Comments on: Warrior Queen

Warrior Queen

homunculus — Sun, 12 Oct 2003 11:32:45 -0800

(also known as Boadicea) was the queen of the Celtic Iceni tribe in eastern Britain in 60 AD. As recorded by Tacitus and Cassius Dio, she led a brutal revolt against the Romans and razed London and Southwark. There's a famous statue of her at Westminster Bridge, and Masterpiece Theatre has produced a new historical drama about her, Warrior Queen.

By: kaemaril

kaemaril — Sun, 12 Oct 2003 11:35:55 -0800

Warrior Queen? In the UK it was recently shown under the title Boudica. I wonder, why the need for differing titles?

By: homunculus

homunculus — Sun, 12 Oct 2003 11:59:50 -0800

I would guess it's because far fewer people in the US are already familiar with the name Boudica.

By: dash_slot-

dash_slot- — Sun, 12 Oct 2003 12:01:23 -0800

Anyone notice this slightly out of context piece of sub-editing in the Observer piece:

"Crummy compared the attack to 'ethnic cleansing' in the Balkans."

I don't think that's supposed to be there!

By: George_Spiggott

George_Spiggott — Sun, 12 Oct 2003 12:10:19 -0800

The Sun recently described Boudicca as 'inspiring' and a reason 'to be proud to be British'. Which shows you how well the Sun actually thinks these things through. An English person these days is incalculably more likely to be descended from a later invader (most of whom were if anything much worse to the indigenous people than the Romans were) than from anyone related to Boadicea. All very jingoistic and fun but like most such things bears absolutely no examination.

By: DaShiv

DaShiv — Sun, 12 Oct 2003 12:11:40 -0800

She most recently starred as "that chick from the first tutorial mission in Rise of Nations". (Everything is related to gaming, dammit.)

By: George_Spiggott

George_Spiggott — Sun, 12 Oct 2003 12:20:28 -0800

To put it another way, it's rather like saying that Sitting Bull is a reason to be proud to be American. All very well from an inclusiveness standpoint, but a fairly ludicrous sentiment from the Sioux perspective.

By: homunculus

homunculus — Sun, 12 Oct 2003 12:33:01 -0800

I don't think that's supposed to be there! That's not the first time we've heard an archaeologist use the term. Here's an article in which describes the Celtic Britons as victims of ethnic cleansing at the hands of the Anglo-Saxons (discussed here.)

By: taz

taz — Sun, 12 Oct 2003 13:00:11 -0800

Fascinating... and horrifying. As to the title "Warrior Queen", I suppose only PBS could produce something that would be taken seriously with that name. I would have at least gone for "Boudica: Warrior Queen".

By: plep

plep — Sun, 12 Oct 2003 13:05:12 -0800

Interesting, thanks homunculus. (The massive psychological blow Boudicca inflicted upon the Roman Empire may well have been comparable to that inflicted upon the United States by 9-11... a great, and timely, post).

By: kliuless

kliuless — Sun, 12 Oct 2003 13:32:48 -0800

enya wrote a song for boadicea on the celts :D here it is in midi!

By: rushmc

rushmc — Sun, 12 Oct 2003 13:47:15 -0800

Warrior Queen Dang, that means she outranks Xena!

By: chill

chill — Sun, 12 Oct 2003 15:17:45 -0800

For the love of god don't watch Warrior Queen. I caught 5 minutes of it when it was on in the UK a couple of weeks ago (that was all I could bare) and it was laugh out loud bad. Some people over here actually thought is was supposed to be funny. And what on earth possessed the director to make the Roman centurions to speak with mockney accents I will never know.

By: thomas j wise

thomas j wise — Sun, 12 Oct 2003 19:02:07 -0800

Good heavens, it is beyond appalling. I haven't heard dialogue this bad in ages.

By: clavdivs

clavdivs — Sun, 12 Oct 2003 19:38:15 -0800

my first cat was named Boadicea.

By: ciderwoman

ciderwoman — Mon, 13 Oct 2003 03:39:55 -0800

What Chill said, it's a terrible, terrible piece of drama full of buzz words about terrorists in a desperate attempt to draw some parallels between then and now. The writer Andrew Davies is quite well respected for his adaptations, but has seriously gone wrong on this one. And oddly enough we used to have a cat named Claudius.

By: walrus

walrus — Mon, 13 Oct 2003 05:57:29 -0800

I watched part of it, sitting with a friend who has a degree in archaeology. Usually she won't let me watch these types of reconstruction drama-documentaries because of her flinch reaction to horrendous historical inaccuracies, however in this instance I turned it off before she could even get to the remote. It's purely a fluff piece, designed as a vehicle for glibly inappropriate pop-memes regarding "terrorism". As revisionism goes this wasn't even a terribly well-executed segue, much less enthralling to watch.

By: walrus

walrus — Mon, 13 Oct 2003 08:56:24 -0800

(not to detract from the job homonculus did with the supporting links)

By: ubi

ubi — Mon, 13 Oct 2003 10:06:39 -0800

Any linguists out there want to take a stab at linking the warrior queen with this word? It seems so apt, but dictionary.com references Snuffy Smif, ferchrissake. Any insight? Anyone? Bueller?

By: homunculus

homunculus — Mon, 13 Oct 2003 10:22:31 -0800

My local PBS station canceled it for some reason so I didn't get to see it, but it sounds like they did me a favor. Poor Boudicca, after all the horrors she experienced in life and now this, the final insult.

By: rschram

rschram — Mon, 13 Oct 2003 11:43:28 -0800

(OED) bodacious. U.S. dial. Complete, thorough, arrant. Also as adv. [Perh. a variant of Eng. dial. boldacious, a combination of bold and audacious.] 1845 W. T. THOMPSON Chron. Pineville 178 She's so bowdacious unreasonable when she's raised. 1887 ‘C. E. CRADDOCK’ Keedon Bluffs 153 Air ye turned a bodacious idjit, Skimp? 1941 Time 17 Mar. 23/2 The bodacious blurt did him no good with his brother Navy men.

By: homunculus

homunculus — Mon, 13 Oct 2003 12:52:56 -0800

Bodacious.

By: homunculus

homunculus — Mon, 13 Oct 2003 23:19:35 -0800

Hesiod liked it.

By: ceiriog

ceiriog — Wed, 15 Oct 2003 04:18:36 -0800

Boudicca (also known as Boadicea) Also known as Buddug. Still a popular name here on the reservation.