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Mythology Worlds
CELTIC EUROPE
Druids and magic
Challenges of Studying Celtic mythology
The pre-Christian Celts left no written records of their beliefs, so we must rely on the work of archaeologists to gain a picture of what Celtic religion was like in ancient times.
While the Celts did indeed have a writing system (manifest, for example, in the old Irish writing system Ogham), they valued oral tradition over written narratives.
The druids kept their spiritual knowledge a secret...so unless we can travel through time and speak Ancient Celtic languages, all we know of pre-Christian Celtic myths is a general overview of their gods.
We must also rely on the accounts of the Roman conquerors.
As we all know, history is written by the winners.
We may never know the Roman conquest from the Gauls' perspective, but we can be sure it must have been like the Asterix cartoons from France.
All the evidence we do have of Celtic stories and myths was written down after the Celts became Christian.
Nevertheless, the Medieval Irish and Welsh literary cycles offer us a glimpse into the world of the Celts.
The Four Seasonal Celtic Festivals
Samhain
November 1st
Celtic New Year, ancestor of Halloween
Imbolc
February 1
Feast of Brigid, a.k.a. Candlemas
Beltane
May 1
Festival of the Sun, a.k.a. May Day
Lughnasa
August 1
Festival of Lugh, start of the harvest
Early Celtic Deities of Ancient Western Europe
France, Belgium, the Alps, southern Germany, and far northern Italy
The Etymologic Legacy of the Ancient Celts
Paris, the capital city of France, is named after a Gaulish tribe called the Parisii.
French things are sometimes called "Gallic", after the Gauls themselves.
London, the capital of the U.K., comes from the Celtic place name "Lugdunum".
("Fortress of Lugus")
Place names of Brythonic origin dot the English landscape.
The country of Belgium is named after the Belgae Celts.
The Danube River is named after the ancient Celtic mother goddess Danu.
Myths and Legends of Ireland
The Cycles of Pre-Colonial Irish Literature
The Mythological Cycle
The origins of the Irish people and their gods
The Ulster Cycle
Cuchulainn and the Cattle Raid of Cuailnge
The Kings Cycle
The cycle of kings (What else?)
The Fenian Cycle
Finn McCool and his son Oisin
Calculation of Fairy Time based on the story of Oisin
If Oisin spent 3 years in Tir Na Nog and discovered that 300 years had passed in the Material Plane, then...
1 fey year = 100 material years
Therefore...
1 fey day = about 4 material days
1 fey hour = about 6 material hours
1 fey minute = about 10 material minutes
1 fey second = about 6 material seconds
The snakes are back in Ireland
There is a growing Druid movement in the here and now.
Tales of Wales
The Four Branches of the Mabinogion
Pwyll, Prince of Dyfed
The story of Pwyll and his meetup with Rhiannon
Branwen, Daughter of Llyr
Bran the Blessed's war with Ireland
Manawydan, Son of Llyr
Life of Pryderi in a post-Ireland-war world
Math, Son of Mathonwy
The Children of Don
My Irish ancestors would be offended by the Bran the Blessed story.
This is a great example of how the British viewed the Irish even before they colonized Ireland in the 1500s and stifled the Irish/Gaeilge language.
Arthurian Legends
Primary Sources of Arthurian Legends
Geoffrey of Monmouth, History of the Kings of Britain
(Historia Regum Britanniae)
The Spoils of Annwn
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
The Norman poet Wace
Chretien de Troyes*
Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte d'Arthur
Insert Monty Python and the Holy Grail joke here
Celtic Mythical Creatures
Types of Fairy
The Seelie Court
Good fairies
The Unseelie Court
Evil fairies
Trooping Fairies
They live in groups in the Neolithic mounds, and wear green
Solitary Fairies
They live alone in specific places and prefer human companionship
They wear red, grey, or brown
The Bretons are descendants of British refugees who fled the Anglo-Saxon invasion of their homeland, and settled on the northwestern tip of France...which to this day is called Brittany.
In modern times, new Celtic creation stories have been reconstructed based on historical evidence as well as the myths themselves.
One postulates that a horse called Eiocha swallowed the fruit of a massive tree near a beach.
Eiocha gave miraculous birth to Cernunnos (the Horned God); she was so much in pain that she ripped off some of the tree's bark and flung it into the sea, thus creating the sea giants.
Eiocha and Cernunnos had children in the form of Epona (the horse goddess), Taranis (the god of thunder), Teutates (the protector god), and Maponos (the god of youth).
Together, they made humankind and all life on earth from the wood of the great tree.
The gods and the giants had a war, and the last surviving humans populated the Earth.
Another creation story says that Danu (the Great Mother goddess and mother of the Tuatha De Danann) and Donn (ancestor of the Gaels and god of the dead) were locked in a tight embrace.
One of their sons killed Donn, and his body became the Earth.
Danu's tears created all life on Earth.
Based on that, my personal headcanon is that Danu is the mother of the people of Nemed (who, if we remember from the Ireland section of this webpage, became the Tuatha De Danann as well as the Firbolgs), as well as the peoples of Cessair and Parthalon.
Since Donn is the ancestor of the Gaels, that would also make Danu the great-great-great-...grandmother of the Milesians (who, if we remember, are the ancestors of the Irish).
Perhaps some of the peoples of Cessair and Parthalon fled south to escape their respective apocalypses, and their children became the ancestors of the Milesians (who came from Spain)?
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