In days of old…King Arthur and Guenevere’s time, actually.
There was an actress on the tube last night, who is playing the part of Guenevere in the latest tale of King Arthur, et el. She said that Guenevere was actually a warrior, and went into battle as an equal to the men. Her next statement is my question. She said that female warriors went into battle naked. If true, why?
Sounds fishy. Keira Knightley is quite cute but AFAIK she doesn’t have a history degree.
If there was any advantage to running around nekkid in battle all the men would have been doing it as well. Maybe she thinks that the guys would get stiffies and be unable to run in their armor?
Boudica, queen of the Iceni, lead her warriors into battle. And she’s depicted topless in a statue in central London. Maybe that’s the extent of the research.
"Is that a lance in your pocket, or are you joust glad to see me?"
Since there is absolutely zero historical evidence that any such person ever existed, her statement of fact about Guenevere is automatically in error.
Women of high birth could and did act as leaders, even war-leaders in some Celtic tribes, as with Boudicca that led the Iceni into revolt against the early Roman occupation of Britain or the more “loyal” Cartimandua of the Brigantes. The female warrior was a common theme in Celtic myth, but overall was probably the exception to the rule. Can’t comment on the nude-warrior thing one way or another, but it may have just referred to a lack of armor ( not common among the Celts until later ).
However whether the Romano-Celts of Arthur’s time ( assuming he existed ) still followed such practices to any great extent may be another issue altogether. Records from that period are pretty ephemeral and it is a fact that the Romans, who had by then been in occupation and had been influencing the countryside for over half a millenia, were quite a bit less egalitarian when it came to war.
That said, I could hardly object to a Keira Knightley bringing her vision of nude warrior-queen to life :D.
- Tamerlane
I can just see the producers now - “Sure, Keira, this movie requires you to be naked as much as possible. It’s how they did it in those days, you know…”.
Box Office Receipts.
Oh. Why is it true, not why did she say it. Right.
Well… She might have been confabulating the Arthurian myths with those surrounding the Pictish warriors, who reputedly went into battle naked except for lots of blue body paint, and were less chauvanist about letting their women fight than other folks were accustomed to.
This site appears to be a rather sober look at the real people behind the myths of the Picts.
If there were any existing legitimate scholarly connections being made between the Arthurian legends and the pictish myths, it’s the first I’ve heard of it.
Gah. I even previewed.
This site appears to be a rather sober look at the real people behind the myths of the Picts.
I thought this thread was about the limerick… =)
(Adult content, so you’ll have to google it.)
You know, that did come up in the interview. She said that the producers informed her early on that, historically, she had to be naked, but she balked at that. She is only 19 by the way…can’t you just picture the producer…Snivly Whiplash…leering as he said it?
…and, ROCHES, does it end with…‘and then they were contented’?
Hm. The one I heard was merely bathroom humor.
Of course, I heard it in grade school.
There is certainly way more than “0”. There is little contempory evidecne, and that is debateable.
In general- in Historical times- there were very few female warrior back before the 20th century. Those that were are pointed out as exceptions to the rule. Boudicca is such an example.
Celts & Picts sometimes went into battle without any armour, using Woad or tattoos- and both went barechested. Some of the picts are thought to have taken this a step further- but some of the old Greek warriors also fought nude except for armour.
Picts were also NOT known for their Archery (and in general neither were the Celts). Maybe, just maybe if she was playing a Princess of an early Welsh tribe (which isn’t unlikely) they might have had some decent archers by AD600 or so- certainly they were the first to develope the Longbow.
I’m not sure which interview you saw, but I saw her on Letterman and remember her remarks a bit differently.
She was clear that it was “in this telling of the Arthurian Legend” that Guinevere is portrayed as a Pict/Celt-type; she didn’t present that as the way it’s supposed to be or anything. She went on to say that it was a matriarchal society, women fought alongside the men, and they tended to do so naked, which seems to be pretty-well established by others above. They had a nice battlefield clip and, while she’s not naked, she is scantily clad and painted blue all over and her character is downright vicious in battle. Kind of a ‘I’d like to have sex with her but I’m afraid she might kill me afterward’ vibe.
Actually, the Britons/Celts usually fought naked, or at least with no armor. There were traditions describing how they felt it was dishonorable to cover up your breast and throat with armor. This lead to some problems fighting the Romans, but helped them out in other times.
As far as female warriors are concerned, I don’t know.
The statue at Westmister isn’t topless, though the dress doesn’t exactly hide her breasts. There’s another view of the statue’s decollage in this article about her from the Guardian the other day.
Damn historical accuracy, I’m another bloke who’d pay good money to see Ms Knightley charge into battle “authentically” naked.
That’s Snidley Whiplash 
For Guinevere? I know Arthur is debateable, but I thought Guinevere derived only from as early as Geoffrey of Monmouth.
- Tamerlane
Makes one wonder if that’s the origin of the phrase bodacious ta-ta’s.
No, actually, Snivly, who I mentioned, was the brother without the 'stash.