From: evc@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Edward Van Cura)
Newsgroups: alt.pagan
Subject: Talking Heads
Date: 9 Sep 92 05:29:16 GMT

From *The Encyclopedia of Religion*, Book 6, pp. 225-226:

                    The Celtic Head Cult

Headhunting as a proof of prowess and the veneration of the head as
the seat of the soul and the source of spiritual potency are both far
older than the dawn of the historical period. In Europe there is
fairly clear evidence for them as far back as Mesolithic times. They
were therefore part of the European heritage long before the Celts
emerged as a distinct cultural entity. But here, as in so many other
instances, what the Celts borrowed or inherited from others they soon
made peculiarly their own. The veneration of the head became a central
element of their ideology, a deep-set preoccupation which lasted from
the birth of the Celtic peoples to their final conquest, one which
left its imprint ubquitously on their art and on their mythology.

The archaeological and artistic evidence for the head cult among the
Celts is too extensive to catalog briefly. For example, at the
Celto-Ligurian sanctuary of Entremont in southern Gaul (Provence),
fifteen male skulls were found, several of them still bearing the
marks of the spikes with which they had been fixed for display, and at
Bredon Hill in Gloucestershire, England, a row of skulls uncovered
near the entrance seem to have fallen from above the gate of the fort.
At Entremont there are many examples of severed heads sculpted on
blocks of stone, while Roquepertuse, also in Provence, has its famous
decorated portico with niches in which human skulls were placed. There
is also a wealth of heads sculpted in stone or carved in metal which,
while not explicitly identified as severed heads, reflect clearly and
sometimes very dramatically the importance accorded the head as a
symbol of extraordinary power and divinity: for example, those from
Heidelberg or from Msecke-Zehrovice in Bohemia, or the pear-shaped
heads on the Pfalzfeld Pillar, or the three-faced head from Corleck,
County Cavan, Ireland.

Classical authors confirm the archaeological testimony. According to
Posidonius, as reported by Diodorus Siculus (5.29.4-5) and Strabo
(4.4.5), the Celts returned from battle with the heads of their
defeated enemies hanging from the necks of their horses. The heads of
their most distinguished opponents they embalmed in cedar oil and
stored carefully in a chest to be displayed proudly to their visitors,
and in some instances they used the skull of a distinguished enemy as
a vessel for sacred libations. These and other similar references are
supported by the insular Celtic literatures, where the return of the
hero carrying the heads of his foes as trophies is commonplace.
Cormac's *Glossary*, which dates from around 900 CE, defines the tern
"mesradh Machae", "the nut harvest of Macha (the war goddess)," as
"the heads of men after they have been cut down."

But the cult of the head went far beyond the pursuit of martial glory.
The head was not only a prized heroic trophy but also a profoundly
religious symbol, sometimes evidently representative of a deity and
generally suggestive of supernatural wisdom and power. It was a source
of prosperity, fertility, and healing as well as an apotropaic agent
to ward off evil from the individual and from the community as a
whole. Severed heads are often associated with sacred wells ---
themselves instruments of healing --- in the archaeological record, in
the early insular literature, and in modern oral tradition, and this
association was carried over into the legends of the Christian saints.
There are many instances in the literature of heads continuing to live
---speaking, directing, entertaining --- long after they have been
separated from the body. Perhaps the most striking example is that of
Bendigeidvran (Bran the Blessed), whose head has presided over the
otherworld and protected the island of Britain since its burial at the
White Mount in London. Indeed so widespread and so persistent is the
image of the head in its various aspects that Anne Ross has seen fit
to describe it as "the most typical Celtic religious symbol."

                          Bibliography

Lambrechts, Pierre. *L'exaltation de la tete dans la pensee et dans
   l'art des Celtes*. Bruges, 1954. An important collection and
   classification of plastic representations of the head, but relatively
   weak in its use of the insular tradition.

Le Roux, Francoise. "Notes d'histoire des religions, III." *Ogam* 8
   (1956): 300-316.

Le Roux, Francoise. "La `Branche Sanglante' d'Ulster et les tetes
   coupees des Salyens de Provence." *Ogam* 10 (1957): 139-154.

Le Roux, Francoise. "Tetes coupees et religion celtique." *Ogam* 16
   (1964): 451-453. A searching commentary on the different levels of the
   cult of the head and on its social and religious significance. The
   author's expertise in mythology and comparative religion and her
   extensive knowledge of the insular sources give her a considerable
   advantage over earlier commentators on this topic.

Reinach, Adolphe. "Les tetes coupees et les trophees en Gaule." *Revue
   celtique* 34 (1913): 38-60, 253-286. An excellent survey for its time,
   but its descriptions and interpretations require some revision in
   light of later studies.

Ross, Anne. "The Human Head in Insular Pagan Celtic Religion."
   *Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland* 91 
   (1959): 10-43.

Ross, Anne. "Severed Heads in Wells: An Aspect of the Well Cult."
   *Scottish Studies* 6 (1962): 31-48.

Ross, Anne. "The Cult of the Head." In her *Pagan Celtic Britain*, 
   pp. 61-126. London, 1967. A comprehensive survey of the British
   iconographic evidence for the cult, particularly valuable for its
   constant correlation of iconographic, archaeological, and insular
   literary documentation together with modern oral tradition.

Sterckx, Claude. *La tete et les seins: La mutilation rituelle des
   ennemis et le concept de l'ame*. Saarbrucken, 1981. This work seeks to
   review and evaluate the varied data amassed since Adolphe Reinach's
   pioneering studey in 1913. Although it gives special prominence to the
   cult as practiced by the Celts, it also examines it at length as a
   universal and Indo-European phenomenon.

Article written by Proinsias Mac Cana

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"Just the facts, Ma'am." ---Joe Friday   *   Thorfinn Einarsson
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