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Encyclopedia of CELTIC MYTHOLOGY and FOLKLORE

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Encyclopedia of CELTIC MYTHOLOGY and FOLKLORE the encyclopedia of CELTIC MYTHOLOGY AND FOLKLORE Patricia Monaghan The Encyclopedia of Celtic Mythology and Folklore Copyright © 2004 by Patricia Monaghan All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher. For information contact: Facts On File, Inc. 132 West 31st Street New York NY 10001 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Monaghan, Patricia. The encyclopedia of Celtic mythology and folklore / Patricia Monaghan. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8160-4524-0 (alk. paper) 1. Mythology, Celtic—Encyclopedias. 2. Celts—Folklore—Encyclopedias. 3. Legends—Europe—Encyclopedias. I. Title. BL900.M66 2003 299'.16—dc21 2003044944 Facts On File books are available at special discounts when purchased in bulk quantities for businesses, associations, institutions, or sales promotions. Please call our Special Sales Department in New York at (212) 967-8800 or (800) 322-8755. You can find Facts On File on the World Wide Web at http://www.factsonfile.com Text design by Erika K. Arroyo Cover design by Cathy Rincon Printed in the United States of America VB Hermitage 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 This book is printed on acid-free paper. CONTENTS 6 INTRODUCTION iv A TO Z ENTRIES 1 BIBLIOGRAPHY 479 INDEX 486 INTRODUCTION 6 Who Were the Celts? tribal names, used by other Europeans as a The terms Celt and Celtic seem familiar today— generic term for the whole people. familiar enough that many people assume that If the name itself is not exact, neither is what they are ethnic descriptions, words that define a it names. There is no one agreed-upon definition people related by blood and culture. Such peo- of what constituted Celtic society and the Celtic ple are imagined as fair-skinned, possibly red- worldview. Indeed, some claim that Celtic peo- haired, often freckled. More important, it is ples adapted themselves to and absorbed influ- presumed they share an inborn mystical inclina- ences from pre-Celtic cultures wherever they tion. They see in ways that others do not or can- lived and that, therefore, the idea of a Celtic cul- not. They acknowledge a world beyond the ture is itself hopelessly flawed. Narrowly, a Celt world of the senses. Some even have the second can be defined as someone who spoke or speaks sight, the ability to see fairies and other spirits a Celtic language. Beyond that, scholars and dancing through the soft evening. For evening other experts disagree as much as they agree. always gathers around the Celts, a misty twilight where things are never quite solid and defined. The Celts in Classical Literature The image is a charming one; it has drawn Literacy is not a value shared by all cultures. many to the study of Celtic culture. But it is also The Celts did not write down their myths and incorrect. The word Celt is not as exact as many histories, honoring instead the spoken word and people presume. It does not define a race or a the human memory. As a result, we have no tribe; the alleged Celtic mysticism is not an written documents from early Celtic times, invariably inherited trait. Nor does “Celtic” when they were settling central Europe. Instead, describe a culture that was so centralized that all the earliest writings we have about the Celts are Celts everywhere felt the same way toward in the languages of their enemies: the Greeks nature, worshiped the same gods, and per- and, later, the Romans. formed rituals in the same fashion. The Celts were already a mature culture No ancient people called themselves “the when they began to appear in the writings of Celts.” They called themselves Belgae, Cantii, their southern neighbors. Until then, they lived Icini, Brigantes, Voconces, Arverni, or by any too far away to be of interest, and besides, they one of scores of other tribal names. Where con- were no threat to the wealth and power of temporary imagination sees a single culture, Greece and Rome. In the last several centuries these ancient people themselves knew dozens of before the common era, however, the Celts linguistically related groups, each bearing a began to seek new territories. Whether this was name derived from an ancestor, a god or a god- because they were being pushed out of tradi- dess, a totem animal, a sacred location. The tional homelands by other invaders, or because a word Celt may originally have been one of these population explosion put pressure on resources, iv Introduction V we do not know. But within a few hundred years become emperor, Julius Caesar, who fought the of their first appearance in historical documents Celtic people and recorded what he knew of the Celts posed a real threat to the safety and sta- them in his Commentaries on the Gallic Wars. In bility of the Mediterranean world. Simply put, the Celts, whom he called Gauls, Caesar faced the Greeks and Romans had land and resources the most significant impediment to his imperial that the Celts needed. Conflict was inevitable. plans. As aggressive as the Celts had been in The earliest written reference to the Celtic their period of expansion, the Romans under tribes is found in the late sixth century B.C.E.in Caesar were just as aggressive. the works of Hecataeus of Miletus, who This time, the Celts were fighting to main- described Narbonne, in today’s France, as a city tain their home territories, not to move into new of the Celts. A hundred years later, the Greek ones. Classical sources tell us of the fierceness of geographer Herodotus described a people, the Gaulish and British warriors, but if the Celts Keltoí, as the most westerly of the European peo- were a people to be feared, they also occupied ple but also holding territories at the source of lands the Romans wished to conquer. And the Danube River. The fourth-century B.C.E. because the Celtic warriors fought individually, Greek writer Ephoros described the Celts as one for personal glory, while the trained Roman of the four great barbarian races, the equal of the legions were pawns in a larger economic game, powerful Libyans, Persians, and Scythians to the the Celts were ultimately beaten back. Classical south, east, and north of the Greeks respectively. literature tells of the carnage of battle and the These writers were reporting what they had horror of massacre that, even from the point of learned from travelers; they had no firsthand view of the victors, was unendurable. Roman experience of Celtic ways. historian Tacitus tells us of the rebellion of the For two centuries, central and western British queen Boudicca against the invading Europe was essentially under Celtic control. Romans who had raped her daughters; Polybius Then the Celts began to expand, moving south tells of the powerful Celtic warriors who wore and west. At the height of their expansion, Celtic little clothing apart from their great gold neck- tribes occupied territory that stretched from pieces and who sliced off the heads of their van- Galatia in Asia Minor—today’s Turkey—west to quished enemies, only to die as miserable Ireland, and from northern Germany to Italy. captives after being paraded naked through the They were the first truly European civilization. streets of Rome. They were also aggressive in expanding their Because the Celtic people themselves left no territories. Around 387 B.C.E. the Celts reached written records, we only hear the voices of their the steps of the Roman capital, where the city literate enemies. Although Caesar, Ammianus leaders were hiding in terror. A siege ensued, Marcellinus, Tacitus, Diodorus Siculus, and oth- broken when the sacred geese in the temple of ers recorded many interesting details about Juno called an alarm that roused the captives Celtic culture, we cannot rely solely upon them. against the last rush of the invasion. Had the They were writing, after all, for an audience that geese not squawked when they did, Europe may cheered the extermination of this fierce foe. The well have been a Celtic continent. But the tides temptation was strong to portray the Celts as of fortune turned against the Celts, and by the more savage and brutal than they were in reality. first century C.E. a Roman empire stretched Such Roman material must be read with suspi- across much of the ancient Celtic territory. cion. When Marcellinus speaks of the “great It is from this period that we learn the most pride and insolence” of the Celtic warrior, for about Celtic traditions, religion, and ritual. But instance, it is easy to dismiss the comment as the source is suspect: The writer was their intended to drive fear into the hearts of the fiercest enemy, the Roman general who would Roman citizenry. But what of his claim that VI The Encyclopedia of Celtic Mythology and Folklore Celtic women helped their men in battle? Was Celtic sites (material culture) and analysis of this an observed fact, or a way of showing the Celtic languages (nonmaterial culture). Celts to be more barbaric than the Romans, who left their wives at home when they invaded Archaeological Traces Celtic lands? When Strabo says that the Celts Where language cannot reach, the archaeologist are “war-mad and uncouth,” we can recognize reads instead the artifacts of ancient cultures. his propagandizing tone, but what of his report Unlike warrior generals who slander their oppo- that the Celts placed a premium on education nents, potsherds and earthen walls do not delib- and eloquence? erately lie nor distort the facts.
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