Celtic Middle Ages

Chapter 9 Druids and Bards: Celtic Middle Ages

The only consolation lies in fragments of medieval mystery plays, in which God speaks Cornish and the Devil English. C. magris, The Fortunate Isles (1989)

We have spoken of chivalry and the North—that is, of the values of Tradition, courage in war, faith; of the pure and uncorrupted individuals, who know the secrets of runes and the Grail; of the anti-classical, anti-Christian, and anti- modern counter-cultures that emerge in antiquity, last through the Middle Ages and survive up to our day in little “Fellowships of the Ring.” There is an- other topos that reflects all these elements, adds distinctive new ones, and characterizes just as richly, if not more so, the contemporary political imagi- nary of the Middle Ages, juxtaposing and mixing with all the elements identi- fied so far: what we’re looking at is a “new Celtic revival.” The phenomenon of the current massive revival of Celtic traditions also dates back to the Sixties, but from the Seventies on it has taken off in a way that shows no sign of stopping.1 Combined with renewed claims to communal identities, it offers a homogeneous and standardized representation, in a mode analogous to what we have seen in the case of civic festivals. Celtic music marked by fifes, harps, and bagpipes, from Alan Stivell and the Chieftains, founded in 1963, to the famous American radio program The Thistle and Sham- rock, the enormous musical catalogs available online, Irish pubs, celebrations of Samhein and even the holiday of Halloween, a Christian appropriation of the Celtic feast of Beltane unknown in Italy in its new form until thirty years ago, are today commonplace throughout the West. In contrast to the myths of the North, which are relatively less exportable because of their inherent ethnic component, Celticism is in widespread vogue today for two primary reasons. The first is because it has been reinvented in conjunction with the fantasy genre: this world is one of its most common settings. We have been inundated with “Celtic” material, presented as the rebirth or remains of an ancient, wise, and perfect mystic tradition. The operation has been so successful that many now associate the concept of a magical and distant past specifically with the Celtic world. As an alternative tradition, Celticism is undoubtedly victorious.

1 V. Ortenberg, In Search of the Holy Grail cit., pp. 119–142, Ch. 5, The Celtic Bandwagon, and pp. 143–174, Ch. 6, King Arthur, with bibliography.

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Like the myths of the North, it also serves today as the basis for new religions that call themselves “old religions” or “traditional religions.” Part of the neo- pagan movement, they promote peace and harmony and above all an intimate and universal relationship with nature and its magic: they are Druidism or Celticism, which presents itself as a continuation of the Druidic cults, and Wicca, which claims to be a continuation of the esoteric medieval cults that in turn derived from ancient pagan religions, were considered witchcraft, and were brought to the brink of extinction by the Church.2 This is where, by the by, we get the suspicions of Harry Potter promoting witchcraft and being anti- Christian: a judgment that seems to have nothing at all to do with Joanne Kath- leen Rowling’s intentions for the cycle of novels. The author has recently added a further Celtic and medievalizing ingredient to her stories: The Tales of Beedle the Bard, attributed to a bard-mage of the fifteenth century.3 The second reason for Celticism’s current great fortune resides in the fact that it responds to the desire, primarily on the part of American culture, for an ancestral homeland formed through Gaelic myths, the Arthurian cycle, and the ancient Britannic and Irish lands. From this point of view, one might even say that contemporary Celticism is a functional answer to the search for roots and, at the same time, an umpteenth symptom of American culture’s impact on the entire West. Thus, in the United States, Medieval and Renaissance Fairs are common events beloved by Wiccans and hippies, who all come together, dressed in long tunics, around booths and stalls where biological, non-GMO products mix with recipes dating to the Middle Ages. So far we’ve been talking about Celticism, but not about the Middle Ages proper. In reality, the two are closely connected, as in the cases of the fantasy genre and witchcraft touched on above (though we should always remember that the phenomenon of witchcraft and the persecution of it is not, in reality, characteristic of the Middle Ages). The connection between Celticism and the Middle Ages is not immediately apparent, since when we talk about bards and druids we are referring to an age even more remote than the Medieval Era. Thus, and rightly so, the beloved Asterix comics humorously relate the encounters between the proud Gauls of Brittany and the Roman invaders. The

2 Ph. Carr Gomm, The Druid Renaissance: The Voice of Druidry Today, Harper-Collins Canada, Thorson 1996, n. ed. The Rebirth of Druidry: Ancient Earth Wisdom for Today, Element Books Ltd, Rockport (MA) 2003; M. Introvigne, A. Menegotto and P.L. Zoccatelli, Aspetti spirituali dei revival cit., with bibliography; V. Ortenberg, In Search of the Holy Grail cit., pp. 127–137. 3 J.K. Rowling, The Tales of Beedle the Bard, Children’s High Level Books, s.l. 2007. In the Italian edition (Le fiabe di Beda il Bardo, Salani, Milano 2008), the name of the bard has been trans- lated as that of the great Anglo-Saxon writer who lived between the seventh and eighth cen- turies (St. Bede).