Storytelling in the Celtic Tradition: Introduction

Storytelling in the Celtic Tradition Storytelling in the Celtic Tradition: Introduction There have always been storytellers, because people enjoy stories. This is true of all races and periods of history. We know that Celtic people lived from around 600 BCE to 400 CE and their tribes were to be found spread out over great tracts of Northern Europe. Their livelihoods depended so much upon nature for the success of their hunting, fishing, farming, herding, building, and crafting. It is hard for us living our 21st century lives to truly appreciate how bonded their tribal societies were to the land, seas and animals around them. The ancient Celts were a pre-literate people: they did not keep written records, write books or leave notes on events or their beliefs. As such, storytellers and others gifted with the spoken word were vital to society. They memorised the stories of their ancestors and created new ones: creation myths, epic tales of supernatural heroes, and stories of pagan gods and goddesses, shape-changers and magical animals. First composed in Ireland, possibly as early as 300 BC, the Celtic stories were passed from generation to generation in the oral, druidic tradition until the 5th century AD, by which time the druidic priesthood had largely decayed. Bards and wandering minstrels picked up the stories, taking creative license in much the same way that Homer and others are thought to have done with the cycle of stories that eventually became the Iliad and the Odyssey. Archaeology and texts tell us that the Celts focused their spiritual beliefs and holy practices on environmental forces, the land, and the creatures they lived amongst. They worshipped every imaginable aspect of nature and their gods and goddesses were drawn from the land, the sea, rivers, springs and the mountains themselves. Their most important divinities included the sun, moon, stars, thunder, fertility and water. Cults of celestial gods, the mother goddesses, water and trees were common Storytelling in the Celtic Tradition to all of the different tribes. Rivers, springs, rocks, plants, trees and animals also held important positions in Celtic life. Each was believed to possess its own spirit, and all were respected and worshipped for their every day, and supernatural qualities. In its emphasis on magical orality, the Celtic spiritual path is akin to certain Native American traditions, such as the Lakota and Navajo medicine men and women who told magical stories, as well as to the Greek storytellers and the Old Norse saga- singers. Celtic pagan religion was gradually replaced by the Christian religion. Fortunately, many of the orally-told stories, sagas and myths were written down by Irish Christian monks before they were lost. It is thanks to the monks of Ireland and Wales that we have the earliest written fragments of these stories, dating back to the sixth century CE. These ancient Celtic stories were told and re-told from one generation to the next and the monks' manuscripts were copied and re-copied from century to century, morphing and changing with the times. The stories have been carried into the modern era by generations of bards, and by generations of Christians, who were still transcribing original Celtic myths as late as the 18th century. Gaelic Storytelling The oldest continuous tradition of oral storytelling is in Gaelic, deriving from the centuries when the Gaelic world embraced Ireland and western Scotland without cultural distinction. This period may stretch back into prehistory but can only be measured linguistically and historically from the colonistaion of Argyll from Ulster in the 4th century until the break-up of the Gaelic aristocratic society, first in Ireland and then in Scotland in 17th and 18th centuries. In this world, there were professional storytellers, divided into well-defined ranks – Ollaimh (professors) FilÌ (poets), Baird (bards), Seanchaidh (historians, storytellers) The Seanchaidh were the wise ones. The word means a bearer of ‘old lore’ or (seanchas). It was their role to know the tales, poems and history proper to their rank, recited for the entertainment and praise of the chiefs and princes. One of their jobs was to be the geanealogical guardian in order to keep the memory of long-dead ancestors fresh. These learned classes were rewarded by their patrons, but the collapse of the Gaelic order after the battle of Kinsale in 1601-2, and Culloden in Scotland (1746), wiped out Storytelling in the Celtic Tradition the aristocratic classes who maintained the poets, and reduced the role of the Seanchaidh. When the traditional hierarchies of Scottish Gaelic society went into decline, the hearth took on a wider role, sustaining not only the family culture, but the public traditions of the community. Storytelling was, of course, one of the main forms of fireside entertainment among the ordinary folk also, and the popular Celtic tradition became enriched by the remnants of the learned classes returning to the people. Denied the possibility of enhancing their place in society, and deprived of the means to promote and progress their art, the storyteller was held in high esteem by the folk who revered and cultivated story and song as their principal means of artistic expression. We know a lot about these stories because of folklorists. In the Gaelic context, one of the most important collectors was John Francis Campbell, who published 6 volumes of West Highland Tales. “Tales seem to have been told on almost any occasion when people met together socially or for communal work. It could be a wake or a wedding, a funeral or a fair, or any number of other occasions, but by far the most important focus, certainly during the nineteenth century and well into the twentieth, was the ceilidh house. Every township had at least one such house which was distinguished as a popular meeting-place and in these people gathered together to tell and to listen to stories, to sing songs, to exchange local news and gossip, even occasionally to play cards or to dance.” Donald Archie MacDonald The Celtic storytelling tradition embodies the following characteristics: Poetic and skillful tradition passed down by storytellers from generation to the next from memory Belief in the otherworld Instincts and senses, power of sign, beauty of sound Animals as deities - boars, deer, hinds, bulls, cows, crows, ravens dogs, horses, salmon, swans Connection with landscape Presence of the ancestors Storytelling in the Celtic Tradition Types of Storytelling In the Irish/Scottish world of Gaelic culture, storytellers classified their tales by tape according to their subject matter. Each tale contains motifs or elements which may vary from one storyteller or district to another, but the essence of the tale remains stable. The categories about which we have information include: Destructions, Cattle Raids. Courtships, Cave Stories, Battles, Feasts, Voyages, Tragic Deaths, Advetures, Elopments, Slaughters, Irruptions, Visions, Sieges, Conceptions and Births, Frenzies, Loves, Expeditions , Invasions The story types related in a very practical way to particular occasions and audiences. For example, the recital of a story would convey psycological, spiritual and even magical benefit at the start of a hung, a voyage or a war, at rites of passage or at seasonal festivals. Many tales have spread across the world and are described as international folktales, while other tales are only to be found within the area of their origin, for example hero tales such as those of Cu Chulainn and the Red Branch or Fionn MacCumhail and the Fianna. And even here, we often find international echoes in the elements which make up the tale. Celtic stories are more conventionally classified according to the manuscript collections made by monks and scribes. Historical Cycles Mythological Cycle Ulster Cycle Fenian Cycle There is a mythological Cycle of tales mainly preserved in Ireland, and then a wealth of Hero Tales and Romances common to Ireland and Scotland. Historical cycles refer to the Ulster and Fenian Cycles, revolving around the unhistorical heroes of Ulster, principally Cuchulain and Fionn MacCuill and the Fianna. As folk traditions later intermingled, legends of place, clan stories, historical tales and humorous anecdotes all asserted their place within the common cultural stream. Storytelling in the Celtic Tradition Ulster Cycle The Ulster Cycle is full of stories of cattle raids, reflecting an Iron Age warrior aristocracy. One such legendary tale is the Táin Bó Cúailnge (‘the driving-off of cows of Cooley’) commonly known as The Cattle Raid of Cooley or The Táin.) Cuchulain, the hero of the Tain, is trained by the warrior queen Sgathach, whom tradition has located in Skye. Cuchulain fights with and then mates with Sgathach's daughter Uathach or Sgathach herself, before returning to Ulster. The Tragic Death of the Sons of Uisneach involves exile in Scotland from where Naoise and his brothers are recalled to a treacherous death, leading in turn to the suicide of the tragic heroine Deirdre of the Sorrows Storytelling in the Celtic Tradition Fenian Cycle The Fenian Cycle was often called Ossianic Cycle (or Ossianic Cycle). This was a col- lection of stories about the warriors within a military order called the Fianna. The main hero was Fionn MacCumhaill (sometimes transcribed in English as Finn MacCool or Finn MacCoul). He was a mythical hunter-warrior of Irish mythology, occurring also in the mythologies of Scotland and the Isle of Man. The Fenian Cycle contained many stories of Fionn and his companions, the Fianna. Much of it was narrated in the voice of Fionn's son, the poet Oisín. The Fenian Cycle was less violent and turbulent than previous period of the Ulaid Cycle. However, the Fenian Cycle are still filled with battles and otherworldly adventures. Apart from Finn being the principal hero in this cycle, there are tales of other heroes of the Fianna such as those of his son Oisín, his loyal friends Caílte and Díarmaid, and even his arch-rival for the leadership of the Fianna – Goll MacMorna.

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