The Lantern Bearers : dating evidence

[bunn]

In the Terribly Handy Sutcliff Chronology on the Wiki , the date of The Lantern Bearers is given as 410-430AD, and (presumably because it comes straight after) Sword at Sunset is dated as 430AD on.   I think this is wrong, but the same date is also replicated in quite a lot of different places on the web, so rather than just change it in the Wiki,

Comments

[hedgebird]

The Wiki date is definitely based on nothing more than a lazy Googling, a source close to the editor can confirm, so by my standards this all sounds pretty legit.

And Dawn Wind takes place ~600-ish, doesn't it, so 475-500 for Sword at Sunset makes the 'hundred years since Artos' thing I vaguely recall work out.

[bunn]

I suspect the date originally got attached to the book because someone looked up something like 'Rome withdraws from Britain' to which the simple multiple-choice answer is '410AD' - but it seems quite unlikely it was really anything like that clearcut.