Celtic Mythology (LL)

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==Celtic History==
Perhaps more so than any other culture addressed in this volume, the Celts are very difficult to pin down as a single cohesive nation. Their unusual beginnings and their lack of any centralized governmental structure mark them as unique, somehow outside the bounds of what we today consider to be a country or state. The historical record tells us that Celtic unity was based strictly on culture, not on race, language, or heritage.
Of course, our knowledge of the ancient Celts is distorted as we look through the romanticism of 18th and 19th century scholars. At every turn in our study, we have to carefully judge the source of information and decide whether or not that source has twisted the facts for one reason or another.
From their original homeland in southern Germany and Bohemia, the early Celts came abruptly into the historical forefront. In fact, they were considered along with Scythia, India, and Ethiopia to be one of the four so-called peripheral nations (stated from a mediterrania-centric point of view). Considering their origins, the original Celts must have been of Germanic stock, relying on primitive agriculture and the hunt, no doubt caught up in the perpetual warfare of their tribal neighbors to the north.
From these ambiguous beginnings, the Celts tore across the northern European plain and into the Balkans unchallenged. They swept over what is now France and into Spain, subjugating the Gauls they found there until they had advanced even to the gates of Rome itself. From Gaul they expanded rapidly into Britain and then on to Ireland, where their traditions ultimately held out the longest against the changing world. To the southeast, the Celts reached as far as Asia Minor where evidence of their culture can be uncovered today. In the 4th century BC, they scrambled across what is now modern Europe, exerting control over an enormous area. Their motivation for expansion is unclear, but its results are undeniable.
However, for reasons equally obscure, from their position of widespread domination, the Celts fell quickly into a period of decline. No doubt many factors contributed to this seeming failure of their control. First, the great distances involved probably became insurmountable. Somewhat later in history, the Romans would hold sway over a similarly large area, and even with their penchant for logistics and communications they barely held on to it. The Celts hardly commanded the same talents for road building and flexible government in the 4th century BC. Second, the Celts were forever plagued by a minority status. In the areas they controlled, they found themselves outnumbered by their subject peoples, peoples who did not share the Celtic culture nor practice its rituals. Their control over such people must have been shaky at best. Finally, there is evidence that the Celts spent a large proportion of their resources on mercenaries. Sometimes these were used to keep control over their subjects, other times they were employed for wild ventures with no clear goal in mind. Over all these factors, their complete lack of central government or authority contributed greatly to their decline. At any rate, these and other considerations conspired against the Celts, dooming their empire before it could begin. The Celts were, from the start, destined only to spread out across Europe, never to rule it.
Seeing little resistance and experiencing their own periods of growth, the neighboring nations of Dacia, Germany, and Rome closed in on Celtic territories no longer controlled by them. Though the Celts were largely absorbed into those territories, and their traditions there continued for some time, the days of the Celtic peripheral nation were over. When these other nations were through, Celtic influence was largely reduced to Gaul, Britain, and Ireland.
Later in their history, Rome pressed even further into these territories, conquering Gaul and then much of Britain before they were through. The Roman contact with the Celts was largely adversarial, hardly a forum for a meaningful exchanges of ideas. However, the writings of the conquerors, mainly those of Caesar himself, speak of the Celts and their traditions. Of course, the Romans often placed their own ideals in the place of the Celtic culture and pantheon they found, so their writings about the Celts are slanted, at best.
The Romans, however, never conquered Ireland, and the Celtic tradition there flourished. Only the Viking invasions of the 9th century and the Anglo-Norman incursions of the 12th diluted the Celtic heritage of the island. To this day, Irish Celtic texts and artifacts are both the most abundant and the most reliable windows into their past.
==Celtic Culture==
As stated earlier, the Celts were often masters of their realms in name only, being, if you will, paper tigers. Many of their subjects no doubt ignored the Celtic Religious rites in favor of their own traditions. Especially in later times, when vast number of Celts were absorbed into other nations, it stands to reason that they were isolated groups of worshippers, most likely outcasts, forced to practice their religion out of sight of other, more popular ones.
The Celts held two major positions in society as supreme: the druidic and bardic orders. The druids were the highest societal order, carrying out religious functions as necessary. The bards were second to the druids, and they were charged with the creation and preservation of Celtic literature.
===Druids in Celtic Society===
The druids were the religious leaders of the Celts, and in some ways the most mysterious. They performed the sacrifices called upon by tradition, performing simple chants and rituals to please the many gods the Celts worshipped. The Gaulish druid leaders would gather for religious business in a place known as the Carnutes, which translates as sacred place, sacred grove, or oak sanctuary. This emphasizes the notion that the druids had a special kinship with nature and, in particular, the forests.
In their function as church elders, the druids maintained their leadership over the community in other ways, as well. The druids officiated various legal arguments among their followers, and even went so far as to become the chief educators for their flocks. The druids expanded their leadership over the Celts into every imaginable area.
Druids were considered to have the ability to forecast, in the vaguest of terms, future occurrences. Through various rituals, the druids would foretell that a day, week, or month would be favorable or unfavorable for such things as battle, farming, hunting, etc. Stories handed down from the period indicate that these predictions were taken to heart by both the Celtic peasants and their leaders alike.
Of course, as the religious leaders, the druids also bore the brunt of opposition and hatred from other religions. When other religious groups encountered the Celts, they denounced them as pagans and sought to discredit them. The druids in Gaul and finally Britain and Ireland were forced to give up their outright leadership over their people. However, many of their functions were soon taken up, albeit in subtler forms, by a group known as the filidh. The Irish filidh carried on ritual tradition in a manner more easily tolerated by their new neighbors.
===Bards in Celtic Society===
The Celtic bards, on the other hand, were the conservators of literature. The Celts never had their own written language, though they borrowed bits and pieces from neighboring languages, at times. Among the Gaulish Celts, however, the notion of literature was strictly oral; no written record was ever kept because it was considered distasteful. While this feeling was not necessarily true among the insular Celts of Britain and Ireland, there is still a very restricted body of written literature which can be fully attributed to the Celts.
Among the Irish Celts, the bards were considered to be an inferior class of poets, rhymers, and simple storytellers. Their oral traditions were admired by the common folk, but they were not given anything like the status of the druids or filidh. However, when religious pressures forced changes in the upper strata of Celtic organization, the bards went virtually unnoticed and, therefore, unchanged. In fact, it is to the bards that we can give thanks for the Irish oral tradition of history without which we would know very little about the Celts.
==Lifestyle==
The lifestyles of the peasantry varied greatly, dictated more by the richness of the land than by anything else. Sheep herders along the foothills of the Alps lived very differently from farmers on the plains of Gaul or Britain. Typically, farming villages in Gaul and Germany were formed of small, square wooden houses. Their plows were primitive, not even turning the soil, so land depletion put entire villages on the move every few years. Villagers in Britain tended to create larger, round stone structures with thatched roofs that reached nearly to the ground. They would also have gardens and farms, but also kept a great deal of livestock. Livestock and farmers shared the buildings, keeping each other fed (and warm). Celtic peasants appear to have kept many common animals, including small cattle, pigs, and geese. Wild boars were apparently hunted—possibly as a rite of manhood. They also tended more exotic animals such as chickens, recently introduced from the east, and bees for both their wax and honey. The Celtic farmers grew barley, oats, and beans. They grew flax and tended to sheep for their clothing.
Of course, the Celtic nobility and the druids lived a somewhat better life. There are indications that wines were imported for the nobility, for instance, a luxury the common folk did not enjoy. In all fairness, Celtic nobility most likely did not live a carefree, glamorous life. They were warlords and military men, very different indeed from the legends of such as King Arthur. His legend is derived from some historical fact about a Celtic leader who fought off the invading Saxons and Jutes from Britain in the 6th century AD. However romanticized over many tellings, the real Arthur and those around him were warrior kings leading armies of peasants and soldiers against invaders and other Celts alike.
==Warfare==
From their very beginnings, the Celts had been a warrior people. Their penchant for conflict was well known even to the scholars of the time. They attacked and sacked Rome, fought off German invaders, swept over most of Europe, only to be defeated by the superior organization and bureaucracy of the Roman Empire. And when not fighting against an outside threat, the Celtic tribes were perfectly willing to fight one another.
Burial records indicate that the Celts were masters of the two-horse chariot. Virtually all tribal chieftains were buried with their chariot, though horses were apparently too valuable to bury with their owner. Many other Celtic warriors had mounts, as well.
Statues and historical accounts tell us that Celtic warriors went into battle naked except for a tore, a hoop of bronze or gold worn about the neck. They fought with spear and sword, and occasionally with helmet and shield. Roman scholars credited the individual Celtic warrior with tremendous skill and bravery.
Celtic warriors took great pleasure in cutting the heads off of their fallen enemies. These heads would then be worn from a belt or attached to a chariot. It was the Celtic belief that the head held certain magical properties after life; many Celtic structures have skulls built right into them to ward off evil or bring luck.
==Architecture==
The Celts are noted for the structures of standing stones they left behind. Stonehenge is only the most widely known of these. Indications are that many of these structures were in fact not of Celtic make, but of much earlier sun-worshipper peoples—the Celts merely adopted them and built additional structures on those designs. In any event, they have acquired a different significance.
Circular stone patterns often helped map out the patterns of constellations, the moon, sun, and seasons. For any culture that relies on agriculture, such knowledge is vital. Stones were often erected in circular patterns in honor of particular local gods or goddesses.
Simpler standing stones were often not placed in a pattern at all. These in earlier times marked the burial places of important personages. Later, they were employed to mark sites of important events or boundaries between tribes and villages.
It is unclear whether the Druids actually performed rituals at these sites, but it is likely. Druids might easily have officiated the ceremonies held at these important sites, interpreting their information and calling upon their gods for assistance or guidance.
Without a significant written record, much about the Celts and who they were will never be known to us. How many epic struggles were there, how many significant events that were lost before the 4th century BC? Without their art, from which we can interpret much, and the fortuitous isolation of the Irish Celtic community, they might have been totally lost to history.
What we do know is intriguing. The Celts held sway over a tremendous area before the Roman Empire, taken by tribes of ferocious warriors. Their lifestyles, though varied by the great distances between them, revolved around a shared culture. The druids and bards took the burden of religion and literature, while the warrior chieftains kept their forces strong, and usually on campaign. Their semi-nomadic lifestyles had gone unchanged over much of their history. They had artisans and craftsmen skilled in both woodwork and metalwork, and artists borrowing from the traditions of other nomadic peoples. Though all but crushed under Roman domination, much of what the Celts were lives on today in the traditional Irish and Scottish cultures, as well as in our own.
==Magic Items==
* Standing Stones
* Torc of the Gods
==New Spells==
* Enchant Stones - 5th Level Priest Spell
* Frenzy of the Celts - 3rd Level Priest Spell
==Sage Advice (Dragon Issue #200)==
These are unofficial suggestions for using the optional spheres of priest spells from the Tome of Magic with the deities of the Celtic pantheon in Legends & Lore:
* Lugh: Major: War, Travelers; Minor: None.
* Oghma: Major: Wards; Minor: Time, Thought.
* Goibhniu: Major: Time; Minor: Wards.
* Daghdha: Major: Time; Minor: Thought, Wards.
* Manannan mac Lir: Major: Time; Minor: Travelers.
* Arawn: Major: Time; Minor: Chaos.
* Morrigan: Major: War; Minor: Chaos.
* Diancecht: Major: Wards; Minor: Travelers.
* Math Mathonwy: Major: Thought; Minor: Time.
* Belenus: Major: Time; Minor: Travelers.
* Brigantia: Major: Time; Minor: Wards.