Queen Maeve
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Maeve was the warrior queen of the Irish kingdom of Connacht. She is most famous for her role in the Tain Bo Cuailgne, in which Maeve went to war with Ulster for the Brown Bull of Cooley. There are many stories about Maeve, and one could go through some mythology books or Celtic/Irish history to find some interesting ones. In addition to her accomplishments as queen, she was also a quite likely source for the name of Shakespeare's faerie queen, Mab, in Romeo and Juliet.
Check out an Irish saga called the Tain Bo Cuailnge (or sometimes just The Tain--Tain is pronounced "Toyn," like "Toy" with an "N" on the end). It is as wonderful a tale as you can read. There are so many awesome topics of discussion in that book, like the Warrior Feats (which sound almost fictional, until you see Jackie Chan, Martial adepts, or acrobats doing them), the Morrigan, a slew of old Celtic gods, goddesses, heroes, shamans, witches, shapeshifters, the list goes on!
Back on topic:
Like many Celtic/Irish royal women (Like Boudica, who led a Celt army to pillage and burn London to the ground--they succeded) She was a warroir queen, not a stay-at-home wallflower. Much of her actual deeds have been elevated in stories for aeons, so it is hard to tell fact from fiction in some cases.
Two years ago, this article ran on NPR:
http://www.npr.org/programs/atc/features/2002/aug/maeve/
King Arthur
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Arthur is thought to be a hero on the side the indigenous Celts, fighting against the Roman-driven Anglo-Saxon invasion of middle England. You see the Romans were wearing thin in 100-300 CE. Fighting the Germanic tribes was taking its toll, so the Romans deported some conquered tribes (Anglos, Saxons, Jutes, Frisians) to England.
The Romans did this fer 2 reasons:
1. They wanted an open area in Northern Europe so they didn;t have to keep fighting the Germanics (they'd been fighting with the assorted tribes for over 200 years at this point)
2. Rome was losing the battle against the Celts, Scots, and Welsh tribes, and losing a foothold on the isle (also the wild Celts scared the bloody 'ell outta the Romans). Rathern than cede territory, they Import the southern and central Germanics to the Isle to cause some unrest (to maintain the Roman control, they liked to keep folks at odds)
With the Germanics on their island and managing to do what the Romans were unable to do, the Celts needed a hero, and quick. Arthur was that hero. The first textual accouunt of Arthur is the Battle of Badon Hill, where Artie is reported to have killed 960 (or maybe 540? Cant recall right now, but it was an inordinate kill ratio) Saxons and routed their army. This was the origins of the Arthur legend.
Around this time, the Roman empire was on the outs, and was becoming the Holy Roman Empire. The Romans wanted the Germanics to return to their lands on the mainland, so they could move part of the fading empire to the UK. The Saxons told them to go soak their heads in the aqueduct, they weren't going anywhere (they actually got better land and weather in Angle-land then they had back on the mainland). Rome, out of resouces, manpower, and time, ceded the territory to them.
History would come to show Arthur as an important legend to even the Germanics, because in only a few generations things were stabilising, and the Anglo-Saxons were intermingling with the locals and achieved some acceptance. By 1066, they were Engishmen, fighting the next wave of "imports" (the Danes) and defending the isle as if it were their fatherland.
Hundreds of years later, the medieval French writer Chretien de Troyes wrote a huge body of Arthurian tales, and it is these that are passed to us today (thus all the medieval plate armor in movies like MP's Holy Grail, Excalibur, etc etc.)
Hope this helps.
Keith
