Beachcomber Bridlington

PAGAN WICCAN GREETING CARD Boudicca GODDESS Andraste HARE CELTIC HEDINGHAM FAIR

£2.95

Designed by celebrated Artist Karen Carter of Hedingham Fair.

Comes with Envelope

This Boudicca card is blank on the inside for you to write your own personal message.

Size 11 cm by 21 cm

Text taken from the back of the card:

Boudicca

'She was very tall, in appearance most terrifying, in the glance

of her eye most fierce, and her voice was harsh. a great mass

of tawney hair fell to her hips, around her neck she wore

a large golden torc, and she wore a vari-coloured tunic,

over which a thick mantle fastened with a brooch.

This was her invariable attire' - Dio Cassius

In AD59, queen of the Eastern British Iceni, having been publicly flogged and her daughters raped by agents of the Roman Emperor, rallied her people to rise up and revolt. first she marched on Colchester with speed and ferocity, sacking the city and killing 20, 000. When the Roman legion at Lincoln marched to engage the Britons they were slaughtered too. Next Boudicca laid waste London, then Verulamium (St. Albans). When the inevitable final battle took place, Boudicca's army outnumbered the Romans by ten to one. It is recorded that as a preparation for battle, Boudicca would attempt to divine the outcome by releasing a Hare, sacred to the Britons, from beneath her cloak and observing its movements. This she did now, invoking Andraste, patron Goddess of the Iceni, a warrior Goddess of victory whose name means 'invincible'. This time Roman discipline proved more than a match for Boudicca's enormous rabble, and 80, 000 Britons were killed that day, while their queen escaped, only to take her own life, together with her daughters, by means of poison. Boudicca was mourned deeply by her people, who gave her a costly burial, but her doomed campaign has earned her the status of national hero and the personification of the spirit of the warrior Celt.