A Samhain Tribute
Today, of course, is Hallowe'en, a day whose significance dates back to the ancient Celts and their feast day of Samhain.It is a day that was co-opted by christianity when it set out to win the hearts of the people of the Isles away from their former religion. I am not here, though, to say anything about the customs now associated with the day. Instead, let me pay tribute to a proud woman of the Celts, a woman who surely danced about the Samhain fires.
Boudicca was a daughter of the Iceni tribe, who lived in what is today the areas of Norfolk and Suffolk. Her name meant "victorious" in her language, and, for a time, victorious she was, against the mighty Roman army, the conquering military machine of its time. Today she is regarded as a patriotic Briton and heroine, a woman who stood strong against foreign invasion.
"This England never did, nor never shall,
Lie at the proud foot of a conqueror."
Though the words were written by Shakespeare in the fifth act of his "King John", they could just as well have been emblazoned on Boudicca's shield. She refused to offer her neck for the Roman yoke, and fought ferociously to take her land back from the arrogant Romans, but, in the long run, she and her warriors were no match for the better trained invaders. There were few who could hold the Romans at bay once they cast covetous eyes upon a territory. Suetonius and his legionaires finally broke the spine of Boudicca's resistance and the final battle was a carnage. If the battle had ended with the capture of the queen and her daughters, they would have been taken to Rome to be paraded in chains at the Colosseum. Rather than submit to this final indignity, the three women committed suicide. Some accounts have Boudicca killing her two daughters first, before turning her hand against herself. No matter. They lived with a fierce pride, and died with it.
A life-sized bronze statue of Boudicca and her daughters, erected at Westminster bridge, across from the British House of Parliament during the reign of Queen Victoria, stands there still today. When the fires of Samhain are lit tonight, as they still are in parts of the Isles, Boudicca's spirit will dance about the roaring flames.
Boudicca was a daughter of the Iceni tribe, who lived in what is today the areas of Norfolk and Suffolk. Her name meant "victorious" in her language, and, for a time, victorious she was, against the mighty Roman army, the conquering military machine of its time. Today she is regarded as a patriotic Briton and heroine, a woman who stood strong against foreign invasion.
"This England never did, nor never shall,
Lie at the proud foot of a conqueror."
Though the words were written by Shakespeare in the fifth act of his "King John", they could just as well have been emblazoned on Boudicca's shield. She refused to offer her neck for the Roman yoke, and fought ferociously to take her land back from the arrogant Romans, but, in the long run, she and her warriors were no match for the better trained invaders. There were few who could hold the Romans at bay once they cast covetous eyes upon a territory. Suetonius and his legionaires finally broke the spine of Boudicca's resistance and the final battle was a carnage. If the battle had ended with the capture of the queen and her daughters, they would have been taken to Rome to be paraded in chains at the Colosseum. Rather than submit to this final indignity, the three women committed suicide. Some accounts have Boudicca killing her two daughters first, before turning her hand against herself. No matter. They lived with a fierce pride, and died with it.
A life-sized bronze statue of Boudicca and her daughters, erected at Westminster bridge, across from the British House of Parliament during the reign of Queen Victoria, stands there still today. When the fires of Samhain are lit tonight, as they still are in parts of the Isles, Boudicca's spirit will dance about the roaring flames.
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