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Author Topic: Celtic Culture  (Read 14099 times)

Cabal

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Re: Celtic Culture
« Reply #30 on: September 01, 2014, 10:26:16 pm »
Quote from: carillion;157941
Finally! Date material who truly understands what it means to dress up and go out!:D: (only had to wait a thousand years)
Better late, than never!!
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Darkhawk

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Re: Celtic Culture
« Reply #31 on: September 03, 2014, 01:29:14 pm »
Quote from: Cryfder;157940
I like to run around naked, wearing nothing but a torc and painted blue!! lol

 
This is the basic reason we're convinced younger!kid takes after the Celt. ;)  (She does have to steal his torc for it, though.)
as the water grinds the stone
we rise and fall
as our ashes turn to dust
we shine like stars    - Covenant, "Bullet"

winterleaf

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Re: Celtic Culture
« Reply #32 on: July 31, 2016, 07:04:35 am »
Quote from: Tana;63186
That I am standing dead center in its continental heartland.
It soaked into the land here, that's been populated for thousands of years already, and continued the history of humans here.
Now the awareness of it rises again and people seem to like it and willingly accept Samhain fire celebrations, which they attend even in pouring rains.
There is magic here.

 
Interesting.  In Germany??

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Re: Celtic Culture
« Reply #33 on: July 31, 2016, 07:06:03 am »
Quote from: Merin;136912
I'm sure you are aware of Appalachian culture is very closely tied with Irish-Scots culture...:)

 
Really?? *shocked, disbelieving, 'weirded-out' face*

sionnachdearg

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Re: Celtic Culture
« Reply #34 on: August 31, 2016, 02:39:44 pm »
Quote from: Naomi J;156954
Agreed. I'm interested in Irish culture (ancient and modern) -  but it's difficult to claim there was ever anything akin to a Celtic culture. Shared culture in the sense of having art in common, and probably trading together closely enough that there were shared influences, I'll grant you. And certainly linguistic similarities. But every 'Celtic' culture is different. The only thing that's really Celtic is languages.

A lot of the ideas about Celtic respect for nature are actually based on eighteenth century ideas, in what they called the 'Celtic twilight', which was a revival often based on stereotypes and fantasies. Some basis in truth, but not all. For example, the ancient Irish cleared the forests from across the land and set up agriculture in its place. Not as respectful of nature as we might imagine -  though it does depend on what you mean by that.

Pantheons are even more difficult.  I'm of the (minority) opinion that the Gaelic and Brythonic peoples didn't have pantheons -  just local gods and cults. But even people who think there were unified pantheons wouldn't argue that these were the same across many Celtic countries. Each would have had their own gods, as Stephy points out above.

 
I agree with you that there were not pantheons in the inhabitants of the british isles before the coming of the Romans. I think the pantheons we are given were adapted from the Roman influence which was so strong because they were better organized as a collective group. I am not saying better just more organized which allowed them to concur the people we tend to call the Celts. I believe they had a goddess of the land and a god of the tribe which particular to that clan or tribe. The union of the god and goddess was important to the fertility of the land and the well being of the tribe. I also think the gods and goddesses were consider to be located both in the sidhe and in the wild areas of the land. Thus there was probably variability in details but overall common pattern in those of Ireland and those in Wales as well as the other groups  of England.

The use of the word Celtic may be frustrating to those who understand the varied use of the word but it is like trying to change shaman in meaning. The word has a broader meaning and so widespread that it would be too difficult to return to its meaning. I referrers only to the last mix of people prior to the conversion to Christianity but those people may have blended their beliefs with the people prior especially if the shift in people was more cultural than genetic or if the shift was in smaller waves than often depicted. To use Gaelic  has its problems too so the best thing to do is to educate people about the differences as well as the similarities but te word Celtic is probably here to stay.

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Re: Celtic Culture
« Reply #35 on: September 01, 2016, 02:03:37 am »
Quote from: sionnachdearg;195722
I believe they had a goddess of the land and a god of the tribe which particular to that clan or tribe. The union of the god and goddess was important to the fertility of the land and the well being of the tribe. I also think the gods and goddesses were consider to be located both in the sidhe and in the wild areas of the land. Thus there was probably variability in details but overall common pattern in those of Ireland and those in Wales as well as the other groups  of England.

 
Despite your use of the phrase 'I believe', this is not a matter of belief but a matter of fact. What are your sources for these claims?

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Caleb Oak

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Re: Celtic Culture
« Reply #36 on: September 01, 2016, 06:18:58 pm »
Quote from: Celtag;63147
What part of Celtic culture is most appealing to you? For me it's the myths and music and the overall mistique about them.

The diverse history of a ppl, with my fav. part being the sacking of delphi by the warlord Brennus 3rd century BC. (VOLCAE!!!)

(Ps The Celts are from central Europe, for those who did not know that at first such as myself, and they where not like the neopagans of today, although some symbolism is ;))

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brennus_(3rd_century_BC)
PS: The Gauls are a Celtic sub-tribe. ;) Such as the Galatians and the Iberians.

(I had a vivid daydream when i was in Delphi, so i asume my great great etc grandfather/mother must have been there explaining that daydream :) )
« Last Edit: September 01, 2016, 06:21:58 pm by Thrak »

Dynes Hysbys

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Re: Celtic Culture
« Reply #37 on: September 04, 2016, 08:56:00 am »
Quote from: Celtag;63147
What part of Celtic culture is most appealing to you? For me it's the myths and music and the overall mistique about them.


I don't think this is answerable.

All the Celtic countries are vibrant living cultures in their own ways and have evolved to be unrecognisable from the pictures created by the 18CE Romantics which I assume is to what you are referring? Some of it has been re-created for the benefit of the tourists but is almost entirely fake. I suspect visitors expecting what they envision as a "Celtic" experience are likely to be quite disappointed  by the reality of an authentic evening down at Y Stagg!!

sionnachdearg

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Re: Celtic Culture
« Reply #38 on: September 04, 2016, 02:14:50 pm »
Quote from: SunflowerP;195739
Despite your use of the phrase 'I believe', this is not a matter of belief but a matter of fact. What are your sources for these claims?

Sunflower

 
There are multiple sources for what I posted but remember there are no absolute sources from the people who represented the pre-Christian Celts and even less with their predecessors if the concept that the concept of the Celts is entirely accurate. But given this problem we cannot get around. My belief comes first from what is written by the Romans and Greeks. It is clear that they did not recognize the pattern (or did not care) that they found. Instead of a clear pantheon which they could match to their own they found multiple gods and goddesses from different tribes that they tried to match to their own with limited success. The next source that questioned my own original idea of a pantheon was the book written by Marie-Louise Sjoestedt Celtic Gods and Heroes. She discusses the problems of approaching the Celtic gods and goddesses especially the Irish. Further agreement is suggested in Philip Shaws book Bagan Goddesses in the Early Germanic World. The are also all of the references in the Irish tales themselves including the book of the Dindshenchas. Even the folklore clearly connects the land and the world of what remained of the knowledge of the gods and goddesses of the Ireland.  There are other sources I would have to find again but there are a few.

sionnachdearg

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Re: Celtic Culture
« Reply #39 on: September 05, 2016, 12:09:03 am »
-
Quote from: SunflowerP;195739
Despite your use of the phrase 'I believe', this is not a matter of belief but a matter of fact. What are your sources for these claims?

Sunflower

 
Another interesting source even though it is not about Celtic but rather Norse in a book is Old Norse religion with long term perspectives. Here there was large effort to try and understand unwritten beliefs prior to writing using what we have in archeologic and the writings of the Romans, Greeks, and the Christians written mythology preserved in Iceland. They show how the religions changed over time both with changes in settlement behavior and in the influence of other cultures especially Rome.

It is clear that after the destruction of the Roman Empire in Europe the invading tribes in the north were impressed with the organization including the political structure of power. There was an attempt to try and trace back ones ancestry back to Troy, Greece or Biblical characters. Thus one could claim a reason for legitimate rule by prove of descending from what were considered advanced societies.  We see this in the Irish tales where there is both a connection with biblical events and people as well as descent from the Greeks especially those with knowledge of magic and knowledge of the mysteries of life. There was also the connection to the Iberian peninsula. When the Christian authors recorded the tales the created an apparent pantheon and Important individuals such as kings worked to trace their lineage to the great heroes and People of the Irish history. My feeling is the pantheon given was to recreate something similar to what was present in the Greek and Roman and I personally believe the same over time happened to the Norse mythology and tales finally recorded around 1000 AD.

The real way the Celtic people or Gaelic if you fell better with that term appears to be very different than the organized Greek and Roman approach with a diverse groups of gods and goddesses that seem to be associated with particular areas of Ireland. The Insular stories are filled with the connection of a goddess with different areas, features and even animals. The Gods are in the tales connected with the construction of the structures of Ireland and the arts.

It is also apparent that goddesses could have both a nurturing and destructive aspects and were associated with war just as their gods were. In the case of most of the goddesses they are more connected with nature and the land. In the stories them selves for a king to be successful there had to be a joining of the king to the goddess associated with that part of Ireland. The tales show that the start of the Celtic rule as the sons of Mil, had to first accept that the land be named after one of the Goddesses if they were ever successfully enter the land thus the name of the country - Eire (named after a goddess to represent the land). The chief poet of the Sons of Mil calls on the land which finally stops the druidic wind and the Sons of Mil enter and defeat the Irish Gods and Goddesses.

The Tuatha de danann are considered the Gods and Goddesses but Lug is supposedly the union of one of the Tuatha de Dannann and a Fomorian thus are the Fomorians also gods and goddesses considering their ability to control the Tuatha de Danann. All of this creates a more complex concept of the gods and goddesses than what my have been real. This leaves it to the individual to sort through whatever on can find to find some harmony with what one believes was true and with what one can use today to believe in. One thing that was also true is the Tribes of Northern Europe at the time of the expansion of Rome were intimately dependent on understanding the natural world around them which explains the aministic aspect to these people who believed there was as spirit or god/goddess associated with the natural features of Ireland from trees to springs to mounds to rivers.

Again this is how I see it but can never claim it is the correct view because we do not have the information we need but I do think we have enough information to see that their view of the gods and goddesses were not so similar to the view of the invading Romans.

bedewed-niskai

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Re: Celtic Culture
« Reply #40 on: December 04, 2018, 01:23:27 am »
What part of Celtic culture is most appealing to you? For me it's the myths and music and the overall mistique about them.
The fact that I have ancestral roots to it which means a lot to be as a animist. Blood is the fluid of life and our spirits live in it until we pass.

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