History Literature / TheMarkOfTheHorseLord

* TheWomanWearingTheQueenlyMask: Phaedrus's wife Murna is a DefrostingIceQueen, in contrast to Phaedrus BecomingTheMask. She literally wears a queen's mask in her first two scenes – decoying Phaedrus and Conory during TheCoup by taking Liadhan's headdress, and a mare's-skin mask as part of her bridal regalia, which Phaedrus tears off her during the Royal Hunting. She later tells him that one reason she disliked him was because she knew he would get past her defenses.
-->"Sometimes he wondered if the real Murna were there inside her all the while, looking out at him as he had so often looked out at the world through the eye-slits of a gladiator's helmet."

* ArrangedMarriage: Unusually, it's presented as a horrifying threat from the male perspective as well as the female. [[AndNowYouMustMarryMe Conory has been selected by Liadhan]], [[IncestIsRelative his aunt]], as her next consort. Then Phaedrus is forced to marry her daughter Murna, who's even less enthused than he is.

* MixedAncestry: Greek-British Phaedrus; Sinnoch, a Dalriad mother and a Roman father; Liadhan, with a Dalriad father and Caledone mother. The Dalriads also intermarried with a matriarchal tribe a few generations ago, which is why the tribe has a matriarchal faction.

** CatsHaveNineLives: [[ArtisticLicenceHistory Well-known ancient Scottish belief]]. Shan has scratched three off her ticket.

* OurFairiesAreDifferent: The Little Dark People, chiefly represented by the Old Man of the Green Hills with his powers of hypnosis and prophecy, are the [[{{Demythtification}} demythtified]] stand-ins for TheFairFolk.

* DueToTheDead: Phaedrus asserts his independence of his advisor Gault by countermanding his order to burn the body of Liadhan's Little Dark messenger. For an earth-worshipper, burning would deny his soul its return to the goddess. Phaedrus isn't interested in persecuting his enemies beyond death, so he has the body thrown out with the rest of the compost.

* RefusalOfTheCall: Murna and the Old Man of the Green Hills claim that Liadhan lost the support of the matriarchal faction of the Dalriadain when she refused to [[FaceDeathWithDignity answer her "call" to death]] at TheCoup (presumably as justice for attempting to murder Midir).

''The Mark of the Horse Lord'' is a HistoricalFiction novel by Creator/RosemarySutcliff published in 1965. It straddles the line between YoungAdult and adult literature and is usually considered one of her most important works.

'''''Spoilers ahead.'''''

* CoverIdentityAnomaly: The Old Man of the Green Hills, a chieftain of the [[PeopleOfHairColor Little Dark People]], is surprised to find that Phaedrus can resist his powers of hypnosis or illusion, which Phaedrus attributes to his Roman rationality (the scene is a ShoutOut to ''Literature/{{Kim}}''.) He's downright suspicious when Phaedrus [[IgnorantOfTheCall doesn't understand what he means]] by "the Call" of a monarch.

** The quoted phrase "two inches in the right place" is from Vegetius's ''De rei militari''.

* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler: Phaedrus can't allow his people to fatally weaken their defenses against the Caledones by ransoming him with a draft of troops, so he jumps off the battlement he's supposed to tell them his decision from.]]

A British gladiator named Phaedrus is recruited to impersonate the rightful king of the Dalriadain tribe in a revolt against the usurper queen Liadhan and her powerful Caledonian allies. He must masquerade as the lost heir Midir, win the trust of TheLancer Conory, marry the princess Murna, lead the Dalriadain in war against the Caledones, fend off TheRomanEmpire, and learn the true meaning of kingship.

* RedHeadedHero: "Red Phaedrus". His name is probably supposed to evoke Phaethon and Phoebus, [[Literature/ClassicalMythology Greek mythological figures]] connected to the sun.

* Myth/CelticMythology: The Dalriadain are four generations removed from Ireland:
** Midir's name is from ''Literature/TheWooingOfEtain''
** Conory is from Conaire Mór of ''Togail Bruidne Dá Derga''
** Murna is from Muirne, the mother of Fionn [=MacCumhail=]
** Liadhan is what Phaedrus imagines Queen Maeve of the ''Literature/TainBoCuailnge'' looked like
** Phaedrus tells the Romans he's not going to bound off their ramparts like Cú Chulainn

* BlondesAreEvil: Liadhan. We know Murna is less terrible because hers is a softer shade than platinum. Conory also flirts with it, but in his case it's bleach.

* BecomingTheMask: Phaedrus, a lifelong slave, takes to tribal kingship LikeAFishTakesToWater. The "mark" of the title is not only a ritual tattoo, but the [[HeroicSacrifice willingness to die for his people]].

* HistoryMarchesOn: It's an important plot point that the Antonine Wall, the more northerly of the two Roman walls across Britain, is garrisoned. The story takes place in the 180s, however, and the Antonine Wall was abandoned between the 160s and 208. It's impossible to tell if this was ArtisticLicenceHistory or a simple error.

* ShoutOut: The scene in which Phaedus resists the Old Man of the Green Hills' illusion is an homage to (or rip-off of) Rudyard Kipling's ''Literature/{{Kim}}''. The terms "Men's Side/Women's Side" are inspired by "[[http://www.gutenberg.org/files/556/556-h/556-h.htm#link2H_4_0019 Song of the Men's Side]]" in ''Rewards and Fairies''.

* SilkHidingSteel: Once Phaedrus sees past Conory's tastes in personal adornment, he calls him a knife in an extremely fancy sheath. Obfuscating eccentricity probably helped Conory stay alive, since he's the legitimate heir to the throne after Midir.

* CelticMythology: The Dalriadain are four generations removed from Ireland:

* DuelToTheDeath: All part of the job as a a) a gladiator or b) the New King of the Dalriadain. Luckily Phaedrus has some relevant experience!

* KlingonPromotion: Liadhan and the matrilineal Caledones employ a ritual version for the position of king: every seven years, the queen chooses a new young consort who kills the old king in a staged DuelToTheDeath.

* RedPillBluePill: A passing captain of Frontier Scouts offers Phaedrus the chance of a slightly less dangerous career as a Roman soldier. But Phaedrus is already starting to think of Rome as TheEmpire, and also thinks [[InHarmsWay it would be dull]].

* ShoutOut: The scene in which Phaedus resists the Old Man of the Green Hills' illusion is an homage to (or rip-off of) Rudyard Kipling's ''Literature/{{Kim}}''. The terms "Red Crest" and "Men's Side/Women's Side" are also Kipling lendings from ''Puck of Pook's Hill'' and ''Rewards and Fairies''.

* AwesomeMomentOfCrowning: It involves standing on the Rock of the Footprint at the break of dawn after ritually slaughtering a WhiteStallion.

--> "The odd thing was that he never once thought to himself that he was not, after all, the King...It was as though, growing into the kingship through this past year, Red Phaedrus the Gladiator had grown into this other thing, too, because without it, the kingship would not have been complete.

* DelinquentHair: One of the group of young Romano-Britons Phaedrus gets drunk with has fashionable "ultra-British" bleached hair. Conory later proves to have it too (and gets it freshly done for TheCoup / his would-be coronation). Phaedrus chats with a warrior not in the know on the night of, who complains about the stupid-looking braids all the young conspirators are wearing these days.

* IdenticalStranger: Phaedrus, who is half Greek, happens to look enough like the lost king of the Dalriads to fool everyone but TheLancer and (possibly) his own wife.
* IntrepidMerchant: Sinnoch, the half-Dalriad bastard who couldn't be a warrior, so he became one of the richest men of the tribe instead, as well as a spy, conspiracy organiser, and TheChooserOfTheOne. [[spoiler:He dies a most unwarriorly but very horse-traderly death in battle, trampled by stampeding cattle.]]

* MixedAncestry: Greek-British Phaedrus; Liadhan, with a Dalriad father and Caledone mother. The Dalriads also intermarried with a matriarchal tribe a few generations ago, which is why the tribe has a matriarchal faction.

* TheWomanWearingTheQueenlyMask: Phaedrus's wife Murna is a DefrostingIceQueen, in contrast to Phaedrus BecomingTheMask. Phaedrus compares her to a gladiator looking out from the eyeholes of his helmet, and one reason she disliked him was that she knew he would get past her defenses. (She also literally decoys Phaedrus and Conory during TheCoup by putting on Liadhan's headdress.)

* AwesomeMomentOfCrowning: It involves standing on the Rock of the Footprint at the break of dawn after ritually slaughtering a white stallion.

* SilkHidingSteel: Once Phaedrus sees past Conory's tastes in personal adornment, he calls him a knife in an extremely fancy sheath. Obfuscating eccentricity probably helped Conory stay alive, since he's the legitimate heir to the throne after Midir.

* ArrangedMarriage: Unusually, it's presented as a horrifying threat from the male perspective as well as the female. Conory has been selected by Liadhan, [[IncestIsRelative his aunt]], as her next consort. Then Phaedrus is forced to marry her daughter Murna, who's even less enthused than he is.

* CreepyUncle: It's not made much of, but Liadhan has chosen her own nephew, Conory, as her next consort. He's an adult, but he also doesn't (in theory) [[AndNowYouMustMarryMe get a say in the matter]].

* ArrangedMarriage: Unusually, it's presented as a threat from the male perspective as well as the female. Conory has been selected by Liadhan, [[IncestIsRelative his aunt]], as her next consort. Then Phaedrus is forced to marry her daughter Murna, who's even less enthused than he is.

* CareerEndingInjury: Liadhan has Midir blinded to make him ritually unfit for kingship. Whether he's incapable or not would be irrelevant to the Dalriadain, because a damaged man [[FisherKing must not be king]].

* DuelToTheDeath: All part of the job as a a) a gladiator or b) the New King of the Dalriadain.

* CultureClash: Roman vs. Celt and Dalriadain versus Caledones. Each cuture wears a couple of matching [[PlanetOfHats Hats]].

* AGodAmI: Liadhan is the Goddess-On-Earth, and the Horse Lord represents the Sun Lord. Phaedrus asks Murna if she actually believes this, and Murna points out that it's literally true that the Queen is the embodiment of their religion and is therefore sacred.

* RedHeadedHero: Phaedrus. His name is probably supposed to evoke Phaethon and Phoebus, [[Literature/ClassicalMythology Greek mythological figures]] connected to the sun.

* TheWomanWearingTheQueenlyMask: Phaedrus's wife Murna is a DefrostingIceQueen, in contrast to Phaedrus BecomingTheMask. Phaedrus compares her to a gladiator looking out from the eyeholes of his helmet, and one reason she disliked him was that she knew he would get past her defenses. (She also literally misdirects Phaedrus and Conory during the coup by putting on her mother Liadhan's headdress.)