SUN CIRCLE

It would seem sensible to consider the three historical novels together, although they were neither written nor published consecutively. To do so may give a clearer picture of the overall achievement they represent.

Sun Circle, first issued in 1933, is a violent, richly textured story, thick with the same sexual tension which characterizes The Lost Glen. But it is a great deal more than that. Through a harsh, intense account of invasion, betrayal and defeat, Gunn struggles with problems he could face only by placing them in a remote and secret time, in the ‘privacy’ of historical fiction.

The book delves down into the psychological roots of evil and violence, and embodies also a hypersensitive examination of the temptations to cruelty which one form of intellectual/aesthetic detachment can bring. Aniel, favoured disciple of the unnamed Druidic Master, can be seen as in this sense a bitterly acute version of a characteristic Gunn sees in himself.

The novel becomes in the end an effort to establish in his own mind the continuity of values, and through this the significance of human life itself. By means of the Master's teaching, he seeks to create a philosophical and psychological response to fear, hatred and defeat. This involves the invention of a Druidic vision of the world, as well as an examination of the early Christian mission.

The period of Norse raids on the coast of Caithness is so sparsely documented that its wildness, darkness, depth and distance set his imagination alight and set it free.

Columba's conversion of the northern region of what is now Scotland (which probably meant little more than pragmatic adherence to Christianity by a few chiefs and rulers) took place in the sixth century, while Norse raids and eventual occupation of the Orkneys and much of Caithness are generally attributed to the ninth. That is a wide gap, and whether the pagan religion was as enduring, and ever became so refined, as is shown here, and whether the Christian missionary priest would be so isolated there is no means of telling. Gunn read the historical accounts available to him, and imagination must be allowed its own authority.