Thusnelda (10 BC-) was the Queen of the Cherusci from 9 to 17 AD as the wife of Arminius.
Biography[]
Thusnelda was born in present-day Hanover, Germany in 10 BC, the daughter of the Cherusci nobleman Segestes and his wife Irmina; she was also the older sister of Ansgar. Thusnelda was childhood friends with Reik (Chief) Sigimer's son Arminius and the brewer's son Folkwin Wolfspeer; after Arminius was taken by the Romans as a hostage, Thusnelda grew to love Folkwin. Thusnelda, like Folkwin, was a patriotic German who opposed the Roman Empire's subjugation of Germania, and, in 9 AD, she attempted to prevent Sigimer from kissing the Roman Army's imperial standard in front of the tribe. A Roman soldier on horseback responded by pulling her away from Sigimer by her hair, so Ansgar ran up to the centurion Metellus and bit his arm, causing Metellus to bust open Ansgar's skull with his sword, leaving the boy paralyzed. Thusnelda was infuriated, and, after both Sigimer and her father kissed the imperial standard, Thusnelda approached Folkwin with the idea of stealing the Romans' standard to show the Germans that the Romans were not invincible. Thusnelda and Folkwin snuck into the Roman Army's camp, with Thusnelda pretending to be a sex slave destined for the Roman general Publius Quinctilius Varus. Once inside the camp, Thusnelda and Folkwin stealthily killed the soldiers guarding the imperial standard and seized the standard for themselves, aided by Hanno and Eigil, who burned a tent to distract the Roman soldiers. Thusnelda and Folkwin displayed the standard proudly upon riding back into the Cherusci village, leading to the locals cheering.
Arminius, by then a Roman officer and the adoptive son of Varus, was sent to the Cherusci village to recover the standard. This led to an awkward reunion with Fokwin and Thusnelda, who refused to return the standard to Arminius, even as he warned them of Rome's power. When Thusnelda said that the Romans had made her brother a cripple, Arminius stoically said that such things happened when one resisted Rome, causing Thusnelda to express her disappointment in how Arminius had changed. Shortly after, Segestes rode to the Roman camp and told Varus that Folkwin had stolen the standard, leading to a Roman detachment being sent to the Cherusci village, where they seized and crucified Folkwin's mother, father, and younger brother. The Romans decreed that the bodies were not to be cut down until Folkwin was captured and the standard recovered, but, after the Romans left, Thusnelda resolved to cut down the crosses and bury the bodies. A remorseful Sigimer, who had earlier refused to disobey the Romans, agreed to help. Arminius returned shortly after, leading a party of Germanic mercenaries in search of Folkwin, and he allowed the Cheruscians to bury the bodies with proper funeral rites, and Arminius decreed that Segestes should personally help out.
After Folkwin returned to the village and found his family crucified, he was persuaded to go into hiding, and he was joined by Hanno, Eigil, Luco, Berulf, and several other young warriors who were determined to fight back against the Romans. Thusnelda was forced to remain in the village, as she was betrothed to marry the Chatti ruler Reik Hadgan. When she discovered that Folkwin had gone to the Bructeri, Thusnelda attempted to escape her village to join him, but her father captured her and tied her to a beam. Meanwhile, her mother decided to put the crippled Ansgar out of his misery by tricking him into walking off of a cliff, but Thusnelda persuaded her father to let her go in order to save her brother's life, and Thusnelda rescued her brother and choked her mother before ultimately releasing her, unwilling to push her over the cliff. Thusnelda then visited the Seer Runa in the woods and left Ansgar in her care as she made her escape to join Folkwin and his followers.
Thusnelda found Folkwin and Arminius in the shadowy Dark Land (the Black Forest), where Arminius killed his fellow Roman soldiers and saved Folkwin, the last survivor from his group. Thusnelda and Folkwin failed to persuade Arminius to fight alongside them, as Arminius said that he was still a Roman, and he decided to return to Varus with the severed head of Eigil as a replacement for Folkwin's; Arminius said that Varus could not tell Germans apart. Thusnelda then accompanied Folkwin to the Bructeri, in spite of the Bructeri's earlier attempted betrayal of Folkwin and murder of Berulf. The two of them initially failed to convince Reik Kunolf the Brukteer that the Romans were the true enemy, and, when Kunolf reacted angrily to Thusnelda's claim to be a seer, Folkwin impaled Kunolf with a spear amid a thunderstorm, and Thusnelda continued to pretend that she was stirring the gods' anger against the tribe, convincing the tribe's new reik Golmad to join the fight against Rome. The two of them then met up with Arminius, who, having discovered that Varus persuaded his father Sigimer to commit suicide to make way for Arminius as the new Roman client ruler of the Cherusci, decided to fight against the Romans as the Cherusci's new reik. However, Arminius took Thusnelda and Folkwin aback by saying that, as Thusnelda could command the loyalty of the Germanic peoples, he intended to marry her (albeit out of necessity).
Thusnelda and Folkwin reluctantly agreed to Arminius' plan, but it severely strained Arminius' former friendship with Folkwin, who loved Thusnelda dearly. Arminius then returned to the Cherusci village with his two friends and announced that the village was now under his protection, and that he, as the son and rightful heir of Sigimer, would be the Cherusci's new Reik, angering Segestes, who had briefly claimed the title for himself. To make matters worse for Segestes, Arminius announced his intention to marry Thusnelda against Segestes' wishes. The wedding of Arminius and Thusnelda was attended by the rulers of various Germanic tribes, and the newlyweds persuaded many of them to contribute warriors for a united Germanic army which would resist the Romans. Arminius also took Thusnelda to Varus to receive his blessing for the wedding, and, while there, Thusnelda discovered that Varus intended for Arminius to take the sons of the Germanic reiks hostage to ensure continued peace in Germania. While Thusnelda initially questioned where Arminius' loyalties lied, the two of them ultimately used the opportunity to convince the various reiks to meet at the next moon festival, where Arminius restored the chiefs' children to them and persuaded them to form a united front against the Romans, even though they had separately acquiesced to the seizure of their children. Thusnelda played a key role in stirring up support for this unified effort, and Arminius planned an ambush for the Romans at the Teutoburg Forest.
On the eve of the battle, Hadgan attempted to rape Thusnelda as she prayed to the Woman of the Woods for help. Thusnelda was able to fight him off and threaten him with a knife, causing Hadgan to order his men to withdraw from the alliance. Thusnelda then persuaded the other chiefs to remain loyal to the alliance, and she sacrificed her right eye to prove that she really was a seer, and she predicted a bloody and fiery battle in which the Germans would emerge victorious, also predicting great futures for the chiefs involved. Thusnelda proceeded to charge into battle alongside the other Germanic warriors, reuniting with Arminius, whom she persuaded that she was alright despite sacrificing her eye. After the battle, she told Arminius that he had won the hearts of his warriors, and that she would reign alongside him as his queen. However, the Seer warned Thusnelda that her path was dangerous, as the son she was bearing was not that of the King, but of Folkwin.
In May of 15 AD, Thusnelda was captured by the Roman general Germanicus while pregnant, with her father delivering her to the Romans while openly aiding them against Arminius. Arminius was driven to frenzy by the loss of his wife and never remarried. Thusnelda gave birth to her child Thumelicus while in captivity, and, following the Battle of Idistaviso in 16 AD, a captive Thusnelda and her son were displayed during Germanicus' triumphal parade in Rome, with Segestes being invited as a guest of honor. Her son would die in a gladiator show at a young age.
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