Every year, Epona Warrior-Queen of Atrebates hosts a
magnificent feast and bonfire to mark Samhain, the autumn
equinox. Spear-women and their chariots recall defeating a
Roman legion, though the Romans are long since gone, as
young lad Arawn helps his family sell salt to tribespeople
for preserving meat. In the tribes of Britannia, the women
give the orders and fight hard and fast. LEGACY OF A
WARRIOR QUEEN takes a long hard look at this way of life
in
turbulent times.
Boudica, who is revered as a goddess, was a tribal queen
in
generations past who fought the Romans. Her red hair - and
her words - are remembered. Arawn falls astonishingly in
love with a warrior princess Rosmerta, red-haired and
valiant. But she comes from another tribe, and disputes
break out at the bonfire. The two hardly get to exchange
any words. Amid the jealous power of the Druids and
domineering leaders, tragedy occurs which changes Arawn's
life. Fleeing to the Cantiaci lands of Rosmerta's tribe,
he
learns that his own home was just an earth and thatch
roundhouse whereas here stone-built, slate roofed, wood-
framed houses are marvellous, solid and superior. He has
no status here, so why would the girl even want to speak
with him?
Amid Gaulish traders and fierce Angle pirates, Arawn
learns
other ways of life. Tragically, mistrusting women, he
learns a corruption of religious belief which turns him to
darker ways. He doesn't know that Rosmerta is seeking him.
This is a multilayered story, with enough fighting,
betrayal, lust and sorrow to fill volumes.
The Dark Ages after the fall of the Roman Empire were
anything but peaceful, so Maria Herring has reconstructed
different traditions, kinships and crafts to show us how
the people got on with daily life. What saddened me was
the
characters walking around the ruins of Roman villas and
towns, gaping at the rumour of a large stone bowl throwing
rain up into the sky, tracing out the patterns in mosaics.
So much knowledge was lost for so long.
LEGACY OF A WARRIOR
QUEEN may go a little far in blaming the downfall of Rome
on Boudica, at the extreme edge of their empire, when
barbarians were massing all over the continent. But
rumours
are powerful currency. Maria Herring has given us a
vigorous adult drama full of larger than life characters.
The Roman conquest of Britain is shattered in 60 C.E. by
Boudica, a mother, a warrior and a rebel queen, who once
united the tribes against a common enemy. Now, three
hundred
years later, the prolonged Iron Age in Northern Europe
sees
the British Isles dominated by women, for these
superstitious tribes believe now that only the
Mother-Warrior-Queen trinity can safeguard them against
any
foreign foe. Women are deified; men are little more than
slaves.
But Arawn, slave-son of a salt merchant, believes that men
have worth. When he tries to save a Pictish slave boy from
sacrificial death, he accidentally murders his sister and
her Druid. Having no other choice but to flee, he embarks
on
a journey from his British homeland across Gaul and on to
Rome, seeking out the powerful priests of the new one true
god, who holds men above women. He can escape the British
warrior-women hunting him, but he can't escape is own
demons, for the journey is long and his bitterness towards
women is strong...
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