Today is an anniversary, on 10th September 1067 Lady Godgifu died. I’m sure you’ve heard of her, but you may not know it. She is the founder of the English city of Coventry, and would have been its overlord in her own right, and she was the wife of the powerful Earl Leofric. [...]

Agnes Randolph, Countess of Dunbar, March, and Moray. Quite a mouthful. But the title of a woman warrior to be reckoned with. Agnes, known often as “Black Agnes” because of her coloring, was the daughter of Isobel Stewart and Thomas Randolph, 1st Earl of Moray. Randolph was a nephew and supporter [...]

“But very soon after they had agreed to this she died, twelve nights before midsummer, in Tamworth, in the eighth year she was with rightful lordship holding Mercian rule. Her body lies in Colchester, in the east chapel of St. Peter’s Church.”
So the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle bids good by to one of the most amazing [...]

Two Old Women: An Alaskan Legend of Betrayal, Courage, and Survival by Velma Wallis Harper Perennial; 1993.
This is an excellent presentation of one of the many oral traditional stories of the Alaskan Athabascan people. (There are also Athabascan peoples in the Southwest, the Navajo and the Apache.) It speaks of the harsh [...]

Warrior Woman  by Peter Aleshire.  St. Martin’s Press: 0-312-24408-8
In the introduction of his work, Aleshire begins boldly “The stories of Geronimo, Crazy Horse, and Custer pale beside the tale of another warrior -  one who fought relentlessly, successfully, and against all odds almost continuously for forty years.  This warrior fought longer then Geronimo or Crazy [...]

The King of Terrors by Michael McLean –
available online at: http://www.whispersofthemuse.org/Lit/Literary.htm
(just scroll down to “Literary Longs” and it is linked chapter by chapter.)

San Miguel, a small mountain town in northern New Mexico, is the site of the Catholic University of St. Michael. The University has been plagued for two years by a bizarre stalker, [...]

After the destruction of three towns and the IX Hispania, Boudicca marshaled her forces, and set off in pursuit of the governor.  To regain their freedom, to throw off the hated Roman yoke once and for all, they needed to win in open battle.  Boudicca certainly understood this.  The fact that she persuaded her followers [...]

The first attack in Boudicca’s rebellion was on the new capitol of the province, Camulodunum.  (modern Colchester)  It was ruthlessly surrounded and totally destroyed in only a few days.  From the historian Tacitus, we learn that the Iceni’s warrior woman led a well organized, pre-planned attack.  From archaeology we learn that it was brutally efficient; [...]

Boudicca – often incorrectly spelled Boadicea – who was she?   What did she do to earn eternal fame?  Boudicca was an ancient Briton – a Celt – who led a revolt against Roman domination in the year 60.   Her name is derived from the Briton word for victory.  What a rallying point for her followers [...]

The Amazons – man killing, but sexy warrior women – fact or fiction?  Where did the ancient Greek historian Herodotus come up with the idea of warrior women?  Was it really some deep-seated psychological outpouring born in Greek misogyny?  Or could it possibly be – his gods forbid! – a simple reporting of a well [...]