Читать книгу Woman Triumphant - Rudolf Cronau - Страница 18

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The same noble spirit that distinguished the German women, was likewise found among the females of Britain and Scandinavia. Tacitus in his “Annals” XIV gives an account of Boadicea, queen of the Iceni, a tribe that occupied the eastern coasts of Britain. To defend the independence of her country against the Romans, this queen succeeded in uniting some of the British tribes and drove the invaders from several fortified places. When Suetonius, on hearing of the revolt, hastened up with a strong army, he found himself opposed by large numbers of the aborigines, men as well as women. Among the fighters were many priestesses or Druids, who, clothed in black, with streaming hair and brandished torches, fought like furies. When they saw themselves far outnumbered and realized that all was lost, these women preferred death to slavery and perished among the flames, which destroyed their stronghold.

When the Roman legions met the main body of the Britons, they beheld Boadicea admonishing her warriors, to conquer or die in battle. In the fearful contest 70,000 Romans and 80,000 Britons were slain. But when the combat resulted in the complete defeat of the latter, Boadicea poisoned herself to avoid falling into the hands of the victor.

The Edda and many other sagas of the Scandinavians contain likewise accounts about heroic women such as they were in those days of the past: strong in body as in mind, and equal to any emergency. Brave alike in heart and in character, independent, open and frank, they were loyal to their husbands and their duty when fitly matched. Fearlessly they joined in the daring expeditions of their sea-kings, who packed their “dragon-ships” to full capacity with warriors and made raids on all the coasts of Europe, even on the countries that border the Mediterranean Sea.

From several interesting relics of old Icelandic literature we also know that as early as in 986 A. D. Norse women went with Eric the Red to Greenland. Here they helped in establishing a settlement, Brattahlid. And when in 1007 Thorfin Karlsefne sailed from this place to Vinland, some newly discovered country in the far Southwest, he too was accompanied by several women, among them his wife Gudrid. Some time after her arrival she gave birth to a son, Snorre, the first child of white parentage born on American soil.

Another of these fearless women, Froejdisa, took active part in a hot skirmish with the aborigines of Vinland. When the Norsemen were about to yield to the overwhelming numbers of these “Skraelings,” it was she who encouraged the men to stubborn resistance. Several years later, in 1012, this same resolute woman, in company with two men, fitted out an expedition of her own to Vinland. After an absence of one year she returned to Brattahlid with a large cargo of valuable lumber, furs, and other goods, but also suspected of having killed her partners as well as their men with her own hands.

CHRISTIANS OF THE THIRD CENTURY.