The Eagle Has Landed: Representing the Roman Invasion of Britain in Texts for Children

Abstract

The events around the Roman invasion of Britain can be framed as narrative in a number of different ways. At one extreme, they may constitute a story of the bringing of civilization to a savage land; at the other, of a brave defence by patriotic islanders against an unprovoked imperialist attack. The question is not merely one of ‘taking sides’: for modern British children, this is also a question of identity. Do historical narratives encourage them to see themselves as having more in common with Rome, or with the conquered Britons? What alternative positions are available? If this period of history is part of ‘our island story’, to invoke H. E. Marshall’s classic book of 1905, who exactly are ‘we’? Children’s authors have used a variety of strategies for addressing these questions. They may, for example, adopt either Roman or British narrative perspectives, or they may attempt a more complex imaginative reconstruction of the ways in which these two cultures interacted, one that leaves arguments about the rights and wrongs of invasion somewhat to one side. They may create a multivocal text that (by any of a variety of means) presents us with opposing points of view, perhaps in quite stark form, without necessarily attempting to reconcile or arbitrate them. Or they may move the scene into a fantasy alternative to history, in which the terms of the debate can be recast. All these are amongst the strategies we shall consider in this chapter.