The Shining Company Quotes

“See now, for a good blade, one that will not betray the man in battle, rods of hard and soft iron must be heated and braided together. Then is the blade folded over and hammered flat again, and maybe yet again, many times for the finest blades... So the hard and soft iron are mingled without blending, before the blade is hammered up to its finished form and tempered, and ground to an edge that shall draw blood from the wind. So comes the pattern, like oil and water that mingle but do not mix. Yet it is the strength of the blade, for without the hard iron the blade would bend in battle, and without the soft iron it would break.”
― Rosemary Sutcliff, The Shining Company

“Let you sing of us all by name, that we may live as long as the song."
"All three hundred of you?" Aneirin said, with his eyebrows quirking. "By name, aye and by reputation.”
― Rosemary Sutcliff, The Shining Company

“Every harper plays upon his hearers as he does upon the strings of his harp. It is so that the music comes, between the harp and the hearts of men.”
― Rosemary Sutcliff, The Shining Company

“But it is only the three hundred, always only the three hundred, of whom the harpers sing.”
― Rosemary Sutcliff, The Shining Company