Brave Old World

I’m something of a history buff and something of a buff for buff, kick-ass women so it’s not surprising that Boudica has a special place in my heart. Boudica (or The Boudica, meaning “She who brings Victory” ) was an iron-age British tribes-woman and queen who, in CE 60, rallied the tribes of ancient Britain to rise and throw off the oppressive yoke of Roman colonization.

While looking for research material about the time period, I did a search for “Boudica” on my Amazon Kindle®digital reader and found Manda Scott’s 4-book “Boudica” series, : Dreaming the Eagle, Dreaming the Bull, Dreaming the Hound and finally Dreaming the Serpent Spear.

I downloaded a free sample onto my kindle and began reading it on the bus to work. By the time I got off the bus , I was hooked.

Manda set s her hook immediately like a good action/mystery writer. By the end of the second paragraph of the first book, we have met our heroine, Braeca and she has at once killed a man in self defense, avenged her slain queen/mother and been promoted into the ranks of the warriors of her early British tribe by virtue of her act of valor in open battle, all the age of 12. Not a bad start.

However, unlike so many action-focused novels that feature cardboard cutout character development and painfully wooden, stilted dialog, Scott’s Boudica series is deliciously rich in evocative descriptions, lush character development and dialog that sings. Set in first century iron-age tribal Britain at the time of the Roman invasion and colonization, this is the story of Braeca (pronounced “Bray-eh-kuh” ) a young woman of the Iceni tribe who becomes the legendary champion of her people, “The bringer of Victory, The Boudica”. The Iceni are a matriarchal tribe and with the untimely death of her mother, she is next in line as the hereditary leader of her people. However, the Iceni, like most other British tribes of the time are actually governed by a council of elders, and “dreamers”. The dreamers are naturally gifted individuals who are the shamans of their people who seek guidance from their deities and insight through dream and trance.

Little is known for certain of the life and culture of these early Britains because they did not keep written records. So much of our written history about the time is from Roman historians who had a very definite point of view and agenda. As such Manda has filled in those yawning gaps with a brilliant and well educated imagination. Such an open canvas under the hands of an excellent writer allows for a generous application of creativity and she has used it well. What struck me most, was how she constructed a vivid and exciting picture of a culture and people, rich and warm in detail but also challenging to modern sensibilities. It is precisely this reframing of a very different world with different values, traditions and point of view, as yet untainted by “Judeo-Christian” hegemony that grew on me as much as the more up front compelling action and story of the books.

Anyone still reading this review has probably read their share and then some of fiction and fantasy based in times of yore, featuring tribal settings replete with swords and sandals. Try as the author might, even in Tolkien’s fantasy world, so many of the cultural assumptions are really post-Roman/Christian in their basis, particularly regarding social structure, power and gender dynamics and value systems. For example, the Iceni are ruled by a matriarchal-centered council of dreamers, “thinkers”, not the warriors and not a King. Their titular, hereditary leadership is passed from mother to daughter. Warriors are women or men as are dreamers, each according to their ability and inclination. Despite their assumed primitive culture, they are artisans of the highest aesthetic abilities. By the way, archeology bears out this detail as well as many others in her stories. They are deeply bound to and sensitive to the land and to the creatures that they share their world and their lives with. Their horses and their hounds are like precious family members to them.

As Braeca approaches adolescence and the rite of passage ritual of the “long nights”, reminiscent of American Indian vision quests, she begins to bond with the slightly older girl Armid, who is a gifted dreamer. This relationship soon blooms into a deep and tender romance. I have rarely if ever read a fictional rendition of a same-sex romance that was so completely free of any taint of shame or scandal. There was nothing of “what will the others think?”; no hint of forbidden fruit.

I was immediately off to my Google to take a closer look at this Manda Scott person.

In an interview with the website Planet Sappho this quote verified my suspicions:

“… Each character has his or her own integrity and their sexuality becomes part of that. I very rarely make it happen and am almost always surprised by the results. It seems to me that the more I write, the more I realise it’s the person that matters and gender is largely irrelevant. “ – Manda Scott

Yes, it turns out that Manda Scott is fairly well known as a “Lesbian Author”. Throughout the whole series she never pushes sexuality to the fore, it’s smoothly integrated into each character gracefully and naturally but same-sex romances are common in characters major and minor. She astutely refuses to ghettoize her own writing into a narrow appeal for lesbian audiences only.

Indeed as she points out it’s not just sexuality that is fluid and often not forefront in character development but every aspect of gender and gender role. On the other hand the Roman invaders are scandalized by the fact that women naturally inhabit positions of power in British society and more horrifying still, are full warriors in the forefront of battle. They even carefully spin and doctor their reports from the front for delicate Roman audiences to deny that such a thing exits. The matter of stigma around homosexuality comes up only once in a discussion between Roman officers (and lovers ) about what their historians and geographers write about the fierce and barbaric Germanic tribes: that they exact ruthless, capital punishment against any man engaging in homosexual activity. Of course homosexual liaisons were commonplace and uncontroversial amongst the Roman legionaries and officers. One quips to the other that “Maybe someone should tell Civilis” referring to the ultra manly leader of the Batavian auxiliary cavalry wing assigned to their Legion. The Batavians were a notoriously fierce Germanic tribe allied with the Romans.

Scott was poking at the fact that among the senatorial ranks from which most Roman writers sprung -- like Tacitus, the famously moralizing Roman historian of the period -- homosexual conduct was the subject of much tongue clucking and head shaking. While in the provinces and particularly among Rome’s famous Legions, the long and manly tradition of close, very close bonding among the ranks was carried down from the likes of the Sacred Theban band and Alexander’s Greek empire-makers.

Sadly what never appeared in any of the four books of the Boudica saga were any clearly gender-variant characters though in such a free-wheeling society as she portrays and the number of characters that are introduced, I would expect at least a few. Most world cultures that are less hung up about sex and gender usually make graceful accommodations for the wide range of gender expression, beyond simply flexible gender roles which are amply demonstrated. Certainly there were more than a few very butch warrior women and very gentle, nurturing male dreamer/healers in the vast cast of characters.

This amazing series is a fabulous read and doubly so for queer readers. While the details are fictional they hue to a truth about human culture in general: That in Western, Christianized civilization we have lost so much that is civil and humane and human. There was no Golden Age and no Shangri-La, of that we can be sure. Not all non-Western cultures are havens for free expression and individuality. But by looking across the vast diversity of human culture, across time and across the globe we can glimpse and imagine how it could be so different.

Oh yeah, and in the process you will learn more about iron age British tribes and politics, horses and their care, the smithing of swords and spears, killing and dying, crucifixion, tribal guerilla warfare and Roman legionary tactics than you would ever believe.