About Celtic Myths

Today, Celtic mythology refers to stories from the ancient race of people known as the Celts, who spoke the Celtic language. During the early medieval period, they were confined to certain areas in Western Europe.

Celtic myths survived mostly from medieval writers in Ireland and Wales, though some earlier descriptions from classical Greek and Roman writers existed. The classical writers wrote concerning Gallic deities during time of ancient Roman Empire.

Who were the Celts?

The Celts were members of people who spoke one of the Indo-European languages. They probably originated from Central Europe during the late second millennium BC (late Bronze Age). Traces of their earliest existence can be found in Austria, Germany and France. They established the Late Bronze/Iron Age culture called Hallstatt culture in Austria during the 9th or 8th century BC. When the Iron Age Hallstatt began to displace the Bronze Age Hallstatt, a rich, flourishing trade existed between the Greeks and the Celtic tribes living in the region of Bavaria to Bohemia.

The Greeks called them Keltoi; the name has its roots probably in the 5th century BC. The Romans called them Galli, which are the "Gauls".

A new Iron Age culture emerged during the 6th century BC called La Tène, around the Rhine River. La Tène introduced the distinctive style which Celtic art was famous for. Swords and spears were found buried with their warriors. Celtic society had become more warlike.

Since 600 BC, a Greek colony in southern France transformed into a prosperous city called Massilia (Marseille), because of its trade with the Gauls. The Gauls adopted the Greek writing system as a form of communication between them.

It was during this period that the Celts in Continental Europe reached the height of their power. It was the Golden Age of the Celtic people. They migrated as far west as Spain, and their boundary stretched towards the east, settling in the region called Galata, in Anatolia (Turkey), the south-west coast of the Black Sea. Sometime during 6th century BC, they crossed the English Channel, to the British Isles. The Celts who migrated to Britain became known as the Cymric Celts.

In Gaul (France, Belgium, and the Lowlands), over twenty different Celtic tribes were identified by the time of Caesar. Some of the Celts crossed the Pyrenees into Spain sometime between 8th to 6th centuries BC. The Celts settled mostly in northern and central Spain as well as in Portugal. This pushed Iberians, the native people in Spain, into moving to eastern and southern Spain. Some of the Celts settled and intermingled with the Iberians, producing a group of people known as the Celtiberian tribes.

During the fifth and fourth centuries BC, several Celtic tribes from Transalpine Gaul (southern France) penetrated the Alps and settled around the region called Cisalpine Gaul, in northern Italy (north of the river Po). Cisalpine means "This side of the Alps". The Senones were the first to arrive in Italy, followed by the Insubres who settled in Lombardy. The Boii settled in a region called Bononia (Bologna). This migration of the Gauls from the north put pressure upon the Etruscan city-states in Etruria (Tuscany) that allowed the Romans to conquer their Etruscan neighbours.

In 391 BC, the Gauls (Senones) under their chieftain Brennus(?), badly mauled the Roman army in Allia. The following year, the Gauls sacked Rome. Then the Gauls withdrew from Rome after killing and looting. According to Roman tradition, an exiled Roman general name Marcus Furius Camillus gathered what was left of the Roman army, defeating and driving the Gauls out of Rome. More likely the Gauls withdrew from Rome of their own accord and with no resistance from the Romans.

During the 3rd century BC, Macedonia and Thessaly (northern Greece) were overrun by the Celts. The Celts penetrated further south, and they attacked and looted Delphi in 279 BC.

When Germanic tribes began their migration during the second century BC, the Celts were pressured and forced to seek refuge further west of the Rhine and south of the Danube.

Julius Caesar spent much of his time from 59-50 BC with military campaigns in Gaul (France and Belgium), creating a new Roman province. Because Gaul contained a number of tribes, with a lack of strong leadership and unity, Caesar made great use of the military maxim - "divide and conquer" - to defeat each Gallic tribe.

Caesar described in his memoirs, Gallic Wars, their warrior society, such as their customs and religion. Caesar admired his foes for their bravery and skill in warfare. The Gauls provided Caesar with the best source of cavalry.

By the time of Augustus, Caesar's great-nephew Octavian established a Roman Empire, and divided Gaul into three different provinces (not including Narbonese Gaul (southern France), which had been a Roman province since 121 BC): Aquitania, Lugudunesis and Belgica, with Lugdunum (Lyons) as the capital. In Spain, the country was also divided into three separate provinces. In the west, comprising all of Portugal, was Lusitania; while in southern Spain was the province of Baetica (the valley of the river Baetis). These two provinces were originally known as Hispania Ulterior (Furthur Spain). The rest was province of Hispania Citerior (Nearer Spain) was called Tarraconensis.

Caesar even crossed the English Channel twice in two years (55-54 BC), encountering more Celtic people in southern Britain. However, Britain (Britannia) did not become a Roman province until the time of Emperor Claudius, between AD 43-51. Britain was largely divided into tribal regions, such as that of the Belgae, Brigantes, Catuvellauni, etc. The Catuvellauni and Atrebates were the most powerful Celtic tribes. Other tribes who arrived later and settled in Wales and southern England were from Belgica Gaul, such as the Belgae, Iceni, Parisi and many others. (See Historical Background from the Arthurian Legends, when Britain was a Roman province.)

Later, other Celtic kingdoms became part of the Roman Empire, such as Noricum (Switzerland and Austria) by Augustus, and Galatia (northeast of Asia Minor) during Claudius' reign.

At the greatest extent of the Roman Empire, only Ireland (Hibernia) escaped Roman rule and influence. Christianity didn't arrive in Ireland until mid-fifth century AD.

During the 3rd and 4th centuries AD, revolts were frequent in Gaul, due to the instability and weakness of Rome and the encroachment of the Germanic tribes on their Rhine borders. By the 5th century, three Germanic tribes had taken over the province, with Visigoths occupying Aquitania, the Franks settling in Belgica, and the Burgundians controlling the Rhine. Some Romanised Celts fled to the Armorican Peninsula (Brittany), the last stronghold of Celtic civilisation in Gaul.

By 410 BC, with the shrinkage of Western Roman Empire, Honorius withdrew the legions garrisoned in Britannia. Britannia became isolated, suffering attacks from the Picts from the north, the Scoti (or Irish) from the west (from Ireland), and the Germanic tribes of the Jutes, Angles and Saxons from the east. The Britons established their own kingdoms and tried to defend themselves from invaders. The Welsh-speaking Briton kingdoms in the north eventually fell to the Angles, while other Britons in the south fled from the Saxons to the western extremes of Britain, in Wales and Cornwall. Still other Britons crossed the English Channel into Armorica, where the region was renamed Brittany, which means "Little Britain".

Between the 8th and 11th centuries AD, the Vikings from Scandinavia repeatedly raided Britain and Ireland before establishing settlements on both islands. Brian Boru, the Irish high king (1002-1014; he had ruled one of the smaller kingdoms called Dál Cais since 976), tried to drive the Norse invaders out of Ireland. Although his son commanded the army and won the battle at Clontarf (1014), some Northmen came across his tent and killed the aged king.

It wasn't until this period that the Irish myths were written down.

Timeline of Celtic Myths

The Irish myths can be set at a certain period that coincided with legendary and historical time-lines.

The arrival of the Partholanians was said to coincide with that of Noah and the Biblical Flood. Nemed was a descendant of Noah's grandson Magog, son of Japheth. The Firbolgs and the Tuatha Dé Danann were in turn descendants of Nemed. The Firbolgs were an enslaved race in Thrace and Greece, before they arrived in Ireland. The Tuatha Dé Danann learned all sorts of magic, druidism, science and arts from heaven before being banished.

Japheth's other son, the fictional Fenius Farsaid, was said to be the ancestor of Mil and the Milesians. The Milesians were said to have arrived in Ireland around the 6th century BC.

While the tale of Cu Chulainn in the Ulaid Cycle took place in the 1st century BC, the death of Conchobar, king of Ulster, coincided with the day Jesus Christ was crucified (c. AD 30).

The reign of Cormac Mac Airt in the Fenian Cycle was said to have been set during in the 3rd century AD. However, in the "Colloquy of the Ancients", the heroes Caolite and Oisín survived until the time of the missionary of St Patrick, in the 5th century AD.

Literature of Celtic Myths

It should be noted that the ancient Gallic and British people left no literature about the myths of their gods and religion, during the time of the Roman Empire. These ancient gods survived on from mainly archaeological evidence, such as inscriptions and their art works (eg. statuettes), and from classical Greek and Roman historians. I have given brief descriptions of some of the Gallic and British deities.

According to a 1st century BC Greek poet, Parthenius, the Celts were descendants of Heracles. As Heracles travelled back to Greece with the cattle of Geryon, Celtine, daughter of Bretannus, saw and fell in love with the hero. One day, she hid the cattle, and would not tell Heracles their whereabouts until he made love to her. Heracles slept with her, and Celtine became the mother of Celtus, ancestor of the Celts.

According to another legend about Heracles written by Diodorus Siculus, the hero met and seduced a nymph named Galata. She was the mother of the Galatians.

No literature survived from Cornwall and Brittany. Breton literature of their myths and legends survived only through French writers.

The majority of the literature of Celtic myths came from the Irish and Welsh, and to a lesser extent from the Scots.

Celtic myths, particularly those concerning the Irish cycles (myths) were preserved through oral tradition, probably between the period of Viking settlements in Ireland, from the eighth to the eleventh centuries AD. They were composed by bards who would recite the stories entirely in verse. The Irish sagas weren't written down until the twelfth century AD by monastic scholars.

These tales were recorded in two main manuscripts: the Book of Leinster and the Book of the Dun Cow. These were collections of hundreds of stories about the Ulaid Cycle and the Fenian Cycle. Another manuscript that also deserves mentioning is the Yellow Book of Lecan, written in the 14th century, which contains a large number of stories. The Colloquy of the Ancients can be found in a Scottish manuscript called the Book of the Dean of Lismore, written in the 16th century.

More authors added more stories to the Celtic myths, during the 16th and 17th centuries. The most interesting work was that of James Macpherson (1736-1796), a Scottish poet. He caused controversy when he claimed the work to be that of Oisín, a warrior-poet of the 3rd century AD. It was discovered that much of the work was really his own invention.

Another author was the Irish writer William Butler Yeats (1865-1939). Yeats and Macpherson were responsible for renewing people's interest in Celtic myths. They also influenced the Romantic movements in art as well as literature.

The main source for the Welsh myths was the Mabinogion. The Mabinogion contains eleven tales. Some of these tales are related or belong to series or cycles.

Dating the individual tales in the Mabinogion is difficult, because they were probably composed by different writers and at different times. Culhwch and Olwen was one of earliest, continuous tales of King Arthur. The last three Welsh romances paralleled the works of the French writer Chrétien de Troyes, who used this material for his Arthurian romances. (Note that the three Welsh romances do not appear in the Celtic myths, because I preferred the French version in the Arthurian Legends.)

There are even earlier tales of Welsh legends, such as those composed by Taliesin and Aneirin from the 6th century.

Taliesin's poetry was preserved in the Book of Taliesin from the 13th century. It was more of a collection of eulogies. One of them was on King Urien of Rheged, mourning for his son's death (Owain).

Aneirin was said to have composed a poem called Y Gododdin, which was preserved in a manuscript known as the Book of Aneirin, dated to around 1250. The Y Gododdin may contain the earliest reference to Arthur.

What I found disappointing about the Irish myths was the influence of Christianity on the Irish literature. The pagan Celts regarded their gods as their "gods"; whereas Christian writers had degenerated the deities into little more than fairy people.

Another disappointment was the introduction of the legend of Saint Patrick to the Fenian cycle. There are many stories or biographies of other saints mixed with Celtic legends. The lives of these saints were purely propaganda, showing that the Church was stronger than other gods. The legends of these saints were mostly stamped out pagan tales of gods and heroes.

Please note that a number of tales found in Celtic myths, also contain stories about King Arthur and some of his companions. Except for "Culhwch and Olwen" and the "Dream of Rhonabwy", all other Welsh tales of Arthur or his companions from the Round Table will be found in the Arthurian branch. Those two tales I have mentioned, don't belong to the mainstream Arthurian cycle.