A Brief History of the Celts (6 page)

The wealth of Irish literary material is tremendous, reaching a great outpouring in late medieval times before the start of the English conquest and the systematic destruction of the language
and libraries. The great Celtic illuminated Gospel books, produced during the seventh to tenth centuries
AD
, have been acknowledged to comprise one of the peaks of European
artistic creation. Around thirty are known to have survived. Judging by these, what was destroyed must have been an awesome treasure.

To put the Irish survivals in context, it is worth pointing out that the earliest surviving copies of Julius Caesar’s famous
De Bello Gallico
date only from the ninth century
AD
.

Literature in Welsh followed the Irish, with manuscripts surviving from the ninth century
AD
, although material written as early as the sixth century
AD
is copied. Welsh was certainly flourishing as a literary language by the eighth century
AD
but, apart from the fragmentary remains, the oldest book entirely
in Welsh is the
Llfyr Du Caerfyrddin
(
Black Book of Carmarthen
) dated to the twelfth century.

Survivals in the other insular Celtic languages, Scottish Gaelic, Manx, Cornish and Breton, are of a much later period.

The literatures of Irish and Welsh also contain two complete Celtic law systems, which enable us to make many conjectures about the early social systems of the Celts. The Laws of the
Fénechus (free land tillers) of Ireland are more popularly called the Brehon Laws, from
breaitheamh
, a judge. They are obviously the result of many centuries of oral transmission.
The earliest complete copy of these laws is found in the
Book of the Dun Cow
, and several fragmentary texts have survived. The first known codification was made in
AD
438 when
King Laoghaire of Tara established a nine-man commission to examine the laws, revise them and set them down in writing. St Patrick was one of three
clerics who served on this commission with three judges and three kings. Tradition has it that the laws were first given to the Irish by King Ollamh Fodhla in the eighth century
BC
.

Many of the early Norman and English settlers found the Brehon Laws more equitable than those of England and adopted them. It was not until the seventeenth century that the law system was
finally smashed by the colonial administration.

The Brehon Laws show fascinating parallels with the Vedic Laws of Manu in India, which are echoed in the Welsh law system, the Laws of Hywel Dda. Hywel Dda (Hywel the Good) was Hywel ap Cadell
who ruled Wales about
AD
910–950. He decreed that the laws of Wales be gathered and examined by an assembly presided over by Blegwywrd, archdeacon of Llandaff. The
revised laws were then set down in writing. The laws survive in some seventy manuscripts of which only half predate the sixteenth century.

Another fascinating aspect of the Irish literary treasures is the fact that although the oldest surviving medical books in the language date from the early fourteenth century, they constituted
the largest collection of medical manuscript literature, prior to 1800, surviving in any one language. This confirms the reputation of the Irish medical schools, which were famous during the Dark
Ages, and also underlines the classical writers’ references to the advances of Celtic medicine and the archaeological finds which support this.

Early Irish texts on cosmology are now coming to light in many European repositories, forgotten for centuries. These confirm that the Irish shared many perceptions of the world and cosmology
with the Vedic writers. The Coligny Calendar had long demonstrated that this was so among the Continental Celts.

One other set of literary remains from Ireland deserves brief attention. From the seventh century there survive the genealogies of the Irish kings and chieftains
stretching back to the mists of time. The main bulk of the surviving early genealogies dates from the twelfth century, although quoting from the earlier texts, and includes one of the most unusual
works in early European literature – the
Banshenchas
, a work of the lore of women’s genealogies. These pedigrees trace the lines of the Irish kings back to 1015
BC
.

We can see, then, that, whatever other accusation might be levelled against the ancient Celts, they were certainly not an illiterate society. Bards, story-tellers, historians, poets,
genealogists and law-givers had a special place in the ancient Celtic world. This fact is commented on by the classical writers, and is confirmed in the Brehon Laws of Ireland where, under the
etiquette of the Gaelic court, the Ollamhs, or professors, took precedence immediately after the princes of the blood royal and before chieftains and territorial lords. The Ollamhs were allowed to
wear six colours at court whereas chieftains were restricted to five. The Chief Ollamh, or Druid, was even allowed to speak at the assembly before the High King. The ancient Celts clearly accorded
learning special respect and reverence. The popular Roman view of the ancient Celts as ‘savage’ and ‘barbarian’ failed to recognise the reality of their society. It is
fitting that we end our survey on Celtic literacy with a comment of Joseph Cooper Walker from his
Historical Memoirs of the Irish Bards
(1768): ‘Can that nation be deemed barbarous
in which learning shared the next honours to royalty?’

CELTIC KINGS AND CHIEFTAINS

B
y the time the first identifiable Celtic culture emerged, the Hallstatt period, the Celts were ruled by kings who were immensely rich; they lived
in magnificent fortresses and were buried in great tombs, timber-lined and often of oak wood, under large barrows, with splendid grave goods to assist them in the Otherworld. The rulers of this
society were buried with their chariots, wagons, personal ornaments and jewellery, and utensils containing food and drink. The poorer classes continued to be buried in simple cremation graves as
they had been during the Urnfield period.

Like most early Indo-European peoples, early Celtic society was based on a caste system. At the bottom end there were the menials and producers equivalent to the
sudra
and the
vaishya
in Hindu society. Next came the warrior caste, equivalent to the Hindu
kshatriya
. Then came the intellectual caste, which included all the ‘professional’
functions – judges, lawyers, doctors, historians, bards and priests of religion, the Druids. These were equivalent to the Hindu Brahmin. Similar caste divisions are found in Greek and Roman
society.

When we get our first glimpse of Irish society, the Celtic structure had not greatly changed. There was a menial caste which was divided into several sub-classes ranging
from prisoners to herdsmen and house servants. The
ceile
was the producer, the basis of the entire society. Above them came the warriors and nobles, the
flaith
, often coming under
the title of
aire
(noble), which is cognate with the Sanskrit word
arya
, freeman. Then came the professional class, originally the Druids.

At the top of society, among both the ancient Celts on the Continent and the later insular Celts, there came the kings and queens; indeed, there was a whole range of kings from minor kings who
paid allegiance to more powerful kings, to over-kings or high kings.

The word for a king in the Celtic group of languages was
rix
, in Gaulish, cognate with the word for king in other Indo-European languages:
rajan
in Sanskrit (hence Hindi,
raj
),
rex
in Latin and so forth. Now this concept of kingship in Indo-European meant one who stretched or reached out his hand to protect his people. The very word for king also
meant an act of stretching or reaching. In old Irish, for example,
rige
was not simply kingship but was the act of reaching. In modern Irish
righ
still means ‘to
stretch’. The same idea can be seen, albeit a little in disguise, in Latin –
porrigo
, to stretch or reach. It is a compound of
pro
and
rego
, to guide, direct,
govern or rule. In modern English the very word ‘reach’ is of the same root. Indeed, the word ‘rich’ in English, and in most of the Germanic languages as well as French from
the Germanic Frankish, also comes from the root word for ‘exalted, noble and kingly’.

Gods with ‘long hands’, such as Lugh Lamhfhada in Ireland and Dyaus in Vedic literature, are symbolic of the concept of royalty. In the old Irish king lists we find that Oenghus
Olmuchada of the Long Hand is recorded as ruling in Ireland in 800
BC
. Indeed, one of the most notable modern symbols in
recent years has been the
‘Red Hand’ of Ulster. Today it is viewed as the rather threatening symbol of the Ulster ‘Loyalist’ planter tradition. In fact it goes back long before their adoption of it
for it was the heraldic badge of the Uí Néill dynasty, the symbol of the Celtic Kings of Ulster. It appears on the seal of Aedh O Néill, King of Ulster in 1334–1364. The
Uí Néill dynasty would rush on their foes with the war-cry: ‘
Leamh Dearg Abu!
’ (The Red Hand forever!) In medieval times their armoured warriors wore a Red Hand
badge, and examples have been found from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. However, the symbolism goes even further back, to the tradition of the Milesian invasion. Eremon, son of Golamh, or
Míle Espain, the progenitor of the Gaels, had taken an oath that, out of his siblings, he would be the first to land on the shores of Éireann. When he saw that his ship was not going
to be first, he cut off his hand and threw it on shore. In this legend, we find an echo of the symbolism of the reaching out of the hand. Eremon, in spite of his brother Eber’s claims,
became, according to the Druid Amairgen, the first high king of Ireland.

Rí
and
rigan
remain in the Goidelic languages as words for king and queen, but in Welsh the word for king has changed to
brennin
. It is argued that this derives
from Brigantinos – i.e. ‘spouse of Briganti’, the goddess known as the ‘elevated one’ (cognate of Brigit) – and thus reflects the ritual mating of a king with a
goddess of sovereignty. An example of this union is when the three goddesses (Children of Danu) Éire, Banba and Fótla met the Milesians and Eremon became king of the northern half of
the country while his brother Eber became king of the southern half. Éire sealed her union by handing her royal husband a golden goblet of red liquor. Nine kings of Ireland are said to have
cohabited with Medb for she would not allow any king to sit at Tara unless she was joined with him. While Medb appears as queen in Connacht and Medb Lethderg appears as queen in Leinster, it is
possible that the
traditions are confused for Medb is clearly a goddess representing sovereignty.

Kings were regarded as divine. They descended from the gods and usually had to ritually mate with a goddess, a recurring theme in Irish mythology. The traditions of Hindu and Celtic kingship, as
seen in early Irish sources, are particularly close and the fortunes of the king were seen as being fundamentally bound to the fortunes of the land. Ritual marriage took place between the king and
the land in various symbolic forms. Rituals and tests were practised in choosing a king. There were sacred inauguration stones, such as the Lia Fáil (Stone of Destiny), which was known as
the Stone of Scone and on which Scottish kings were inaugurated. This was looted from Scotland by Edward I and remained in Westminster Abbey until 1997 when it was returned to Scotland. The
teaching was that the inauguration stones for kings and chieftains gave a loud cry if they recognised the foot of a rightful king.

Certain rituals particularly delineate Celtic society as Indo-European. In the bull festival, or
tarbhfheis
, a bull was slain and a Druid feasted on the flesh and drank of a broth made
from the cooked animal. He then went into a meditative trance, while four others chanted over him, and he was thought to receive a vision of the next true king. Bulls, revered for strength and
ferocity and virility, were venerated by all the Celtic peoples. The esteem in which they were held can be judged from numerous figurines and statuettes and other artwork dating from the seventh
century
BC
. Bull sacrifice is found on the famous Gundestrup Cauldron, where there is an image of a slain bull, and its importance is all-pervasive in the Celtic world.
Queen Medb invaded Ulster to steal the Brown Bull of Cuailgne when its owner, Daire mac Fiachniu, refused to part with it.

Another ritual is described by Gerald of Wales (Giraldus Cambrensis) in his
Expurgatio Hibernica
. He describes the
inauguration ceremony of an Irish king where a
mare was ritually slaughtered and the king-elect ate of the flesh of the beast then drank and bathed in a broth made from the carcass. It was a ritual in which the king sought fertility for himself
and his people. This may have symbolised a ritual mating with the horse goddess Epona (
epos
, a horse) who came to be adopted even by the Romans. Horse sacrifice also appears in another
Indo-European culture, in the Hindu ritual of
asvamedha.

Caesar suggests that some tribes of the Belgae were familiar with a dual monarchy – two kings sharing the throne. He mentions in particular the tribe of the Eburones. Certainly dual
monarchy occurs several times in more recent Irish king lists where brothers often shared the throne, for example Fergus and Domnall, sons of Muirchertaig, who ruled in
AD
566, or Cellach and Conall Cáel, sons of Máele Cobo, who ruled in
AD
654, or Diarmait and Blathmac, sons of Aedo Sláine, who ruled in
AD
665. We also find two Celtic rulers leading a combined Celtic army to threaten Rome in 223/222
BC
– Aneroestes and Concolitanus.

Caesar mentions that some Celtic kings exercised authority on both sides of what is now the English Channel. We learn that Commius, the king of the Atrebates in Gaul (discounting the boast that
Caesar had made him a king – he had probably merely recognised him as such), also exercised sovereignty over the Atrebates of southern Britain. Caesar also refers to the Suessiones:
‘They had been ruled within living memory by Diviciacus, the most powerful king in Gaul, who controlled not only a large part of the Belgic country, but Britain as well.’ Diviciacus
appears to have ruled about 100
BC
.