Hadrian's Wall - Page 2

The clash between cultures is a fertile field for novelist and historian alike, and it can make for compelling reading when not distorted by romance. When two very different cultures meet, there's no shortage of drama. And when they meet in one character it's doubly compelling. Norwegian novelist Singrid Undset explored the tensions between pagan Danes and Christianity from the pagan viewpoint in her historical novel Gunnar's Daughter, without resorting to romancing the primitive. And historian John Demos tells the true and intriguing story of Puritan New Englander Eunice Williams, taken captive by Indians, never to return - by choice - in The Unredeemed Captive. (Not only did she become a savage, she became a Catholic savage. A double horror for her Puritan family.)

The fictional Valeria is herself an unredeemed captive. Seduced by the otherness of her captors, (not to mention the freedom to ride a horse wherever and whenever she wants and the good looking, muscular chieftain who falls in love with her), she willingingly leaves her Roman world behind forever. The weakness of Hadrian's Wall is that nothing is given away by revealing those details. The book is set up as a mystery. The chapters alternate between interrogations of witnesses by a Roman inspector sent to the Wall to solve the mystery of the missing Valeria and flashbacks to the story of the maiden, the garrison, and the barbarians. It's an unfortunate technique, for it gives away much of the mystery before it ever gets afoot. It also leaves nothing to the imagination when it comes to the motives and actions of the characters. If the reader has any doubt about a character's goodness or villainy, one of the witnesses in an interrogation scene will shortly set him straight. And that's a pity. For it makes what could have been a page-turner an all too predictable read instead.

Article Author: Sydney Smith

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