It was the end of the world . . .

March 23, 2025 12:07 PM

I remember reading a book from at least 15 years ago about the Roman invasion of the Celtic / Anglo Saxon territories. It was written in an odd dialect (old-English-ish, with a glossary) and was essentially a post-apocalyptic survival tale set 2000 years ago. I cannot for the life of me remember the name or author, and my Google-fu is failing me. Does this ring any bells for anyone? Thanks in advance!
posted by ananci to Media & Arts (9 answers total)

Not quite your time frame, but could it be Nicola Griffith's Hild, set in the early 600's?
posted by jamjam at 12:50 PM on March 23 [2 favorites]

Take a look at Riddley Walker, by Russell Hoban (1980).

Paul Kingsnorth's The Wake is slightly too recent for your proposed date, but otherwise sounds pretty close, although it's about the Norman Conquest, not the Roman.
posted by pollytropos at 1:01 PM on March 23 [3 favorites]

The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro? Published about 10 years ago.
posted by pullayup at 1:44 PM on March 23

Best answer: I haven't read it, but Paul Kingsnorth's 2014 novel The Wake apparently did something like that with Old English. From a review in The Guardian:

Paul Kingsnorth has adopted another solution: he writes in what he calls “a shadow tongue”, a language “intended to convey the feeling” of Old English through borrowed vocabulary and syntax – much as Russell Hoban did with modern English to conjure a devastated future in his post-apocalyptic Riddley Walker.

As The Wake’s first-person narrator revisits the trauma of an invasion by “ingenga” (foreigners) that changed our islands for ever ...

Evidently there are sequels.
posted by Wobbuffet at 2:21 PM on March 23 [3 favorites]

Best answer: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wake_(novel)

For what it's worth, I checked it out from the library, and I paged through it and saw the dialect and said "nope." Hope you have better luck than I did.
posted by hafehd at 4:16 PM on March 23 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Take a look at Riddley Walker, by Russell Hoban (1980).

Counterargument that it almost certainly would not be Riddley Walker - that is actually set a couple thousand years into the future, after a nuclear holocaust, and there's no invasion element at all.

The Wake by Paul Kingsnorth is indeed about the Norman conquest of Britain, told from the perspective of a Saxon warrior and written in an adapted version of Old English. It's not a Roman invasion, but I have a funny feeling you may find it familiar nonetheless.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:53 PM on March 23 [2 favorites]

Best answer: You are definitely thinking of The Wake by Paul Kingsnorth. Though as others have mentioned it's set during the Norman conquest of 1066.

It's written in a dialect invented by the author that resembles a pseudo-old-English. The publisher says:

"In The Wake, a postapocalyptic novel set one thousand years in the past, Paul Kingsnorth brings this dire scenario back to us through the eyes of the unforgettable Buccmaster, a proud landowner bearing witness to the end of his world."

Count me as one person who made it all the way through the book and LOVED it. Admittedly the first few chapters are slow-going. But after a bit the brain really does adapt, and the strange language really pulled me into the past in a way few other books have done. Recommend.
posted by mekily at 7:52 PM on March 23 [3 favorites]

Response by poster: Yes! Thank you everyone, it was indeed The Wake. And yes, the dialect / shagow tongue is daunting but I found it an interesting technique.

I knew I could count on y'all :)
posted by ananci at 7:41 AM on March 24 [1 favorite]

I had a feeling! We read The Wake in my post-apocalyptic book club (we have a bit of a broad definition of that term) and that sounded really familiar.

Added note - we also read the sequels and they fell short, in case you were considering looking into those as well.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:14 AM on March 24 [1 favorite]