1955 historical fiction for young people. Beric was found by the
Brigantes as a baby, the sole survivor of a Roman shipwreck. He grows
up as one of them. But when times are hard, the one who looks
different gets the blame…
My goodness this is a tough book at times. Beric is cast out by
his tribe, travels to Isca Dumnoniorum to join the legions ("his"
people, though he's never met one), but is quickly sold into slavery.
He does his best to live as a slave in Rome, but has a code of honour,
and ends up running away rather than being sent to a certain death in
the salt mines. And things just keep on getting worse for him.
This is a book for young people but it pulls no punches. When things
go badly for Beric, he doesn't blame the system of slavery that lets a
man do whatever he wants to his property; like many abused people, he
blames himself. His adoptive people rejected him, his ancestors
rejected him, so there is nowhere he fits; and who after all is he?
The story is not entirely a tragedy; Beric eventually does find a
place that will take him, and with even more difficulty he finds a way
to feel that he can make a home in that place. In a modern book, I
think, he would find out about his original parentage, but that
doesn't happen here, and I think it makes more sense that it should
remain a very minor mystery; the fact that he's not searching for that
answer is important in itself.
A tough book. A very fine book.