| Re .0: Sorry not to agree with you, but the Celts were generally
not nomads, quite a lot is known about their civilization, the Romans
never set foot in Ireland (except for a few merchants), and several
purely Celtic civilizations lasted much longer than the (Western)
Roman empire, one of them in Ireland, where a Celtic tongue is still
spoken by quite a few people, which might explain the fact that
most of this file deals with Irish stuff. BTW, the Irish Gospell
books are more Christian than Celtic, although they have a real
Celtic touch in their writing and pictures (they're written in Latin).
Some Irish monks were historians too and wrote in Irish in the middle
age, long after the end of the Roman time.
I must had that Celtic cultural remains (in art, music, craft,
litterature, etc...) can be found in many other places than Ireland.
6 (six) Celtic tongues, most of them with several dialects, are
still spoken today, although one (the Cornic) has been artificially
revived. I refer to Irish, Scottish and Manx Gaelic, Welsh, Breton
and Cornic.
Looks like you could use a little learning about Celts and Celtic
culture. I don't see the need for such a flame in this conference.
Denis.
|
| Re .3: The situation you're writing about is very limited in area
and time: you're describing the Western Celts (Northern Italia,
France, Switzerland, Belgium and part of Spain, the case of the
Celts of the British Isles and of the Eastern Celts was different),
at the time of the Roman expansion (roughly 300 B.C. to 100 or 200
A.D.), while Celtic history spans on a much wider area and from
roughly 1500 B.C. to our days....
What's more, the Celtic tribes were not nomadic. They were seden-
tary (sp?), though one or several tribes could sometimes migrate when
their agricultural lands were exhausted (farmers are NOT nomads,
the Gauls invented -or were among the first users of- the plough).
For a given tribe, this has been historically recorded less frequently
than once every 50 years on the average, not what could be called
a nomadic life. Also the Celts had villages and even cities (villages
only in Ireland), which isn't really a nomad characteristic. They
were great traders (which imply, that's true, that a few of them
moved a lot, but the Greeks and the Carthaginians, who were even
bigger traders, were never qualified nomads, because they usually
as well as the Celts, didn't take their famillies with them in their
trading tours). The Gauls were also known for their wines and were
the inventors of the wood barrel: it takes at least 5 years to harvest
the first grapes on a vine after you've planted it, during which
time you must be there to take care of it...
What is true is that when a Celtic tribe decided to move, it was
a very big event, and often put other tribes on the move as well,
resulting in such troubles that the Greek and Roman historians took
notice of it (e.g.: the Gaul Tumult -not sure of the English trans-
lation, Tumulte Gaulois in French- under the command of Brennus
during which the Gauls took Rome -the Vae Victis anecdote- and then
Delphes in Greece). It was one of these move, or rather a try at
it, by the Helvets, that Caesar used for pretext to invade Gaule.
The Celts were, as you said, great horsemen, but also among
the best foot soldiers of that time and were employed as mercenaries
in the whole of middle east during all the Hellenistic period. Their
big problem was that, as tribes they lacked the discipline and organi-
zation needed to take advantage of their militry qualities. That's
what allowed the Romans to conquer them (not easily, it took 2.5
centuries to conquer Northern Italia, Gaul, Spain and Britain, and
the Pictish border in Britain was never a quiet one).
As for the cultural remains of that period there are thousands
of them (broochs, weapons, tools, trinkets, coins, sculpture, etc...),
the best known of which are the Battersea Shield and the Gundestrup
Cauldron.
That's all I remember on the spot, but I could have a look at
my Celtic archaeologyy books if you want more informations.
Denis.
|
| Hello, I suppose I should introduce myself. My name is
George Darcy and I work in Littleton MA USA with the
Nautilus team (VAX 8800) doing behavioral modelling.
My ancestors were mostly from Ireland, and a few from France
and Denmark. I've been to Ireland several times and am in my
third year of Irish (Gaelic), although you wouldn't know it :v)
It's really difficult to learn, especially since there are very few
people who are fluent in the states. French was a lot easier...
There were other culture-oriented notesfiles on the ENET,
but none to do with Celtic studies, be it Irish or whatever.
So I said, what the heck, its only a little disk space :v)
I have relatives in various parts of Ireland, although some
some ancestor-lines completely emmigrated or died out.
There's the Darcys from Ballinasloe, Malloys and Connors from
Oughterrard, McManus and Griffins from Roscommon, Joyces and
and Hennesseys and Goulds in and around Cork. My French connection
is the name Paris from Belfort (near Swiss.). Anyone out there with
similarly named ancestors??
George
|
| I added this conference to my notesfiles in hopes that it would
enlighten me in the ways of Celtic history and culture primarily
because I am a member of the SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism)
and my preferred persona is a young Celtic lady in and around the
early Middle Ages. In order for me to develop an accurate persona,
knowledge of history and culture is most important. I must say
that to find so much on present day Ireland was slightly disappointing.
It is not that I am not interested in Ireland today... indeed I
would not have chosen a persona from a place such as the British
Isles if I did not find it intriguing today. However, as this
particular note is about, I too am very interested in finding out
more about the culture and history of the Celtic people. I found
.2 and .4 VERY informative and would love to see more. As we have
seen from notes .1 and .2 there are several misconceptions that
could use some enlightenment regarding culture and history.
Keep giving us more, please! We thirst for knowledge.
Regards,
Aislin (SCA personna name)
Dale (mudane name [everday])
|