Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Celtic mythology and history

Collapse
This topic is closed.
X
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    Celtic mythology and history

    Celtic geography and mythology are intimately connected. So seems their history to be blended with mythology. The stories we have written by monks for us are unlikely to be so accurate but were they ever really meant to be? Celtic people had an oral tradition and there is considerable reference to connect this with the importance of poetry. The stories would have had a poetic nature to them and thus details were less important than the imagery and symbolism. Who ever was there before Celtic may or may have been familiar with the monolithic structures them may or not have known those who built the structures of Newgrange but they appear to have understood the significance of these structures. The Celts themselves show little evidence of building such megaliths.

    Could the builders of Newgrange and so many other amazing feats of engineering been seen as the Tuatha de danann? The stories we have describe them as much as mortals as of gods. They were defeated buy the Sons of Mil and driven to the mounds that they built. The stories describe the ability of Dagda to build and the same as Lug to build amazing structures. The appear to be aware of the connection of the structures with the cycles of the sun and moon and possibly stars. The celebration of Samhain and Imbolc could be determined by the Mound of hostages and of course winter solstice was clearly associated with Newgrange. The Formorians also have characteristics of the people raiding down from the northern lands. They could not have been Vikings because their identity comes much later but the probability that the people of the Scandinavian land could come and raid the land of Ireland is not so unlikely especially since there are areas of amber deposits in possible votive practices are found in Ireland long before the times of the Vikings.

    Could the stories placed in prose by the monks with their own literary influence have more history in the form of mythology than what has been give credit it for. It is clear that both the male and the female were essential for the fertility of the land to support the Celts to live in Ireland and the respect of the female is so clearly demonstrated when the Sons of Mil could not enter Ireland until they accepted the land be called after a goddess which is so consistent with the connection of the goddess with the land. Also Amergin agrees to Call the land Inis Erenn then calls on the land to allow the Sons of Mil to enter the land. Here again we have the mythological blended with possible historical.

    In any case it reinforces the connection of the female to the land. It is also interesting that females are connected in war as well as fertility which was historically true when Boudica lead the revolt against the romans. Maybe we need to look at the literature from a new view. Anyone else think this is a possible approach?
    Last edited by Rae'ya; 18 Jun 2016, 02:15. Reason: Removed formatting for ease of reading - Rae'ya

    #2
    Re: Celtic mythology and history

    Sionnach, I've removed the formatting from your post so that everyone can read it properly, no matter what forum skin they use. When copying and pasting from a word processor, it's a good idea to hit the 'Remove Formatting' button (the second button from the left right at the top of the posting box) before posting. That way everyone can read your posts.

    As for Celtic mythology... I'm not familiar enough with it to be able to form an opinion here. But I'm interested to see what people think.

    Comment


      #3
      Re: Celtic mythology and history

      Originally posted by Rae'ya View Post
      Sionnach, I've removed the formatting from your post so that everyone can read it properly, no matter what forum skin they use. When copying and pasting from a word processor, it's a good idea to hit the 'Remove Formatting' button (the second button from the left right at the top of the posting box) before posting. That way everyone can read your posts.

      As for Celtic mythology... I'm not familiar enough with it to be able to form an opinion here. But I'm interested to see what people think.
      Thank you for your help. I am not sure what happened but I appreciate the help. I would like to see any reactions to this post. We live in a prose/written oriented society which was brought to the Celts via the Romans from what I understand of history. I think the world including mythology and beliefs is influenced differently depending on the way the way it is transmitted. Prose and the written communication gives things more defined boundaries and a degree of permanence. We see this best in the Christian/Jewish bible. The word was written and that to many believers is the way it was, well defined and permanent. The oral and poetic tradition is more interpretive and inevitable to change. Now the important underling message or belief might not change so much but the way it is presented and expressed must of changed with time. When the monks translated the oral poetic to the written prose they made it more permanent and in doing so lost some of the meaning that would have been present as the poetic verse was spoken prior to its demise. I think the writers of the Romantic period recognized this and tried to write more in the poetic form.

      As to which is more effective it is clear that the written prose proved more powerful especially in the more organized and structured societies in the British Isles. It was only the fringe area that continued the stories in the imagery of the older poetic form.

      Comment

      Working...
      X