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Druidism

Druidism

In Celtic polytheism the word Druid denotes the priestly class in ancient Celtic societies, which existed through much of Western Europe north of the Alps and in the British Isles. Druidic practices were part of the culture of all the tribal peoples called "Keltoi" and "Galatai" by Greeks and "Celtae" and "Galli" by Romans, which evolved into modern English "Celtic" and "Gaulish". Modern attempts at reconstructing or reinventing Druidism are called Neo-druidism.

Etymology

The word Druid (reconstructed as
- druwis or
- druwids in Old Celtic) is probably derived from Indo-European roots meaning "oak/strong" and "knowledge," although some believe that it may be pre-Indo-European. By Ancient Greek writers, the earliest to discuss the Celts, the word is spelled Δρυίδης (Druides), and was associated with δρυς (drus "oak tree"). It appears in Old Irish as druí, giving draoi (magician) in Modern Irish and druidh (enchanter) and draoidh (magician) in Scottish Gaelic. The Old Irish druídecht gives Modern Irish draoiocht (magic). Welsh dryw (seer) may be cognate.

History

From what little we know of late Druidic practice, it appears deeply traditional and conservative, in the sense that Druids were conserving repositories of culture and lore. It is impossible now to judge whether this continuity had deep historical roots and originated in the social transformations of the late La Tene culture, or whether there had been a discontinuity and a Druidic religious innovation. Our historical knowledge of Druids is very limited. Druidic lore consisted of a large number of verses learned by heart and it has been claimed that twenty years were required to complete the course of study. There may have been a Druidic teaching center on Anglesey (Ynys Môn) centred on magical lakes, but what was taught there, or at other centers, is conjecture. Of the Druids' oral literature (sacred songs, formulas for prayers and incantations, rules of divination and magic) not one verse has survived, even in translation, nor is there even a legend that can be called purely Druidic, without a Roman and/or Christian overlay or interpretation.

Roman sources

Caesar's Gallic Wars gives the first and fullest account of the Druids. Caesar notes that all men of any rank and dignity in Gaul were included either among the Druids or among the nobles, indicating that they formed two classes. The Druids constituted the learned priestly class, and as guardians of the unwritten ancient customary law they had the power of executing judgments, among which exclusion from society was the most dreaded. Druids were not a hereditary caste, though they enjoyed exemption from military service as well as from payment of taxes. The course of training to which a novice had to submit was protracted. All instruction was communicated orally, but for ordinary purposes, Caesar reports that the Gauls had a written language in which they used Greek characters; however, no druidic documents, if there ever were any, have survived. "The principal point of their doctrine", says Caesar, "is that the soul does not die and that after death it passes from one body into another" (see metempsychosis). This observation led several ancient writers to the unlikely conclusion that the Druids may have been influenced by the teachings of the Greek philosopher Pythagoras. Caesar also notes the druidic sense of the guardian spirit of the tribe, whom he translated as Dispater, with a general sense of Father Hades. Writers such as Diodorus and Strabo, with less firsthand experience than Caesar, were of the opinion that the Celtic priestly order or class included Druids, Bards and Vates (soothsayers). Pomponius Mela is the first author who says that the Druids' instruction was secret, and was carried on in caves and forests. Certain groves within forests were sacred, and the Romans and Christians alike cut them down and burned the wood. Human sacrifice has sometimes been attributed to Druidism. While this may be Roman propaganda, human sacrifice was an old European inheritance and the Gauls may have offered human sacrifices, whether of criminals or, to judge from Roman reports, of war captives. It was also claimed by Roman writers that a general assembly of the order was held once every year within the territories of the Carnutes in Gaul. Cicero remarks on the existence among the Gauls of augurs or soothsayers, known by the name of Druids; he had made the acquaintance of one Divitiacus, an Aeduan. Diodorus asserts, on unnamed souces, that a sacrifice acceptable to the Celtic gods had to be attended by a Druid, for they were the intermediaries. He also claims that before a battle they often threw themselves between two armies to bring about peace. Druids were seen as essentially non-Roman: a prescript of Augustus forbade Roman citizens to practise Druidical rites. In Strabo we find the Druids still acting as arbiters in public and private matters, but they no longer dealt with cases of murder. Under Tiberius the Druids were suppressed by a decree of the Senate, but this had to be renewed by Claudius in 54 CE. In Pliny their activity is limited to the practice of medicine and sorcery. According to him, the Druids held the mistletoe in the highest veneration and groves of oak were their chosen retreats. In what is probably a fanciful extension of this story, Pliny claims that the mistletoe was cut with a golden knife by a priest clad in a white robe, two white bulls being sacrificed on the spot. Tacitus, in describing the attack made on the island of Mona (Anglesey or Ynys Mon in Welsh) by the Romans under Suetonius Paulinus, represents the legionaries as being awestruck on landing by the appearance of a band of Druids, who, with hands uplifted to the sky, poured forth terrible imprecations on the heads of the invaders. The courage of the Romans, however, soon overcame such fears, according to the Roman historian; the Britons were put to flight, and the sacred groves of Mona were cut down. After the 1st century CE the continental Druids disappeared entirely and were referred to only on very rare occasions. Ausonius, for one instance, apostrophizes the rhetorician Attius Patera as sprung from a race of Druids.

Early Druids in Britain and Ireland

The story of Vortigern as reported by Nennius provides one of the very few glimpses of Druidic survival in Britain after the Roman conquest: unfortunately, Nennius is noted for mixing fact and legend in such a way that it is now impossible to know the truth behind his text. For what it is worth, he asserts that, after being excommunicated by Germanus, the British leader Vortigern invited twelve Druids to assist him. In Irish literature the Druids are frequently (and reliably) mentioned, and their functions in the island seem to correspond fairly well to those they performed in Gaul (the Modern Irish word for "magic", draíocht, derives from Old Irish druídecht). Even in very early times, however, the bards usurped many of the duties of the Druids and finally supplanted them with the spread of Christianity. The most important Irish documents are contained in manuscripts of the 12th century, but many of the texts themselves go back as far as the 8th. In these stories Druids usually act as advisers to kings. Once again legendary elements crept in: they were said to have the ability to foretell the future (Bec mac Dé, for example, predicted the death of Diarmaid mac Cearbhaill more accurately than three Christian saints) and there is little reference to their religious function. They do not appear to form any corporation, nor do they seem to be exempt from military service. In the Ulster Cycle, Cathbad, chief Druid at the court of Conchobar, king of Ulster, is accompanied by a number of youths (100 according to the oldest version) who are desirous of learning his art. Cathbad is present at the birth of the famous tragic heroine Deirdre, and prophesies what sort of a woman she will be, and the strife that will accompany her, although Conchobar ignores him. The following description of the band of Cathbad's Druids occurs in the epic tale, the Táin bó Cuailnge: The attendant raises his eyes towards heaven and observes the clouds and answers the band around him. They all raise their eyes towards heaven, observe the clouds, and hurl spells against the elements, so that they arouse strife amongst them and clouds of fire are driven towards the camp of the men of Ireland. We are further told that at the court of Conchobar no one had the right to speak before the Druids had spoken. Before setting out on the great expedition against Ulster in Táin Bó Cuailnge, Medb, queen of Connacht, consults her Druids regarding the outcome of the war. They hold up the march by two weeks, waiting for an auspicious omen. Druids also have magical skills: when the hero Cúchulainn returned from the land of the fairies after having been enticed thither by a fairy woman named Fand, whom he is now unable to forget, he is given a potion by some Druids, which banishes all memory of his recent adventures and which also rids his wife Emer of the pangs of jealousy. More remarkable still is the story of Étain. This lady, now the wife of Eochaid Airem, High King of Ireland, was in a former existence the beloved of the god Midir, who again seeks her love and carries her off. The king has recourse to his Druid Dalgn, who requires a whole year to discover the haunt of the couple. This he accomplished by means of four wands of yew inscribed with ogham characters. In other texts the Druids are able to produce insanity. Mug Ruith, a legendary druid of Munster, wore a hornless bull's hide and an elaborate feathered headdress and had the ability to fly and conjure storms.

Social and religious influence

The Druids' influence was as much social as religious. They not only performed as a modern priests would, but were often the philosophers, scientists, lore-masters, teachers, judges and counsellors to the kings. The Druids linked the Celtic peoples with their numerous gods, the lunar calendar and the sacred natural order. They were suppressed in Gaul and Britain after the Roman conquests, but retained their influence in Ireland until the coming of Christianity. The Druids' roles were then assumed by the bishop and the abbot, who were usually not the same individual, however, and might find themselves in direct competition. Nevertheless, much traditional rural religious practice can still be discerned from Christian interpretations and survives in practices like Halloween observances, corn dollies and other harvest rituals, the myths of Puck, woodwoses, "lucky" and "unlucky" plants and animals and the like. Orally-transmitted material may have exaggerated deep origins in antiquity, however, and is constantly subject to influence from surrounding culture.

Druidic sites

Sites associated with Druidry include:
- The Isle of Ynys Mon
- The Isle of Man
- Wistman's Wood on Dartmoor
- Newland's Corner in Surrey
- Iona The association of Druids with Stonehenge is entirely false. It was invented in the sixteenth century in attempts to explain the mysteries of Stonehenge, a prehistoric monument that was abandoned long before any Druids came to Britain. There is no evidence whatever that it was ever used by authentic Druids in ancient times. Nevertheless, it has become an important site for modern movements calling themselves druidic.

In Christian literature

In the lives of saints and martyrs, the Druids are represented as magicians and diviners opposing the Christian missionaries. In Adamnan's vita of Columba, two of them act as tutors to the daughters of Lóegaire mac Néill, the High King, at the coming of Saint Patrick. They are represented as endeavouring to prevent the progress of Patrick and Saint Columba by raising clouds and mist. Before the battle of Culdremne (561) a Druid made an airbe drtiad (fence of protection?) round one of the armies, but what is precisely meant by the phrase is unclear. The Irish Druids seem to have had a peculiar tonsure. The word druí is always used to render the Latin magus, and in one passage St Columba speaks of Christ as his Druid. Once the public ordination of Christian bishops in strongly Druidic territories was possible, it was essential for a 4th century bishop to demonstrate comparable powers. Sulpicius Severus' Vita of Martin of Tours relates how Martin encountered a peasant funeral, carrying the body in a winding sheet, which Martin mistook for some Druidic rites of sacrifice, "because it was the custom of the Gallic rustics in their wretched folly to carry about through the fields the images of demons veiled with a white covering." So Martin halted the procession by raising his pectoral cross: "Upon this, the miserable creatures might have been seen at first to become stiff like rocks. Next, as they endeavored, with every possible effort, to move forward, but were not able to take a step farther, they began to whirl themselves about in the most ridiculous fashion, until, not able any longer to sustain the weight, they set down the dead body." Then discovering his error, Martin raised his hand again to let them proceed: "Thus," the hagiographer points out," he both compelled them to stand when he pleased, and permitted them to depart when he thought good." [http://www.users.csbsju.edu/~eknuth/npnf2-11/sulpitiu/lifeofst.html#tp] This account partly depends on information from the Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1911 and the Catholic Encyclopedia, 1908.

Late Druidic survivals in Flanders

The people of Flanders and the Low Countries remained pagan as late as the 7th century CE, when Saint Eligius travelled from Antwerp to Frisia, preaching and converting them to Christianity. One of the best glimpses of late Druidic practices comes from the Vita of Eligius written by saint Ouen, his contemporary and companion. Ouen drew together the familiar admonitions of Eligius to the pagans in Flanders. "It does not represent anything he said in a particular day in order" Ouen cautioned, "but is a digest of the precepts which he taught the people at all times." Eligius in his sermons denounced "sacrilegious pagan customs." The following excerpted quotes from Ouen's Vita of Eligius are instructive, for the negative description they offer of some late druidic practices in Flanders: :"For no cause or infirmity should you consult magicians, diviners, sorcerers or incantators, or presume to question them." :"Do not observe auguries or violent sneezing or pay attention to any little birds singing along the road. If you are distracted on the road or at any other work, make the sign of the cross and say your Sunday prayers with faith and devotion and nothing inimical can hurt you." :"No Christian should be concerned about which day he leaves home or which day he returns, because God has made all days. No influence attaches to the first work of the day or the [phase of the] moon; nothing is ominous or ridiculous about the Calends of January [what we would call New Year's Day ]. :"[Do not] make vetulas,
- , little deer or iotticos or set tables [for the house-elf, compare Puck] at night or exchange New Years' gifts or supply superfluous drinks [a Yule custom]." :
- Vetula, a little figure of the Old Woman. A Roman would have equated her with Hecate, but precisely who the Old Woman was and what she meant in the pagan Low Countries cannot be determined. :"No Christian gives credence to impurity or sits in incantation, because the work is diabolic. No Christian on the feast of Saint John
- or the solemnity of any other saint performs solestitia [summer solstice rites] or dancing or leaping or diabolical chants." :
- The Christian summer solstice feast of Saint John the Baptist is still celebrated with bonfires on June 24th, though the precession of the equinoxes has shifted the actual equinox forward in the calendar. See entry Midsummer. :"No Christian should presume to invoke the name of a demon, not Neptune or Orcus
- or Diana or Minerva or Geniscus or believe in these inept beings in any way. No one should observe Jove's day in idleness without holy festivities not in May or any other time, not days of larvae
- or mice or any day but Sunday. No Christian should make or render any devotion to the gods of the trivium, where three roads meet [cf. Hecate], to the fanes or the rocks, or springs or groves or corners." :
- Orcus, a chthonic Etruscan/Roman god of the underworld, who enforced the sacredness of oaths and avenged the broken word. ([http://paganinstitute.org/p-hades_essay.html An essay on Hades/Orcus.]) :
- Larvae ("malignant spirits") in this Latin text more specifically refer to the Roman Feast of the Lemures, propitiating the dead, rather than to the Celtic propitiation, which was at Samhain. :"None should presume to hang any phylacteries
- from the neck of man nor beast, even if they are made by priests and it is said that they contain holy things and divine scripture, because there is no remedy of Christ in these things but only the devil's poison." :
- Gregory of Tours set great store by phylacteries. :"None should presume to make lustrations or incantations with herbs, or to pass cattle through a hollow tree or ditch because this is to consecrate them to the devil. No woman should presume to hang amber from her neck or call upon Minerva or other ill-starred beings in their weaving or dyeing but in all works give thanks only to Christ and confide in the power of his name with all your hearts. None should presume to shout when the moon is obscured, for by God's order eclipses happen at certain times. Nor should they fear the new moon or abandon work because of it. For God made the moon for this, to mark time and temper the darkness of night, not impede work nor make men mad as the foolish imagine, who believe lunatics are invaded by demons from the moon. None should call the sun or moon lord or swear by them because they are God's creatures and they serve the needs of men by God's order." :"No one should tell fate or fortune or horoscopes by them as those do who believe that a person must be what he was born to be." :"Above all, should any infirmity occur, do not seek incantators or diviners or sorcerers or magicians, do not use diabolic phylacteries through springs and groves or crossroads. But let the invalid confide solely in the mercy of God and take the body and blood of Christ with faith and devotion and ask the church faithfully for blessing and oil, with which he might anoint his body in the name of Christ and, according to the apostle, "the prayer of faith will save the infirm and the Lord will relieve him." :"Diabolical games and dancing or chants of the gentiles will be forbidden. No Christian will do them because he thus makes himself pagan. Nor is it right that diabolical canticles should proceed from a Christian mouth where the sacrament of Christ is placed, which it becomes always to praise God. Therefore, brothers, spurn all inventions of the enemy with all your heart and flee these sacrileges with all horror. Venerate no creature beyond God and his saints. Shun springs and arbors which they call sacred. You are forbidden to make the crook which they place on the crossroads and wherever you find one you should burn it with fire. For you must believe that you can be saved by no other art than the invocation and cross of Christ. For how will it be if groves where these miserable men make their devotions, are felled and the wood from them given to the furnace? See how foolish man is, to offer honor to insensible, dead trees and despise the precepts of God almighty. Do not believe that the sky or the stars or the earth or any creature should be adored beyond God for he created and disposes of them all."

Reinvention

In the 18th century, England and Wales experienced a reinvention of Druids, inspired by, among others, John Aubrey, John Toland and William Stukely. There is a persistent legend that the poet William Blake was involved in the reinvention and may have been an Archdruid: however, although he certainly took an interest in what little was then known about ancient Britain, there is no evidence to support this legend. John Aubrey was the first modern writer to connect Stonehenge and other megalithic monuments with Druidry, a misconception that shaped ideas of Druidry during much of the 19th century. Modern Druidic groups have their roots in this revival. Some of them claim that Aubrey was an archdruid in possession of an uninterrupted tradition of Druidic knowledge, even though Aubrey, an uninhibited collector of lore and gossip, never entered a corroborating word in his voluminous surviving notebooks. John Toland was fascinated by Aubrey's Stonehenge theories, and wrote his own book about the monument without crediting Aubrey. He too has been claimed as an Archdruid, again with no basis in any kind of evidence. The so-called Ancient Order of Druids was founded in 1781 by Henry Hurle. He compensated for his near-total lack of knowledge about the ancient Druids by incorporating Masonic ideas into the rituals he freely invented for the order. A central figure in the Druidic reinvention that Hurle inspired is Edward Williams, better known as Iolo Morganwg. His writings, published posthumously as The Iolo Manuscripts (1848) and Barddas (1862), remain influential in contemporary Druidic movements. Williams claimed to have collected ancient knowledge in a "Gorsedd of Bards of the Isles of Britain" he had organized. Many scholars deem part or all of Williams's work to be fabrication, and purportedly many of the documents are of his own fabrication, but a large portion of the work has indeed been collected from meso-pagan sources dating from as far back as 600 A.D. Regardless, it has become impossible to seperate the original source material from the fabricated work, and the documents are considered irrelevant by most serious scholars. An unfortunate result of the reinvention, which took place, ironically, just as modern archaeological and historical methods were being developed, is that it has shaped public perceptions of historical Druidry and continues to shape some modern forms of it. The British Museum website is suitably blunt: :"Modern Druids have no direct connection to the Druids of the Iron Age. Many of our popular ideas about the Druids are based on the misunderstandings and misconceptions of scholars 200 years ago. These ideas have been superceded by later study and discoveries" [http://www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/compass/].

Modern Druidism

Some strands of modern Druidism (a.k.a. Modern Druidry), such as the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids (OBOD), are a continuation of the 18th-century revival and thus are built largely around writings produced in the 18th century and later. Members may be Neo-Pagan, Christian, or non-specifically monotheistic. Other strands could be classified as eclectic NeoPaganism, and may mix elements from other cultures such as Shamanism and Native American; they are typically more interested in modern experience than in scholarship. A third strand, more akin to Celtic Reconstructionism, rejects the 18th-century revival entirely and tracks the latest scholarship on the relatively sparse Roman and early medieval written sources, archaeology, and comparative linguistics in an attempt to get as close as possible to Ancient Druidry. Modern Druidism has two strands, the cultural and the religious. Cultural Druids hold a competition of poetry, literature and music known as the Eisteddfod amongst the Celtic peoples (Welsh, Irish, Cornish, Breton, etc). It is not always easy to distinguish between the two strands, because religiously-oriented Druid orders may welcome members of any or no religious background while culturally-oriented orders may not inquire about the religious beliefs of members. Both types of Druid order, then, may contain both religiously-oriented and non-religiously oriented members. Many notable Britons have been initiated into Druidic orders, including Winston Churchill. Churchill's case illustrates the difficulty of distinguishing between the two strands, because historians are not even certain which order he joined, the Ancient Order of Druids or the Ancient and Archaeological Order of Druids, let alone for what purpose he joined. Fragments of a Druidic Lunar Calendar may be preserved in the Coligny calendar, fragments of a calendar engraved on a bronze tablet, discovered in 1897.

External links

- [http://www.2stonehenge.com/druids.html Druids, priests of the ancient Celts]
- [http://celt.net/Celtic/celtopedia/d.html Encyclopedia of the Celts: "Druids"]
- [http://realmagick.com/articles/05/1305.html John Patrick Parle, "Story of the Celts"] - a simple introduction Category:Christian history Category:Druidry Category:Ancient Roman enemies and allies Category:Shamanism ja:ドルイド

Celts

:This article is about the European people. For the tool, see celt (tool). celt (tool) The term Celts (pronounced "kelts") refers to any of a number of ancient peoples in Europe using the Celtic languages, which form a branch of Indo-European languages, as well as others whose language is unknown but where associated cultural traits such as Celtic art are found in archaeological evidence. Historical theories were developed that these factors were indicative of a common origin, but later theories of culture spreading to differing indigenous peoples have recently been supported by genetic studies. Though the spread of the Roman empire led to continental Celts adopting Roman culture, the development of Celtic Christianity in Ireland and Britain brought an early medieval renaissance of Celtic art between 400 and 1200. Antiquarian interest from the 17th century led to the term Celt being developed, and rising nationalism brought Celtic revivals from the 19th century in areas where the use of Celtic languages had continued. Today, "Celtic" is often used to describe the languages and respective cultures of Ireland, Wales, Scotland, Cornwall, the Isle of Man and the French region of Brittany, but correctly corresponds to the Celtic language family in which are still spoken Scottish, Irish and Manx (Gaelic languages) and Welsh, Breton and Cornish (Brythonic languages).

Development of the term "Celt"

The first literary reference to the Celtic people, as keltoi or hidden people, is by the Greek historian Hecataeus in 517 BC. According to Greek mythology, Celtus was the son of Heracles and Celtine, the daughter of Bretannus. Celtus became the primogenitor of Celts (Ref.: Parth. 30.1-2). In Latin Celta, in turn from Herodotus' word for the Gauls, Keltoi. The Romans used Celtae to refer to continental Gauls, but apparently not to insular Celts, which were divided into Goidhels and Britons, and possibly other peoples. This is likely due to the possibility that, at those times, the term "Celta/Keltos" was tied to those cultures or people descendant from the Central Europe Celts, while no ties were known to the insular people (especially the Gaels whose language was extremely different from that of Brythonic Celts). The English word is modern, attested from 1707. In the late 17th century the work of scholars such as Edward Lhuyd brought academic attention, then in the 18th century the interest in "primitivism" which led to the idea of the "noble savage" brought a wave of enthusiasm for all things Celtic and Druidic. The "Irish revival" came after the Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829 as a conscious attempt to demonstrate an Irish national identity, and with its counterpart in other countries subsequently became the "Celtic revival". Nowadays "Celt" is usually pronounced as and "Celtic" as (in IPA) when referring to the ethnic group and its languages, while the pronunciation remains in use mainly for certain sports teams (eg. the NBA team, Boston Celtics, and the SPL side, Celtic F.C., in Glasgow). (The pronunciation with /s/ reflects historical palatalization of the letter 'C' when it occurs before 'I' or 'E' in words of Latin origin; in the Classical era Latin 'C' was always pronounced as /k/. The modern pronunciation with /k/ is a reversion to the original, whereas the pronunciation with /s/ has not been reverted.) The word spelt as "Celtic" is (arguably) English, as the Latin was "Celticus" or "Celticum", the Welsh is "Celtaidd", and the Irish Gaelic is "Ceilteach". By this argument, a pronunciation with /s/ should therefore be acceptable. The term "Celt" or "Celtic" can be used in several senses: it can denote a group of peoples who speak or descend from speakers of Celtic languages; or the people of prehistoric and early historic Europe who share common cultural traits which are thought to have originated in the Hallstatt and La Tène cultures. In contemporary terms, there are typically six nations defined as 'Celtic Nations'. To be defined as a Celtic nation, that nation must have ownership of a Celtic language. The first six are usually defined as Ireland, Wales, Scotland, Cornwall, the Isle of Man, and Brittany. The additional nations of Galicia and Asturias in Spain are sometimes considered to be modern Celtic nations based on the survival of Celtic traditions similar to the traditions of other Celtic nations, however, the Celtic language has not survived in either. England retains many Celtic influences but is not Celtic, but the languages of Pre-Anglo Celtic peoples influences dialects of some of its more rural regions, particularly those bordering Scotland and Wales, the best known of which are Cumbric which was spoken from Strathclyde to Derbyshire as recently as the 11th century, and the language centred on Devon — both languages are under-going a modern revival. Other areas of Europe are associated with being Celtic as well, including France, which traces its roots to the Gauls. In Scotland, the Gaelic language traces at least some of its roots to migration and settlement by the Irish Dalriada/Scotti. Due to the settlement of English speaking Angles in the lowlands, which — among other things — drove out the Gaelic language, Scots Gaelic survives only in the country's northern and western fringes in the areas where Scotti tribes settled and dominated over the indigenous Brythonic culture. The use of the word 'Celtic' as a valid umbrella term for the pre-Roman peoples of Britain has been challenged by a number of writers — including Simon James of the British Museum. His book The Atlantic Celts - Ancient People Or Modern Invention? makes the point that the Romans never used the term 'Celtic' in reference to the peoples of the Atlantic archipelago, i.e. the British Isles, and points out that the modern term "Celt" was coined as a useful umbrella term in the early 18th century to distinguish the non-English inhabitants of the archipelago when England united with Scotland in 1707 to create the United Kingdom. Nationalists in Scotland, Ireland and Wales looked for a way to differentiate themselves from England and assert their right to independence. James then argues that, despite the obvious linguistic connections, archaeology does not suggest a united Celtic culture and that the term is misleading, no more (or less) meaningful than 'Western European' would be today. This is somewhat misleading, however, since the Romans and Greeks did describe the Atlantic and continental Celts as being related to each other, having military alliances (and rivalries) with one another, sharing similar languages and traditions, as well as having a common religion and priest class. Additionally, archeological evidence shows quite clearly that the Atlantic and continental Celts were engaged in commerce with each other via regular trade routes. No one on either side of the debate argues that Celtic people have ever been a single homogenous political or social unit, but to argue that the Atlantic Celts were not Celts at all simply because hostile Romans never described them as such betrays a rather unscholarly bias. Miranda Green, author of Celtic Goddesses, describes archaeologists as finding "a certain homogeneity" in the traditions in the area of Celtic habitation including Britain and Ireland — an assertion backed up by recent genetic evidence which shows the populations of Ireland and Wales to be virtually indistinguishable from each other. She sees the inhabitants of the British Isles and Ireland as having become thoroughly Celticized by the time of the Roman arrival, mainly through spread of culture rather than a movement of people. In his book Iron Age Britain, Barry Cunliffe concludes that "...there is no evidence in the British Isles to suggest that a population group of any size migrated from the continent in the first millennium BC...". Cunliffe tempers his remarks by pointing out that absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, but modern archaeological thought tends to disparage the idea of large population movements without facts to back them up, a caution which appears to be vindicated by genetic studies. In other words, Celtic culture in the Atlantic Archipelago and continental Europe most probably emerged through the peaceful convergence of local tribal cultures bound together by networks of trade and kinship — not by war and conquest. This type of peaceful convergence and cooperation is actually relatively common among tribal peoples; other well known examples of the phenomenon include the Six Nations of the Iroquois League and the Nuer of East Africa. The ancient Celts are thus best depicted as a loose and highly diverse collection of indigenous tribal societies bound together by trade, a common druidic religion, and similar political institutions — but each having its own local language and traditions. Michael Morse in the conclusion of his book How the Celts came to Britain concedes that the concepts of a broad Celtic linguistic area and recognizably Celtic art have their uses, but argues that the term implies a greater unity than existed. Despite such problems he suggests that the term Celt is probably too deep-rooted to be replaced and — what is more important — it has the definition that we choose to give it. The problem is that the wider public reads into the term quite anachronistic concepts of ethnic unity that no one on either side in the academic debate holds.

Population genetics

With the information gathered recently by population geneticists, it is becoming increasingly clear that the old idea of large-scale replacement by newer invaders is often a misleading concept. The Celtic ethnicity debate took off at a particularly early stage in population genetic studies. In his book, "Neanderthal", the archaeologist, Douglas Palmer, refers to genetic research conducted across Europe, and then states that the original modern genetic group in Europe arrived between 9,000 and 5,000 years ago with the spread of farming, displacing the earlier hunter gatherer populations. Such displacement occurred by population explosion, since farming is capable of supporting up to a 60 times greater population than the hunter-gatherer lifestyle in the same area; :"None of Europe's subsequent historic upheavals - even catastrophic wars and famines - has seriously dented the old pattern set by the influx of farmers. The Goths, Huns and Romans have come and gone without any significant impact on the ancient gene map of Europe". -Douglas Palmer It seems futile to suggest that people who were once part of a wider Celtic cultural group, cannot be considered Celtic, in the same way that it would seem futile to suggest that their direct descendants in places like Devon or Cumbrian cannot be considered English in modern times. Perhaps our percepion of race and culture need to change, as European population genetic history seems to indicate that the latter is independent of the former.

Origins and geographical distribution

Huns style. The red area indicates an idea of the possible region of Celtic influence around 400 BC.]] The Celtic language family is a branch of the larger Indo-European family, which leads some scholars to a hypothesis that the original speakers of the Celtic proto-language may have arisen in the Pontic-Caspian steppes (see Kurgan). However, as the Celts enter history from around 600 BC, they are already split into several languages groups, and spread over much of Central Europe, the Iberian peninsula, Ireland and Britain, and studies now suggest that some of the Celtic peoples - including the ancestors of all the modern Celtic nations - had a largely pre-Celtic genetic ancestry, shared with the Basque people and possibly going back to the Palaeolithic. . Some scholars think that the Urnfield culture represents an origin for the Celts as a distinct cultural branch of the Indo-European family. This culture was preeminent in central Europe during the late Bronze Age, from ca. 1200 BC until 700 BC, itself following the Unetice and Tumulus cultures. The Urnfield period saw a dramatic increase in population in the region, probably due to innovations in technology and agricultural practices. The spread of iron-working led to the development of the Hallstatt culture directly from the Urnfield (c. 700 to 500 BC). Proto-Celtic, the latest common ancestor of all known Celtic languages, is thought to have been spoken at the time of the late Urnfield or early Hallstatt cultures, in the early 1st millennium BC. The spread of the Celtic languages to Britain and to Iberia would have occurred during the first half of the 1st millennium, the earliest chariot burials in Britain dating to ca. 500 BC. Over the centuries they developed into the separate Celtiberian, Goidelic and Brythonic languages. Whether Goidelic and Brythonic are descended from a common Insular-Celtic language, or if they reflect two separate waves of migration is disputed. The La Tène culture, in any case, can be associated with the Gauls, but it is entirely too late for a candidate for the Proto-Celtic culture. The Hallstatt culture was succeeded by the La Tène culture, and during the final stages of the Iron Age gradually transformed into the explicitly Celtic culture of early historical times. The La Tène culture was distributed around the upper reaches of the Danube, Switzerland, Austria, southern and central Germany, eastern France, Bohemia and Moravia, and parts of Hungary. The technologies, decorative practices and metal-working styles of the La Tène were to be very influential on the continental Celts. The La Tène style was highly derivative from the Greek, Etruscan and Scythian decorative styles with whom the La Tène settlers frequently traded. It is not known whether the Picts of Scotland were Celts or the remnant of an earlier population of the British Isles who had been pushed to the margin by Celtic invasions, or indeed whether they spoke a Brythonic language. The lack of any evidence to support the Celtic Invasion model, however, leads many scholars to favor the former model. In historical times western Scotland was colonised by Celtic Scotti from Ireland, who subsequently formed a political union with the Picts under Kenneth mac Alpin who had both Scots and Pictish ancestry. Additional forays into Greece and central Italy during the historical period did not result in settlement, though the same movement that brought Celtic invaders to Greece pushed on through to Anatolia, where they settled as the Galatians. As there is no archaeological evidence for large scale invasions in some of the other areas, one current school of thought holds that Celtic language and culture spread to those areas by contact rather than invasion. However, the Celtic invasions of Italy, Greece, and western Anatolia are well documented in Greek and Latin history. Examine the Map of Celtic Landsfor more information. Stonehenge and the other megalithic monuments long predate the Iron Age Celtic culture, but Genetic evidence indicates that the Celtic populations of the Atlantic Archipelago have been relatively stable for at least 6,000 years, in which case the modern Celts would be the direct descendants of their builders. There is no evidence that they used these sites as areas of worship from the Iron Age on, however, and indeed most evidence suggest that the Druidic Celtic religion(s) preferred to use groves of Oak trees as places of worship. The connection between these monuments and the Celts largely stems from 18th century romantics such as William Stukely.

Celts in Ireland and Britain

The indigenous populations of Britain and Ireland today are primarily descended from the ancient peoples that have always inhabited these lands. As to their culture, little is known but remnants remain primarily in the naming of certain geographical features, such as the rivers Clyde, Tamar, Thames and Tyne. By the Roman period most of the inhabitants of the isles of Ireland and Great Britain (the ancient Britons) were speaking Goidelic or Brythonic languages, close counterparts to Gaulish languages spoken on the European mainland. Historians explained this as the result of successive invasions from the European continent by diverse Celtic-speaking peoples over the course of several centuries. In 1946 the Celtic scholar T. F. O'Rahilly published his extremely influential model of the early history of Ireland which postulated four separate waves of Celtic invaders. What languages were spoken by the peoples of the British Isles before the arrival of the Celts is unknown. early history of Ireland Later research indicated that the language and culture had developed gradually and continuously, and in Ireland no archaeological evidence was found for large intrusive groups of Celtic immigrants, suggesting to historians such as Colin Renfrew that the native Late Bronze Age inhabitants gradually absorbed influences to create "Celtic" culture. The very few continental La Tène culture style objects which had been found in Ireland could have been imports, or the possessions of a few rich immigrants. Julius Caesar had written of people in Britain who came from Belgium (the Belgae), but archaeological evidence which was interpreted in the 1930s as confirming this was contradicted by later interpretations and it was suggested that there might have been only a handful of élite Belgae in Britain. In the 1970s this model was popularised by Colin Burgess in his book The Age of Stonehenge which theorised that Celtic culture in Great Britain "emerged" rather than resulted from invasion and that the Celts were not invading aliens, but the descendants of the people of Stonehenge. More recently a number of genetic studies have supported this model of culture being absorbed by native populations. The study by Cristian Capelli, David Goldstein and others at University College, London showed that genes associated with Gaelic names in Ireland and Scotland are also common in Wales, Cornwall and most parts England, and are similar to the genes of the Basque people, who speak a non-Indo-European language. This similarity supported earlier findings in suggesting a largely pre-Celtic genetic ancestry, possibly going back to the Paleolithic. They suggest that 'Celtic' culture and the Celtic language were imported to Britain by cultural contact not mass invasions, either by Indo-Europeans bringing farming or by Celts in 600 BC. Recent studies have proven that, contrary to long-standing beliefs, the Teuton tribes did not wipe out the Romano-British of England but rather, over the course of six centuries, conquered the native Brythonic people of what is now England and south east Scotland and imposed their culture and language upon them, in a manner similar to the Irish spread over the west of Scotland.

Roman influence

At the dawn of history in Europe, the Celts in present-day France were known as Gauls. Their descendants were described by Julius Caesar in his Gallic Wars. There was also an early Celtic presence in northern Italy. Other Celtic tribes invaded Italy, establishing there a city they called Mediolanum (modern Milan) and sacking Rome itself in 390 BC following the Battle of the Allia. A century later the defeat of the combined Samnite, Celtic and Etruscan alliance by the Romans in the Third Samnite War sounded the end of the Celtic domination in Europe, but it was not until 192 BC that the Roman armies conquered the last remaining independent Celtic kingdoms in Italy. Under Caesar the Romans conquered Celtic Gaul, and from Claudius onward the Roman empire absorbed parts of the Celtic British Isles. Roman local government of these regions closely mirrored pre-Roman 'tribal' boundaries, and archaeological finds suggest native involvement in local government. Latin was the official language of these regions after the conquests. The native peoples under Roman rule became Romanized and keen to adopt Roman ways. Celtic art had already incorporated classical influences, and surviving Gallo-Roman pieces interpret classical subjects or keep faith with old traditions despite a Roman overlay.

Examples of Romanization

Examples of Romanization include the slow dissapperence of druids. This was because under Roman rule the druids lost power. Before Roman rule druids were important and made almost all desicions. When Rome came to rule druids no longer made these desicions. The use of stone by Celts. Before Rome they almost only used mud and sticks. When they started to interact with Rome more they started to use stone. Appearence of Roman-Celt hybrid gods. With more interaction with Rome celtic gods started to have names such as Mars.

Celtic Christianity

While the regions under Roman rule adopted Christianity along with the rest of the Roman empire, unconquered areas of Scotland and Ireland moved from Celtic polytheism to Celtic Christianity which was a major source of missionary work in other parts of Britain and central Europe. This brought the early medieval renaissance of Celtic art between 400 and 1200, developing many of the styles now thought of as typically Celtic, and found through much of Ireland and Britain, including the north-east and far north of Scotland, Orkney and Shetland Islands. This was brought to an end by Roman Catholic and Norman influence, though the Celtic languages and some minor influences of the art continued.

Celts pushed west by Germanic migration

Celts were pushed westwards by successive waves of Germanic invaders, perhaps themselves at times pressured by Huns and Scythians or simply population pressures in their homeland of Scandinavia and Northern Germany. With the fall of the Roman Empire the Celts of Gaul, Iberia and Britannia were "conquered" by tribes speaking Germanic languages. Elsewhere, the Celtic populations were assimilated by others, leaving behind them only a legend and a number of place names such as Bohemia, after the Boii tribe which once lived there, or the Kingdom of Belgium, after the Belgae, a Celtic tribe of Northern Gaul and south-eastern England. Their mythology has been absorbed into the folklore of half a dozen other countries. For instance, the famous Medieval English Arthurian tale of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is almost certainly partially derived from the medieval Irish text Fled Bricrend (The Feast of Bricriu). Argument rages in the academic world as to whether the Celts in England were mostly wiped out/pushed west as the lack of evidence for influence of the Celts on Anglo-Saxon society suggests, or whether the Teuton migration consisted merely of the social elite and that the genocide was cultural rather than physical due to such relatively few numbers of Anglo-Saxons mixing with the far larger native population, enabled to do so due to the civil strife in Britain after the Roman withdrawal and the unity of the incoming invaders. Recent DNA studies have confirmed that the population of England maintains a predominately ancient British element, equal in most parts to Cornwall and Wales. The general indigenous population of Yorkshire, East Anglia and the Orkney and Sheltand Islands are those populations with the least traces of ancient British continuation . Ironically, it is Viking genetic influence and not Anglo-Saxon which has had a more profound impact on British bloodlines.

Celtic social system and arts

The pre-Christian Celts had a well-organized social structure, based on class and kinship, with the religion we call Celtic polytheism. Elected Kings led the tribes, and society was divided into three groups: a warrior aristocracy, an intellectual class including druids, poets, and jurists, and everyone else. Women participated both in warfare and in kingship, and all the offices of high and low kings were filled by election under the system of tanistry, both factors which would confuse Norman writers expecting the feudal principle of primogeniture where the succession goes to the first born son. Little is known of family structure, but Athenaeus in his Deipnosophists, 13.603, claims that "the Celts, in spite of the fact that their women are very beautiful, prefer boys as sexual partners. There are some of them who will regularly go to bed – on those animal skins of theirs – with a pair of lovers," implying with a woman and a boy. Celtic societies were organised around warfare, but this seems to have been more of a sport focussed on raids and hunting rather than organised territorial conquest, drawing obvious comparisons to warfare among Native Americans prior to European contact. This was the age of Hillforts and duns, but there was apparently no urbanization. There is strong archeological evidence to suggest that the pre-Roman Celtic nations were tied into a network of overland trade routes that spanned Eurasia from Ireland to China. Celtic traders were also in contact with the Phoenicians, gold works made in Pre-Roman Ireland have been unearthed in archeological digs in Palestine, and trade routes between the Celtic nations and Palestine date back to at least 1600 BC. Local trade was largely in the form of barter, but as with most tribal societies they probably had a reciprocal economy in which goods and other services are not exchanged, but are given on the basis of mutual relationships and the obligations of kinship. Though they had a written language, the Ogham script, it was only used for ceremonial purposes and they produced little in the way of literary output. Instead, Celtic peoples preferred the oral Bardic tradition. The oldest recorded rhyming poetry in the world is of Irish origin and is a transcription of a much older epic poem, leading some scholars to claim that the Celts invented Rhyme. They were highly skilled in visual arts and Celtic art produced a great deal of intricate and beautiful metalwork, examples of which have been preserved by their distinctive burial rites. In some regards the Atlantic Celts were conservative, for example they still used chariots in combat long after they had been reduced to ceremonial roles by the Greeks and Romans, though when faced with the Romans, and in the Atlantic islands their chariot tactics defeated the invasion attempted by Julius Caesar.

Celtic Religous Patterns

Although Celtic gods varied from region to region and tribe to tribe, the Celtic religion had some patterns. For example like Mediterranean cultures most early Celts worshipped in sacred groves. This was once postulated to have occured because of Celts trading with Mediterranean cultures; however, evidence from Hallstatt era finds show that the earliest Celts practiced this before such trade took place. More reasonably, it is a byproduct of most primitive religion to worship in such a way. However, La Tene Celts also built temples of varying size and shape, though they still usually maintained sacred trees, or votive pools. Worship was, in this way, defered to temples, when they were available. Numerous temples were converted by the Romans, and with little difficulty; the design was rather similar to Roman temples, as they were both highly influenced by the Greeks, architecturally speaking. They druids postitions vary; a druid is not always a priest. Druids are any members of a Celtic society who had what we would view today as a college education. The most educated druids were usually doctors, priests, and heralds, as these occupations required the most memorization and skill for their practices. Priests from this class were in charge of a great deal of religious festivals, as well as organizing the calendar; a daunting task as the Celtic calendar is incredibly accurate, but required manual correction about every 40 years, meaning lengthy mathematic discourse. Druids also carried out sacrifices of crops, animals, and during specific festivals, humans. In a Celtic society, people were not executed for crimes, except during these festivals. Such executions varied, depending on what god the execution was dedicated to. Among the most famous is the human sacrifices practiced in the course of Essus worship. Essus was, more or less, a benevolent law god to many Celts, particularly Gauls. However, Essus worship also intoned a sense of merciless behavior toward repeated criminals, rapists, traitors, and other societal dregs. The offender, if found guilty, would be taken to the temple of Essus, where an oak would be growing through an opening in the temple roof. His stomach would be cut open, and he would be hung from an oak branch. The Celts' gods were often named after natural things. For example the source of rivers would often have their own goddesses, though rarely many gods. Another theme with Celt gods were triple deities; not only goddesses, but numerous gods. For example the Mothers of Britain, or Cromm Cruach's slovenly, deific, and humanistic forms. The main deities of Celtic religion, contrary to much misconception, were usually male. The world in some remaining myths is often depicted as having been forged by a god with a hammer, such as Dagda or Sucellos, who then poured all life from a magic cauldron or cup; a source of pre-Christian 'Holy Grail' myths in Celtic societies. While deities varied, several constant deities or demigods existed over a wide area. A great example is Lugos, a heroic sun god from Gaul and the southern, Gallic parts of Britain. He is also known as Lugh (in Ireland), Llew (in non-Gallic Britain), and Lug (among Celtiberians, who were not culturally true Celts). Early depictions of him exist as early as the Hallstatt era, suggesting him as one of the longest existing gods of Celtic religion. Similar is the horse and fertility goddess, Epona, who was also worshipped by the Romans when they came to rule Gaul. She also seems to have existed from the early era. Finally, there is Sucellos, who is argued by some to have been the 'creator of the universe' in some Celtic religions. He is party to Dagda of Ireland, and was worshipped over an enormous area, including by non-Celtic peoples such as the Lusitani. He was the patron god of the Ordovices tribe of Britain, and was built up by the Arverni and their allies to replace the druidic god Cernunnos, as the Gallic druids were allies of their enemies in the rule for Gaul; the Aedui. Other religious practices also existed; Celts seem to have universally removed body hair. Some postulate this as religious, but was more realistically part of the Celtic propensity for cleanliness. Body hair kept dirt close to the body, and Celts were an extremely cleanly people, so this was unacceptable. However, Celts also took heads from dead enemies. This was definitely a religious practice in origin. However, even post-Christian Gaels continued this practice into the middle ages; some Irish even took to scalping the heads that they took, so they could braid the scalp through rings on their weapons. The religious connotations by that point were slim, but it does imply that taking heads had incredible cultural importance to have persisted so long after the religious background had been removed. To our understanding, Celts believed the soul resided in the head, and that capturing a head meant that one captured the soul of an opponent, and that when a Celt died, the dead whom he had collected would serve him as slaves for eternity.

Celts as head-hunters

"Amongst the Celts the human head was venerated above all else, since the head was to the Celt the soul, centre of the emotions as well as of life itself, a symbol of divinity and of the powers of the other-world." - Paul Jacobsthal, Early Celtic Art. The Celtic cult of the severed head is documented not only in the many sculptured representations of severed heads in La Tene carvings, but in the surviving Celtic mythology, which is full of stories of the severed heads of heroes and the saints who carry their decapitated heads, right down to Sir Gawain and the Green Knight who picks up his own severed head after Gawain has struck it off, just as St. Denis carried his head to the top of Montmartre. Separated from the mundane body, although still alive, the animated head acquires the ability to see into the mythic realm. Diodorus Siculus, in his 1st century History had this to say about Celtic head-hunting: "They cut off the heads of enemies slain in battle and attach them to the necks of their horses. The blood-stained spoils they hand over to their attendants and carry off as booty, while striking up a paean and singing a song of victory; and they nail up these first fruits upon their houses, just as do those who lay low wild animals in certain kinds of hunting. They embalm in cedar oil the heads of the most distinguished enemies, and preserve them carefully in a chest, and display them with pride to strangers, saying that for this head one of their ancestors, or his father, or the man himself, refused the offer of a large sum of money. They say that some of them boast that they refused the weight of the head in gold; thus displaying what is only a barbarous kind of magnanimity, for it is not a sign of nobility to refrain from selling the proofs of one's valour. It is rather true that it is bestial to continue one's hostility against a slain fellow man." The Celts also believed that if they attached the head of their enemy to a pole or a fence near their house, the head would start crying when the enemy was near. The Celtic headhunters venerated the image of the severed head as a continuing source of spiritual power. If the head is the seat of the soul, possessing the severed head of an enemy, honorably reaped in battle, added prestige to any warrior's reputation. According to tradition the buried head of a god or hero named Bran the Blessed protected Britain from invasion across the English Channel.

Names for Celts

The origin of the various names used since classical times for the people known today as the Celts is obscure and has been controversial. It appears that none of the terms recorded were ever used by Celtic speakers of themselves. In particular, there is no record of the term "Celt" being used in connection with the inhabitants of Ireland and Britain prior to the 19th century.

The name "Gauls"

English Gaul(s), French Gaulois(es), Spanish Galo(s), Latin Gallus or Galli, German Gallier might be from an originally Celtic ethnic or tribal name (perhaps borrowed into Latin during the early 400s BC, Celtic expansions into Italy). Its root may be the Common Celtic
- galno, meaning "power" or "strength". Greek Galatai (see Galatia in Anatolia) seems to be based on the same root, borrowed directly from the same hypothetical Celtic source which gave us Galli (the suffix -atai is simply an ethnic name indicator).

The word "Welsh"

The word Welsh is a Germanic word, yet it may ultimately have a Celtic source. It may be the result of an early borrowing (in the 4th century BC) of the Celtic tribal name Volcae into early Germanic (becoming the Proto-Germanic
- Walh-, "Foreigner" and the suffixed form
- Walhisk-). The Volcae were one of the Celtic peoples that barred, for two centuries, the southward expansion of the German tribes in central Germany on the line of the Hartz mountains and into Saxony and Silesia. In the middle ages certain districts of what is now Germany were known as "Welschland" as opposed to "Deutschland", and the word is cognate with Vlach (see: Etymology of Vlach) and Walloon as well as the 'wall' in Cornwall. During the early Germanic period, the term seems to have been applied to the peasant population of the Roman Empire, most of whom were, in the areas immediately settled by the Germans, of ultimately Celtic origin.

The name "Celts"

English Celt(s), Latin Celtus pl. Celti (Celtae), Greek Κέλτης pl. Κέλτες seem to be based on a native Celtic ethnic name (singular
- Celtos or
- Celta with plurals
- Celtoi or
- Celta:s), of unsure etymology. The root would seem to be a Primitive Indo-European
- kel- or (s)kel-, but there are several such roots of various meanings to choose from (
- kel- "to be prominent",
- kel- "to drive or set in motion",
- kel- "to strike or cut" etc.)

References

- Collis, John. The Celts - Origins, Myths & Inventions. Stroud: Tempus Publishing, 2003. ISBN 0752429132.
- Cunliffe, Barry. The Ancient Celts. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997. ISBN 0198150105.
- Cunliffe, Barry. Iron age Britain. London: Batsford, 2004. ISBN 0713488395
- James, Simon. The Atlantic Celts - Ancient People Or Modern Invention? Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, August 1999. ISBN 0299166740.
- James, Simon & Rigby, Valerie. Britain and the Celtic Iron Age. London: British Museum Press, 1997. ISBN 0714123064.
- Kruta,V., O. Frey, Barry Raftery and M. Szabo. eds. The Celts. New York: Thames & Hudson, 1991. ISBN 0847821935.
- Laing, Lloyd. The Archaeology of Late Celtic Britain and Ireland c. 400--1200 AD. London: Methuen, 1975. ISBN 0416823602
- MacKillop, James. A Dictionary of Celtic Mythology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998. ISBN 0192801201
- McEvedy, Colin. The Penguin Atlas of Ancient History. New York: Penguin, 1985. ISBN 0140708324
- Mallory, J. P. In Search of the Indo-Europeans: Language, Archaeology and Myth. London: Thames and Hudson, 1991. ISBN 0500276161.
- Powell, T. G. E. The Celts. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1980. third ed. 1997. ISBN 0500272751.
- Raftery, Barry. Pagan Celtic Ireland: The Enigma of the Irish Iron Age. London: Thames & Hudson, 1994. ISBN 0500279837.
- Renfrew, Colin. Archaeology and Language: The Puzzle of Indo-European Origins. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990. ISBN 0521386756.
- Ward-Perkins, Bryan. "Why Did The Anglo-Saxons Not Become More British?" in English Historical Review, June 2000.
- Weale, M. "Y Chromosome Evidence For Anglo-Saxon Mass Migration." in Society For Molecular Biology And Evolution, 2002.
- Lloyd and Jenifer Laing. Art of the Celts, London: Thames and Hudson, 1992 ISBN 0500202567

External links

- [http://www.resourcesforhistory.com Celts and Romans]
- [http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/MA/CELTS.HTM The Celts]
- [http://www.familytreedna.com/pdf/capelli2_CB.pdf "A Y Chromosome Census of the British Isles" (pdf)]
- BBC [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/2076470.stm "English and Welsh are races apart"]
- BBC [http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/programmes/bloodofthevikings/genetics_results_07.shtml "Descendents of the ancient Britons in genetic survey results for Rush and Castlerea, Ireland, 2003".] Category:Ancient Roman enemies and allies Category:Ancient peoples Category:Celts Category:Ethnic groups of Europe als:Kelten ms:Celt ja:ケルト人

Western Europe

Western Europe is distinguished from Eastern Europe by differences of history and culture rather than by geography. However, these boundaries of Europe are subject to considerable overlap and fluctuation, which makes differentiation difficult. Thus the concept of Western Europe is associated with liberal democracy; and its countries have been considered to share some economic and political traditions with the United States of America and Canada — which have received millions of Western European settlers since the discovery of the New World. Up to World War I, "Western Europe" was thought to comprise France, the British Isles and Benelux. These countries represented the democratic victors of both world wars; and their ideological approach was spread further east as a consequence, in a process not unlike the ideological effect of the Napoleonic Wars, when new ideas spread from revolutionary France. During the Cold War, this ideological designation of Western Europe was supplemented with the aspect of market economies in the West versus the planned economies of Eastern Europe, reflecting the anti-Bolshevism that was aroused in Western Europe by the Russian Revolutions of 1917 and the remaining opposition to the Soviet Union in general. Thus Western Europe came to include both traditional democracies outside of NATO, as Finland, Sweden and Switzerland, and some market economy dictatorships, as Portugal and Spain. This is also why NATO members such as Greece and Turkey were generally considered Western European even though they are geographically in the southeast. The border between Western and Eastern Europe, the Iron Curtain, was securely defended. Until the enlargement of the European Union of 2004, Western Europe was sometimes associated with that Union, although non-members such as Norway and Switzerland unquestionably were considered parts of Western Europe. Today the connection to NATO or to the European Union increasingly may be perceived as historical. A common understanding of Western Europe includes the following parts:
- the five Nordic countries (Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark)
- the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland
- the Benelux countries (Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg)
- Germany
- France and Monaco
- the Alpine countries (Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria)
- the Italian peninsula (Italy, San Marino, Vatican City) and Malta
- the Iberian peninsula Spain, Andorra, Portugal and Gibraltar It ought to be borne in mind that the concepts of Europe's division overlap. The Nordic countries being counted to Western Europe does not at all hinder their also being considered part of Northern Europe. Similarly, the Alpine countries may be considered part of Central Europe, and Italy, the Iberian countries, Monaco, Greece and southern France part of Southern Europe as well. The Alpine country of Slovenia may by some be counted to Western Europe, similarly to how some would consider Estonia as a Nordic country, and hence maybe also to Western Europe.

External link

- [http://www.ericdigests.org/pre-9217/europe.htm Teaching about Western Europe]
- ko:서유럽 ja:西ヨーロッパ

British Isles

:For an explanation of often confusing terms like (Great) Britain, United Kingdom and England see also British Isles (terminology). :The "British Isles" is also an old name for the British and Irish Lions rugby team. British and Irish Lions The British Isles is a term traditionally given to the group of islands off the northwest coast of Europe including Great Britain (containing England, Scotland, and Wales), Ireland, and several thousand smaller adjacent islands. The name was extensively used historically, derived from when the island of Great Britain was called Britannias, and Ireland and the other islands near Great Britain were called Britanniae (the Latin genitive case meaning of Britannias.) In 1922 most of the island of Ireland ceased to be in the United Kingdom and became the independent sovereign state of the Republic of Ireland. However, even before this, and especially since, the usage of the term British Isles has been seen by many people, especially in Ireland, as problematic, due to an implied continued British sovereignty over the whole of Ireland, or more generally as referring to Ireland as being British in any sense. This is not a result of anti-British sentiment, but simply a reflection that Irish people do not regard themselves or their country as British. The term is also considered by some to be offensive to people in Wales and Scotland. In terms of geography the term British Isles is understood to refer to the whole archipelago, from Scilly to Shetland, containing more than 6,000 islands and totalling 315,134 km² (121,674 square miles) of land. These islands were originally inhabited by the ancient Britons (hence the name "British Isles"). The historic name British Isles derives from terms used by classical geographers to describe the island group. Pliny the Elder, in his Natural History (iv.xvi.102) records of Great Britain that "it was itself named Albion while all the islands about which we shall soon briefly speak were called the Britanniae".

List of the British Isles

Albion]] :Main article: Complete list of the British Isles
- Great Britain
- Northern Isles (including Orkney, Shetland and Fair Isle)
- Hebrides (including the Inner Hebrides, Outer Hebrides and Small Isles)
- Islands of the lower Firth of Clyde (including the Isle of Arran and Bute)
- Anglesey (in Welsh: Ynys Môn)
- Lundy
- Isles of Scilly
- Isle of Wight
- Lindisfarne
- Ireland
- Ulster: Rathlin Island
- , Arranmore, Tory Island
- Connacht: Achill Island, Clew Bay islands, Inishturk, Inishbofin, Inishark, Aran Islands
- Munster: Blasket Islands, Valentia Island, Cape Clear , Sherkin Island, Great Island
- Leinster: Lambay Island, Ireland's Eye
- Isle of Man
- Channel Islands¹
- Rockall Many other small islands are not listed.
- Rathlin Island is the only Irish island part of Northern Ireland and hence the UK.

Origin of the term British Isles

In classical times, foreign sources used "Brit-" or "Prit-" with various endings and native sources used oceani insulae meaning "islands of the ocean" or insularum meaning "islands". Only in modern times has British Isles entered the English language.

Classical geographers

The inhabitants of the British Isles in classical times were the Celtic Bruthin or Priteni, later known as the "Brythons", who were in Great Britain and Ireland some time before the 5th century BC, whether as a result of cultural changes in the native population or of immigration, possibly through conquest. The classical writers of geographies named the group of islands after these inhabitants, using a transliteration into their own language such as Latin (e.g. Bretannae) or Greek (e.g. Βρηττανων). Throughout Book 4 of his Geography, Strabo is consistent in spelling the island Britain (transliterated) as Prettanikee; he uses the terms Prettans or Brettans for the islands as a group. For example, in Geography 2.1.18, "...οι νοτιωτατοι των Βρηττανων βορηιοτηροι τουτον ηισιν". (...the most southern of the Brettans are further north than this)². He was writing around AD 10, although the earliest surviving copy of his work dates from the 6th century. Pliny the Elder writing around AD 70 uses a Latin version of the same terminology in section 4.102 of his Naturalis Historia. He writes of Great Britain: Albion ipsi nomen fuit, cum Britanniae vocarentur omnes de quibus mox paulo dicemus. (Albion was its own name, when all [the islands] were called the Britannias; I will speak of them in a moment). In the following section, 4.103, Pliny enumerates the islands he considers to make up the Britannias, listing Great Britain, Ireland, and many smaller islands. Ptolemy is quite clear that Ireland – he calls it Hibernia – belongs to the group he calls Britannia. He entitles Book II, Chapter 1 of his Geography as Hibernia, Island of Britannia.

Native sources

The early surviving discussion of the geography is almost exclusively in classical languages. The "British Isles" terminology of the classical geographers is found in English only in documents written after the Reformation. The earliest native source to use a collective term for the archipelago is the Life of Saint Columba, a hagiography purporting to record the missionary activities of the sixth century Irish monk Saint Columba among the peoples of Great Britain. Written in the late seventh century by Adomnán of Iona, an Irish monk living on a Scottish island with considerable Pictish and English interests, it must be considered an authority as regards the totality of relationships within the archipelago at that time. The collective term for the archipelago used within this work is oceani insulae meaning "islands of the ocean" (Book 2, 46 in the Sharpe edition = Book 2, 47 in Reeves edition) and it is used sparingly. Another early native source to use a collective term is the Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum of Bede written in the early eighth century. The collective term for the archipelago used within this work is insularum meaning "islands" (Book 1, 8) and it too is used sparingly. The term does not appear to have entered English usage until after the Reformation. The earliest quotation of "British Isles" given by the authoritative Oxford English Dictionary is in 1621.

Renaissance mapmakers

Continental mapmakers Gerardus Mercator (1512), Balthasar Moretus (1624), Giovanni Magini (1596), Abraham Ortelius (1570) and Sebastian Munster (1550) produced maps bearing the term "British Isles". Ortelius makes clear his understanding that England, Scotland and Ireland were politically nominally at least separate in 1570 by the full title of his map: "Angliae, Scotiae et Hiberniae, sive Britannicar. insularum descriptio" which translates as "a description of England, Scotland and Ireland, or the British Isles", additionally many maps from this period show Cornwall as a separate nation, most notably those of Mercator.

Modern historians

:There were four groups of Celtic invaders of Ireland, viz., beginning with the earliest: :(1) The Cruthin (Priteni), after whom these islands were known to the Greeks as the Pretanic Islands. In early historical times they preserved their individuality best in the North of Britain, where they were known to Latin writers as "Picti". O'Rahilly, T. F. (1984). Early Irish history and mythology. Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies. pp. 40–2 :The first group of invaders of which we know anything were the "Bruthin" or "Priteni", a group of P-Celts, who invaded both Great Britain and Ireland, presumably from Europe, some time before the fifth century B.C. They maintained their individuality best in North Britain, where they were known as Picts to the Latin writers. It was their presence which made Greeks like Ptolemy and Pytheas refer to the British Isles as "the Pretanic Isles". Needham, C. (1963). The life of St. Patrick. Camden, NJ: The St. Patrick Fathers. :"The Brettans" appears to be an older term than Brettanike, and suggests that the earliest sources viewed Britain together with adjacent islands under this name; ... Strabo spells this with a P (Prettans)... Pliny seems to use the same terminology... "cum Brittaniae vocarentur omnes") It is quite possible that this goes back to Pytheas... Certainly it would not be unreasonable for mariners using the Western Seaway between Ireland and Britain to group all the outlying islands together with the large ones under a single term... (Roseman, C H (1984) Pytheas of Massalia: On the Ocean Text, Translation and Commentary Chicago, Illinois: Ares Publishers, Inc. p. 45) The term "British" had been used to describe the Brythonic Celts, now known as Brythons, who inhabited Brittany ("Little Britain") and most of the largest island of the archipelago, Great Britain. Ireland was inhabited by Goidelic Celts. :use of the initial P is considered to reflect the Brythonic branch of Keltic, and ... the change in spelling from Pre- to Brit- [may be] based on a misconception of Caesar's arising from his familiarity with Britanni occupying the Gaulish coast around Boulogne. (Roseman, op.cit., footnote 34, chapter IV)³

Subsequent political history

Thus at the time the name Priteni was first applied to it, the archipelago was inhabited by the P-Celts. By the time the Romans left in the 7th century they were differentiated into the Brythonic Celts (Brythons) in the lands that would become England, Cornwall, Wales and southern Scotland and the Picts in northern Scotland, while Ireland was dominated by Goidelic Celts who, as Scotti (Scots) had by then established Dalriada in western Scotland. In the following centuries Anglo-Saxons formed the kingdom of Wessex, pushing the Brythonic Celts back into Wales, Cumbria, south-west Scotland and Dumnonia later to become Kernow (or Cornwall). Angles took over Northumbria and south-east Scotland. Viking invaders formed the Danelaw in eastern England and took over Caithness, the Hebrides, the Isle of Man and north-east Ireland, forming a settlement at Dublin. The Scots amalgamated with the Picts forming a Scottish Kingdom which by the early 11th century expanded to include the area of modern Scotland and Cumbria. The Norman Conquest of 1066 brought England under Norman rule and their 1072 foray into Scotland left the first of a series of arguments as to whether the Scots accepted the suzerainty of the English kings. From then on Scottish kings were Anglo-Norman rather than Celtic. In 1171 King Henry II of England invaded Ireland, asuming the title Lord of Ireland. The Anglo-Normans settled as a ruling elite controlling much of Ireland, but over time the native Irish regained some territory and, outside the area of English authority around Dublin called the Pale, the Norman lords adopted the Irish language and customs and became known as the "Old English". In 1140 the Hebridean Islands, the Isle of Man and Antrim came under the Norse-Gael rule of the Lord of the Isles who kept a varying degree of independence until the Hebrides were forfeited to Scotland in 1493. From the early 13th century the Scots language of south east Scotland was spread throughout the Lowlands, but the Scottish Highlands remained Gaelic speaking and developed the semi-independent Scottish clan system. Wales came under English control with the Statute of Rhuddlan in 1284 and became part of the Kingdom of England by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535-1542. The English Kings became Kings of Ireland as well in 1541, ruling through an Irish Parliament. Scotland was still independent despite a series of disputes and wars with England, then in 1603 King James VI of Scotland inherited the title James I of England, unifying the countries under a personal union of the crowns. While the governments of England and Scotland remained separate, King James proclaimed himself "King of Great Brittaine" on October 20th 1604, apparently with the political aim of creating a shared identity under his autocratic rule. Ireland was effectively being ruled as a colony of England and James expanded an existing policy of English settlers, adding Scots Presbyterians and creating the "Plantation of Ulster" at the expense of the existing Roman Catholics, both the native Irish and the "Old English". As the century progressed the Civil Wars of the Three Kingdoms brought Irish rebellion with massacres alienating Protestants from Catholics and making Irish Catholics embittered about the English, tensions further reinforced in the Jacobite war in Ireland. Scottish economic weakness against English protectionism lead to merger of the governments in the 1707 Act of Union when the official name became The Kingdom of Great Britain, with pro-Hanoverian Scots enthusiastically adopting the term "North Britain" as an alternative to "Scotland" for example "The Royal Regiment of Scots Dragoons" were renamed "The Royal North British Dragoons" (later examples included the North British Magazine and the North British Railway). The Scottish Highlanders were still Gaelic speaking and were derisively called "Erse" (Irish) by the Lowlanders, but to end Jacobitism the Scottish clan system was crushed and they became fully British. A French-aided rebellion in Ireland in 1798 was defeated and Ireland was brought firmly under British government control by the 1800 Act of Union in what became the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. During the 19th century famine and emigration affected the Irish and the Scottish Highlanders. Irish nationalist attempts to win independence peaked in the early 20th century with the Anglo-Irish war of independence and the 1922 separation of the Irish Free State, later becoming the Republic of Ireland. The mostly Protestant northeast continued to be part of what was now the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, with a Northern Ireland Assembly which is at present suspended. Inspired by the Irish movement, nationalist parties developed in Scotland, Wales and Cornwall. More recently Scotland has gained Home Rule with a Scottish Parliament and Wales a degree of home administration with the Welsh Assembly, but both remain part of the unitary United Kingdom. Cornwall has not been granted any devolved power but a petition calling for a Cornish assembly has collected more than 50,000 signatures.

Problems with modern usage

Today the term British is usually used to describe people or things belonging to either Great Britain or the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. However the whole island of Ireland, the Isle of Man, Guernsey and Jersey are still commonly included in the 'British Isles', despite the fact that the greater part of Ireland has, since 1922, been independent of the United Kingdom, first as the Irish Free State and now the Republic of Ireland, and that the

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British Isles

List of the British Isles

Origin of the term British Isles

Classical geographers

Native sources

Renaissance mapmakers

Modern historians

Subsequent political history

Problems with modern usage