The Amazons were tribe
of female warriors, supposedly descended from RES, the Greek war god, and the naiad Harmonia Their home was situated beyond the Black Sea. It is thought that their name refers ro their breast less condition, for Amazons voluntarily removed their right breasts in order that the 'might more easily draw a bow. The ancient Greeks believed these fierce warriors periodically mated with the men from another Eribe, afterwards rearing their female children but discarding or maiming all the males. During...
General patterns
Knotwork Interlace- The pattern shows the interconnection of life and mankind's place within the universe. For instance, the Trinity knot represents the Holy Trinity or the Triple Gods Goddesses of the ancient Celts and the Lover's Knot represents the concept of two become one resembles intertwined infinity symbols . Spirals- Spirals shows the accomplishment of an individual to balance his inner and outer self and reflects on his personal spirit. The pattern also symbolizes the Cosmos, Heavens...
England
Maiden Castle, near Dorchester, Dorset The largest Iron Age hill-fort in Britain, the imposing fortifications of Maiden Castle were excavated during the 1930s and 1980s. The site is now maintained by English Heritage. Maiden Castle is open throughout the year, and a self-guided trail is provided. Website Danebury, near Stockbridge, Hampshire The Iron Age hill-fort of Danebury was extensively excavated over some 20 years, making it the most closely studied hill-fort site in Britain. Danebury is...
Towers in the north
While reconstruction drawings can give some sense of how impressive the timber roundhouses might once have been, it is perhaps only with the broch towers of the north and west that we can gain a real sense of the visual impact of such buildings 18 Vie broch lower of Mousa in Shetland is one of the best preserved prehistoric buildings in Britain, standing close to its original height at around 13m tall. and of the central role of the roundhouse in Iron Age life. Yet brochs and duns have tended...
Bronze Age houses in the Sutherland glens
The most common prehistoric houses visible in the landscape today are hut circles. This rather antiquated term encompasses a wide variety of architectural forms that need share little more than a tendency to decay into a ring-shaped earthen bank. Many were originally imposing and elaborate buildings to which the rather disparaging term 'hut' does little justice. These roundhouses are among the most common prehistoric remains in the Scottish landscape, with more than 2000 known in Sutherland...
Fairy Mounds
for all she gives, this fairy lives off of and drains the life force of her human lover, who remains her slave until he can find someone else to take his place. The Irish leipreachain, or lepracaun a name which means shoemaker , is another solitary fairy who sometimes plots mischief against humans they are also known as Cluricauns a drunk leprechaun and Far Darrig red man or practical joker . Yeats describes leipreachains as withered, old, and solitary and badly dressed, slouching, jeering,...
Further Reading
adomnan alba colum cille constantine curetan donnan eilean i hagiography kentigern printing Boyle, Analecta Bollandiana 94.95 106 Carey, Studies in Irish Hagiography 49 62 Galbraith, 'The Sources of the Aberdeen Breviary' Herbert amp Riain, Betha Adamnain 36 41 Macfarlane, William Elphinstone and the Kingdom of Scotland 1431 1514 231 46 Macquarrie, Innes Review 37.3 24 Macquarrie, Records of the Scottish Church History Society 26.31 54 Macquarrie, Saints of Scotland esp. 6 10. Aberffraw was the...
Milesians
he tricked Eochaid into letting her go. Either way, Eochaid and his men rescued Etain and brought her back home again. Milesians The final wave of invaders of Ireland, as described in the Lebcjr GabAla Book of Invasions . They were led by MiL Espaine, who wanted to avenge the death of his uncle, Ith. Mil, for whom the group was named, did not survive the journey. When Mil's sons and followers arrived in Ireland, they were greeted by Banba, Eriu, and Fodla. Each of the three beautiful goddesses...
Methods and use of cavalry forces
The Celts used cavalry units in a number of ways they could act as advance or reconnoitring troops they guarded marching columns they challenged and taunted they ambushed foraging Romans they cut off supplies and in pitched battles, they harried and outflanked. A favourite method of fighting was to charge, hurl javelins and then dismount to fight hand to hand. Cavalry operate best in open country Tacitus describes Celtic cavalry tactics in wooded areas of Britain, where troops dismounted and...
Enchantment And Shapechanging
We have discussed the way in which certain kinds of animal were depicted and perceived in the early literature. But underpinning any analysis of the roles different beasts could play are two basic principles concerning animals in general. The first is the concept of the enchanted creature, which possesses qualities beyond its natural limits the properties of human speech or wisdom, or the ability to communicate with the world of the supernatural. The second, related, idea is that of...
Cincinnatus was a roman
hero who was instrumental in saving the early Republic In 458 BC, Rome was in danger of being destroyed by the Aequi, a neighbouring Italian tribe. To defeat this threat, the Senate voted to appoint Cmcmnatus as dictator, a temporar ' office vested with unlimited powers A deputation was sent to his small farm, which was the smallest landholding allowed to qualify for citizenship. The senators found Cmcmnatus at work tending his crops He was told of the Senate's decision and was saluted as...
Celtic ethnicity Celtic languages and Celtic art
The first questions that should be addressed in a book that incorporates the phrase 'Celtic art' in its title are whether the term 'Celtic' is justified, and in what sense is it being applied Chapman 1992 cast doubt on the belief that Celts in Iron Age Europe existed as an ethnic group at all. Collis 2003 was more qualified in his critique, noting that Caesar's identification of the inhabitants of his third part of Gaul, who were known as 'Celtae in their own language, but Galli in ours' de...
spiral chains
The spiral is probably the most characteristic and distinctive symbol of the Celtic style. In this chapter, you will learn how to create spiral units to form beautiful, hand-made chains that reflect the timeless, swirling patterns of the ancient craftsmen. Experiment with using other gauges and types of wire than those suggested here you will be surprised at how different the results can look The spiral is perhaps the most identifiable sliape of Celtic culture and this chain is the epitome of...
Diarmait
Her father, wanting only to please the girl, told her that such a man lived nearby. He was NoisE, the nephew of Conchobar. His hair was as black as a raven's feathers, his skin was as white as snow, and his cheeks were flushed red as newly spilled blood. Deirdre pined for this man whom she had never met. She became so melancholy that her father agreed to arrange a meeting. The young man and the maiden fell in love instantly. Recognizing Deirdre as the infant who had been promised to his uncle...
Pliers and cutters
You will need a good pair of wire cutters and two or three kinds of pliers. There are three types of pliers used in making wire jewelry round-nose, flat-nose, and chain-nose although, to get started, round-and flat-nose ore the most essential. It is well worth investing in good-quality versions. Round-nose pliers have tapered shafts, around which you bend the wire so they ore ideal for Chain-nose piiers ore similar to flat-nose pliers, but have tapered ends. They are useful for holding very...
Expressions of ethnicity
We might expect the emergence of tribal units to be accompanied by some material expression of tribal or ethnic identity. However, in the early part of our period the surviving artefacts suggest precisely the opposite. During the Later Bronze Age. the status-conscious elites flaunted elaborate bronzes that bore striking similarities to those of their peers elsewhere in Europe. The appeal of these items probably lay as much in their exotic associations as in the time lavished on their...
Conclusions
To the question 'can we meaningfully talk about Celtic art ', we have answered in the affirmative, but not simply as careless shorthand for La Tene art. It is possible to argue from the documentary record of ancient historians and geographers that there were people known to the classical world as Celts, and even people who regarded themselves as Celts. Furthermore, the evidence of personal and place-names, admittedly in many cases known from Roman period sources, allows us to infer, in the...
Bibliography
Armit, Ian Towers in the North The Broclis of Scotland Stroud, Gloucestershire Tempus Publishing, 2003 Armit, Ian Celtic Scotland London B.T. Batsford for Historic Scotland, 2005 Barrett, J.C. et al., Cadbury Castle, Somerset London B.T. Batsford for English Heritage, 2001 Bradley, R. and Ellison, A. Rams Hill - British Archaeological Reports No. 19 Oxford Archaeopress, 1975 Chadwick, Nora and Cunliffe, Barry The Celts A Penguin History London Penguin, 1997 Cunliffe, Barry and Miles, David...
Motif style and meaning
The conventional approach to archaeological classification, the recognition of types and type-sequences, study of their recurrent associations, and the plotting of spatial distributions of key types, has been criticized over the past generation as descriptive rather than explanatory or interpretative. Accepting that analysis is not an end in itself but a means of distilling order from the mass of data available as an essential preliminary to interpretation, this study of Celtic art will retain...
Sualtam mac Roich Husband of Deichtine and foster father of Cuchulainn
Sucellus SUCELLUS, The God Striker A Gaulish god whose function is unclear. He carried a large hammer. He was possibly a king of the gods or a god of the dead. The cup or purse he carried could mean that he was a fertility god or a god of wealth and well-being. His consort was the water goddess Nantosuelta. Sulis A Gaulish goddess of healing and fertility. sun gods and sun goddesses The male and female deities often regional connected with the Sun. Male figures included Belenus and Beli Mawr....
INNER BOTTOM RIGHT Kym
30 x 30 Minimum Complete Pattern 58 x 58 30 x 30 Minimum Complete Pattern 58 x 58 30 x 30 Minimum Complete Pattern 58 x 58 30 x 30 Minimum Complete Pattern 58 x 58 30 x 30 Minimum Complete Pattern 58 x 58 30 x 30 Minimum Complete Pattern 58 x 58
Yeats William Butler Famous Irish POET
and dramatist leader of the nineteenth-century renewal of Celtic and traditional Irish culture. Yeats's poems, plays, and books reflected his deep love of Ireland and its myths. His life's work gained him the Noble Prize for literature in 1923 and deeply influenced a renewal of worldwide interest in Celtic culture. Born in Dublin in 1865, Yeats was just a baby when his family returned to London. He spent many of his boyhood summers at his grandparent's home in County Sligo, Ireland. He was not...
Creating Key Borders
Now we come to probably the most common use of key patterns - narrow borders. These are to be found in just about every Celtic manuscript in existence, and most likely in the hundreds that have been destroyed or lost. Even the most primitive of the manuscripts - such as the Book of Deer - which contain little of the decoration we think of as Celtic, still have key pattern borders. These make the greatest use of the Celtic edging, as they consist of little other than top and bottom edges put...
Sheep 1
Less common than pigs, sheep none the less feature in the meat-offerings and ritual banquets of Celtic shrines and graves. Sheep seem to have been treated similarly to pigs, in that again the preference was for young beasts. Lambs of 3 or 4 months old were favoured at Gournay, but only the shoulder and leg portions were brought into the sanctuary and consumed. At Mirebeau, sheep were slaughtered at 2 years old, as they attained adulthood this would be the optimum time for killing, in that the...
Tiibal interaction
In view of the territoriality and social fragmentation that seems to characterize the middle centuries of the first millennium BC, the lack of evidence for inter-tribal contact prior to the Roman incursions conies as little surprise. Steatite, found only in Shetland, was transported to Orkney and to a few sites on the west coast, but apparently not in any significant quantities. Similarly, iron ore must have been traded to some extent, as presumably was timber for the construction of monumental...
CagLc waLL plAque
he eagle is associated with strength and wisdom, it appears many times in illuminated manuscripts as an evangelist symbol for St ohn. although in The Book of Durroiv the eagle is used to represent Si Mark. In Durrow. the eagle Is very stylized, having a perfectly round head and eye facing right, with a forward facing body. In The Hook of Kelts the eagle appears much more frequently, giving the opportunity for a far greater variety of designs. Some eagles are depicted with four wings, and one...
Selection Consumption And Ritual Feasting
An interesting aspect of animal-sacrifice concerns the criteria of selection. In many religions, the appearance, species, sex and age of beasts for sacrifice are important factors determining choice. Appearance is something we cannot generally trace archaeologically. That it may have mattered is implied by Pliny's comment in his Natural History22 that the two bulls chosen for sacrifice by the Druids on the occasion of the mistletoe festival on the sixth day of the moon were white. The Tables of...
Caesars Commentaries on the Gallic War to the
Proper Names in Gallic inscriptions on stone or from the various potteries on terra-cotta, to the 20 or so words in the Vienna Gaulish-Latin Glossary including avallo apple , to a few others recorded in ancient writers both Latin and Greek, and to such loan-words as we have just seen in Gallo-Latin, Gaulish deserves a place in our present study and will be called on whenever it has something to contribute Having divided the Celtic family of six into two equal parts according to their treatment...
origins of Celtic knotworks
The Celtic knots were the creation of Celts in the early Celtic Church who resided mainly in Ireland. Around AD 450, Christian Celtic artwork was influenced by pagan Celtic sources which incorporated an additional knotwork category of life form motifs. The Celtic knots then spread to the Scottish Highlands and Europe via missionary expeditions. This traditional culture of knotworks in manuscript painting was passed down orally with non-existent written records. Many groups of people began to...
rDdiichtha welsh
M. my heer W. fy nhir of motherland ii thy Irish, Gaelic, Manx aspirate Welsh, Cornish, Breton soften e.g. thy house iii his as for thy e.g. his dog iv her Goidelic leaves consonants unchanged Brythonic aspirates e.g. her dog Before a vowel, however, a her requires the insertion of H, except in Cornish. In Breton it is added to the pronoun e.g. her soul. W. ei henaid B. heh ene but C. hy enef. v our your their In Irish all eclipse in Gaelic, our and your,though the same words as the Irish ar,...
The Natural World Of The Celts
Modern urban dwellers are cushioned, to an extent, from the rhythm of the seasons, from the immediate effects of good or poor harvests and of the health and fertility of flocks and herds. But in any pre-industrial and essentially rural society, the association of communities with the natural environment and their dependence on it are both close and direct. The world of the Celts was no exception. The single farm or small nucleated settlement was the home of many Celtic peoples, and even the...
Brigit
promised, Bricriu left the hall before the start of the great feast. But before departing, he turned and told the guests that they should decide among themselves who deserved the champion's portion. Bricriu and his wife then crept up into a balcony to watch and enjoy the chaos. As expected, each of the three Ulstermen announced his claim to the champion's portion. The argument soon became a fistfight. A wise Ulsterman, Sencha mac Ailella, ended the fight by suggesting that each guest get an...
Kzszszszsz
b, c, and d Different Methods of Shading a . r Surface Pattern, produced by repeating 6 . A few new patterns see Pig. 6 may be produced by placing the chevron with the point of the V facing to the right or left, thus, lt or gt , instead of upwards or downwards, thus, A V thus, gt gt 4 The same as a , but with a horizontal line through the points of the V's. r The same as a , but shaded, o' The same as bl, but shaded. Figs. 7 to io give the triangular paiterns, plain and shaded, produced by...
Pronunciation
HE vowels are pronounced generally as in Italian. In the Lithuanian diphthong ai the first element predominates almost to the suppression of the second. Russian e has the sound of the English word yea or of ye in yes Lithuanian e often written ie is pronounced like yea, but with a slight -sound added yaa , and u is equivalent to uoa very like English whoaa Lettish ee is simply e English a in fate Polish ie is like English ye in yes Russian iy is practically the i in English pique. The Slavic i...
ElTHNE INGUBAI In some stories the wife of Cchulainn
Elatha In Irish tales, the mystical Fomorian king who mated with riu of the Tuatha De Danann to produce Bres. Despite his family ties to the two warring factions, Bres failed to make peace between the two peoples. ELCMAR The alias of the Tuatha De Danann king Nuadu when he was serving as foster father to Angus g, the god of youth. ELDER A tree that, like the alder, seems to bleed when cut. The elder was thought to contain spirits of fertility. ELEN A Welsh heroine from the Mabinogion. She used...
Design and construction
The small hill-fort of Caburn, Sussex was built during the early Iron Age, although archaeologists now believe its defences were strengthened around the mid-1st century AD, possibly in response to the Roman invasion of Britain.The site was abandoned soon afterwards. Courtesy of Steve Danes Today, Celtic fortifications, particularly hill-forts, are readily identifiable by the remains of their ramparts and ditches - a still formidable system of fieldworks which serve as visible reminders of an...
The Forts of Celtic Britain
Angus Konstam Illustrated by Peter Bull Angus Konstam Illustrated by Peter Bull First published in 2006 by Osprey Publishing Midland House. West Way. Botley. Oxford OX2 OPH. UK 443 Park Avenue South. New York, NY 10016. USA E-mail info ospreypublishing.com All rights reserved. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988. no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a...
Places of worship
The classical records suggest that Celtic religion was practised in natural places, such as groves, forest clearings, pools, lakes and islands, rather than in the monumental buildings familiar to the Romans and Greeks, so it is unsurprising that overtly ritual sites are hard to find. The Latin poet Lucan, writing in the first century AD though describing events of a century earlier, describes a dark and hidden woodland sanctuary near Marseilles, where human sacrifices were offered up to crude...
valentine knot bracelet
No book of jewelry projects would be complete without a heart, the symbol of love, among the designs. In this bracelet. I've given the heart a very Celtic rendering with curling spirals, and have used bone- and wood-effect beads and cotton cord to reflect the materials that would have been available in those ancient times. 8 x 8 mm wood- and booe-etlect beads Round-and Hal nose pliers Wire cutters Hammer and steel stake Superglue optional The interlaced natural cot ton cord and hone and wood...
Continuity And Destruction
There are a number of surviving late medieval artefacts that demonstrate the continuation of traditional Celtic art. A notable Irish example is the fifteenth-century leather satchel made as a container for Tlie Book of Armagh. Kept in Trinity College, Dublin, it is stamped with patterns that reflect the full repertoire of Celtic ribbonwork and animal interlaces. The famous ivory and metal Eglinton Casket on show in the National Museum of Antiquities in Edinburgh , once thought to date from the...
Board Games
The most common game, which people of any worth were expected to play, was a variant of draughts or checkers invented by Lugh of the Long Hand, called fidchell in Eriu and gwyddbwyll in Prydain. The name, in both languages, meant wooden wisdom, and the game occupied the same social niche as chess did in medieval chivalry. Sometimes a king's fidchell board had a name, in much the same way as a weapon. Often guests were asked to play against the king, and were expected to try their best to beat...
The Making Of Ancient Manuscripts
Sitting in a warm building with pencil and paper readily available for our designs, we should bear in mind the arduous lengths the early Christian monks went to in order to create their wonderful illuminated manuscripts such as the books of Kelts, Lindisfarne, Durrow and other lesser-known works. Their 'paper' was vellum - made from cured calfskin and a very expensive commodity. The vellum was prepared by soaking it in specially prepared liquids and then stretching it over frames and scraping...
Fishhook clasp
The most commonly used clasp is the fish-hook, which is also one of the simplest to create. I . Working from the spool, curl the end of the wire info o small loop using the tips of your round-nose pliers. Reposition your pliers on the other side of the wire, just under the loop, and curl the wire in the opposite direction around the wider part of the pliers to form the fish-hook clasp. This hook-shaped clasp is both decorative atid functional. . Cut the wire off the spool, leaving about in. to...
Colour
Until the classical revival in the eighteenth century, it was customary in Europe to paint sculpture. In antiquity, Egyptian, Cretan and Greek sculpture was painted naturalistically, and later, in the Christian churches, images of God, Our Lady and the saints were similarly lifelike. Although in Britain we are accustomed now to seeing painted stonework only inside parish churches and cathedrals, this was not the case in former times, for all stonework was intended to be painted. The tradition...
Time line for Celtic Culture
6000 B.c. 1000 B.c. ca. 900 B.c. ca. 800 B.c. Beginning of the Stone Age Beginning of the Iron Age The use of iron spreads into Europe First Celtic people in central Europe Hallstatt era begins Celts settle in Spain First Celtic tribes arrive in Ireland from Spain Celts continue to colonize British Isles, move into Scotland Height of Celtic influence in Britain La Tene culture era begins the first heroic and royal sagas are created Celtic tribes expand into Italy, Spain, France, and Bavaria...
Mathematical observations
There are many types of knotwork in various religions or groups. However, below are the observations that distinguished celtic knots from others 1 The strong diagonals in celtic knots are based on the 3 4 5 triangle, otherwise known as the right-angle triangle. 2 At almost every corner of any celtic knots, we can see pointed spades. This is done so as to connect the cord element to fit a corner. 3 The interlacing of the cords is consistent they alternate between overs and unders, which...
PLATE VIII Squatting God
The deity has torques on his neck and lap, and is encircled by two serpents with rams' heads. Traces of horns appear on his head. He may possibly be a form of Cernunnos see Plate XVI , and would thus be a divinity of the underworld. From an altar found at Autun, Saone-et-Loire. For a representation on a Gaulish coin see Plate III, 3 cf. also Plates IX, XXV. Trespass on a sacred place is implied in the story of Eochaid, who eloped with his step-mother. Oengus, in disguise, told him not to camp...
ALPHABET See ogham
AMAETHON 1 In Welsh tales, the magician son of the goddess Don. His brother, Gwydion, was also a powerful magician. When Amaethon stole a deer, a bird, and a dog from Annwfn, the Welsh Otherworld, he angered the deities there. Arawn, the ruler of Annwfn, declared war on Amaethon and his brother, Gwydion. Just when all seemed lost, Gwydion used magic to turn trees into warriors. With the aid of their magical army, the brothers managed to defeat the gods. The battle was called Cad Goddeu, or the...
Tuatha De Danann
people of Dana. Badb, Macha 1 , and MorrIgan are their three great queens or war goddesses. Each member of the Tuatha De Danann has a special significance, skill, or capacity. The principal characters and their main traits are as follows Angus Og was the god of youth and beauty and a protector of lovers. BOand was a river goddess who gave her name to the river Boyne. She was the wife of Dagda. Brigit was the fiery goddess of poetry and the patron of storytellers and bards. Cian was a shape...
accessories
I hope the projects in this chapter will inspire you to consider designing and fabricating matching accessories and wire art to complement your own jewelry pieces. Jewelry is highly personal and these projects, which include a key ring, handbag clip, and hair grip, provide great gift ideas for special birthdays and anniversaries. Cascading down like bubbles in a waterfall, the beads are encased in spirals of wire to form a unified bunch that can be used to decorate a key ring, handbag, or belt...