Celtic World & Cultures

Here you will find information about the Otherworld, Celtic customs and tradition.

• Otherworld

• Wedded to the Land

• Geis

• Celtic Calendar

• Ogham

Otherworld

The "Otherworld" was a domain of Celtic deities or supernatural beings such as the "Fairy People". The Otherworld was considered to be the Celtic version of heaven (or even hell to most Christian writers).

They were hidden from mortal eyes by strong Otherworld magic. They were situated in all sorts of places. Some of these Otherworlds were located on islands, dunes, dun-hills, forests, rivers, or lakes. A grand castle or even a humble cottage could be the Otherworld, which would appear at night for mortals, but would probably vanish in the morning.

Normal rules didn't apply in the Otherworld. A year might seem to pass in the Otherworld, but in the real world centuries might have passed. Time seemed to stand still. Nor did the people who lived there, age like mortals. They seemed to remain forever young.

The Otherworld also seemed to be able to move from one location to another. Or there might be only one Otherworld, but it existed everywhere. In another word, the Otherworld was a paradox. Entering this enchanted place could be close by, or it could be a place far away.

• Irish Otherworld

• Welsh Otherworld

• Arthurian Otherworld

Irish Otherworld

Originally, the Otherworld, particularly in the Irish myths, was sometimes situated on some remote islands in the west. Later the Otherworld was located in Ireland itself, but mostly hidden from mortal eyes by strong otherworldly magic.

There were several strange, mythical places where this Otherworld was located. There was the "Land of Youth", called Tír na nÓg in Irish Gaelic. It was the home of Danu and the other Irish deities known as the Tuatha Dé Danann, which means the "People of the Goddess Danu". It was said to be situated in some distant land, possibly an island or group of islands.

Tír na nÓg had four magical cities: Falias, Gorias, Finias and Murias. In each city was a magical treasure or talisman, which the Tuatha Dé Danann received when they settled in Ireland. (See Treasures of Tuatha Dé Danann in the Book of Invasions.) Also residing in each city was a druid. These four druids taught the Tuatha Dé Danann knowledge and skills. (See the Druids of Danu in the new Druids page.)

Below is a table with the names of the cities in Tír na nÓg, together with the druids and treasures they possessed.

Cities	Fallas	Gorias	Murias	Findias
Druids	Morfesa	Esras	Semias	Uiscias
Treasures	Lia Fail ("Stone of Destiny")	Gáe Assail (Spear of Lugh)	Cauldron of Dagda	Freagarthach ("Answerer" – sword of Nuada)

The Otherworld located in several areas in Ireland was hidden by magic, in a subterranean fortress called Sid, Sidh or Sidhe. The word Sidhe (sid or sidh) means "Fairy Rath" or "Fairy Fort". The Tuatha Dé Danann were sometimes called áes sídhe, which is the "People of the Sídh". The Tuatha Dé Danann retreated there after they were vanquished by the Milesians.

The Irish Otherworld was also called Tech Duinn – "House of Donn" or "House of the Dead". Donn was the Irish god of the dead. For some reason, the location of Tech Duinn was often linked to the province of Munster.

There was also the Tir Tairngire – "Land of Promise", said to be the home and realm of the sea-god Manannn Mac Lir. Here was where Lugh was brought up. Tir Tairngire is often translated into Emain Ablach.

There is also said to be an underwater Otherworld known as Tir fo Thuinn.

The "Land of the Dead" became associated with Spain, where the Milesians came from. The "Land of the Living" (or the "Land of the Happy Dead") was said to be situated somewhere west of Ireland. It was said to be on some island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, and it was originally the home of the Partholanians.

Welsh Otherworld

The Welsh called their Otherworld – Annwn Annwfn or Annwyn. Arawn ruled this Otherworld kingdom. The hero Pwyll of Dyved was allowed to rule Annwfn (Annwvyn) for one year before he returned to his own world.

According to the early Welsh poem titled Spoils of Annwfn (Preiddiau Annwfn), Arthur and his followers went to a number of otherworlds seeking to steal a magic cauldron. The journey probably ended in disaster, since only seven survived and it wasn't clear if they had gained the cauldron or not.

Another popular name for the Welsh Otherworld was the Caer Wydyr or Caer Wydr – the "Fortress of Glass". Caer Wydyr is similar to Tower of Glass in Arthurian legends, but located in Glastonbury Tor, England. Glastonbury Tor was supposed to be the location of the "Isle of Avalon" or "Isle of Apples", the final resting place of King Arthur.

In Welsh myths, however, the Arthurian Avalon was derived from the name Ynys Afallon.

Arthurian Otherworld

Also in British and Welsh legends, particularly those concerning King Arthur, the Isle of Avalon, the domain of the Lady of the Lake, and the Grail Castle can all be considered to be part of the Celtic Otherworld.

Avalon was like the "Isles of the Blessed", and has been called "Isle of Apples". Avalon was derived from the name Ynys Afallon in the Welsh myths.

When King Arthur was mortally wounded, writers said that his half-sister Morgan le Fay brought the king to Avalon, to be healed. Geoffrey of Monmouth mentioned Morgan le Fay as one of nine sisters who were also great sorceresses who lived in Avalon, but Geoffrey does not connect her with being Arthur's sister. See Battle of Camlann (Early Traditions) and Twilight of the Kingdom, for a few different variations about the episode of the death of Arthur and Avalon.

Layamon wrote that Avalon was ruled by an elf-queen named Argante, which could be another name for Morgan, since later authors often called her the ruler of Avalon. In Erec and Enide (c. 1165), Chretien de Troyes wrote that one of the wedding guests was Guingamar. Guingamar was the lord of Avalon and a friend of Morgan le Fay.

In the early thirteenth century, some believed that Avalon was situated at Glastonbury. The monks or priests in Glastonbury wrote their own version of the Grail legend called Le Haut Livre du Graal or Perlesvaus. They even claimed that Arthur and Guinevere were buried at Glastonbury.

Gerald of Wales, who wrote his Tour of Wales in the late 12th century, visited the site and also believed that Glastonbury was the burial site of Arthur. Glastonbury was situated on an island in the middle of a marshland. Most contemporaries and modern scholars were skeptical about these claims of an Avalon/Glastonbury connection.

Glastonbury Tor was also sometimes called the "Isle of Glass" or "Tower of Glass". The name is similar to the Welsh Caer Wydyr or "Fortress of Glass".

Another famous Arthurian Otherworld was the domain of the Lady of the Lake. Some said her home was an underwater palace, while others said that the lake was only a powerful illusion to hide her home from intruders.

The heroes and cousins Lancelot and Bors were brought up in her home. Lancelot gained the name Lancelot of the Lake, because of his association with the Lady of the Lake. (See Lady of the Lake in Lancelot du Lac.)

It was the Lady of the Lake who gave Arthur the Otherworldly sword, Excalibur. (see Legend of Excalibur)

The magical forest and spring of the Lady of the Fountain could also be considered to be an Otherworld. The water in the spring looked like it was boiling as it bubbled, yet the water was actually cold. Pouring the water from a golden bowl on to a huge marble stone would cause an immediate storm to lash the forest and the Lady's castle.

Some Otherworld locations might look like paradise, but were actually an elaborate prison. As in the case of the Valley of No Return (Le Val Sans Retour). Here, no knight could leave the land if he had ever been unfaithful to his true love. The entire valley was like paradise, where the valley was green and there was always plenty of water, even though it never rained. There was always feasting and dancing. Lancelot broke the spell, because he had always been true to his love - his love for Guinevere.

Wedded to the Land

In Celtic mythology, there was a relation between the ruler and deity, and that of the ruler and the land. The king was wedded in a sacred marriage to the goddess that was supposed to ensure the fertility of the land.

Quite often in ancient religions or myths, the earth and land was often represented by feminine entities, such as the goddesses, or they were the personifications of the land or earth. The goddess of the land often had the attributes of a mother goddess or a fertility goddess.

Of course, it was not necessary that she was a goddess; she might be the queen or the representative of the goddess, like a priestess. The king's consort, whoever she might be, she was often described as the "Sovereignty Goddess". The future fertility and prosperity of the kingdom depended upon the king mating with the sovereignty of the land.

In Irish mythology, there were a number of women or goddesses who were the Sovereignty of Ireland. Among them were Morrigan (and her triple aspects as the goddess of war – Badb, Nemain and Macha), and Eriu and her sisters Banba and Fodla.

The three sisters, Eriu, Banba and Fodla, were each a poetic name of Ireland. They were the Sovereignty of Ireland, as well as Danann goddesses. However, Eriu was the most famous of the three sisters. In the Lebor Gabala (Book of Invasions) and Cath Maige Tuired (Second Battle of Mag Tuired), Eriu had a lover named Elatha who was a Fomorian king. She became the mother of King Bres of Ireland, when Nuada lost his arm. With the defeat of the Fomorians in the second battle of Mag Tuired, she was one of the wives of the hero Lugh Lamfada, as consort. When the three grandsons of Dagda murdered Lugh, Eriu married one of the brothers, named MacGreine. Her sisters married the other two brothers – Banba to MacCuill and Fodla to MacCecht. So Eriu was the mother of one king and the wife of two kings.

When the Milesians arrived, the three sovereignties of Ireland knew that the Milesians would conquer Ireland, so each queen tried to persuade the Milesians to name the land after her name. Eriu, the last queen to approach the Milesians, promised them victory over her people. Eriu and her sisters fell with their husbands in the Battle of Tailtiu. As they had promised, the Milesians named the entire isle Eriu, Erin or Eire, which is another name for Ireland.

One of the most amazing goddesses was Morrigan. Morrigan was the daughter of Delbáeth and Ernmas. Morrigan also had two sisters, Badb and Macha (and possibly of a third named Nemain).

She was seen as three separate figures. However, it was altogether possible that Badb, Macha and Nemain were all one person, known as the Morrigu, but each one represented one aspect of the goddess. So the Morrigu were the triple goddesses of war. They were also the sovereignty goddesses of Ireland, married to the high kings.

Badb and Nemain were named as the wives of Neit, a shadowy figure in Irish myths, while Macha was the wife and consort of Nuada Airgedlámh. Macha and Nuada died in the Second Battle of Mag Tuired. Macha was also said to be the wife of Nemed, the leader of the Nemedians, a race that had settled on Ireland before the arrival of the Tuatha de Danann.

Before the Second Battle of Mag Tuired, the god Dagda encountered a beautiful woman at Glenn Etin at Samhain night (the eve before the battle). Dagda seduced and slept with this woman. It is believed that this woman was Morrigan, and she foretold victory to the Danann, promising aid. Each year, on Samhain night, Dagda had to mate with Morrigan, to ensure the fertility and prosperity of Ireland, because the war goddess was the sovereignty of Ireland.

Sovereignty goddesses were not limited to marriage with the high king of Ireland. Each province in Ireland had a sovereignty goddess in their province. There was also another Macha, who was the sovereignty of Ulster, and in the neighbouring province, Medb (Maeve) was the sovereignty of Connacht. It's uncertain whether the Ulaid Macha was the same queen/goddess as the Nemedian Macha and the Danann Macha.

However, the idea of sacred marriage between a king and the goddess didn't just appear in the Irish and Welsh myths. In fact, a king wedded to a goddess was a very ancient ritual of many different ancient cultures. And like the Celtic myths, the sacred marriage had to do with the fertility of the land.

The one that comes to my mind is the myth of the Sumerian goddess named Inanna, whom the Babylonians called Ishtar. Inanna's attributes combined the Greek goddesses Aphrodite and Athena, because Inanna was the goddess of love and war. Inanna was also identified as the Phoenician fertility goddess Astarte, and the Egyptian Isis (Auset). So in a sense, Inanna was the sovereignty goddess of Sumer.

In the Norse mythology, sacred marriage was called hierós gámos, though the marriage was between the sky god and the earth goddess. Since agriculture was important to the Scandinavians, the union between the deities would ensure the fertility of the land. The soil required not only to be fertile, but it also needed sunlight and rain.

According to the Sumerian myths, Inanna was the wife of Dumuzi the shepherd god. For some reason, Inanna descended into the Underworld, and Ereshkigal, the goddess of the dead, trapped her sister Inanna in her domain. However, Enki the god of wisdom sent two of his creatures to rescue Inanna. When Inanna escaped from her prison in the Underworld and fled to her home in the heavens, Ereshkigal sent her demons after her sister. Inanna managed to protect herself and her children, but she could not protect her husband. Dumuzi was dragged into the Underworld. However part of his spirit escaped death.

As sovereignty of the land, Inanna was said to be the bride of each king. Each king was seen as the incarnation of Dumuzi, the husband of Inanna. So each king actually married and mated with the priestess of Inanna (Ishtar).

---

Since the legend of King Arthur and the Grail also borrowed and used Celtic motifs and symbolism, they also used the symbolism of the sacred marriage.

In the Welsh myths, Guinevere was known as Gwenhwyfar, a queen and goddess of Britain. So Gwenhwyfar was a personification of Britain; she was the sovereignty of Britain. When Arthur married Gwenhwyfar (Guinevere), he was wedded to the land (Britain).

However, in mainstream Arthurian literature, Guinevere not only represented the kingdom of Logres (Britain), but also the source of Arthur's earthly power which came from the Round Table.

There were several versions on the origin of the Round Table, but original table (told by Wace, in the Roman de Brut, c. 1155) was constructed so that all knights were equal, with no one having precedence over the others, regardless of background (see the Life of King Arthur and Origin of the Round Table). The Round Table had nothing to do with Merlin and the Grail. But as the stories of the Grail became entwined with Arthur's knights, the origin of the Round Table was changed.

As early as 1200, a poet named Robert de Boron wrote a trilogy concerning the Grail: Joseph d'Arimathie, Merlin and Perceval. According to Boron, the Round Table was constructed by Merlin using the Grail Table of Joseph of Arimathea as a model. Also, Merlin made the table round because the circle was like the Earth. To shorten this story, Merlin originally built this table for Uther Pendragon (Arthur's father), but at his death, King Leodegan of Camelide, the father of Guinevere, received the Round Table from Uther. When Arthur married Guinevere, Leodegan bestowed the Round Table (and 100 knights) to Arthur as a dowry. (More detail about can be found in the legend of Excalibur, the Origin of the Round Table, and Merlin and the Grail.)

The whole point of this story is that Guinevere was very much the symbol of the wholeness of the Round Table and the kingdom of Logres. In some way, she represented the power of kingship more so than Arthur himself. The Queen was one with the kingdom and the fellowship of the Round Table. The health of the kingdom and the fellowship of the Round Table depended upon Guinevere, since she owned the Round Table.

In the Mort Artu (Death of King Arthur, part of the romance in the Vulgate Cycle), the Round Table split because Guinevere was caught in her bedchamber with her lover, Lancelot. She was to sentenced to death, but Lancelot rescued her. War resulted with Arthur and his kinsmen against Lancelot and his kinsmen, and the division between the two factions was symbolised by the division of the Round Table. The division and war seriously weakened Arthur's own power. However, the Round Table further fractured when Mordred, his illegitimate son, acting as viceroy in Arthur's absence, seized kingship and the kingdom. In this version, Mordred tried to force Guinevere into marrying him, but the queen managed to escape.

In some early versions, it was Mordred, not Lancelot, who was Guinevere's lover. Mordred in the early legend was Arthur's nephew and the brother of Gawain. The king was absent in the war against Rome, when Guinevere willingly seduced her husband's nephew. Through marriage to the Sovereignty of Britain (Guinevere), no one could prevent Mordred becoming the king of Britain. Like the later legend, Mordred's usurpation was short-lived.

In whichever versions you may have read, Arthur's kingship was in crisis. By marrying his aunt, the Queen, Mordred had a legitimate claim to the throne and crown. Whoever married the Queen had the key to the kingdom, because the Queen was the kingdom.

In the legend of the Grail, the Grail King, sometimes also known as the Fisher King or the Maimed King, was more closely associated with the fertility of the land than Arthur. Because the Grail King was maimed, his kingdom became a desolated and barren Waste Land. (There are several versions of his maiming, so I won't go over this, but if you are interested, then read the Fisher King.) Since the Grail King was wounded in the thighs and became sterile, so his land became barren.

To restore the kingdom and the fertility of the land, the Grail King had to be healed. Again, there are many versions of how the king was healed, but the most common version was that Grail hero had to ask the correct question about the mystery of the Grail: "Whom does the Grail serve?"

The whole point of this is that the land was linked to the king's health, as if he was actually wedded to the land. Cause damage or injury to the king, and then the land would suffer too.

As can be seen, the Grail King and his land shared a common theme of the Celtic myths.

The wholeness of the kingdom depended upon the king being completely healthy. This brings us back to the Irish myths where a king who suffered from physical imperfection or disfigurement was barred from kingship. Nuada lost his arm in the war against the Firbolgs. With only one arm, he had to abdicate to Bres. Bres was physically beautiful and healthy, but he was unfit to rule as well, because he was a tyrant and the most ungenerous of kings, which made him unpopular with his people. Such was Bres' tyranny that Nuada was given a silver arm so that he could rule again. Later, Miach, the son of Dian Cécht, restored Nuada's arm so that there was no uncertainty of Nuada's right to rule Ireland.

Another famous king who was disqualified from ruling Ireland was Cormac Mac Airt because he was disfigured. Cormac, the high king of Ireland, lost one eye, so he had to abdicate to his son Cairbre Lifechair.

Geis

The word geis means "bond", a prohibition, taboo or injunction. The geis was tied with one's fate or destiny. The violation of one's geis would lead to some misfortunes, and in most cases, to one's own death. They were something like a curse or a blessing. The Ulster Cycle stressed the importance of not breaking one's geis, yet it seemed to be unavoidable.

Cu Chulainn had a geis where he was not allowed to eat the meat of a hound (because he was named as a hound), but the hero was tricked into breaking his geis.

In the tale of the Destruction of Da Derga's Hostel, the high king Conaire Mor had an unusual number of geis imposed upon him. Conaire was warned not to kill any bird, because his father (Danann) could shift-shape into a bird. See Destruction of Da Derga's Hostel for the list of geis he was bound to. One by one, Conaire broke each geis. When he broke one geis, he set a chain reaction where he would break all of them in rapid succession.

However, there were occasions when avoiding violation of a geis didn't necessarily mean that disaster would be avoided. Avoid breaking a geis could sometimes work against the person. There are several famous tales where the heroes met their deaths, even though they avoided violation of their geis.

Cu Chulainn's son did not violate a single geis, yet Connla was killed by his own father for faithfully observing the geis that Cu Chulainn had imposed on his son before he was even born.

In the tale of Deirdre, Fergus offered protection to the sons of Usna on the way to the court of King Conchobar, when Fergus was invited to attend a feast hosted by the chieftain. His geis was that Fergus had to attend any invitation to a feast, so Fergus had to attend. This geis might seem like a harmless one to break, but Fergus did not break this geis, and the result was just as disastrous. So Fergus sent Deirdre and the sons of Usna ahead, escorted by Fergus' two sons, while he attended the feast. Through Conchobar's treachery and plot, one of Fergus' sons betrayed his father and allowed the sons of Usna to be captured. Conchobar had the sons of Usna executed while they were still under Fergus' protection. So the price of keeping the geis resulted in a feud between Fergus and Conchobar.

The hero Diarmait faithfully kept his geis that Grainne had imposed upon him, which was to run away and marry her, because she was not in love with the Fian leader, Finn Mac Cumhaill. Doing so resulted in a feud between two great friends. Diarmait had no choice but to keep his geis, despite the wrath of his jealous leader (Finn). Eventually, Diarmait met his death, and Finn, who had the power to heal him, refused to so.

However, Diarmait did have another geis that his foster-father Angus had placed upon him when he was young, not to hunt wild boar.

See the Pursuit of Diarmait and Grainne.

I not really certain how a person could find out what his or her own geis was. Just about anyone could impose a geis upon another. Sometimes a druid imposed a geis on a person, while other times it was by a king, a hero, or in several of the stories, they were imposed by a person from the Otherworld (a god or goddess - one of Tuatha Dé Danann). In fact, a geis was probably linked to the Otherworld.

---

In the Welsh myths, there was something like a geis in Math Son of Mathonwy (Mabinogion), where Aranrhod imposed several curses (blessings) on her own son, Lleu. But unlike the Irish geis, these could be overcome. Gwydyon, brother of Aranrhod, helped her son overcome these curses by duping Aranrhod.

Pwyll had to accept a couple of conditions set by Arawn, which included taking his place as Lord of Annwn by being disguised as Arawn, and fighting Arawn's enemy, Havgan.

Celtic Calendar

The Celtic calendar or the new year begins on Samhain.

Today, the pagan religion of Wicca has adopted many of the ancient Celtic holidays, particularly Samhain, Beltaine and Imbolc, as well as some from the Norse/Germanic calendar.

Below is a table of pagan festivals that the Celtic people celebrated each year.

Imbolc	February 1	Imbolc was a spring festival that was sacred to the goddess Brigit. It was sometimes called Oimelc or Omelc. It was this time of the year when ewes began to lactate.
Beltane	May 1	Beltane was a great fire festival, held according to the Celtic calendar at mid-year, which is May Day (May 1). The festival marked the beginning of Summer and was sacred to the god Belenus. The Irish called it Beltaine, while it was called Bealltuin in Scottish Gaelic, and Boaldyn in Manx. Traditionally, the people normally ate Beltaine cake or bannocks. Beltane was usually celebrated by lighting large fires at night and driving cattle through the fires, to ward off diseases. Uisnech was the favourite spot for Beltane fires. In Cornwall, May Day was spelt Cala' Me, while according to Welsh texts, May Day was called Calan Mai or Cyntefin. It was a day that marked the annual duel between Gwyn ap Nudd and Gwythyr fab Greidawl, for the love of Creiddylad. This duel would last until the end of time, meaning until Judgement Day; it was a curse set by King Arthur, because he needed Gwyn to participate in the hunt of the wild boar, Twrch Trwyth (see Culhwch and Olwen).
Lugnasad	August 1	Lugnasad was a harvest festival sacred to the Irish god Lugh or the Gallic god Lugus. It was probably also called Bron Trograin ("Rage of Trograin"). The Welsh version of Lugnasad is Calan Awst. The Fair of Tailtiu was one of the three Great Fairs of Ireland that was actually celebrated with the Lugnasad. The Fair of Tailtiu was held a fortnight before the Lugnasad, and a fortnight after the Lugnasad. The Fair was held in honour of Tailtiu, Lugh's foster mother.
Samhain	November 1	Samhain marked the end of summer, and the start of a Celtic New Year. The Irish called it Samain, the same day as the Christian All-Hallow's Tide or All Saints' Day. The Welsh called it Hollantide or Calan Gaeaf, while those in Cornwall called it Allantide. According to the Celtic myths, the night of Samhain (or Samhain-eve, October 31) was the Feast of the Dead, where the gods roamed the land, their magic causing mischief with mortals. Samhain-eve, like the Germanic Winters Night, evolved into a holiday we now know as Halloween.

Ogham

Like other languages including Greek, Latin and the Germanic languages, the Celtic language belongs to the branch of languages known as the Indo-European languages.

As you may have read in the About Celtic Myths page, on Who were the Celts?, you would know that the ancient Celts migrated as far east as Galatea (Galatia/Gaulatia) in Asia Minor, and to the west as far as Spain and the British Isles, around the 5th century BC. The Celts settled in such large parts of the ancient world that they could collectively be considered to be a Celtic Empire.

It was an empire in the sense that that they shared similar languages and culture, including arts and crafts. But it was an empire that was divided into tribal divisions. There was never any central authority or government that we would usually associate with an empire. Neighboring Celtic tribes warred against each other as often as they fought against foreign kingdoms.

With spread of their migration, there was a spread of their language. However, for what we know as the modern Celts, their languages only survived in certain regions.

The modern Celtic language has been divided into two different groups. One group known as Goidelic or the Q-Celtic branch consists of Irish Gaelic, Scottish Gaelic and Manx; the last one is now extinct. The other languages were Welsh, Cornish and Breton, which belong to the group called Brythonic or Cymric or the P-Celtic branch.

During the Roman conquest of Gaul, Julius Caesar (100-44 BC), a Roman general, wrote a memoir of his campaigns in Gaul and Britain, describing their customs and beliefs. The Gauls were not illiterate. On the contrary, Caesar wrote that the Celts adopted Greek letters for mostly trading and commercial purposes, particularly with the Greek city of Massilia (modern Marseille, in southern France). They were using the Greek alphabet centuries earlier. The Gauls just didn't use Greek writing to record their knowledge, customs, history and literature.

After the conquest and annex into the Roman Empire, the Celts began using the Roman (Latin) alphabet. Still, even at this time, the Gauls didn't commit their history or poems into writing. Both the Britons and the Gauls never had their own writing system until centuries afterward. Romano-Celtic inscriptions were found at sanctuaries and shrines, naming the deities in both Continental Europe and in Britain, but these were written down or carved into stones after the kingdoms had become Roman provinces.

To understand the Gauls, we have to rely on classical Greek or Roman authors like Caesar, who wrote in his memoir about his conquest in Gaul (France); he recorded their culture and lifestyle. Caesar said that the Druids preferred that their pupils memorise verses rather than write them down.

But what was the Celtic society like before the adoption of the Roman alphabet? A great majority didn't know how to read or write. But that's not to say that all Gauls were illiterate, unless you were a merchant or a druid.

If they had their own writing systems before the Roman conquest, we will never know. However, there is a writing system which the Celts had used between the 4th and 8th century AD, which was called "Ogham".

Ogham adapted the Roman alphabet into a simple alphabet that consisted of straight lines and a series of notches. The Oghamic alphabet is shown in the table below:

Most of the Ogham inscriptions were found in Ireland. Other inscriptions were found in Cornwall, Scotland and the Island of Man. It seemed that the Picts in Scotland also adopted this alphabet.

According to the Irish myths, the Ogham alphabet was invented by Ogma, the Irish god of poetry and eloquence.