from Zeal-for-the-Lord is... a fancy tulip bulb he'd bred.
* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: The church really did blow up, and no one knows who did it.
* ContrivedCoincidence: Much of the plot depends on improbable reunions and InfallibleBabble, though admittedly it all takes place in [[ItsASmallWorldAfterAll Devon]].
* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Sir Thomas Fairfax, Col. Ireton, Maj. Disbrow, Sir Philip "Daddy" Skippon, Oliver Cromwell, Dr. David Morrison, Chaplain Joshua Sprigg, and other Parliamentarian officers and pastors; Royalist commanders

* ShoutOut: The "young Relf" mentioned is, if not Zeal-for-the-Lord Relf from ''Simon'', written six years before, at least a reference to him.

* 1640 CE: ''Simon'' (1953)

** Congenital physical defects: Adam Hilyarde, ''The Queen Elizabeth Story''; Robert Cecil, ''Lady in Waiting''; Drem, ''Literature/WarriorScarlet''; Vadir Cedricson, ''Dawn Wind''; Gwalchmai, ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; Lovel, ''The Witch's Brat''.

** WeUsedToBeFriends: Thormod Sitricson and Anders Herulfson, ''Blood Feud''; Alexois and Cunorix, ''Literature/FrontierWolf''; Hugh Herriot and Alan Armstrong, ''Bonnie Dundee''.

* FriendToAllLivingThings: The Palmer, or the Piper, has an Orphean power to charm animals with his music, which he offer to teach to Hugh.

* GreatEscape: After Tom is arrested and locked up in the squire's barn, Damaris and Genty [[VoodooDoll threaten the stablemaster]] into arranging [[FieryCoverup a distraction]] to cover his escape. Then he has skulk in Genty's secret cellar until it's time to retrieve his secret documents by walking into the middle of a smuggling run intercepted by a police raid.

!!''The Capricorn Bracelet''
Six short stories of a Romano-British family, linked by an heirloom military decoration, from the Boudiccan Rebellion to the end of the Roman occupation.
* 61 CE Death of a City: LastStand
* 123 CE Rome Builds a Wall: TheEngineer, OneLastJob
* 150 CE Outpost Fortress: EnsignNewbie, FaceYourFears
* 196 CE Traprain Law: ForWantOfANail, MaybeMagicMaybeMundane
* 280 CE Frontier Scout: BringHelpBack
* 383 CE The Eagles Fly South: GreatOffscreenWar, EndOfAnEra

* 1290-1897 CE: ''We Lived in Drumfyvie'' (1975, with Margaret Lyford-Pike)

** WeUsedToBeFriends: Thormod Sitricson and Anders Herjolfson, ''Blood Feud''; Alexois and Cunorix, ''Literature/FrontierWolf''; Hugh Herriot and Alan Armstrong, ''Bonnie Dundee''.

** Elizabeth I in ''The Queen Elizabeth Story''; Sir Thomas Fairfax in ''Simon'' and ''The Rider of the White Horse''; Jarl Buthar and Aikin the Beloved in ''The Shield Ring''; Carausius in ''The Silver Branch''; Ambrosius in ''The Lantern Bearers'' and ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; Philip de Braose in ''Literature/KnightsFee''; Aethelbert and Augustine in ''Dawn Wind''; Alkibiades in ''The Flowers of Adonis''; Rahere in ''The Witch's Brat''; Sir James Douglas in ''We Lived in Drumfyvie''; Vladimir of Kiev in ''Blood Feud''; Constans in ''Literature/FrontierWolf''; Agricola in ''Eagle's Egg''; Claverhouse in ''Bonnie Dundee''; Mynyddog, Ceredig, Gorthyn, and Cynan Mac Clydno in ''The Shining Company''; Onund Treefoot, Thorstein the Red, and Aud the Deep-Minded in ''Sword Song''.

** Allies: Zeal-for-the-Lord Relf, Mistress Killigrew, and other Puritans, ''Simon''; Anthonius, ''The Silver Branch''; Midir, ''Literature/WarriorScarlet''; Brother Ninnias, ''The Lantern Bearers''; Priscilla and St. Augustine, ''Dawn Wind''; the Archbishop of Venta, ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; Laethrig, ''The Chief's Daughter''; Rahere, the Benedictines of New Minster, and Lovel, ''The Witch's Brat''; Master Gilliechrist, Master Simon, Andrew Beaton, and John Meikle, ''We Lived in Drumfyvie''; Aneirin, ''The Shining Company''; Aud the Deep-Minded, Brother Gisli, and Brother Ninian, ''Sword Song''.

* {{Matriarchy}}: Almost. The patriarchal Attribates assume Lubrin, the chief's surviving son, is the new chief of the Iceni. They're actually matrilineal, so the rightful leader is his sister's husband Dara.

Lovel, an orphan with a crooked back and foot, becomes an infirmarian monk and helps found St. Bartholomew's hospital.
* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Rahere
* TheMedic: Lovel invents physical therapy.

* ChekhovMIA: Piers's hopes of becoming a sailor went down with his elder brother Kit's ship, which disappeared in the Mediterranean.

!!''Brother Dusty-Feet''
A runaway headed for Oxford joins a troupe of strolling players.
* FiveManBand: The Joyous Company, with Hugh as their TagalongKid.
* YoungFutureFamousPeople: Captain Walter Raleigh

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: This first novel is the only one of Sutcliff's HistoricalFiction to have unambiguous magical elements, the wish-granting garden fairies.
* FantasySequence: The chapter in which Perdita and her friend imagine the tapestry figures as their party guests.
* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Elizabeth I.
* SliceOfLife

Damaris and Peter shelter a wounded Jacobite smuggler.
* HeroOfAnotherStory: The events of the novel are an episode in passing among Tom Wildgoose's adventures.

* "Death of a City" 61 AD: LastStand
* "Rome Builds a Wall" 123 AD: TheEngineer, OneLastJob
* "Outpost Fortress" 150 AD: EnsignNewbie, FaceYourFears
* "Traprain Law" 196 AD: ForWantOfANail, MaybeMagicMaybeMundane
* "Frontier Scout" 280 AD: BringHelpBack
* "The Eagles Fly South" 383 AD: GreatOffscreenWar, EndOfAnEra

* ThrowingOffTheDisability: An aversion, which is the whole point. Lucian has fled from acknowledging the DreamCrushingHandicap until he has to to protect the deserter.

** CanineCompanion: Esca "the Centurion's hound" in ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth''; Cullen "the Hound of Curoi" in ''[[Literature/TheDolphinRing The Silver Branch]]''; Drem is a "Hound of Dumnorix in ''Literature/WarriorScarlet''; Randal the dog-boy in ''Literature/KnightsFee''; ''The Hound of Ulster'', Cú Chulainn; Jestyn in ''Blood Feud''; Hugh Herriot in ''Bonnie Dundee''.
** SavageWolves: Saxon raiders, or "Sea Wolves"; the Frontier Scouts of ''Literature/FrontierWolf''; Ari "Grey Wolf" Knudsen of ''[[Literature/TheDolphinRing The Shield Ring]]''; "lone wolves" Aquila of ''The Lantern Bearers'' and Jestyn again; Tethra in ''The Changeling''.

* AuthorAppeal: Every trope in this folder, pretty much, but HeroicSacrifice, UndyingLoyalty, DescriptionPorn, HeterosexualLifePartners and a CanineCompanion are a good start.

** Acquired physical disabilities: John Carey, ''Simon''; Marcus, ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth''; Talore, ''Literature/WarriorScarlet''; Midir, ''Literature/TheMarkOfTheHorseLord''; Lucian, ''The Fugitives''; Timotheus, ''The Flowers of Adonis''; Lucius Calpurnius, ''The Capricorn Bracelet''; Rory the Dirk, ''We Lived in Drumfyvie''; Jestyn, ''Blood Feud''; Hugh Herriot, ''Bonnie Dundee''; Conn, ''The Shining Company''; Onund Treefoot, ''Sword Song''.

* CadreOfForeignBodyguards: The bodyguard of the Byzantine emperor is featured in several novels as a kind of French Foreign Legion analogue. Jestyn, Thormod, and Anders are part of the founding of the Varangian Guard in ''Blood Feud''; Prosper and Cynan ride off into the sunrise to join it at the end of ''The Shining Company''; and Bedwyr is on his way to join it when he meets Artos and takes up with him instead in ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''. Sir Everard d'Aguillon says he'd join it if he were young in ''Literature/KnightsFee''.
** Allectus has a Saxon bodyguard/secret police/private army in ''The Silver Branch''.
** Thomas Keith, the BraveScot servant of the Albanian rulers of Ottoman Egypt, in ''Blood and Sand''. Considering he once fought off ten assassins single-handed and became a general and the governor of Medina, he might count as a cadre.
* CallToAgriculture: Part-time occupation or ultimate destiny of many characters, true to their pre-industrial and often rural settings: Adam Hilyarde, ''The Queen Elizabeth Story''; Simon Carey, ''Simon''; Marcus et al., ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth''; Beric and Justinius (as horse-breeders), ''Literature/{{Outcast}}''; Bjorn and Frytha, ''The Shield Ring''; Flavius, ''The Silver Branch''; Drem, ''Literature/WarriorScarlet''; Aquila (as a slave), ''The Lantern Bearers''; Sir Thomas Fairfax, ''The Rider of the White Horse''; Randal and the d'Aguillons, ''Literature/KnightsFee''; Owain, ''Dawn Wind''; Artos (horse-breeding), ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; Aracos, ''A Circlet of Oak Leaves''; Lovel (physic gardening), ''The Witch's Brat''; Jestyn (cow herd), ''Blood Feud''; Damaris Crocker and Peter Ballard, ''Flame-Coloured Taffeta''; Bjarni and Angharad, ''Sword Song''.

* ChildhoodFriendRomance: Romance is not a prominent element in most of Sutcliff's stories, so if anyone does get together, it's probably two longtime platonic friends, and frequently via LastMinuteHookup.

** ''Blood Feud'': Christian and doctor Jestyn swears a pagan blood feud.

** Briton vs. Briton: ''The Changeling'', ''Literature/WarriorScarlet'', ''The Mark of the Horse Lord''

* HeterosexualLifePartners: If it's not the central relationship of the book, the protagonist probably has one in the background. ([[OneThingLedToAnother Inevitably leads to]] HoYay.) Usually a magnet for AnyoneCanDie.
** Robin Pettle and Adam Hilyarde, ''The Queen Elizabeth Story''; Simon Carey and Amias Hannaford, ''Simon''; Marcus and Esca, ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth''; Justin and Flavius, ''The Silver Branch''; Drem and Vortrix, ''Literature/WarriorScarlet''; Androphon and Cador, ''The Bridge-Builders''; Randal and Bevis d'Aguillon, ''Literature/KnightsFee''; Artos and Bedwyr, ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; Amyntas and Leon, ''A Crown of Wild Olive''; Jamie and Johnnie Douglas, Eckie Brock and Donal Dhu, Johnnie Forsyth and Hugh Maitland, ''We Lived in Drumfyvie''; Jestyn and Thormod, ''Blood Feud''; Lubrin Dhu and Dara, ''Sun Horse, Moon Horse''; Alexios and Cunorix, ''Literature/FrontierWolf''; Darklis Ruthven and Jean Cochrane, ''Bonnie Dundee''; Thomas Keith and Tussun Bey, ''Blood and Sand''; Prosper and Conn, ''The Shining Company''.

** ''The Mark of the Horse Lord'': the Horse Lords are expected to commit some form of HeroicSuicide if hard times require a HumanSacrifice.

* KillTheOnesYouLove: Sutcliff heroes, always making the hard choices.
** HeterosexualLifePartners Roundhead Simon and Cavalier Amias [[spoiler:try and fail to kill each other]] in battle in ''Simon''.
** Roman Marcus kills [[spoiler:his British might-have-been friend Cradoc]] in battle in ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth''.
** Owain euthanises [[spoiler:his injured CanineCompanion, Dog]], in ''[[Literature/TheDolphinRing Dawn Wind]]''.
** Gladiator Phaedrus fights his only friend Vortimax to the death in the arena in ''Literature/TheMarkOfTheHorseLord''.
** HeterosexualLifePartners Cuchulainn and Ferdia duel to the death in ''The Hound of Ulster'', as in [[Literature/TainBoCuailnge the legends on which it's based.]]
** [[spoiler:Lubrin Dhu]] is sacrificed by Cradoc, who would have been his friend if he hadn't conquered his tribe, in ''Sun Horse, Moon Horse''.
** WeUsedToBeFriends Thormod and Anders swear a blood feud over the deaths of their fathers in ''Blood Feud''.
** Alexios mercy-kills [[spoiler: his best friend Cunorix's brother Connla, then fights Cunorix to the death]] in ''Literature/FrontierWolf''.
** Redcoat Hugh kills [[spoiler:his rebel cousin Alan, whom he had once idolised, and later puts down his wounded horse Jock]], in ''Bonnie Dundee''.
** Cynan Mac Clydno mercy-kills [[spoiler:his youngest brother, Cynran]] at the battle of Catraeth in ''The Shining Company''.
** Killing the wounded is considered more merciful than leaving them to the enemy by most of her soldier characters.

** Esca, ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth''; Beric and Jason, ''Literature/{{Outcast}}''; Aquila and Flavia, ''The Lantern Bearers''; Owain and Regina, ''Dawn Wind''; Dara, ''The Chief's Daughter''; Timandra, and the Athenian prisoners, ''The Flowers of Adonis''; Jestyn, ''Blood Feud''; the Iceni-Epidi tribe, ''Sun Horse, Moon Horse''; Thomas Keith, ''Blood and Sand''; Conn and Aneirin, ''The Shining Company''; Muirgoed and Erp Mac Meldin, ''Sword Song''.

** Jonathan Whiteleafe, ''Brother Dusty-Feet''; Marcus (posing as an occulist), ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth''; Justinius, ''Literature/{{Outcast}}''; Brother Ninnias, ''The Lantern Bearers''; Lovel, Brother Eustace, and Brother Peter, ''The Witch's Brat''; Wattie Aiken, ''We Lived in Drumfyvie''; Brother Pebwyr, ''The Shining Company''.
** CombatMedic: Amias and Odysseus Hannaford, ''Simon''; Justin, ''The Silver Branch''; Gwalchmai, ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; Aracos, ''A Circlet of Oak Leaves''; Jestyn, ''Blood Feud''.
** Wise-women: Tiffany Simcock, ''The Armourer's House''; Mother Trimble, ''Simon''; Rowena, ''The Lantern Bearers''; Ancret, ''Literature/KnightsFee''; Ia, ''The Changeling''; Genty Small, ''Flame-Coloured Taffeta''; Old Nurse, the Queen and Princess Niamh, ''The Shining Company''; Angharad, ''Sword Song''.

** Beric and Justinius, ''Literature/{{Outcast}}''; Bjorn Bjornsson, ''The Shield Ring''; Carausius/Curoi, and the Flavius family, ''The Silver Branch''; Blai and the Half People, ''Literature/WarriorScarlet''; the Minnow and Mull, ''The Lantern Bearers''; Artos, Ygerna, and Cerdic, ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; Randal, ''Literature/KnightsFee''; Uncle Widreth, ''Dawn Wind''; Phaedrus and Liadhan, ''The Mark of the Horse Lord''; Tethra (by adoption), ''The Changeling''; Jestyn Englishman and Erland Silkbeard, ''Blood Feud''; Alexios, ''Literature/FrontierWolf''; Darklis Ruthven, ''Bonnie Dundee''.

** Artists: Piers in ''The Armourer's House''; Jason in ''{{Outcast}}''; Lucian in ''The Fugitives''; Nick Redpoll and Brother Luke in ''The Witch's Brat''; Lubrin Dhu in ''Sun Horse, Moon Horse''; and Hugh Herriot, his father, and Cornelius van Meere in ''Bonnie Dundee''.

* SatelliteLoveInterest: To a degree. Female love interests are rounded characters, but their story function is to be the hero's female friend – they're seldom involved in the main events of the plot or connected to main characters other than the hero. Sutcliff's few female protagonists tend to have {{Deuteragonist}} male love interests.
** ''Simon'': Simon meets Susanna Killigrew for a single chapter. She doesn't come into contact with the rest of the cast until the epilogue.
** ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth'': Marcus literally forgets about Cottia while he's off on his quest, and she is completely absent from TheFilmOfTheBook.
** ''[[Literature/TheDolphinRing The Lantern Bearers]]'': Ness is a critical part of Aquila's CharacterDevelopment, but has no scenes with other main characters.
** ''Literature/KnightsFee'': Gisella appears in three scenes and interacts only with Randal.
** ''[[Literature/TheDolphinRing Dawn Wind]]'': Regina is off-screen for most of the book and interacts only with Owain.
** ''Literature/SwordAtSunset'': Guenhumara is a vital component of TriangRelations, but not of the rest of the plot and seldom interacts with anyone but her love interests.
** ''Blood Feud'': Alexia has no involvement in the A-plot and interacts primarily with Jestyn.
** ''Blood and Sand'': While the rest of the cast are based on real people, Thomas's wife Anoud was invented as a StandardHeroReward.
** ''The Shining Company'': Princess Niamh's role in the story is to have an unrequited crush on Cynan Mac Clydno.
** ''[[Literature/TheDolphinRing Sword Song]]'': The other plot arcs are based on real people and events, but Angharad's arc is invented to introduce a love interest for Bjarni.

*** The phrase "a singing magic", used by Flavia and Aquila in ''The Lantern Bearers'' and Ia in ''The Changeling'', is taken from "[[http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/k/kipling/rudyard/justso/chapter11.html#chapter11 The Cat Who Walked By Himself]]" in the ''Literature/JustSoStories''.
*** "Oar-thresh", a word used by Bruni in ''The Lantern Bearers'', is coined by a character in "[[http://www.online-literature.com/kipling/3775/ The Finest Story in the World]]".

** Esca in ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth''; Beric in ''Literature/{{Outcast}}''; Drem in ''Literature/WarriorScarlet''; Aquila and Flavia in ''The Lantern Bearers''; Randal (as a villein) in ''Literature/KnightsFee''; Owain and Regina in ''Dawn Wind''; the citizens of Eburacum in ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; Phaedrus in ''Literature/TheMarkOfTheHorseLord''; Dara in ''The Chief's Daughter''; Arcadius and Timandra in ''The Flowers of Adonis''; Jestyn in ''Blood Feud''; the Iceni in ''Sun Horse, Moon Horse''; Thomas Keith in ''Blood and Sand''; Conn and Aneirin in ''The Shining Company''; Muirgoed and Erp Mac Meldin in ''Sword Song''.

* {{Supporting Protagonist}}s: [[HeterosexualLifePartners Heterosexual Life Partnerships]] are often seen from the perspective of the less dynamic (or [[SubordinateExcuse socially inferior]]) of the pair.
** ''Shifting Sands'': Blue Feather is the DamselInDistress over which her love interest and the villain clash.
** ''The Flowers of Adonis'': the entire novel is narrated by characters who cross paths with protagonist Alkibiades.
** ''Sun Horse, Moon Horse'': Lubrin is the BlackSheep best friend of the future chief.
** ''Song for a Dark Queen'': the life of Boudicca and her family as witnessed by her harper.
** ''The Silver Branch'': Justin is TheLancer to his cousin Flavius
** ''The Shining Company'': Prosper is shield-bearer to knight Cynan
** ''Sword Song'': Bjarni is a hired sword to various real-life Viking lords
** ''Blood Feud'': Jestyn follows his blood brother to Constantinople
** ''The Shield Ring'': Frytha follows Bjorn around
** ''Literature/KnightsFee'': Randal is squire to the d'Aguillons
** ''Lady in Waiting'': Elizabeth Throckmorten supports the career of her husband Sir Walter Ralegh
** ''The Rider of the White Horse'': Anne Fairfax follows her husband Sir Thomas through the English Civil Wars
** ''Simon'': Simon is the follower to Amias's leader
** ''Bonnie Dundee'': Hugh and Darklis are attendants to Lord and Lady Dundee
** ''Flame-Coloured Taffeta'': two children shelter a Jacobite adventurer

* TurbulentPriest: There's a palpable aversion to religious fanaticism in many of Sutcliff books. Though there are as many good religious figures as not, the inimical ones are, unsurprisingly, more likely to affect the plot.
** ''Simon'': Though the Puritans are on the hero's side of the English Civil War, the extremely pious Zeal-for-the-Lord Relf uses scripture as an excuse for his private vendetta, and the ascetic Mistress Killigrew has rather crushed her daughter Susanna.
** ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth'': A wandering druid stirs up the tribal revolt at Isca Dumnoniorum.
** ''Literature/{{Outcast}}'': The village druid objects to the adoption of a Roman foundling because the Romans destroyed the druids.
** ''Literature/WarriorScarlet'': The druid Midir, though eccentric, is highly respected and instrumental in reestablishing Drem in his tribe.
** ''The Lantern Bearers'': Brother Ninnias, a monk, helps Aquila on his escape and the rescue of his nephew, and helps him put his emotional problems into perspective.
** ''Dawn Wind'': The defeated Britons cling stubbornly to their Christian faith, unbeknownst to St. Augustine of Canterbury, the rather arrogant apostle to the Anglo-Saxons.
** ''Literature/SwordAtSunset'': Artos clashes with the landowning Church, who object to paying him to defend God (partly because they're already supporting the local people.) The Archbishop, however, is instrumental in appointing Artos leader of the Britons.
** ''The Fugitives'': Lucius makes a personal sacrifice to put the fugitive's fate in the hands of the gods.
** ''The Chief's Daughter'': The priest, though he initially requires a HumanSacrifice, reinterprets the signs so that Nessam doesn't have to die.
** ''The Truce of the Games'': Amyntas solves his moral dilemma by remembering his duty to the gods.
** ''The Witch's Brat'': Lovel becomes an infirmarian brother of the order that took him in as an orphan; Rahere changes careers from jester to monk.
** ''We Lived in Drumfyvie'': One Drumfyvie priest faces down the Sheriff to plead for a condemned prisoner; another nurses his flock through the plague; another loses his ministry for refusing to impose the Anglican ritual on his Presbyterian parishoners.
** ''Shifting Sands'': The despotic priest-king uses supernatural threats to keep the village in line.
** ''Song for a Dark Queen'': Boudicca's druid advisors encourage her to reject an alliance with the Catuvellauni out of revenge.
** ''Literature/FrontierWolf'': Morvidd the druid encourages the Votadini to rebel against the Romans.
** ''Bonnie Dundee'': The Scottish Covenanters are a fanatical insurgency against King James, who unhesitatingly kill defenseless soldiers and perceived collaborators. Dundee himself, however, marries into a Covenanter family.
** ''Sword Song'': Bjarni kills an arrogant Christian missionary who kicks his dog. He also runs afoul of a priest of Thor whose daughter has a grudge against him. He later works for the Christian Aud the Deep-Minded and meets his pagan chief's Christian foster-brother, and accepts prime-signing out of respect for them. Aud ends a blood feud by refusing to exact further revenge on her son's killers.

** ''The Mark of the Horse Lord'': Phaedrus sacrifices a white stallion at his coronation

!!Works with their own pages:
* 900 BC: ''Literature/WarriorScarlet'' (1958)
* 126 CE: ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth'' (1954)
** ''Film/TheEagle'' (2011)
* 130 CE: ''Literature/{{Outcast}}'' (1955)
* 180 CE: ''Literature/TheMarkOfTheHorseLord'' (1965)
* 290 CE: ''The Silver Branch'' (1957), see Literature/TheDolphinRing
* 341 CE: ''Literature/FrontierWolf'' (1980)
* 450 CE: ''The Lantern Bearers'' (1959), see Literature/TheDolphinRing
* 480 CE: ''Literature/SwordAtSunset'' (1963)
* 585 CE: ''Dawn Wind'' (1961), see Literature/TheDolphinRing
* 890 CE: ''Sword Song'' (1997), see Literature/TheDolphinRing
* 1090 CE: ''The Shield Ring'' (1956), see Literature/TheDolphinRing
* 1094 CE: ''Literature/KnightsFee'' (1960)
!! Other works include examples of:

[[folder:Prehistoric Britain]]
!! '''''Shifting Sands''''' (short story)
Orkney, 2000-1000 BCE. [[OldManMarryingAChild A twelve-year-old girl is promised to the tyrannical chief]] of her prehistoric village, who proposes to [[HumanSacrifice sacrifice]] the [[MurderTheHypotenuse boy she prefers]] to the gods who protect [[ChekhovsVolcano the great sand dune on which the village sits]].
* ChekhovsGift: The CombatHaircomb Long Axe gives to Moon Eye is the only weapon allowed into the sacrificial gathering.
* FullBoarAction: Singing Dog attracts Long Axe's notice when he disputes the credit for killing a ferocious sow. Unfortunately for his survival prospects, this is regarded as tantamount to ChallengingTheChief.
* RescueRomance: Blue Feather and Singing Dog get together when she hurts her foot on the beach.
* AStormIsComing: It's a foregone conclusion to the reader, but Moon Eye warns Long Axe about the rising winds. Unfortunately, Long Axe practices HeadInTheSandManagement.
!! '''''Literature/WarriorScarlet'''''
Britain, 900 BCE. [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Drem]] must pass a [[RiteOfPassage warrior initiation ceremony]] with an [[HandicappedBadass atrophied right arm]], or be [[TheExile cast out]] of his tribe to live among [[SlaveRace the people they conquered]].
!!'''''Flowering Dagger''''' (short story)
Bronze Age Britain. [[StarCrossedLovers A chief's daughter and a hostage from another tribe]] fall in love, before discovering an even more insurmountable obstacle.
* FourthDateMarriage: After being distantly acquainted for more than a year, Saba and Brychan suddenly notice each other for the first time, then immediately acknowledge [[LoveAtFirstSight a powerful sense of connection]]. They pledge their devotion to each other and make plans to elope during their second conversation.
* MosesInTheBulrushes: Brychan was a DoorstopBaby. The titular dagger is his OrphansPlotTrinket, which combined with his DistinguishingMark leads to the revelation of his parentage.
* SuddenlySuitableSuitor: Subverted. Yes, they're from the same tribe after all. That's not all they're both from!
* [[spoiler:SurpriseIncest]]: Whoops.
* [[spoiler:TogetherInDeath: Good thing they've got this dagger handy.]]
* {{Foreshadowing}}: Pervasive. Aside from the characters' conscious hints in dialogue, we have:
** The first paragraphs describe what the scene doesn't yet look like so early in the year, with full growth and beauty still to come, just as Saba and Brychan aren't yet mature (and never will be.)
** Cuckoos aren't just a sign of spring
** The women washing at a ford in the first scene is probably another of Sutcliff's references to the Washer at the Ford, a harbinger of death from Myth/CelticMythology.
** The observation that Cordaella's husband was of the correct degree of kinship to marry, and that Saba is more free to choose, is ironic. Cordaella and Garim's sibling interaction is a marked contrast to Saba and Brychan in the same scene.
** The death of the bee by the sting that's compared to the dagger, the superstitious associations of the elder flower the bee is sitting on, and Saba's remark that she doesn't care if Brychan hurts her removing the sting.
** The observation that Brychan's parents' relationship didn't get enough time for "flowering and fruiting", just as his won't.
** The symbolism of flowering dagger, whose blade holds both life (the flower design) and death, and which is both beautiful and fatal, like Saba and Brychan's love for each other.
!!'''''The Chief's Daughter''''' (short story)
Bronze Age Wales. Nessan [[AirVentPassageway frees]] a prisoner intended for {{human sacrifice}} and [[HeroicSacrifice volunteers]] to take his place.
* TheChiefsDaughter: Averted; the protagonist ''is'' the chief's daughter. And she's ten.
* CargoCult: Nessan's people worship a standing stone called the Black Mother. The negotiation of sacred debt that causes the characters so much mental agony is all done in the name of a rock.
* EquivalentExchange: Nessan initially saved Dara from HumanSacrifice by offering a glass bracelet to the Black Mother. When the stream dries up and the priest decides they need to sacrifice him after all, she engineers his escape knowing that [[BalancingDeathsBooks someone will have to take his place]]. His guard knows he'll have to take the fall, until Nessan [[HeroicSacrifice volunteers]] in his place. When Dara comes upon the Black Mother and finds a spear left as an offering, he takes it in exchange for all his food, inadvertently undamming the stream. When the water returns, the priest concludes that Nessan's ''willingness'' to die was an acceptable sacrifice.
* RidiculouslyDifficultRoute: Nessan sends Dara down the cliff face that's usually covered by the water of the stream.
!! '''''Sun Horse, Moon Horse'''''
100 BCE. Lubrin Dhu, the Iceni chief's BlackSheep artist son, [[YouAreInCommandNow finds himself the spokesman of his clan]] when they are conquered by the Attribates. He ransoms his SlaveRace with the design and construction of a great boundary marker [[spoiler: and his own HeroicSacrifice]].

!!'''''The Changeling''''' (short story)
Prehistoric Argyll. Tethra, a [[ChangelingTale changeling child]] adopted by the chief of the Epidi, is driven out to rejoin the Little Dark People. When his father is mortally wounded, he must choose between his two tribes.
* MosesInTheBulrushes: Complete with OrphansPlotTrinket, in order to escape HumanSacrifice. He is HappilyAdopted by a MamaBear and PapaWolf.
* OfThePeople: Other Epidi claim that he isn't, and Tethra has to choose whether to throw in his lot with his biological mother or the father who raised him. [[spoiler: He decides that UpbringingMakesTheHero.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Classical Greece]]
!!'''''The Flowers of Adonis''''' (adult novel)
[[AncientGreece Greece, 415-404 BCE]]. The rise and fall (and rise and fall and rise and fall) of Alkibiades, the notorious Athenian politician - and of Athens - through the eyes of his companions as he sets out on the Sicilian Expedition, reignites UsefulNotes/ThePeloponnesianWar, seduces the queen of Sparta, escapes to the Persians, is welcomed back with open arms by the Athenians, and then loses it all again.
* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Alkibiades; Antiochus; Timandra (loosely); Timea; Agis; Endius; Pharnobazus; Creator/{{Socrates}}; many others.
* SupportingProtagonist: At least eleven, including one from beyond the grave: the Citizen, the Soldier, the Seaman, the Dead, the Priest, the Queen, the King, the Spartan, the Rower, the Whore, the Satrap.
* ProtagonistCenteredMorality: Sympathetic character = forgives Alkibiades anything.
* ButNotTooGay: Alkibiades is said by Antiochus to be strictly a ladies' man, though he was noted for his beauty in a society where bisexuality was normal (this is consistent with Plutarch's remark that he spurned all his admirers but Socrates.) Arcadius ("The Soldier") falls in love with a comrade who dies before they can do anything about it, and then is never interested in another man.
!!'''''The Truce of the Games''''' / '''''A Crown of Wild Olive''''' (short story)
Greece, 412 BCE. A young Athenian runner [[NotSoDifferent befriends]] his [[WorthyOpponent Spartan competitor]] at the UsefulNotes/OlympicGames in the middle of UsefulNotes/ThePeloponnesianWar.
* ToBeLawfulOrGood: Amyntas is torn between his duty to represent his city and honour the gods, and his feeling that NoChallengeEqualsNoSatisfaction after Leon is injured.
* DontYouDarePityMe: It's TheSpartanWay. Leon refuses to acknowledge to Amyntas that his injury might affect his performance. [[spoiler: Leon is trying to validate the race for Amyntas, as Amyntas did for him by competing in earnest.]]
* SuckOutThePoison: In a gratuitous, poison-free example, Amyntas washes the dirt out of Leon's cut foot, then sucks it just to be sure.
* MyCountryRightOrWrong: After the Olympic truce expires, Athens and Sparta will resume their war and Amyntas and Leon will return home and enter opposing armies. There is no [[TakeAThirdOption third option]], and they have no realistic hope of meeting again without bitterness.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Roman Britain]]
!! '''''Song for a Dark Queen'''''
20s-61 CE. [[UsefulNotes/{{Boudica}} Boudicca]], young queen of the Iceni, eventually makes her peace with her bitterly-resented requirement of a male chieftain and a [[ArrangedMarriage political marriage]]. But when the Roman authorities plan to annex her entire kingdom, she leads the British tribes [[KillEmAll in a bloody uprising]].

!! '''''The Capricorn Bracelet'''''
Six short stories of a Romano-British family, linked by an heirloom military decoration, from the Boudiccan Rebellion to the end of the Roman occupation.
* "Death of a City" 61 AD: LastStand
* "Rome Builds a Wall" 123 AD: TheEngineer, OneLastJob
* "Outpost Fortress" 150 AD: EnsignNewbie, FaceYourFears
* "Traprain Law" 196 AD: ForWantOfANail, MaybeMagicMaybeMundane
* "Frontier Scout" 280 AD: BringHelpBack
* "The Eagles Fly South" 383 AD: GreatOffscreenWar, EndOfAnEra
!! '''''Eagle's Egg''''' (short story)
80-83 CE. Quintus, a standard-bearer, can't marry Cordaella without a promotion to Centurion, but it will take Agricola's three-year Caledonian campaign, a mutiny, and the battle of Mons Graupius to get it.
* FramingDevice: How I Met Your Grandmother
* UnableToSupportAWife: Quintus, a junior officer, isn't allowed to marry before reaching the centuriate.
* TheMutiny: One is brewing in Quintus's fort when a few men are given ATasteOfTheLash for stealing wine during their third miserable winter in Scotland.
* TensionCuttingLaughter: Quintus makes an incredibly lame joke about the eagle standard and a duck egg that the troops decide through ContagiousLaughter is SoUnfunnyItsFunny. Cue EverybodyLaughsEnding to the mutiny.
* [[AlasPoorVillain Alas, Poor Antagonist]]: Quintus sees Calgacus only once, when his body is lying on the battlefield of Mons Graupius after his LastStand. He also points out that DoomedMoralVictor Calgacus's famous "Rome makes a desolation and calls it peace" RousingSpeech was [[WrittenByTheWinners written by Tacitus]].
* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: The Caledonian campaign is closely based on Tacitus's account in his ''Life of Agricola'' (including the {{Historical Domain Character}}s Agricola, Calgacus, and the dead GlorySeeker), even quoting it, but Quintus and his experiences are fictional.
!! '''''The Bridge-Builders''''' (short story)
Androphon, the son of a fort commander on the western border of Roman Britain, is held hostage by Britons during a territorial dispute.
* [[IHaveYourWife I Have Your Son]]: Kyndylan the Chief plans to use Androphon as leverage for persuading the Commander to abandon the construction of the signal tower.
* SheWillComeForMe: Androphon threatens Kyndylan with his father's DisproportionateRetribution, but he's bluffing, as the Romans don't know where Kyndylan's village is, and Kyndylan is planning to move him somewhere better hidden anyway.
* ShameIfSomethingHappened: The story is bookended by two indirectly threatening conversations. Kyndylan claims that his hotheaded young warriors will be upset by the building of a signal tower in the tribe's lands, leading the Commander to predict a series of fatal accidents during the construction. Then Androphon pointedly doesn't accuse his "host" of kidnapping him, so that the Commander can spare the British village and Kyndylan can cooperate in return.
!!'''''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth'''''
126-9 CE. [[AnOfficerAndAGentleman Marcus]] and Esca search Caledonia for the eagle standard of the [[LostRomanLegion lost Ninth Legion]].
!!'''"Swallows in the Spring"''' (short story)
Circa 130 CE. A survivor of the Ninth Legion returns to Eburacum.
* LostRomanLegion: The vanished Ninth Legion casts a long shadow over their replacements the Sixth Victrix, even a dozen years after their disappearance. No one knows whether they were really destroyed, or worse, deserted.
* ShellShockedVeteran: Fulvius, who was [[SurvivorGuilt left behind by the Ninth]] and then kept in the same fort as part of the Sixth; Stripey; and to some extent the narrator, Dexius, who claims that a lifetime in the frontier garrisons would drive anyone mad.
* StrangerInAFamiliarLand: Stripey was one of Fulvius's men from the Ninth Legion, but he's so covered in [[GoingNative Pict tattoos]] he's unrecognisable, and so [[TraumaInducedAmnesia traumatised]] that he [[TheSpeechless can't tell anyone]].
!!'''''Literature/{{Outcast}}'''''
140s CE. Beric, a Roman {{foundling}}, is cast out of his adoptive British tribe and [[MadeASlave enslaved]] in Rome.
!!'''''A Circlet of Oak Leaves''''' (short story)
150s CE. Aracos, a medical orderly, turns a battle against British tribesmen while disguised as a standard bearer.
* EmergencyImpersonation: Aracos takes the place of nearly-IdenticalStranger Felix, a ShellShockedVeteran, so Felix won't be charged with desertion.
* BattleAmongstTheFlames: The valour of the auxiliary cavalry is at issue in the tavern because they stampeded when the Picts fired the heather. Only the Dacian cavalry, which Aracos led, rode through the flames because they train their mounts to charge through fire in a trick riding display. Aracos collapses afterward from smoke inhalation.
* ScrapHeapHero: Aracos, two or three times over – rejected from the cavalry for a heart defect, left to join the medical corps; invalided out of the army, ending up an obscure horse-breaker in Britain; and by the end of the story, believed to have lied about winning the Corona Civica by everyone in his local pub.
* SlaveGalley: Beric spends two years in the army's Rhenus fleet, chained to a rowing bench alongside his oar-mate Jason.
!! "The Fugitives" (short story)
Lucian, an army officer's paralysed son, hides a deserter from the men sent to recapture him.
* FaceYourFears: Lucian hates acknowleding his disability to other people. The deserter has to decide whether army life is worse than life on the run.
* ThrowingOffTheDisability: An aversion, which is the whole point. Lucian has fled from acknowledging the DreamCrushingHandicap until he has to to protect the deserter.
!!'''''Literature/TheMarkOfTheHorseLord'''''
180s CE. Phaedrus, a freed gladiator, plays the role of [[RightfulKingReturns lost heir]] to the patriarchal Dalriads in their war of succession against the matriarchal Caledones.
!!'''''[[Literature/TheDolphinRing The Silver Branch]]'''''
290s CE. Justin and Flavian stumble upon a [[TheCoup conspiracy to assassinate]] the emperor Carausius and join LaResistance against the Saxon-allied usurper of Britain.
!!'''''Literature/FrontierWolf'''''
340s CE. Alexios, a disgraced officer, is ReassignedToAntarctica to command the [[ArmyOfThievesAndWhores irregular]] [[SurprisinglyEliteCannonFodder Frontier Scouts]] in a precarious border outpost.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: The Dark Ages]]
!!'''''[[Literature/TheDolphinRing The Lantern Bearers]]'''''
450-470s CE. Aquila deserts from the departing legions and devotes his life to holding off the Saxons from Roman Britain.
!!'''''Literature/SwordAtSunset''''' (adult novel)
480-510s CE. A generation after the withdrawal of Roman forces from Britain, KingArthur struggles to unite Romano-Britons, Celtic tribes, and the elusive Little Dark People against the Saxon invasions.
!!'''''[[Literature/TheDolphinRing Dawn Wind]]'''''
585-597 CE. Owain, a Briton, [[MadeASlave becomes a Saxon thrall]] and is drawn into the affairs of a Saxon family.
!!'''''The Shining Company'''''
595-600 CE. Prosper, a Welsh shieldbearer, recounts the mustering and destruction of the Gododdin host against the Saxons of Catraeth.

!!'''''[[Literature/TheDolphinRing Sword Song]]'''''
890s CE. Bjarni Sigurdson, a Norwegian Viking, is exiled from his British settlement for killing the man who kicked his dog and sells his sword as a mercenary, embroiling himself in the feuds of Viking earls from Dublin to the Orkneys.
!!'''''Blood Feud'''''
985-990 CE. Jestyn, an English Christian, joins his Viking [[BloodBrothers blood brother]] on a pagan feud that takes them to the UsefulNotes/ByzantineEmpire.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Norman England]]
!!'''''[[Literature/TheDolphinRing The Shield Ring]]'''''
1090-1103 CE. {{Tomboy}} Frytha and WarriorPoet Bjorn defend the last hidden Norse stronghold against the Normans.
!!'''''Literature/KnightsFee'''''
1094-1106 CE. Randall, a half-Saxon dog-boy, is raised as a squire by the Norman lords of a feudal manor.
!!'''''The Witch's Brat'''''
12th century CE. Lovel, an orphan with a crooked back and foot, becomes an infirmarian monk and helps found St. Bartholomew's hospital.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Tudor England]]
!!'''''The Armourer's House'''''
1534 CE. Tamsyn Caunter, who desperately wishes she could be a merchant venturer, must instead go to live with her uncle in London. She settles into the colourful life of the household and city while sharing the secret of their mutual seafaring ambition with her quiet cousin Piers.

!!'''''Brother Dusty-Feet'''''
1580s CE. A runaway headed for Oxford joins a troupe of strolling players.

!!'''''The Queen Elizabeth Story'''''
16th century CE. Perdita Pettle, who can see "[[OurFairiesAreDifferent Pharisees]]", is granted her wish to see the Queen's Grace in a year and a day. The year passes through the adventures of Elizabethan country childhood.

!!'''''Lady In Waiting''''' (adult novel)
1566-1618 CE. Sir Walter [[SpellMyNameWithAnS Ralegh]] spends his life courting royal support for his expeditions to the New World, and his wife Bess spends hers supporting her husband's all-consuming dream.
* HappilyMarried: Despite the fact that their whole family life revolves around Ralegh's dangerous, time-consuming career, they love each other and she doesn't resent it.
* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Elizabeth Throckmorton, Sir Walter Raleigh, their family; Elizabeth I; Sir Robert Cecil; Henry Stuart; many others.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Stuart & Hanover]]
!!'''''The Rider of the White Horse''''' (adult novel)
UsefulNotes/EnglishCivilWar. Sir Thomas Fairfax, followed by his wife Anne, commands Parliamentarian forces in the northern campaign of the war, culminating in the battle of Marston Moor.
* ArrangedMarriage: Anne and Thomas. She eventually fell in love with him, and he feels bad that he didn't.
* BasedOnATrueStory
* FlorenceNightingaleEffect
* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Anne Fairfax, Sir Thomas Fairfax, etc.
* OopNorth
* ShoutOut: The "young Relf" mentioned is, if not Zeal-for-the-Lord Relf from ''Simon'', written six years before, at least a reference to him.
* WhiteStallion
!!'''''Simon'''''
1640s. HeterosexualLifePartners Simon Carey and Amias Hannaford join up on opposite sides of the UsefulNotes/EnglishCivilWar. Simon's estrangement from Amias, and his corporal [[AerithAndBob Zeal-for-the-Lord Relf]]'s vendetta against a treacherous friend, are ultimately tested in the battle of Torrington.

!!'''''Bonnie Dundee'''''
1680s Scotland. Hugh Herriot becomes galloper to Claverhouse, leader of government forces against the Scottish Covenanters. When William of Orange takes the English throne, Claverhouse's men become rebels in turn.

!!'''''Flame-Coloured Taffeta'''''
18th century. Damaris and Peter shelter a wounded Jacobite smuggler.

!!'''''Blood and Sand''''' (adult novel)
UsefulNotes/TheNapoleonicWars. Thomas Keith, a Scottish prisoner of war, is befriended by Tussun, son of the governor of Egypt, and serves them through a deadly power struggle in their court and a war in Arabia, rising to become governor of Medina.
* BasedOnATrueStory: Thomas and company were {{Historical Domain Character}}s. According to the afterword, the only thing made up was his wife Anoud.
* FreakierThanFiction: The author's note highlights the "single-handedly fought off ten assassins" scene as too implausible to invent.
* RescueRomance: Thomas rescues Anoud from being assaulted in the street.

[[folder:Myths and Legends]]
* ''Black Ships Before Troy'': UsefulNotes/TheTrojanWar.
* ''The Wanderings of Odysseus'': ''Literature/TheOdyssey''.
* ''The Hound of Ulster'': the exploits of Cuchulainn.
* ''The High Deeds of Finn Mac Cool''
* ''Beowulf: Dragonslayer''
* ''Tristan and Iseult''
* ''The Sword and the Circle'': KingArthur
* ''The Light Beyond the Forest'': KingArthur
* ''The Road to Camlann'': KingArthur
* ''The Chronicles of RobinHood''

[[folder:Picture Books]]
* ''People of the Past: A Saxon Settler''
* ''The Roundabout Horse''
* ''A Little Dog Like You''
* ''Little Hound Found''
* ''The Minstrel and the Dragon Pup''
* ''Chess-dream in a Garden''

[[folder:Non-Fiction]]
* ''Blue Remembered Hills'': Autobiography of her life up to the beginning of her writing career.
* ''Rudyard Kipling'': A monograph on Kipling's works for children.
* ''Houses and History''
* ''Heroes and History''
[[/folder]]

* AnimalMotifs: In keeping with her broader focus on nature, lots of people get compared to symbolic animals:

** SavageWolves: Saxon raiders, or "Sea Wolves"; the Frontier Scouts of ''Literature/FrontierWolf''; Ari "Grey Wolf" Knudsen of ''[[Literature/TheDolphinRing The Shield Ring]]''; "lone wolves" Aquila of ''The Lantern Bearers'' and Jestyn again.

* ChildhoodFriendRomance: Romance is not a prominent element in most of Sutcliff's stories, so if anyone does get together, it's probably two longtime platonic friends, and it's probably via LastMinuteHookup.
** ''The Queen Elizabeth Story'': Perdita Pettle and Adam Hilyarde
** ''The Armourer's House'': Tamsyn and her cousin Piers make a ChildhoodMarriagePromise to be merchant adventurers together.
** ''Simon'': Simon and Susanna; Amias and Simon's sister Mouse
** ''Literature/{{The Eagle of the Ninth}}'': Marcus and Cottia, who is [[SheIsAllGrownUp All Grown Up]].
** ''The Shield Ring'': Frytha and Bjorn, PlatonicLifePartners since age six.
** ''Literature/WarriorScarlet'': Drem and Blai, his not-quite adopted sister.
** ''Literature/KnightsFee'': Randall and Gisella
** ''Dawn Wind'': Owain and Regina
** ''Literature/SwordAtSunset'': Gault and Levin, previously HeterosexualLifePartners
** ''Bonnie Dundee'': Hugh and Darklis
** ''Flame-Coloured Taffeta'': Damaris and Peter
** ''The Shining Company'': Conn and Luned
* ConflictingLoyalties: Though their [[HonorBeforeReason duty is usually clear]], Sutcliff's characters are often challenged with personal ties to enemy friends or the other side of a MixedAncestry.

* HeterosexualLifePartners: If it's not the central relationship of the book, the protagonist probably has one in the background. ([[OneThingLedToAnother Inevitably leads to]] HoYay.)
** ''Simon'': Simon and Amias are are symbolised by a pair of sabres and compared to [[Literature/TheBible David and Jonathan]].
** ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth'': Marcus and Esca, whose eyes met across a crowded gladiatorial arena.
** ''The Silver Branch'': Justin and Flavius, long-lost cousins.
** ''Literature/WarriorScarlet'': Drem and Vortrix
** ''The Bridge-Builders'': Androphon and Cador
** ''Literature/KnightsFee'': Randal and Bevis, a squire and knight.
** ''Literature/SwordAtSunset'': Artos and Bedwyr
** ''Blood Feud'': Jestyn and Thormod, blood-brothers, compared to [[Literature/TheIliad Achilles and Patroclus]].
** ''Sun Horse, Moon Horse'': Lubrin and Dara
** ''Blood and Sand'': {{Historical Domain Character}}s Thomas Keith and Tussun Bey
** ''The Shining Company'': Prosper and Conn
** ''We Lived in Drumfyvie'': Jamie and Johnnie Douglas; Eckie Brock and Donal Dhu; Johnnie Forsyth and Hugh Maitland
** ''Literature/FrontierWolf'': Alexios and Cunorix
** ''A Crown of Wild Olive'': Amyntas and Leon
* {{Historical Domain Character}}s: Usually limited to cameos, but several novels are based on the lives of real (or [[KingArthur allegedly real]]) people.
** ''Lady in Waiting'': Sir Walter Raleigh
** ''The Rider of the White Horse'': Sir Thomas Fairfax

** ''Song for a Dark Queen'': [[UsefulNotes/{{Boudica}} Boudicca]]

* MadeASlave: Happens with some regularity to her protagonists or their sidekicks. See also SlaveLiberation.
** ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth'': Esca
** ''Literature/{{Outcast}}'': Beric, Jason
** ''The Mark of the Horse Lord'': Midir
** ''Blood Feud'': Jestyn
** ''The Shining Company'': Conn
** ''The Flowers of Adonis'': Timandra; the entire (surviving) Sicilian expedition
** ''Sun Horse, Moon Horse'': the entire (surviving) Epidi tribe
** ''The Lantern Bearers'': Aquila in Jutland.
** ''Dawn Wind'': Both Owain and Regina in separate Saxon households.
** ''Sword Song'': Muirgoed and her son Erp Mac Meldin were royalty, enslaved by Jarl Sigurd.
** ''Blood and Sand'': Thomas Keith is taken prisoner and sold to Tussun Bey.

* MixedAncestry: As Britain is made of intermingled peoples, so too are Sutcliff's protagonists. (Or they might be adopted, giving them a mixed cultural heritage.) [[HalfBreedDiscrimination Rarely does anyone let them forget it.]]
** ''Literature/{{Outcast}}'': Beric is of indeterminate Roman and British ancestry, raised by Britons and then by Romans; each side considers him to be the other.
** ''The Shield Ring:'' Bjorn is a Norseman with a Romano-Welsh ancestress.
** ''The Silver Branch'': Carausius is Romano-Hibernian; his Irish name is Curoi. The Flavius family are naturalised Romano-British.
** ''Literature/WarriorScarlet'': Blai's mother was Irish, and there are people of mixed parentage among the Half People.
** ''The Lantern Bearers'': Flavia's son Mull is a Saxon who looks Roman like her, while Aquila's son Minnow is half-Welsh.
** ''Literature/SwordAtSunset'': Artos is half-Romano-British, half-Celtic, which is one of the reasons he's able to unite the two peoples.
** ''Literature/KnightsFee'': Randal is the son of a Breton soldier and a Saxon lady.
** ''The Mark of the Horse Lord'': Phaedrus is the son of a Greek merchant and his British slavewoman, while Liadhan is the daughter of a Dalriad king and a Caledone princess.
** ''The Changeling'': The title character is an indigenous Little Dark Person raised in a Celtic tribe.
** ''Blood Feud'': Jestyn Englishman is the son of a Celtic father and an Anglo-Saxon mother.
** ''Bonnie Dundee'': Darklis Ruthven is the descendant of a Scottish noblewoman and a Romani king.
** ''Dawn Wind'': Uncle Widreth is the illegitimate son of a Saxon father and a British mother. [[ChangelingFantasy He likes to claim she was a selkie.]]

* PerfectlyArrangedMarriage: TruthInTelevision compels some characters into ArrangedMarriage, but it inevitably turns out all right, after perhaps a little BelligerentSexualTension.
** ''The Shield Ring'': Gille to Gerd
** ''Literature/{{Outcast}}'': Lucilla to Valarius Longus
** ''The Lantern Bearers'': Aquila to Ness
** ''The Rider of the White Horse'': Anne to Thomas
** ''Literature/KnightsFee'': Philip de Braose to Aanor
** ''Literature/SwordAtSunset'': Artos to Guenhumara
** ''TheMarkOfTheHorseLord'': Phaedrus to Murna
** ''Song for a Dark Queen'': Boudicca to Prasutagus
** ''Sword Song'': Aud to Olaf the White, Aesa to Onund Tree-foot, Groa to Dungadr

* ShoutOut:

** Sir Thomas Fairfax in ''Simon'' and ''The Rider of the White Horse''; Jarl Buthar and Aikin the Beloved in ''The Shield Ring''; Carausius in ''The Silver Branch''; Ambrosius in ''The Lantern Bearers'' and ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; Philip de Braose in ''Literature/KnightsFee''; Aethelbert and Augustine in ''Dawn Wind''; Alkibiades in ''The Flowers of Adonis''; Rahere in ''The Witch's Brat''; Sir James Douglas in ''We Lived in Drumfyvie''; Vladimir of Kiev in ''Blood Feud''; Constans in ''Literature/FrontierWolf''; John Graham of Claverhouse in ''Bonnie Dundee''; Mynyddog, Ceredig, Gorthyn, and Cynan Mac Clydno in ''The Shining Company''; Onund Treefoot, Thorstein the Red, and Aud the Deep-Minded in ''Sword Song''.

* MadeASlave: Happens with some regularity to her protagonists or their sidekicks.

* SlaveLiberation: With few exceptions, characters who are MadeASlave tend to get out of it again. ** Esca in ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth''; Beric in ''Literature/{{Outcast}}''; Drem in ''Literature/WarriorScarlet''; Aquila and Flavia in ''The Lantern Bearers''; Randal (as a villein), in ''Literature/KnightsFee''; Owain and Regina in ''Dawn Wind''; the citizens of Eburacum in ''Literature/SwordAtSunset''; Phaedrus in ''Literature/TheMarkOfTheHorseLord''; Dara in ''The Chief's Daughter''; Arcadius and Timandra in ''The Flowers of Adonis''; Jestyn in ''Blood Feud''; the Iceni in ''Sun Horse, Moon Horse''; Thomas Keith in ''Blood and Sand''; Conn and Aneirin in ''The Shining Company''; Muirgoed and Erp Mac Meldin in ''Sword Song''.

** TheArtist: Piers in ''The Armourer's House''; Jason in ''{{Outcast}}''; Lucian in ''The Fugitives''; Nick Redpoll and Brother Luke in ''The Witch's Brat''; Lubrin Dhu in ''Sun Horse, Moon Horse''; and Hugh Herriot, his father, and Cornelius van Meere in ''Bonnie Dundee''.

* 146 CE: ''Literature/{{Outcast}}'' (1955)

* 1095 CE: ''Literature/KnightsFee'' (1960)

* BuryYourDisabled: Averted, along with other disability tropes. This is RealitySubtext - Rosemary Sutcliff used a wheelchair for most of her life. Her soldier protagonists are prone to CareerEndingInjury.
** ''Literature/WarriorScarlet'': Drem was born with an undeveloped right arm.
** ''A Circlet of Oak Leaves'': Aracos has a heart murmur that disqualifies him from the Roman cavalry.
** ''The Fugitives'': Lucian's legs were crippled by a childhood epidemic, probably polio.
** ''Dawn Wind'': Clubfooted Vadir Cedricson is perhaps her only [[EvilCripple disabled antagonist]].
** ''The Shining Company'': Conn walks with a limp.
** ''Sword Song'': The warrior Onund Treefoot is named for his wooden leg.
** ''The Witch's Brat'': Lovel is born with a crooked back and foot, becomes an infirmarian monk, and more or less invents physiotherapy to help a man who crippled his leg in a fall.
** ''The Queen Elizabeth Story''
** ''Lady in Waiting'': Bess's friend and HistoricalDomainCharacter Robin Cecil is hunchbacked.
** ''Literature/SwordAtSunset'': Artos's Companion Gwalchmai is clubfooted, but it doesn't stop him from being a cavalryman and a surgeon.