Galicians

Galicians (Galician: galegos [ɡaˈleɣʊs]; Spanish: gallegos [ɡaˈʎeɣos]) are a Romance-speaking European ethnic group from northwestern Spain; they are closely related to the northern Portuguese people and have their historic homeland in Galicia, in the north-west of the Iberian Peninsula. Two Romance languages are widely spoken and official in Galicia: the native Galician and Spanish.
The ethnonym of the Galicians (galegos) derives directly from the Latin Gallaeci or Callaeci, itself an adaptation of the name of a local Celtic tribe known to the Greeks as Καλλαϊκoί (Kallaikoí). They lived in what is now Galicia and northern Portugal and were defeated by the Roman General Decimus Junius Brutus Callaicus in the 2nd century BCE and later conquered by Augustus. The Romans later applied that name to all the people who shared the same culture and language in the north-west, from the Douro River valley in the south to the Cantabrian Sea in the north and west to the Navia River. That encompassed such tribes as the Celtici, the Artabri, the Lemavi and the Albiones.
The oldest known inscription referring to the Gallaeci (reading Ἔθνο[υς] Καλλαικῶ[ν], "people of the Gallaeci") was found in 1981 in the Sebasteion of Aphrodisias, Turkey; a triumphal monument to Roman Emperor Augustus mentions them among other 15 nations that he conquered.
The etymology of the name has been studied since the 7th century by authors such as Isidore of Seville, who wrote, "Galicians are called so because of their fair skin, as the Gauls" and related the name to the Greek word for "milk," γάλα (gála). However, modern scholars like J.J. Moralejo and Carlos Búa have derived the name of the ancient Callaeci either from Proto-Indo-European *kl̥(H)‑n‑ 'hill', through a local relational suffix -aik-, also attested in Celtiberian language and so meaning 'the highlanders'; or either from Proto-Celtic *kallī- 'forest' and so means 'the forest (people)'.
Another recent proposal comes from the linguist Francesco Benozzo, who is not specialized in Celtic languages and identified the root gall- / kall- in a number of Celtic words with the meaning "stone" or "rock", as follows: gall (old Irish), gal (Middle Welsh), gailleichan (Scottish Gaelic), galagh (Manx) and gall (Gaulish). Hence, Benozzo explains the name Callaecia and its ethnonym Callaeci as being "the stone people" or "the people of the stone" ("those who work with stones"), in reference to the ancient megaliths and stone formations that are so common in Galicia and Portugal. Specialists of the Celtic languages do not consider there is a hypothetical Gaulish root *gall meaning "stone" or "rock", but *galiā "strength" (> French gaill-ard "strong"), related to Old Irish gal "berserk rage, war fury", Welsh gallu and Breton galloud "power". It is distinct from Gaulish *cal(l)io- "hoof" or "testicle", related to Welsh caill, Breton kell "testicle" (> Gaulish *caliavo > Old French chaillou, French caillou), all from the Proto-Indo-European root *kal- "hard hardness" (perhaps via suffixed zero-grade *kl̥H-no-(m)). For instance, in Latin callum "hard or thick substance" is also found and so both E. Rivas and Juan J. Moralejo relate the toponym Gallaecia / Callaecia with the Latin word callus.
Galician is a Romance language belonging to the Western Ibero-Romance branch; as such, it derives from Latin. It has official status in Galicia. Galician is also spoken in the neighbouring autonomous communities of Asturias and Castile and León, near their borders with Galicia.
Medieval or Old Galician, also known by linguists as Galician-Portuguese, developed locally in the Northwest of the Iberian Peninsula from Vulgar Latin, becoming the language spoken and written in the medieval kingdoms of Galicia (from 1230 united with the kingdoms of León and Castille under the same sovereign) and Portugal. The Galician-Portuguese language developed a rich literary tradition from the last years of the 12th century. During the 13th century it gradually replaced Latin as the language used in public and private charters, deeds, and legal documents, in Galicia, Portugal, and in the neighbouring regions in Asturias and Leon.
Galician-Portuguese diverged into two linguistic varieties – Galician and Portuguese – from the 15th century on. Galician became a regional spoken language under the influence of Castilian Spanish, while Portuguese became the international one, as language of the Portuguese Empire. The two varieties are still close together, and in particular northern Portuguese dialects share an important number of similarities with Galician ones.
The official institution regulating the Galician language, backed by the Galician government and universities, the Royal Galician Academy, claims that modern Galician must be considered an independent Romance language belonging to the group of Ibero-Romance languages and having strong ties with Portuguese and its northern dialects.
However, the Associaçom Galega da Língua (Galician Language Association) and Academia Galega da Língua Portuguesa (Galician Academy of the Portuguese Language), belonging to the Reintegrationist movement, support the idea that differences between Galician and Portuguese speech are not enough to justify considering them as separate languages: Galician is simply one variety of Galician-Portuguese, along with European Portuguese, Brazilian Portuguese, African Portuguese, the Galician-Portuguese still spoken in Spanish Extremadura, (Fala), and other variations.
Nowadays, despite the positive effects of official recognition of the Galician language, Galicia's socio-linguistic development has experienced the growing influence of Spanish and persistent linguistic erosion of Galician due to the media as well as legal imposition of Spanish in learning.
Galicia also boasts a rich oral tradition, in the form of songs, tales, and sayings, which has made a vital contribution to the spread and development of the Galician language. Still flourishing today, this tradition shares much with that of Portugal.
Galician surnames, as is the case in most European cultures, can be divided into patronymic (originally based on one's father's name), occupational, toponymic or cognominal. The first group, patronymic includes many of the most frequent surnames and became fixed during the Low Middle Ages; it includes surnames derived from etyma formed with or without the additions of the patronymical suffixes -az, -ez, -iz: Alberte (Albert); Afonso (Alfons); Anes, Oanes, Yanes (Iohannes); Arias; Bernárdez (Bernard); Bermúdez (Medieval Galician Uermues, cf. Wermuth); Cristobo (Christopher); Diz (from Didaci); Estévez (Stephan); Fernández; Fiz (from Felici); Froiz, Frois (From Froilaci, from the Gothic personal name Froila, "lord"); Giance (Latin Iulianici); González; Henríquez (Henry); Martís (Martin); Méndez (Menendici); Miguéns, Miguez (from Michaelici, equivalent to Michaels); Páez, Pais, Paz (from Pelagici, Pelagio); Ramírez; Reimúndez (Raymond); Rodríguez; Sánchez; Sueiro (from Suarius); Tomé (from Thomas); Viéitez, Vieites (Benedictici, Benedict), among many others.
Because of the settlement of Galician colonists in southern Spain during the Reconquista, some of the more frequent and distinctively Galician surnames also became popular in Spanish (which had its own related forms) and were taken later into the Americas, as a consequence of the expansion of the Spanish empire:
The largest surname group is the one derived from toponyms, which usually referred to the place of origin or residence of the bearer. These places can be European countries (as is the case in the surnames Bretaña, Franza, España, Portugal) or nations (Franco, "Frenchman"); Galician regions (Bergantiños, Carnota, Cavarcos, Sanlés); or cities, towns or villages, which gave origin to a few thousand surnames. Another related group is formed with the preposition de, usually contracted with the definite article as da or do, and a common appellative: Dacosta (or Da Costa), "of the slope", Dopazo or Do Pazo ("of the palace/manor house"); Doval, "of the valley" (cfr. French Duval), Daponte ("of the bridge"), Davila ("of the town", not to be confused with Spanish Dávila), Daporta ("of the gate"); Dasilva ("of the forest"), Dorrío ("of the river"), Datorre ("of the Tower"). Through rebracketing, some of these surnames gave origin to others such as Acosta or Acuña.
A few of these toponymic surnames can be considered nobiliary, as they first appear as the name of some Galician noble houses, later expanding when these nobles began to serve as officials of the Spanish Empire, in Spain or elsewhere, as a way of maintaining them both far from Galicia and useful to the Empire: Andrade (from the house of Andrade, itself from the name of a village), Mejía or Mexía (from the house of Mesía), Saavedra, Soutomaior (Hispanicized Sotomayor), Ulloa, Moscoso, Mariñas, Figueroa among others. Some of these families also served in Portugal, as the Andrade, Soutomaior or Lemos (who originated in Monforte de Lemos). As a result, these surnames are by now distributed all around the world.
The third group of surnames are the occupational ones, derived from the job or legal status of the bearer: Ferreiro ("Smith"), Carpinteiro ("Carpenter"), Besteiro ("Crossbow bearer"), Crego ("Priest"), Freire ("Friar"), Faraldo ("Herald"), Pintor ("Painter"), Pedreiro ("Stonemason"), Gaiteiro ("Bagpiper"); and also Cabaleiro ("Knight"), Escudeiro ("Esquire"), Fidalgo ("Nobleman"), Juiz ("Judge").
The fourth group includes the surnames derived from nicknames, which can have very diverse motivations:
a) External appearance, as eye colour (Ruso, from Latin roscidus, grey-eyed; Garzo, blue-eyed), hair colour (Dourado, "Blonde"; Bermello, "Red"; Cerviño, literally "deer-like", "Tawny, Auburn"; Cao, "white"), complexion (Branco, "White"; Pardo, "Swarth"; Delgado, "Slender") or other characteristics: Formoso ("Handsome"), Tato ("Stutterer"), Forte ("Strong"), Calviño ("Bald"), Esquerdeiro ("Left-handed").
b) Temperament and personality: Bonome, Bonhome ("Goodman"), Fiúza ("Who can be trusted"), Guerreiro ("Warlike"), Cordo ("Judicious").
c) Tree names: Carballo ("Oak"); Amieiro, Ameneiro ("Alder"); Freijo ("Ash tree").
d) Animal names: Gerpe (from Serpe, "Serpent"); Falcón ("Falcon"); Baleato ("Young Whale"); Gato ("Cat"); Coello ("Rabbit"); Aguia ("Eagle")
e) Deeds: Romeu (a person who pilgrimaged to Rome or the Holy Land)
Many Galician surnames have become Castilianized over the centuries, most notably after the forced submission of the Galician nobility obtained by the Catholic Monarchs in the last years of the 15th century. This reflected the gradual spread of the Spanish language through the cities, in Santiago de Compostela, Lugo, A Coruña, Vigo and Ferrol, in the last case due to the establishment of an important base of the Spanish navy there in the 18th century. For example, surnames like Orxás, Veiga, Outeiro, became Orjales, Vega, Otero. Toponyms like Ourense, A Coruña, Fisterra became Orense, La Coruña, Finisterre. In many cases this linguistic assimilation created confusion, for example Niño da Aguia (Galician: Eagle's Nest) was translated into Spanish as Niño de la Guía (Spanish: the Guide's child) and Mesón do Bento (Galician: Benedict's house) was translated as Mesón del Viento (Spanish: House of Wind).
The oldest human occupation of Galicia dates to the Palaeolithic, when Galicia was covered by a dense oak temperate rain forest. The oldest human remains found, at Chan do Lindeiro, are from a woman who lived some 9,300 years ago and died because of a landslide, apparently while leading a pack of three aurochs; the genetic study of her remains revealed a woman that was an admixture of Western Hunter-Gatherer and Magdalenian people. This type of admixture has been observed in France, also.
Later on, some 6,500 years ago, a new population arrived from the Mediterranean, bringing agriculture and husbandry with them. Half of the woodland was razed to pasture and farmland, almost replacing all of the woodland some 5,000 years ago. This new population also changed the landscape with the first permanent human structures, megaliths such as menhirs, barrows and cromlechs. During the Neolithic Galicia was one of the foci of Atlantic European Megalithic Culture, putting in contact the Mediterranean and south Iberia with the rest of Atlantic Europe.
Some 4,500 years ago a new culture and population arrived and presumingly admixed with the local farmers, the Bell beaker people, coming ultimately from the Pontic steppe, who introduced copper metallurgy and weaponry, and probably also new cultivars and breeds. Some scholars consider that they were the first people to bring Indo-European languages into Western Europe. They lived in open villages, only protected by fences or ditches; local archaeologists consider that they caused a very large culture impact, replacing collectivism with individualism, as exemplified by their burial in individual cists, along with the reuse of old Neolithic tombs. From this period and later dates a rich tradition of petroglyphs, which find close similarities in the British Isles, Scandinavia or northern Italy. Motives include cup and ring marks, labyrinths, Bronze Age weaponry, deer and deer hunting, warriors, riders and ships.
During the Late Bronze Age and until 800-600 BCE the contacts with both southern Spain to the south, and Armorica and the Atlantic Isles to the north, intensified, probably fuelled by the abundance of local gold and metals such as tin, which allowed the production of high quality bronze. It is at this moment that began the deposition or hoarding of prestige items, frequently in aquatic context. Also, during the Late Bronze Age a new type of ceremonial henge-like ring structures, of some 50 metres in diameter, are built all along Galicia.
This period and interchange network, usually known as Atlantic Bronze Age, which appears to have had its centre in modern-day Brittany, was proposed by John T. Koch and Sir Barry Cunliffe as the one that originated Celtic languages —as a product of pre-existing and closely related Indo-European languages— which could have expanded along with the elite ideology associated with this cultural complex (Celtic from the west theory). Alleged difficulties with this theory and with pre-existing theories ("Celtic from the east") have led Patrick Simms-Williams to propose an intermediate "Celtic from the centre" theory, with an expansion of Celtic languages from the Alps during the Bronze Age. A recent study shows the large scale admixture of an earlier population from Britain with people arriving probably from France during the late Bronze Age. These people, in the opinion of the authors, constitute a plausible vector for the expansion of Celtic languages into Britain, as no further Iron Age people movement of relevant scale is shown in their data.
The Bronze Age - Iron Age transition (locally 1000-600 BCE) coincides with the hoarding of large quantity of bronze axes, unused, both in Galicia, Brittany, and southern Britain. During this same transitional period, some communities began to protect their villages, settling in very protected areas where they built hill-forts. Among the oldest of these are Chandebrito in Nigrán, Penas do Castelo in A Pobra do Brollón and O Cociñadoiro in Arteixo, on a sea cliff and protected by a 3-metre-tall wall, it was also a metal factory, perhaps dedicated to the Atlantic commerce, all of them founded some 2,900-2,700 years ago. These earlier fortified settlements seem to be placed to control metallurgical resources and commerce. This transitional period is also characterized by the apparition of longhouses of ultimately north European tradition which were replaced later in much of Galicia by roundhouses. By the 4th century BCE hill-forts have expanded all along Galicia, also on lowlands, soon becoming the only type of settlements.
These hill-forts were delimited usually by one or more walls; the defences also include ditches, ramparts and towers, and could define several habitable spaces. The gates were also heavily fortified. Inside, houses were originally built with perishable materials, with or without a stone footing; later on they were entirely made with stone walls, having up to two storeys. Specially in the south, houses or public spaces were adorned with carved stones and warrior sculptures. Stone heads, mimicking severed heads, are found at several locations and were perhaps placed near the gates of the forts. A number of public installations are known, for example saunas of probable ritual use. Of ritual use and great value were also items such as bronze cauldrons, richly figured sacrificial hatchets and gold torcs, of which more than a hundred exemplars are known.
This culture is now known as Castro Culture; another characteristic of this culture is the absence of known burials: just exceptionally urns with ashes have been found buried at foundational sites, acting probably as protectors.
Occasional contacts with Mediterranean navigators, since the last half of the second millennium BCE, became common after the 6th century BCE and the voyage of Himilco. Punic importations from southern Spain became frequent along the coast of southern Galicia, although they didn't penetrate very far to the north or to the interior; also, new decorative motives, as the six-petal rosettes, are popularized, together with new metallurgical techniques and pieces (ear pendants) and some other innovations as the round hand mill. In exchange, Punics obtained tin, abundant in the islands and peninsulas of western Galicia (probable origin of the Cassiterides island myth) and probably also gold. Incidentally, Avienus' Ora Maritima says after Himilco that the Oestrymni (inhabitants of western Iberia) used hide boats to navigate, an assertion confirmed by Pliny the Elder for the Galicians.
First recorded contact with Rome happened during the Second Punic War, when Gallaecians and Astures, together with Lusitanians, Cantabrians and Celtiberians —that is, the major Indo-European nations of Iberia— figured among the mercenary armies hired by Hannibal to go with him into Italy. According to Silus Italicus's Punica III:
"Opulent Galicia sent her youth, expert in divination through the entrails of beasts, the flight of birds and the divine lightnings; sometimes they delight to chant rude songs in their fatherland's tongues, other times they make the ground tremble with alternative foot while happily clashing their caetra at the same time. This leisure and diversion is a sacred delight for the men, the feminine laboriosity do the rest: adding the seed to the furrow and working the ground with the plough while the men idle. Everything which must be done, with the exception of the hard war, is made restlessly by the wife of the Galician." He later also mentions the Grovii of southern Galicia and northwestern Portugal, with their capital Tui, apart from the other Galicians; other authors also marked the distinctness of the Grovii: Pomponius Mela by addressing that they were non Celtic, unlike the rest of the inhabitants of the coasts of Galicia; Pliny by signalling their Greek origin.
After ending victoriously the Lusitanian war with the assassination of Viriathus, consul Caepio tried to wage war, unsuccessfully, on Gallaecians and Vettones, for the help they lent to the Lusitanians. In 138 BCE, another consul, Decimus Junius Brutus, in command of two legions, passed de Douro river and later the Lethes or Oblivio (Limia, which frightened his troops because of its other name), in a successful campaign, managing to conquer many places of the Galicians. After reaching the Minho river, and in his way back, he attacked (again successfully) the Bracari, who had been harassing his supply chain: Appian describe the Bracari women fighting bravely side by side with their men; of the women who were taken prisoners, some killed themselves, and others killed their children, preferring death to servitude. The spoils of war allowed Decimus Junius Brutus to celebrate a triumph back in Rome, receiving the name Callaicus. Recently a very large marching Roman camp was discovered at high altitude, in Lomba do Mouro, at the very frontier of Galicia with Portugal. In 2021 a C-14 dating showed that it was built during the 2nd century BCE; since it is north of the Limia, it probably belonged to this campaign.
The Roman contact had a very large impact on the Castro Culture: an increase in commerce with the south and the Mediterranean; adoption or development of sculpture and stone carving; the warrior ethos appear to increase in social importance; some hill-forts are built new or rebuilt as true urban centres, oppida, with streets and definite public spaces, as San Cibrao de Las (10 ha) or Santa Trega (20 ha).
In 61 BCE Julius Caesar, commanding thirty cohorts, launched from Cádiz a maritime campaign along the Atlantic shores which ended in Brigantium. According to Cassius Dio, the locals, who had never seen a Roman fleet, surrendered in awe. Recent excavations at the Castro de Elviña hillfort, near A Coruña, have found both evidences of siege and partial destruction of the walls of the site, and also of a temple, dated to the middle of the first century BCE.
Finally, in 29 BCE, Augustus launched a campaign of conquest against Gallaecians, Asturians and Cantabrians. The most memorable episode of this war was the siege on the Mons Medullius, who Paulus Orosius placed near the Minho river: it was surrounded by a 15 mille trench before a simultaneous Roman advance; according to Anneus Florus the besieged decided to kill themselves, by fire, sword, or by the venon of the yew tree. Tens of Roman camps have been found related to this war, most of them corresponding to the later stages of the war, against Asturians and Cantabrians, some twenty of them in Galicia. Augustus' victory over the Gallaecians is celebrated in the Sebasteion of Aphrodisias, Turkey, where a triumphal monument to Augustus mentions them among other fifteen nations conquered by him. Also, the triumphal arch of Capentras probably represents a Gallaecian among other nations defeated by Augustus.
Pomponius Mela (a geographer from Tingentera, modern day Algeciras in Andalusia) described, circa 43 CE, the coasts of northwestern Iberia:
"That ocean front for some distance has a straight bank, then, having taken a slight bend, soon protrudes a little bit and then it is drawn back, and again and again; then, lying on a straight line, the coast extends to the promontory which we call Celtic. All of it is inhabited by Celtics, except from the Durio until the bend, where the Grovi dwelt —and through them flow the rivers Avo, Celadus, Nebis, Minius and Limia, also called Oblivio—. On the bend there is the city of Lambriaca and the receding part receives the rivers Laeros and Ulia. The prominent part is inhabited by the Praestamarci, and through them flow the rivers Tamaris and Sars —which are born not afar— Tamaris by harbour Ebora, Sars by the tower of Augustus, of memorable title. For the rest, the Supertamarici and Neri inhabit in the last tract. Up to here what belongs to the western coast. From there all the coast is turned to the north, from the Celtic promontory to the Pyrenees. Its regular coast, except where there are small retreats and small headlands, is almost straight by the Cantabrians. On it first of all are the Artabri, still a Celtic people, then the Astures. Among the Artabri there is a bay which lets the sea through a narrow mouth, and encircles, not in a narrow circuit, the city of Adrobrica and the mouth of four rivers." The Atlantic and northern coast of today's Galicia was inhabited by Celtic peoples, with the exception of the southern extreme. Others geographers and authors (Pliny, Strabo), as well as the local Latin epigraphy, confirm the presence of Celtic peoples.
As for the language or languages spoken by the Galicians previously to their romanization, most scholars usually perceive a primitive Indo-European layer, another later one hardly distinguishable from Celtic and identifiable with Lusitanian, most notable in the south, the Gallaecia Bracarense (as a result, Lusitanian is sometimes called Lusitanian-Gallaecian) and finally Celtic proper; as stated by Alberto J. Lorrio: "the presence of Celtic elements in the Northwest is indisputable, but there is no unanimity in considering whether there was an only Indo-European language in the West of Iberia, of Celtic kind, or either a number of languages derived from the arrival of non-Celtic Indo-Europeans first, and Celts later on". Some academic positions on this issue:
After the Roman conquest, the lands and people of northwestern Iberia were divided in three conventi (Gallaecia Lucensis, Gallaecia Bracarensis and Asturia) and annexed to the province of Hispania Tarraconensis. Pliny wrote that the Lucenses comprised 16 populi and 166,000 free heads, and mentions the Lemavi, Albiones, Cibarci, Egivarri Namarini, Adovi, Arroni, Arrotrebae, Celtici Neri, Celtici Supertamarci, Copori, Celtici Praestamarci, Cileni among them (other authors mention also the Baedui, Artabri and Seurri); the Astures comprised 22 populi and 240,000, of whom the Lougei, Gigurri and Tiburi dwelt lands now in Galicia; finally the Bracarenses 24 civitates and 285,000, of whom the Grovi, Helleni, Querquerni, Coelerni, Bibali, Limici, Tamacani and Interamici dwelt, at least partially, in modern-day Galicia. The names of some of these peoples have been preserved as the names of regions, parishes and villages: Lemos < Lemavos, Cabarcos, Soneira < *Sub Nerii, Céltigos < Celticos, Valdeorras < Valle de Gigurris, Trives < Tiburis, Támagos < Tamacanos. Some other Galician regions derive from some populi or subdivision not listed by the classic authors, among them: Bergantiños < Brigantinos, from Briganti, Nendo < Nemetos, from Nemeton, Entíns < Gentinis ('the chieftains').
A common characteristic of both Gallaecians and western Astures were their onomastic formula and social structure: while most of the other Indo-European peoples of Hispania used a formula such as:
Gallaecians and western Astures used, until the 2nd century of our era, the formula:
The known personal names used by locals in northern Gallaecia were largely Celtic: Aio, Alluquius, Ambatus, Ambollus, Andamus, Angetus, Arius, Artius, Atius, Atia, Boutius, Cadroiolo, Caeleo, Caluenus, Camalus, Cambauius, Celtiatus, Cloutaius, Cloutius, Clutamus, Clutosius, Coedus, Coemia, Coroturetis, Eburus, Eburia, Louesus, Medamus, Nantia, Nantius, Reburrus, Secoilia, Seguia, Talauius, Tridia, Vecius, Veroblius, Verotus, Vesuclotus, among others.
Three legions were stationed near the Cantabrian mountains after the war, later reduced to the Legio VII Gemina in León, with three auxiliary cohorts in Galicia (the Cohors I Celtiberorum in Ciadella, Sobrado dos Monxes, near Brigantium; other unity at Aquis Querquennis, and another one near Lucus Augusti) and others elsewhere. Soon Roma began to recruit auxiliary troops locally: five cohorts of Gallaecians from the conventus Lucenses, other five of bracarenses, two mixed ones of Galicians and Asturians, and an ala and cohort of Lemavi.
Also, Gallaecia and Asturia became the most important producers of gold on the Empire: according to Pliny Lusitania, Gallaecia and, especially, Asturia, produced the equivalent to 6,700 kg per year. It has been estimated that the eight hundred Roman gold mines known in Galicia produced in total in between 190,000 and 2,000,000 kg.
During the Diocletian reforms, late third century, Gallaecia was upgraded to province.
In 409 the Vandals, Suebi and Alans, who had entered in the Roman Empire in 405 or 406 crossing the Rhin, passed into the Iberian Peninsula. After a year of war and plundering, they were pacified by the offering of lands where to settle. The Roman province of Gallaecia (including Gallaecia proper and the regions of Asturia and Cantabria) were assigned to the Suebi and the Hasding Vandals. Both groups clashed soon, in 419, and so the Vandals left to southern Iberia, where they incorporated the last remnants of Alans and Silingi Vandals, who had been crushed by Rome in previous years. In 429 the Vandals left for Africa.
In 430 a long term conflict broke in between the Suebi and locals who chronicler Hydatius called gallaecos (i.e. galegos, the endonym of modern-day Galicians) and, initially, plebs ("folk, common people"), in contrast with whom he called romani: the rural landowners in Lusitania and the inhabitants of the cities. Soon, among those Galicians, appear also local noblemen and churchmen. As the Britons in southern Great Britain, the Galician were forced to act autonomously from Rome, exercising home rule. They reoccupied old Iron Age hill-forts and built new strongholds and fortification all along Galicia; the largest known today are at Mt. Pindo, Mt. Aloia and at Castro Valente. These fortresses were later used by locals against Visigoths, Arabs and Norsemen. In this conflict in between Galicians and Suebi, Rome and local bishops acted frequently rather as intermediaries than as a part, and peace our truce was obtained or warranted with the interchange of prisoners and hostages.
In 438 both people attained a peace that would last for twenty years; by then old king Hermeric, who had led their people at least since their arrival from Central Europe, ceded the crown to his son Rechila, who would expand the kingdom to the south and east, conquering Emerita Augusta, Mértola and Seville, and moving his troops into eastern Hispania, defeating both Roman and Visigoth armies along the way. His successor and son, Rechiar, converted from paganism to Catholicism upon being crowned, and married a Visigoth princess. He negotiated with Rome a new status for his kingdom and became the first post-Roman Germanic king to mint coins in his name. Soon, he tried to expand into the last Roman province in Hispania, Tarraconense; eventually this led to open conflict with Rome and the Visigoths. In 456 a large army of foederati commanded by the kings of the Visigoths and the Burgundians entered Hispania and defeated the Suebi army near the city of León. Rechiar fled to Porto, but he was captured and later executed. Notwithstanding, the Visigoths left in a hurry the theatre of operation, returning to France. That allowed the Suebi to regroup. After a period of petty-kings rivalry, accompanied by devastation and pillage on Galicians, Remismund was recognized as only and legitimate king by the Suebi, and accepted by the Visigoths; he also promoted the Arianism among the Suebi. As result, the Suebi kingdom came to its limits, encompassing modern day Galicia, northern Portugal until Coimbra, and large parts of Asturias, León and Zamora.
The chronicle of Hydatius also records naval raids of both Vandals and Heruli on the Galician coasts during the 5th century.
In 718 the area briefly came under the control of the Moors after their conquest and dismantling of the Visigothic Empire, but the Galicians successfully rebelled against Moorish rule in 739, establishing a renewed Kingdom of Galicia which would become totally stable after 813 with the medieval popularization of the "Way of St James".
The autonomous community, a concept established in the Spanish constitution of 1978, that is known as (a) Comunidade Autónoma Galega in Galician, and as (la) Comunidad Autónoma Gallega in Spanish (in English: Galician Autonomous Community), is composed of the four Spanish provinces of A Coruña, Lugo, Ourense, and Pontevedra.
The official statistical body of Galicia is the Instituto Galego de Estatística (IGE). According to the IGE, Galicia's total population in 2008 was 2,783,100 (1,138,474 in A Coruña, 355.406 in Lugo, 336.002 in Ourense, and 953.218 in Pontevedra). The most important cities in this region, which serve as the provinces' administrative centres, are Vigo (in Pontevedra), Pontevedra, Santiago de Compostela, A Coruña, Ferrol (in A Coruña), Lugo (in Lugo), and Ourense (in Ourense). The official languages are Galician and Spanish. Knowledge of Spanish is compulsory according to the Spanish constitution and virtually universal. Knowledge of Galician, after declining for many years owing to the pressure of Spanish and official persecution, is again on the rise due to favorable official language policies and popular support. Currently about 82% of Galicia's population can speak Galician and about 61% have it as a mother tongue.
In the 19th century a group of Romantic and Nationalist writers and scholars, among them Eduardo Pondal and Manuel Murguía, led a Celtic revival initially based on the historical testimonies of ancient Roman and Greek authors (Pomponius Mela, Pliny the Elder, Strabo and Ptolemy), who wrote about the Celtic peoples who inhabited Galicia; but they also based this revival in linguistic and onomastic data, and in the similarity of some aspects of the culture and the geography of Galicia with that of the Celtic countries as Ireland, Brittany and Britain, as well as in the Bronze and Iron Age archaeological cultures. These similarities included legends and traditions, and decorative and popular arts and music. It also included the green hilly landscape and the ubiquity of Iron Age hill-forts, Neolithic megaliths and Bronze Age cup and ring marks, which were and are popularly seen as "Celtic", also among foreigners who travelled to Galicia.
As a Celtic region of Spain, Galicia has a tartan called Galicia National.
During the late 19th and early 20th century this revival permeated Galician society: in 1916 Os Pinos, a poem by Eduardo Pondal, was chosen as the lyrics for the new Galician hymn. One of the strophes of the poem says: Galicians, be strong / ready to great deeds / align your breast / for a glorious end / sons of the noble Celts / strong and traveller / fight for the fate / of the homeland of Breogán. The Celtic past became an integral part of the self-perceived Galician identity: as a result an important number of cultural association and sport clubs received names related to the Celts, among them Celta de Vigo, Céltiga FC, CB Breogán, etc.
From the 1970s on a series of Celtic music and cultural festivals were also popularized, the most notable being the Festival Internacional do Mundo Celta de Ortigueira, at the same time that Galician folk musical bands and interpreters became usual participants in Celtic festivals elsewhere, as in the Interceltic festival of Lorient, where Galicia sent its first delegation in 1976.
Galician folklore is similar to that of the rest of western Europe, especially to that or northern Portugal, Asturias and Cantabria. Among its most notable myths are the following:
While Galicia was traditionally a profoundly Catholic society, in its beliefs there are many remnants of previous religious systems, in particular the belief on a pantheon of gods, now saints; in the reincarnation in form of an animal, when there are unfinished business; the evil eye and the sickness caused by curses; the holiness of crossroads and fountains, etcetera. The first attestation of the beliefs of the Galicians in a Christian context is offered by the Pannonian Martin of Braga who in his letter De Correctione Rusticorum condemns, among others, the belief in the Roman gods or in the lamias, nymphs and dianas, and also in practices as putting candles to trees, springs and crossroads.
Aside from Catholic feasts and celebrations, there are other annual celebrations of pagan or mixed origin:
Traditional Galician costume, as understood today, got conformed fundamentally during the second half of the 18th century. Notwithstanding, some very characteristic elements, as the monteira (an embroidered felt hat), breeches and jacket are already present in 16th century depictions. Although there are some regional variance, males attire is generally composed of monteira and sometimes pano (headcloth), camisa (shirt), chaleco (vest), chaqueta (jacket), faixa (sash), calzón (breeches), cirolas (underwear), polainas (gaiters, spats) and zocas, zocos (clogs or boots).
Female costume was composed of cofia (coif) or, later, pano (headcloth); dengue (short cape worn as a jacket) or corpiño (bodice); camisa (shirt), refaixo (petticoat), saia (skirt), mantelo (apron) and faltriqueira (pouch or bag).
The most characteristic instrument in traditional music is probably the gaita (bagpipe). The gaita have a conical double-reed chanter, and usually have one to four drones. The bag is usually inflated through a blowpipe, but in the gaita de barquín it is inflated by the operation of a bellows. In the past the gaita was usually accompanied just by tamboril (snare drum) and bombo or caixa (bass drum), but since the middle of the twentieth century the groups and bands have become very popular. Pieces which are usually interpreted with gaita are the muiñeira, often in 8 time and very similar to Irish jigs; the alborada, played during the early mornings of holydays; the marcha (march) which accompanies processions and retinues. Some renowned compositions are the 19th century Muiñeira de Chantada and the traditional Aires de Pontevedra (an alborada) and Marcha do Antigo Reino de Galicia (March of the Old Kingdom of Galicia).
Another very representative instrument is the pandeireta (tambourine), which along or together with other drums as the pandeiro, castanets, etc., usually accompanied the songs and celebrations of the working women and men during the seráns (evenings), foliadas or fiadas.
Other genres include de alalá, which can be sung a cappella, or the cancións de cego (blindman's songs), interpreted with violin of zanfoña.