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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/18041-h.zip b/18041-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..810ce2d --- /dev/null +++ b/18041-h.zip diff --git a/18041-h/18041-h.htm b/18041-h/18041-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ea2d00f --- /dev/null +++ b/18041-h/18041-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1756 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII" /> +<title>Celtic Religion</title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + P { margin-top: .75em; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + H1, H2 { + text-align: center; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + } + H3, H4 { + text-align: left; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + } + BODY{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + .blkquot {margin-left: 4em; margin-right: 4em;} /* block indent */ + + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .pagenum {position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + color: gray;} + + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> +</head> +<body> +<h2> +<a href="#startoftext">Celtic Religion, by Edward Anwyl</a> +</h2> +<pre> +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Celtic Religion, by Edward Anwyl + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Celtic Religion + in Pre-Christian Times + + +Author: Edward Anwyl + + + +Release Date: March 23, 2006 [eBook #18041] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CELTIC RELIGION*** +</pre> +<p><a name="startoftext"></a></p> +<p>Transcribed from the 1906 Archibald Constable & Co. Ltd. edition +by David Price, ccx074@coventry.ac.uk</p> +<h1>CELTIC RELIGION<br /> +IN PRE-CHRISTIAN TIMES</h1> +<p>By<br /> +EDWARD ANWYL, M.A.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">late classical scholar of oriel college, oxford</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">professor of welsh and comparative philology at</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">the university college of wales, aberystwyth</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">acting-chairman of the central welsh board</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">for intermediate education</span></p> +<p>LONDON<br /> +ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE & CO <span class="smcap">Ltd</span><br /> +16 JAMES STREET HAYMARKET<br /> +1906</p> +<p><!-- page i--><a name="pagei"></a><span class="pagenum">p. i</span>Edinburgh: +T. and A. <span class="smcap">Constable</span>, Printers to His Majesty</p> +<h2><!-- page ii--><a name="pageii"></a><span class="pagenum">p. ii</span>FOREWORD</h2> +<p>It is only as prehistoric archæology has come to throw more +and more light on the early civilisations of Celtic lands that it has +become possible to interpret Celtic religion from a thoroughly modern +viewpoint. The author cordially acknowledges his indebtedness +to numerous writers on this subject, but his researches into some portions +of the field especially have suggested to him the possibility of giving +a new presentation to certain facts and groups of facts, which the existing +evidence disclosed. It is to be hoped that a new interest in the +religion of the Celts may thereby be aroused.</p> +<p>E. <span class="smcap">Anwyl</span>.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">aberystwyth</span>,<br /> +<i>February</i> 15, 1906.</p> +<h2><!-- page 1--><a name="page1"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 1</span>CHAPTER +I—INTRODUCTORY: THE CELTS</h2> +<p>In dealing with the subject of ‘Celtic Religion’ the +first duty of the writer is to explain the sense in which the term ‘Celtic’ +will be used in this work. It will be used in reference to those +countries and districts which, in historic times, have been at one time +or other mainly of Celtic speech. It does not follow that all +the races which spoke a form of the Celtic tongue, a tongue of the Indo-European +family, were all of the same stock. Indeed, ethnological and archæological +evidence tends to establish clearly that, in Gaul and Britain, for example, +man had lived for ages before the introduction of any variety of Aryan +or Indo-European speech, and this was probably the case throughout the +whole of Western and Southern Europe. Further, in the <!-- page 2--><a name="page2"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 2</span>light +of comparative philology, it has now become abundantly clear that the +forms of Indo-European speech which we call Celtic are most closely +related to those of the Italic family, of which family Latin is the +best known representative. From this it follows that we are to +look for the centre of dissemination of Aryan Celtic speech in some +district of Europe that could have been the natural centre of dissemination +also for the Italic languages. From this common centre, through +conquest and the commercial intercourse which followed it, the tribes +which spoke the various forms of Celtic and Italic speech spread into +the districts occupied by them in historic times. The common centre +of radiation for Celtic and Italic speech was probably in the districts +of Noricum and Pannonia, the modern Carniola, Carinthia, etc., and the +neighbouring parts of the Danube valley. The conquering Aryan-speaking +Celts and Italians formed a military aristocracy, and their success +in extending the range of their languages was largely due to their skill +in arms, combined, in all probability, with a talent for administration. +This military aristocracy was of kindred type to that which carried +Aryan speech into India and Persia, Armenia and Greece, not to speak +of the original speakers of the Teutonic <!-- page 3--><a name="page3"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 3</span>and +Slavonic tongues. In view of the necessity of discovering a centre, +whence the Indo-European or Aryan languages in general could have radiated +Eastwards, as well as Westwards, the tendency to-day is to regard these +tongues as having been spoken originally in some district between the +Carpathians and the Steppes, in the form of kindred dialects of a common +speech. Some branches of the tribes which spoke these dialects +penetrated into Central Europe, doubtless along the Danube, and, from +the Danube valley, extended their conquests together with their various +forms of Aryan speech into Southern and Western Europe. The proportion +of conquerors to conquered was not uniform in all the countries where +they held sway, so that the amount of Aryan blood in their resultant +population varied greatly. In most cases, the families of the +original conquerors, by their skill in the art of war and a certain +instinct of government, succeeded in making their own tongues the dominant +media of communication in the lands where they ruled, with the result +that most of the languages of Europe to-day are of the Aryan or Indo-European +type. It does not, however, follow necessarily from this that +the early religious ideas or the artistic civilisation of countries +now <!-- page 4--><a name="page4"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 4</span>Aryan +in speech, came necessarily from the conquerors rather than the conquered. +In the last century it was long held that in countries of Aryan speech +the essential features of their civilisation, their religious ideas, +their social institutions, nay, more, their inhabitants themselves, +were of Aryan origin.</p> +<p>A more critical investigation has, however, enabled us to distinguish +clearly between the development of various factors of human life which +in their evolution can follow and often have followed more or less independent +lines. The physical history of race, for instance, forms a problem +by itself and must be studied by anthropological and ethnological methods. +Language, again, has often spread along lines other than those of race, +and its investigation appertains to the sphere of the philologist. +Material civilisation, too, has not of necessity followed the lines +either of racial or of linguistic development, and the search for its +ancient trade-routes may be safely left to the archæologist. +Similarly the spread of ideas in religion and thought is one which has +advanced on lines of its own, and its investigation must be conducted +by the methods and along the lines of the comparative study of religions.</p> +<p>In the wide sense, then, in which the word <!-- page 5--><a name="page5"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 5</span>‘Celtic +religion’ will be used in this work, it will cover the modes of +religious thought prevalent in the countries and districts, which, in +course of time, were mainly characterised by their Celtic speech. +To the sum-total of these religious ideas contributions have been made +from many sources. It would be rash to affirm that the various +streams of Aryan Celtic conquest made no contributions to the conceptions +of life and of the world which the countries of their conquest came +to hold (and the evidence of language points, indeed, to some such contributions), +but their quota appears to be small compared with that of their predecessors; +nor is this surprising, in view of the immense period during which the +lands of their conquest had been previously occupied. Nothing +is clearer than the marvellous persistence of traditional and immemorial +modes of thought, even in the face of conquest and subjugation, and, +whatever ideas on religion the Aryan conquerors of Celtic lands may +have brought with them, they whose conquests were often only partial +could not eradicate the inveterate beliefs of their predecessors, and +the result in the end was doubtless some compromise, or else the victory +of the earlier faith.</p> +<p>But the Aryan conquerors of Gaul and Italy <!-- page 6--><a name="page6"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 6</span>themselves +were not men who had advanced up the Danube in one generation. +Those men of Aryan speech who poured into the Italian peninsula and +into Gaul were doubtless in blood not unmixed with the older inhabitants +of Central Europe, and had entered into the body of ideas which formed +the religious beliefs of the men of the Danube valley. The common +modifications of the Aryan tongue, by Italians and Celts alike, as compared +with Greek, suggests contact with men of different speech. Among +the names of Celtic gods, too, like those of other countries, we find +roots that are apparently irreducible to any found in Indo-European +speech, and we know not what pre-Aryan tongues may have contributed +them. Scholars, to-day, are far more alive than they ever were +before to the complexity of the contributory elements that have entered +into the tissue of the ancient religions of mankind, and the more the +relics of Celtic religion are investigated, the more complex do its +contributory factors become. In the long ages before history there +were unrecorded conquests and migrations innumerable, and ideas do not +fail to spread because there is no historian to record them.</p> +<p>The more the scanty remnants of Celtic religion <!-- page 7--><a name="page7"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 7</span>are +examined, the clearer it becomes that many of its characteristic features +had been evolved during the vast period of the ages of stone. +During these millennia, men had evolved, concomitantly with their material +civilisation, a kind of working philosophy of life, traces of which +are found in every land where this form of civilisation has prevailed. +Man’s religion can never be dissociated from his social experience, +and the painful stages through which man reached the agricultural life, +for example, have left their indelible impress on the mind of man in +Western Europe, as they have in every land. We are thus compelled, +from the indications which we have of Celtic religion, in the names +of its deities, its rites, and its survivals in folk-lore and legend, +to come to the conclusion, that its fundamental groundwork is a body +of ideas, similar to those of other lands, which were the natural correlatives +of the phases of experience through which man passed in his emergence +into civilised life. To demonstrate and to illustrate these relations +will be the aim of the following chapters.</p> +<h2><!-- page 8--><a name="page8"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 8</span>CHAPTER +II—THE CHIEF PHASES OF CELTIC CIVILISATION</h2> +<p>In the chief countries of Celtic civilisation, Gaul, Cisalpine and +Transalpine, Britain and Ireland, abundant materials have been found +for elucidating the stages of culture through which man passed in prehistoric +times. In Britain, for example, palæolithic man has left +numerous specimens of his implements, but the forms even of these rude +implements suggest that they, too, have been evolved from still more +primitive types. Some antiquarians have thought to detect such +earlier types in the stones that have been named ‘eoliths’ +found in Kent, but, though these ‘eoliths’ may possibly +show human use, the question of their history is far from being settled. +It is certain, however, that man succeeded in maintaining himself for +ages in the company of the mammoth, the cave-bear, and other animals +now extinct. Whether palæolithic man survived the Ice Age +in Britain has not so far been satisfactorily <!-- page 9--><a name="page9"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 9</span>decided. +In Gaul, however, there is fair evidence of continuity between the Palæolithic +and Neolithic periods, and this continuity must obviously have existed +somewhere. Still in spite of the indications of continuity, the +civilisation of primitive man in Gaul presents one aspect that is without +any analogues in the life of the palæolithic men of the River +Drift period, or in that of man of the New Stone Age. The feature +in question is the remarkable artistic skill shown by the cave men of +the Dordogne district. Some of the drawings and carvings of these +men reveal a sense of form which would have done credit to men of a +far later age. A feature such as this, whatever may have been +its object, whether it arose from an effort by means of ‘sympathetic +magic’ to catch animals, as M. Salomon Reinach suggests, or to +the mere artistic impulse, is a standing reminder to us of the scantiness +of our data for estimating the lines of man’s religious and other +development in the vast epochs of prehistoric time.</p> +<p>We know that from the life of hunting man passed into the pastoral +stage, having learned to tame animals. How he came to do so, and +by what motives he was actuated, is still a mystery. It may be, +as M. Salomon Reinach has also <!-- page 10--><a name="page10"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 10</span>suggested, +that it was some curious and indefinable sense of kinship with them +that led him to do so, or more probably, as the present writer thinks, +some sense of a need of the alliance of animals against hostile spirits. +In all probability it was no motive which we can now fathom. The +mind of early man was like the unfathomable mind of a boy. From +the pastoral life again man passed after long ages into the life of +agriculture, and the remains of neolithic man in Gaul and in Britain +give us glimpses of his life as a farmer. The ox, the sheep, the +pig, the goat, and the dog were his domestic animals; he could grow +wheat and flax, and could supplement the produce of his farm by means +of hunting and fishing. Neolithic man could spin and weave; he +could obtain the necessary flint for his implements, which he made by +chipping and polishing, and he could also make pottery of a rude variety. +In its essentials we have here the beginnings of the agricultural civilisation +of man all the world over. In life, neolithic man dwelt sometimes +in pit-dwellings and sometimes in hut-circles, covered with a roof of +branches supported by a central pole. In death, he was buried +with his kin in long mounds of earth called barrows, in chambered cairns +and cromlechs or dolmens. <!-- page 11--><a name="page11"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 11</span>The +latter usually consist of three standing stones covered by a cap-stone; +forming the stony skeleton of a grave that has been exposed to view +after the mound of earth that covered it has been washed away. +In their graves the dead were buried in a crouching attitude, and fresh +burials were made as occasion required. Sometimes the cromlech +is double, and occasionally there is a hole in one of the stones, the +significance of which is unknown, unless it may have been for the ingress +and egress of souls. Graves of the dolmen or cromlech type are +found in all the countries of Western Europe, North Africa, and elsewhere, +wherever stone suitable for the purpose abounds, and in this we have +a striking illustration of the way in which lines of development in +man’s material civilisation are sooner or later correlated to +his geographical, geological, and other surroundings. The religious +ideas of man in neolithic times also came into correlation with the +conditions of his development, and the uninterpreted stone circles and +pillars of the world are a standing witness to the religious zeal of +a mind that was haunted by stone. Before proceeding to exemplify +this thesis the subsequent trend of Celtic civilisation may be briefly +sketched.</p> +<p><!-- page 12--><a name="page12"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 12</span>Through +the pacific intercourse of commerce, bronze weapons and implements began +to find their way, about 2000 <span class="smcap">b.c.</span> or earlier, +from Central and Southern Europe into Gaul, and thence into Britain. +In Britain the Bronze Age begins at about 1500 or 1400 <span class="smcap">b.c.</span>, +and it is thought by some archæologists that bronze was worked +at this period by the aid of native tin in Britain itself. There +are indications, however, that the introduction of bronze into Britain +was not by way of commerce alone. About the beginning of the Bronze +period are found evidences in this island of a race of different type +from that of neolithic man, being characterised by a round skull and +a powerful build, and by general indications of a martial bearing. +The remains of this race are usually found in round barrows.</p> +<p>This race, which certainly used bronze weapons, is generally believed +to have been the first wave that reached Britain of Aryan conquerors +of Celtic speech from the nearest part of the continent, where it must +have arrived some time previously, probably along the Rhine valley. +As the type of Celtic speech that has penetrated farthest to the west +is that known as the Goidelic or Irish, it has not unreasonably been +thought that this must have been the type that arrived in Britain first. +<!-- page 13--><a name="page13"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 13</span>There +are indications, too, that it was this type that penetrated furthest +into the west of Gaul. Its most marked characteristic is its preservation +of the pronunciation of U as ‘oo’ and of QU, while the ‘Brythonic’ +or Welsh variety changed U to a sound pronounced like the French ‘u’ +or the German ‘ü’ and also QU to P. There is +a similar line of cleavage in the Italic languages, where Latin corresponds +to Goidelic, and Oscan and Umbrian to Brythonic. Transalpine Gaul +was probably invaded by Aryan-speaking Celts from more than one direction, +and the infiltration and invasion of new-comers, when it had once begun, +was doubtless continuous through these various channels. There +are cogent reasons for thinking that ultimately the dominant type of +Celtic speech over the greater part of Gaul came to be that of the P +rather than the QU type, owing to the influx from the East and Northeast +of an overflow from the Rhine valley of tribes speaking that dialect; +a dialect which, by force of conquest and culture, tended to spread +farther and farther West. Into Britain, too, as time went on, +the P type of Celtic was carried, and has survived in Welsh and Cornish, +the remnants of the tongue of ancient Britain. We know, too, from +the name Eporēdia (Yvrea), that <!-- page 14--><a name="page14"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 14</span>this +dialect of Celtic must have spread into Cisalpine Gaul. The latter +district may have received its first Celtic invaders direct from the +Danube valley, as M. Alexandre Bertrand held, but it would be rash to +assume that all its invaders came from that direction. In connection, +however, with the history of Celtic religion it is not the spread of +the varying types of Celtic dialect that is important, but the changes +in the civilisation of Gaul and Britain, which reacted on religious +ideas or which introduced new factors into the religious development +of these lands.</p> +<p>The predatory expeditions and wars of conquest of military Celtic +tribes in search for new homes for their superfluous populations brought +into prominence the deities of war, as was the case also with the ancient +Romans, themselves an agricultural and at the same time a predatory +race. The prominence of war in Celtic tribal life at one stage +has left us the names of a large number of deities that were identified +with Mars and Bellona, though all the war-gods were not originally such. +In the Roman calendar there is abundant evidence that Mars was at one +time an agricultural god as well as a god of war. The same, as +will be shown later, was the probable history of some of the Celtic +deities, who were <!-- page 15--><a name="page15"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 15</span>identified +in Roman times with Mars and Bellona. Cæsar tells us that +Mars had at one time been the chief god of the Gauls, and that in Germany +that was still the case. In Britain, also, we find that there +were several deities identified with Mars, notably Belatucadrus and +Cocidius, and this, too, points in the direction of a development of +religion under military influence. The Gauls appear to have made +great strides in military matters and in material civilisation during +the Iron Age. The culture of the Early Iron Age of Hallstatt had +been developed in Gaul on characteristic lines of its own, resulting +in the form now known as the La Tène or Marnian type. This +type derives it name from the striking specimens of it that were discovered +at La Tène on the shore of Lake Neuchâtel, and in the extensive +cemeteries of the Marne valley, the burials of which cover a period +of from 350-200 <span class="smcap">b.c.</span> It was during +the third century <span class="smcap">b.c.</span> that this characteristic +culture of Gaul reached its zenith, and gave definite shape to the beautiful +curved designs known as those of Late-Celtic Art. Iron appears +to have been introduced into Britain about 300 <span class="smcap">b.c.</span>, +and the designs of Late-Celtic Art are here represented best of all. +Excellent specimens of Late-Celtic culture have been found in Yorkshire +<!-- page 16--><a name="page16"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 16</span>and +elsewhere, and important links with continental developments have been +discovered at Aylesford, Aesica, Limavady, and other places. Into +the development of this typical Gaulish culture elements are believed +to have entered by way of the important commercial avenue of the Rhone +valley from Massilia (Marseilles), from Greece (<i>viâ</i> Venetia), +and possibly from Etruria. Prehistoric archæology affords +abundant proofs that, in countries of Celtic speech, metal-working in +bronze, iron, and gold reached a remarkably high pitch of perfection, +and this is a clear indication that Celtic countries and districts which +were on the line of trade routes, like the Rhone valley, had attained +to a material civilisation of no mean character before the Roman conquest. +In Britain, too, the districts that were in touch with continental commerce +had, as Cæsar tells us, also developed in the same direction. +The religious counterpart of this development in civilisation is the +growth in many parts of Gaul, as attested by Cæsar and by many +inscriptions and place-names, of the worship of gods identified with +Mercury and Minerva, the deities of civilisation and commerce. +It is no accident that one of the districts most conspicuous for this +worship was the territory of the Allobrogic confederation, <!-- page 17--><a name="page17"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 17</span>where +the commerce of the Rhone valley found its most remarkable development. +From this sketch of Celtic civilisation it will readily be seen how +here as elsewhere the religious development of the Celts stood closely +related to the development of their civilisation generally. It +must be borne in mind, however, that all parts of the Celtic world were +not equally affected by the material development in question. +Part of the complexity of the history of Celtic religion arises from +the fact that we cannot be always certain of the degree of progress +in civilisation which any given district had made, of the ideas which +pervaded it, or of the absorbing interests of its life. Another +difficulty, too, is that the accounts of Celtic religion given by ancient +authorities do not always harmonise with the indisputable evidence of +inscriptions. The probability is that the religious practices +of the Celtic world were no more homogeneous than its general civilisation, +and that the ancient authorities are substantially true in their statements +about certain districts, certain periods, or certain sections of society, +while the inscriptions, springing as they do from the influence of the +Gallo-Roman civilisation, especially of Eastern Gaul and military Britain, +give us most valuable supplementary <!-- page 18--><a name="page18"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 18</span>evidence +for districts and environments of a different kind. The inscriptions, +especially by the names of deities which they reveal, have afforded +most valuable clues to the history of Celtic religion, even in stages +of civilisation earlier than those to which they themselves belong. +In the next chapter the correlation of Celtic religious ideas to the +stages of Celtic civilisation will be further developed.</p> +<h2><!-- page 19--><a name="page19"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 19</span>CHAPTER +III—THE CORRELATION OF CELTIC RELIGION WITH THE GROWTH OF CELTIC +CIVILISATION</h2> +<p>In dealing with the long vista of prehistoric time, it is very difficult +for us, in our effort after perspective, not to shorten unduly in our +thoughts the vast epochs of its duration. We tend, too, to forget, +that in these unnumbered millennia there was ample time for it to be +possible over certain areas of Europe to evolve what were practically +new races, through the prepotency of particular stocks and the annihilation +of others. During these epochs, again, after speech had arisen, +there was time enough to recast completely many a language, for before +the dawn of history language was no more free from change than it is +now, and in these immense epochs whatever ideas as to the world of their +surroundings were vaguely felt by prehistoric men and formulated for +them by their kinsmen of genius, had abundant time in which to die or +to win supremacy. There must have been æons before the dawn +even of conscious <!-- page 20--><a name="page20"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 20</span>animism, +and the experiment of trying sympathetic magic was, when first attempted, +probably regarded as a master-stroke of genius. The Stone Age +itself was a long era of great if slow progress in civilisation, and +the evolution of the practices and ideas which emerge as the concomitants +of its agricultural stage, when closely regarded, bear testimony to +the mind’s capacity for religious progress in the light of experience +and intelligent experiment, and at the same time to the errors into +which it fell. The Stone Age has left its sediment in all the +folk-lore of the world. To the casual observer many of the ideas +embedded in it may seem a mass of error, and so they are when judged +unhistorically, but when viewed critically, and at the same time historically, +they afford many glimpses of prehistoric genius in a world where life +was of necessity a great experiment. The folk-lore of the world +reveals for the same stages of civilisation a wonderful uniformity and +homogeneity, as Dr. J. G. Frazer has abundantly shown in his <i>Golden +Bough</i>. This uniformity is not, however, due to necessary uniformity +of origin, but to a great extent to the fact that it represents the +state of equilibrium arrived at between minds at a certain level and +their environment, along lines of thought directed <!-- page 21--><a name="page21"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 21</span>by +the momentum given by the traditions of millennia, and the survival +in history of the men who carefully regarded them. The apparently +unreasoned prohibitions often known as ‘taboos,’ many of +which still persist even in modern civilised life, have their roots +in ideas and experiences which no speculation of ours can now completely +fathom, however much we may guess at their origin. Many of these +ancient prohibitions have vanished under new conditions, others have +often survived from a real or supposed harmony with new experiences, +that have arisen in the course of man’s history. After passing +through a stage when he was too preoccupied with his material cares +and wants to consider whether he was haunted or not, early man in the +Celtic world as elsewhere, after long epochs of vague unrest, came to +realise that he was somehow haunted in the daytime as well as at night, +and it was this sense of being haunted that impelled his intellect and +his imagination to seek some explanation of his feelings. Primitive +man came to seek a solution not of the Universe as a whole (for of this +he had no conception), but of the local Universe, in which he played +a part. In dealing with Celtic folk-lore, it is very remarkable +how it mirrors the characteristic local colouring and scenery of the +districts <!-- page 22--><a name="page22"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 22</span>in +which it has originated. In a country like Wales, for example, +it is the folk-lore of springs, caves, mountains, lakes, islands, and +the forms of its imagination, here as elsewhere, reflect unmistakably +the land of its origin. Where it depicts an ‘other world,’ +that ‘other world’ is either on an island or it is a land +beneath the sea, a lake, or a river, or it is approachable only through +some cave or opening in the earth. In the hunting-grounds of the +Celtic world the primitive hunter knew every cranny of the greater part +of his environment with the accuracy born of long familiarity, but there +were some peaks which he could not scale, some caves which he could +not penetrate, some jungles into which he could not enter, and in these +he knew not what monsters might lurk or unknown beings might live. +In Celtic folk-lore the belief in fabulous monsters has not yet ceased. +Man was surrounded by dangers visible and invisible, and the time came +when some prehistoric man of genius propounded the view that all the +objects around him were no less living than himself. This animistic +view of the world, once adopted, made great headway from the various +centres where it originated, and man derived from it a new sense of +kinship with his world, but also new terrors from it. Knowing +<!-- page 23--><a name="page23"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 23</span>from +the experience of dreams that he himself seemed able to wander away +from himself, he thought in course of time that other living things +were somehow double, and the world around him came to be occupied, not +merely with things that were alive, but with other selves of these things, +that could remain in them or leave them at will. Here, again, +this new prehistoric philosophy gave an added interest to life, but +it was none the less a source of fresh terrors. The world swarmed +with invisible spirits, some friendly, some hostile, and, in view of +these beings, life had to be regulated by strict rules of actions and +prohibitions. Even in the neolithic stage the inhabitants of Celtic +countries had attained to the religious ideas in question, as is seen +not only by their folk-lore and by the names of groups of goddesses +such as the Matres (or mothers), but by the fact that in historic times +they had advanced well beyond this stage to that of named and individualised +gods. As in all countries where the gods were individualised, +the men of Celtic lands, whether aborigines or invaders, had toiled +along the steep ascent from the primitive vague sense of being haunted +to a belief in gods who, like Esus, Teutates, Grannos, Bormanus, Litavis, +had names of a definite character.</p> +<p><!-- page 24--><a name="page24"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 24</span>Among +the prohibitions which had established themselves among the races of +Celtic lands, as elsewhere, was that directed against the shedding of +the blood of one’s own kin. There are indications, too, +that some at any rate of the tribes inhabiting these countries reckoned +kinship through the mother, as in fact continued to be the case among +the Picts of Scotland into historic times. It does not follow, +as we know from other countries, that the pre-Aryan tribes of Gaul and +Britain, or indeed the Aryan tribes themselves in their earliest stage, +regarded their original ancestors as human. Certain names of deities +such as Tarvos (the bull), Moccos (the pig), Epŏna (the goddess +of horses), Damŏna (the goddess of cattle), Mullo (the ass), as +well as the fact that the ancient Britons, according to Cæsar, +preserved the hen, the goose, and the hare, but did not kill and eat +them, all point to the fact that in these countries as elsewhere certain +animals were held in supreme respect and were carefully guarded from +harm. Judging from the analogy of kindred phenomena in other countries, +the practice of respecting certain animals was often associated with +the belief that all the members of certain clans were descended from +one or other of them, but how far this system was elaborated in the +<!-- page 25--><a name="page25"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 25</span>Celtic +world it is hard to say. This phenomenon, which is widely known +as totemism, appears to be suggested by the prominence given to the +wild boar on Celtic coins and ensigns, and by the place assigned on +some inscriptions and bas-reliefs to the figure of a horned snake as +well as by the effigies of other animals that have been discovered. +It is not easy to explain the beginnings of totemism in Gaul or elsewhere, +but it should always be borne in mind that early man could not regard +it as an axiomatic truth that he was the superior of every other animal. +To reach that proud consciousness is a very high step in the development +of the human perspective, and it is to the credit of the Celts that, +when we know them in historic times, they appear to have attained to +this height, inasmuch as the human form is given to their deities. +It is not always remembered how great a step in religious evolution +is implied when the gods are clothed with human attributes. M. +Salomon Reinach, in his account of the vestiges of totemism among the +Celts, suggests that totemism was merely the hypertrophy of early man’s +social sense, which extended from man to the animals around him. +This may possibly be the case, but it is not improbable that man also +thought to discover in <!-- page 26--><a name="page26"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 26</span>certain +animals much-needed allies against some of the visible and invisible +enemies that beset him. In his conflict with the malign powers +around him, he might well have regarded certain animals as being in +some respects stronger combatants against those powers than himself; +and where they were not physically stronger, some of them, like the +snake, had a cunning and a subtlety that seemed far to surpass his own. +In course of time certain bodies of men came to regard themselves as +being in special alliance with some one animal, and as being descended +from that animal as their common ancestor. The existence side +by side of various tribes, each with its definite totem, has not yet +been fully proved for the Gaulish system, and may well have been a developed +social arrangement that was not an essential part of such a mode of +thought in its primary forms. The place of animal-worship in the +Celtic religion will be more fully considered in a later chapter. +Here it is only indicated as a necessary stage in relation to man’s +civilisation in the hunting and the pastoral stages, which had to be +passed through before the historic deities of Gaul and Britain in Roman +times could have come into being. Certain of the divine names +of the historic period, like Artio (the bear-goddess), Moccus (the <!-- page 27--><a name="page27"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 27</span>pig), +Epŏna (the mare), and Damŏna (the sheep), bear the unmistakable +impress of having been at one time those of animals.</p> +<p>As for the stage of civilisation at which totemism originated, there +is much difference of opinion. The stage of mind which it implies +would suggest that it reflects a time when man’s mind was preoccupied +with wild beasts, and when the alliances and friendships, which he would +value in life, might be found in that sphere. There is much plausibility +in the view put forward by M. Salomon Reinach, that the domestication +of animals itself implies a totemistic habit of thought, and the consequent +protection of these animals by means of taboos from harm and death. +It may well be that, after all, the usefulness of domestic animals from +a material point of view was only a secondary consideration for man, +and a happy discovery after unsuccessful totemistic attentions to other +animals. We know not how many creatures early man tried to associate +with himself but failed.</p> +<p>In all stages of man’s history the alternation of the seasons +must have brought some rudiments of order and system into his thoughts, +though for a long time he was too preoccupied to reflect upon the regularly +recurring vicissitudes of his life. In the pastoral stage, the +sense of order came to <!-- page 28--><a name="page28"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 28</span>be +more marked than in that of hunting, and quickened the mind to fresh +thought. The earth came to be regarded as the Mother from whom +all things came, and there are abundant indications that the earth as +the Mother, the Queen, the Long-lived one, etc., found her natural place +as a goddess among the Celts. Her names and titles were probably +not in all places or in all tribes the same. But it is in the +agricultural stage that she entered in Celtic lands, as she did in other +countries, into her completest religious heritage, and this aspect of +Celtic religion will be dealt with more fully in connection with the +spirits of vegetation. This phase of religion in Celtic countries +is one which appears to underlie some of its most characteristic forms, +and the one which has survived longest in Celtic folk-lore. The +Earth-mother with her progeny of spirits, of springs, rivers, mountains, +forests, trees, and corn, appears to have supplied most of the grouped +and individualised gods of the Celtic pantheon. The Dis, of whom +Cæsar speaks as the ancient god of the Gauls, was probably regarded +as her son, to whom the dead returned in death. Whether he is +the Gaulish god depicted with a hammer, or as a huge dog swallowing +the dead, has not yet been established with any degree of certainty.</p> +<h2><!-- page 29--><a name="page29"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 29</span>CHAPTER +IV—CELTIC RELIGION AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF INDIVIDUALISED DEITIES</h2> +<p>Like other religions, those of the Celtic lands of Europe supplemented +the earlier animism by a belief in spirits, who belonged to trees, animals, +rocks, mountains, springs, rivers, and other natural phenomena, and +in folk-lore there still survives abundant evidence that the Celt regarded +spirits as taking upon themselves a variety of forms, animal and human. +It was this idea of spirits in animal form that helped to preserve the +memory of the older totemism into historic times. It is thus that +we have names of the type of Brannogĕnos (son of the raven), Artogĕnos +(son of the bear), and the like, not to speak of simpler names like +Bran (raven), March (horse), surviving into historic times. Bronze +images, too, have been found at Neuvy-en-Sullias, of a horse and a stag +(now in the Orleans museum), provided with rings, which were, as M. +Salomon Reinach suggests, <!-- page 30--><a name="page30"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 30</span>probably +used for the purpose of carrying these images in procession. The +wild boar, too, was a favourite emblem of Gaul, and there is extant +a bronze figure of a Celtic Diana riding on a boar’s back. +At Bolar, near Nuits, there was discovered a bronze mule. In the +museum at Mayence is a bas-relief of the goddess of horses, Epŏna +(from the Gaulish <i>Epos</i>=Lat. <i>equus</i>, horse), riding on horseback. +One of the most important monuments of this kind is a figure of Artio, +the bear-goddess (from Celtic <i>Artos</i>, a bear), found at Muri near +Berne. In front of her stood a figure of a bear, which was also +found with her. The bull of the Tarvos Trigaranos bas-relief of +Notre Dame was also in all likelihood originally a totem, and similarly +the horned serpents of other bas-reliefs, as well as the boar found +on Gaulish ensigns and coins, especially in Belgic territory. +There is a representation, too, of a raven on a bas-relief at Compiègne. +The name ‘Moccus,’ which is identified with Mercury, on +inscriptions, and which is found inscribed at Langres, Trobaso, the +valley of the Ossola and the Borgo san Dalmazzo, is undoubtedly the +philological equivalent of the Welsh <i>moch</i> (swine). In Britain, +too, the boar is frequently found on the coins of the Iceni and other +tribes. In Italy, according to <!-- page 31--><a name="page31"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 31</span>Mr. +Warde Fowler, the pig was an appropriate offering to deities of the +earth, so that in the widespread use of the pig as a symbol in the Celtic +world, there may be some ancient echo of a connection between it and +the earth-spirit. Its diet of acorns, too, may have marked it +out, in the early days of life in forest-clearings, as the animal embodiment +of the oak-spirit. In the legends of the Celtic races, even in +historic times, the pig, and especially the boar, finds an honoured +place. In addition to the animals aforementioned, the ass, too, +was probably at one time venerated in one of the districts of Gaul, +and it is not improbable that Mullo, the name of a god identified with +Mars and regarded as the patron of muleteers, mentioned on inscriptions +(at Nantes, Craon, and Les Provenchères near Craon), meant originally +‘an ass.’ The goddess Epŏna, also, whose worship +was widely spread, was probably at one time an animal goddess in the +form of a mare, and the name of another goddess, Damŏna, either +from the root <i>dam</i>=Ir. <i>dam</i>, (ox); or Welsh <i>daf-ad</i> +(sheep), may similarly be that of an ancient totem sheep or cow. +Nor was it in the animal world alone that the Celts saw indications +of the divine. While the chase and the pastoral life concentrated +the mind’s attention on the life of animals, the <!-- page 32--><a name="page32"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 32</span>growth +of agriculture fixed man’s thoughts on the life of the earth, +and all that grew upon it, while at the same time he was led to think +more and more of the mysterious world beneath the earth, from which +all things came and to which all things returned. Nor could he +forget the trees of the forest, especially those which, like the oak, +had provided him with their fruit as food in time of need. The +name Druid, as well as that of the centre of worship of the Gauls of +Asia Minor, Drunemeton (the oak-grove), the statement of Maximus of +Tyre that the representation of Zeus to the Celts was a high oak, Pliny’s +account of Druidism (<i>Nat. Hist</i>., xvi. 95), the numerous inscriptions +to Silvanus and Silvana, the mention of Dervŏnes or Dervonnae on +an inscription at Cavalzesio near Brescia, and the abundant evidence +of survivals in folk-lore as collected by Dr. J. G. Frazer and others, +all point to the fact that tree-worship, and especially that of the +oak, had contributed its full share to the development of Celtic religion, +at any rate in some districts and in some epochs. The development +of martial and commercial civilisation in later times tended to restrict +its typical and more primitive developments to the more conservative +parts of the Celtic world. The fact that in Cæsar’s +time its main <!-- page 33--><a name="page33"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 33</span>centre +in Gaul was in the territory of the Carnutes, the tribe which has given +its name to Chartres, suggests that its chief votaries were mainly in +that part of the country. This, too, was the district of the god +Esus (the eponymous god of the Essuvii), and in some degree of Teutates, +the cruelty of whose rites is mentioned by Lucan. It had occurred +to the present writer, before finding the same view expressed by M. +Salomon Reinach, that the worship of Esus in Gaul was almost entirely +local in character. With regard to the rites of the Druids, Cæsar +tells us that it was customary to make huge images of wickerwork, into +which human beings, usually criminals, were placed and burnt. +The use of wickerwork, and the suggestion that the rite was for purifying +the land, indicates a combination of the ideas of tree-worship with +those of early agricultural life. When the Emperor Claudius is +said by Suetonius to have suppressed Druidism, what is meant is, in +all probability, that the more inhuman rites were suppressed, leading, +as the Scholiasts on Lucan seem to suggest, to a substitution of animal +victims for men. On the side of civil administration and education, +the functions of the Druids, as the successors of the primitive medicine +men and magicians, doubtless varied greatly in different <!-- page 34--><a name="page34"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 34</span>parts +of Gaul and Britain according to the progress that had been made in +the differentiation of functions in social life. The more we investigate +the state of the Celtic world in ancient times, the clearer it becomes, +that in civilisation it was very far from being homogeneous, and this +heterogeneity of civilisation must have had its influence on religion +as well as on other social phenomena. The natural conservatism +of agricultural life, too, perpetuated many practices even into comparatively +late times, and of these we catch a glimpse in Gregory of Tours, when +he tells us that at Autun the goddess Berecyntia was worshipped, her +image being carried on a wagon for the protection of the fields and +the vines. It is not impossible that by Berecyntia Gregory means +the goddess Brigindu, whose name occurs on an inscription at Volnay +in the same district of Gaul. The belief in corn-spirits, and +other ideas connected with the central thought of the farmer’s +life, show, by their persistence in Celtic as well as other folklore, +how deeply they had entered into the inner tissue of the agricultural +mind, so as to be linked to its keenest emotions. Here the rites +of religion, whether persuasive as in prayer, or compulsory as in sympathetic +magic, whether associated with communal or propitiatory sacrifice, whether +directed <!-- page 35--><a name="page35"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 35</span>to +the earth or to the heaven, all had an intensely practical and terribly +real character, due to man’s constant preoccupation with the growth +and storage of food for man and beast. In the hunting, the pastoral, +and above all in the agricultural life, religion was not a matter merely +of imagination or sentiment, but one most intimately associated with +the daily practice of life, and this practical interest included in +its purview rivers, springs, forests, mountains, and all the setting +of man’s existence. And what is true of agriculture is true +also, in a greater or less degree, of the life of the Celtic metal-worker +or the Celtic sailor. Even in late Welsh legend Amaethon (old +Celtic <i>Ambactŏnos</i>), the patron god of farming (Welsh <i>Amaeth</i>), +and Gofannon, the patron god of the metal-worker (Welsh <i>gof</i>, +Irish <i>gobha</i>), were not quite forgotten, and the prominence of +the worship of the counterparts of Mercury and Minerva in Gaul in historic +times was due to the sense of respect and gratitude, which each trade +and each locality felt for the deity who had rid the land of monsters, +and who had brought man into the comparative calm of civilised life.</p> +<h2><!-- page 36--><a name="page36"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 36</span>CHAPTER +V—THE HUMANISED GODS OF CELTIC RELIGION</h2> +<p>One of the most striking facts connected with the Celtic religion +is the large number of names of deities which it includes. These +names are known to us almost entirely from inscriptions, for the most +part votive tablets, in acknowledgment of some benefit, usually that +of health, conferred by the god on man. In Britain these votive +tablets are chiefly found in the neighbourhood of the Roman walls and +camps, but we cannot be always certain that the deities mentioned are +indigenous. In Gaul, however, we are on surer ground in associating +certain deities with certain districts, inasmuch as the evidence of +place-names is often a guide. These inscriptions are very unevenly +distributed over Gaulish territory, the Western and the North-Western +districts being very sparsely represented.</p> +<p>In the present brief sketch it is impossible to enter into a full +discussion of the relations of the <!-- page 37--><a name="page37"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 37</span>names +found on inscriptions to particular localities, and the light thus thrown +on Celtic religion; but it may be here stated that investigation tends +to confirm the local character of most of the deities which the inscriptions +name. Out of these deities, some, it is true, in the process of +evolution, gained a wider field of worshippers, while others, like Lugus, +may even have been at one time more widely worshipped than they came +to be in later times. Occasionally a name like Lugus (Irish <i>Lug</i>), +Segomo (Irish, in the genitive, <i>Segamonas</i>), Camŭlos, whence +Camulodūnum (Colchester), Belĕnos (Welsh <i>Belyn</i>), Mapŏnos +(Welsh <i>Mabon</i>), Litavis (Welsh <i>Llydaw</i>), by its existence +in Britain as well as in Gaul, suggests that it was either one of the +ancient deities of the Aryan Celts, or one whose worship came to extend +over a larger area than its fellows. Apart from a few exceptional +considerations of this kind, however, the local character of the deities +is most marked.</p> +<p>A very considerable number are the deities of springs and rivers. +In Noricum, for example, we have Adsallūta, a goddess associated +with Savus (the river Save). In Britain ‘the goddess’ +Dēva (the Dee), and Belisăma (either the Ribble or the Mersey), +a name meaning ‘the most warlike <!-- page 38--><a name="page38"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 38</span>goddess,’ +are of this type. We have again Axŏna the goddess of the +river Aisne, Sequăna, the goddess of the Seine, Ritŏna of +the river Rieu, numerous nymphs and many other deities of fountains. +Doubtless many other names of local deities are of this kind. +Aerial phenomena appear to have left very few clear traces on the names +of Celtic deities. Vintios, a god identified with Mars, was probably +a god of the wind, Taranǔcus, a god of thunder, Leucetios, a god +of lightning, Sulis (of Bath) a sun-goddess, but beyond these there +are few, if any, reflections of the phenomena of the heavens. +Of the gods named on inscriptions nearly all are identified with Mercury, +Mars, or Apollo. The gods who came to be regarded as culture-deities +appear from their names to be of various origins: some are humanised +totems, others are in origin deities of vegetation or local natural +phenomena. As already indicated, it is clear that the growth of +commercial and civilised life in certain districts had brought into +prominence deities identified with Mercury and Minerva as the patrons +of civilisation. Military men, especially in Britain, appear to +have favoured deities like Belātucadros (the brilliant in war), +identified with Mars.</p> +<p>About fourteen inscriptions mentioning him have <!-- page 39--><a name="page39"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 39</span>been +found in the North of England and the South of Scotland. The goddess +Brigantia (the patron-deity of the Brigantes), too, is mentioned on +four inscriptions: Cocidius, identified with Mars, is mentioned on thirteen: +while another popular god appears to have been Silvanus. Among +the most noticeable names of the Celtic gods identified with Mercury +are Adsmerius or Atesmerius, Dumiatis (the god of the Puy de Dôme), +Iovantucarus (the lover of youth), Teutates (the god of the people), +Caletos (the hard), and Moccus (the boar). Several deities are +identified with Mars, and of these some of the most noticeable names +are Albiorix (world-king), Caturix (battle-king), Dunatis (the god of +the fort), Belatucadrus (the brilliant in war), Leucetius (the god of +lightning), Mullo (the mule), Ollovidius (the all-knowing) Vintius (the +wind-god), and Vitucadrus (the brilliant in energy). The large +number of names identified with Mars reflects the prominent place at +one time given to war in the ideas that affected the growth of the religion +of the Celtic tribes. Of the gods identified with Hercules, the +most interesting name is Ogmios (the god of the furrow) given by Lucian, +but not found on any inscription. The following gods too, among +others, are identified with Jupiter: Arămo (the <!-- page 40--><a name="page40"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 40</span>gentle), +Ambisagrus (the persistent), Bussumārus (the large-lipped), Taranucus +(the thunderer), Uxellĭmus (the highest). It would seem from +this that in historic times at any rate Jupiter did not play a large +part in Celtic religious ideas.</p> +<p>There remains another striking feature of Celtic religion which has +not yet been mentioned, namely the identification of several deities +with Apollo. These deities are essentially the presiding deities +of certain healing-springs and health-resorts, and the growth of their +worship into popularity is a further striking index to the development +of religion side by side with certain aspects of civilisation. +One of the names of a Celtic Apollo is Borvo (whence Bourbon), the deity +of certain hot springs. This name is Indo-European, and was given +to the local fountain-god by the Celtic-speaking invaders of Gaul: it +simply means ‘the Boiler.’ Other forms of the name +are also found, as Bormo and Bormānus. At Aquæ Granni +(Aix-la-Chapelle) and elsewhere the name identified with Apollo is Grannos. +We find also Mogons, and Mogounus, the patron deity of Moguntiacum (Mainz), +and, once or twice, Mapŏnos (the great youth). The essential +feature of the Apollo worship was its association in <!-- page 41--><a name="page41"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 41</span>Gallo-Roman +civilisation with the idea of healing, an idea which, through the revival +of the worship of Æsculapius, affected religious views very strongly +in other quarters of the empire. It was in this conception of +the gods as the guides of civilisation and the restorers of health, +that Celtic religion, in some districts at any rate, shows itself emerging +into a measure of light after a long and toilsome progress from the +darkness of prehistoric ideas. What Cæsar says of the practice +of the Gauls of beginning the year with the night rather than with the +day, and their ancient belief that they were sprung from Dis, the god +of the lower world, is thus typified in their religious history.</p> +<p>In dealing with the deities of the Celtic world we must not, however, +forget the goddesses, though their history presents several problems +of great difficulty. Of these goddesses some are known to us by +groups—Proximæ (the kinswomen), Dervonnæ (the oak-spirits), +Niskai (the water-sprites), Mairæ, Matronæ, Matres or Matræ +(the mothers), Quadriviæ (the goddesses of cross roads). +The Matres, Matræ, and Matronæ are often qualified by some +local name. Deities of this type appear to have been popular in +Britain, in the neighbourhood of Cologne and in Provence. <!-- page 42--><a name="page42"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 42</span>In +some cases it is uncertain whether some of these grouped goddesses are +Celtic or Teutonic. It is an interesting parallel to the existence +of these grouped goddesses, when we find that in some parts of Wales +‘Y Mamau’ (the mothers) is the name for the fairies. +These grouped goddesses take us back to one of the most interesting +stages in the early Celtic religion, when the earth-spirits or the corn-spirits +had not yet been completely individualised. Of the individualised +goddesses many are strictly local, being the names of springs or rivers. +Others, again, appear to have emerged into greater individual prominence, +and of these we find several associated on inscriptions, sometimes with +a god of Celtic name, but sometimes with his Latin counterpart. +It is by no means certain that the names so linked together were thus +associated in early times, and the fashion may have been a later one, +which, like other fashions, spread after it had once begun. The +relationship in some cases may have been regarded as that of mother +and son, in others that of brother and sister, in others that of husband +and wife, the data are not adequate for the final decision of the question. +Of these associated pairs the following may be noted, Mercurius and +Rosmerta, Mercurius and <!-- page 43--><a name="page43"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 43</span>Đirona, +Grannus (Apollo) and Sirona, Sucellus and Nantosvelta, Borvo and Damŏna, +Cicolluis (Mars) and Litavis, Bormanus and Bormana, Savus and Adsalluta, +Mars and Nemetŏna. One of these names, Sirŏna, probably +meant the long-lived one, and was applied to the earth-mother. +In Welsh one or two names have survived which, by their structure, appear +to have been ancient names of goddesses; these are Rhiannon (Rigantŏnā, +the great queen), and Modron (Matrŏna, the great mother). +The other British deities will be more fully treated by another writer +in this series in a work on the ancient mythology of the British Isles. +It is enough to say that research tends more and more to confirm the +view that the key to the history of the Celtic deities is the realisation +of the local character of the vast majority of them.</p> +<h2><!-- page 44--><a name="page44"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 44</span>CHAPTER +VI—THE CELTIC PRIESTHOOD</h2> +<p>No name in connection with Celtic religion is more familiar to the +average reader than that of the Druids, yet there is no section of the +history of Celtic religion that has given rise to greater discussion +than that relating to this order. Even the association of the +name with the Indo-European root <i>dru</i>-, which we find in the Greek +word <i>drus</i>, an oak, has been questioned by such a competent Celtic +scholar as M. d’Arbois de Jubainville, but on this point it cannot +be said that his criticism is conclusive. The writers of the ancient +world who refer to the Druids, do not always make it sufficiently clear +in what districts the rites, ceremonies, and functions which they were +describing prevailed. Nor was it so much the priestly character +of the Druids that produced the deepest impression on the ancients. +To some philosophical and theological writers of antiquity their doctrines +and their apparent affinities with <!-- page 45--><a name="page45"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 45</span>Pythagoreanism +were of much greater interest than their ceremonial or other functions. +One thing at any rate is clear, that the Druids and their doctrines, +or supposed doctrines, had made a deep impression on the writers of +the ancient world. There is a reference to them in a fragment +of Aristotle (which may not, however, be genuine) that is of interest +as assigning them a place in express terms both among the Celts and +the Galatæ. The prominent feature of their teaching which +had attracted the attention of other writers, such as the historian +Diodorus Siculus and the Christian theologian Clement of Alexandria, +was the resemblance of their doctrine concerning the immortality and +transmigration of the soul to the views of Pythagoras. Ancient +writers, however, did not always remember that a religious or philosophical +doctrine must not be treated as a thing apart, but must be interpreted +in its whole context in relation to its development in history and in +the social life of the community in which it has flourished. To +some of the ancients the superficial resemblance between the Druidic +doctrine of the soul’s future and the teaching attributed to Pythagoras +was the essential point, and this was enough to give the Druids a reputation +for philosophy, so that <!-- page 46--><a name="page46"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 46</span>a +writer like Clement of Alexandria goes so far as to regard the Druids +of the ‘Galatæ’ along with the prophets of the Egyptians, +the ‘Chaldæans’ of the Assyrians, the ‘philosophers +of the Celts,’ and the Magi of the Persians as the pioneers of +philosophy among the barbarians before it spread to the Greeks. +The reason for the distinction drawn in this passage between the ‘Druids +of the Galatæ’ and ‘the philosophers of the Celts’ +is not clear. Diodorus Siculus calls attention to the Druidic +doctrine that the souls of men were immortal, and that after the lapse +of an appointed number of years they came to life again, the soul then +entering into another body. He says that there were certain ‘philosophers +and theologians’ that were called Druids who were held in exceptional +honour. In addition to these, the Celts, he says, had also seers, +who foretold the future from the flight of birds and by means of the +offering of sacrifices. According to him it was these priestly +seers who had the masses in subjection to them. In great affairs +they had, he says, the practice of divination by the slaughter of a +human victim, and the observation of the attitude in which he fell, +the contortions of the limbs, the spurting of the blood, and the like. +This, he states, was an ancient and established <!-- page 47--><a name="page47"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 47</span>practice. +Moreover, it was the custom, according to Diodorus, to make no sacrifice +without the presence of a philosopher (apparently a Druid in addition +to the sacrificing seer), the theory being that those who were authorities +on the divine nature were to the gods intelligible mediators for the +offering of gifts and the presentation of petitions. These philosophers +were in great request, together with their poets, in war as well as +in peace, and were consulted not merely by the men of their own side, +but also by those of the enemy. Even when two armies were on the +point of joining battle, these philosophers had been able, Diodorus +says, to step into the space between them and to stop them from fighting, +exactly as if they had charmed wild beasts. The moral which Diodorus +draws from this is, that even among the wildest of barbarians the spirited +principle of the soul yields to wisdom, and that Ares (the god of war) +even there respects the Muses. It is clear from this account that +Diodorus had in mind the three classes of non-military professional +men among the Celts, to whom other ancient writers also refer, namely, +the Bards, the Seers, and the Druids. His narrative is apparently +an expansion, in the light of his reading and philosophical meditation, +of information supplied <!-- page 48--><a name="page48"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 48</span>by +previous writers, notably Posidonius. The latter, too, appears +to have been Julius Cæsar’s chief authority, in addition +to his own observation, but Cæsar does not appear expressly to +indicate the triple division here in question. The account which +he gives is important, and would be even more valuable than it is had +he told us how far what he describes was written from his own personal +information, and the degree of variation (if any) of religious practice +in different districts. However, Cæsar’s statements +deserve the closest consideration. After calling attention to +the division of the Gaulish aristocracy into two main sections, the +Druids and the Knights, he proceeds to speak of the Druids. These +were occupied, he says, with religious matters, they attended to public +and private sacrifices, and interpreted omens. Moreover, they +were the teachers of the country. To them the young men congregated +for knowledge, and the pupils held their teachers in great respect. +They, too, were the judges in public and private disputes: it was they +who awarded damages and penalties. Any contumacy in reference +to their judgments was punished by exclusion from the sacrifices. +This sentence of excommunication was the severest punishment among the +Gauls. The men so punished were treated as outlaws, and <!-- page 49--><a name="page49"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 49</span>cut +off from all human society, with its rights and privileges. Over +these Druids there was one head, who wielded the highest influence among +them. On his death the nearest of the others in dignity succeeded +him, or, if several were equal, the election of a successor was made +by the vote of the Druids. Sometimes the primacy was not decided +without the arbitrament of arms. The Druids met at a fixed time +of the year in a consecrated spot in the territory of the Carnutes, +the district which was regarded as being in the centre of the whole +of Gaul. This assembly of Druids formed a court for the decision +of cases brought to them from everywhere around. It was thought, +Cæsar says, that the doctrine of the Druids was discovered in +Britain and thence carried over into Gaul. At that time, too, +those who wanted to make a profounder study of it resorted thither for +their training. The Druids had immunity from military service +and from the payment of tribute. These privileges drew many into +training for the profession, some of their own accord, others at the +instance of parents and relatives. While in training they were +said to learn by heart a large number of verses, and some went so far +as to spend twenty years in their course of preparation. The Druids +held it wrong to put their <!-- page 50--><a name="page50"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 50</span>religious +teaching in writing, though, in almost everything else, whether public +or private affairs, they made use of Greek letters. Cæsar +thought that they discouraged writing on the one hand, lest their teaching +should become public property; on the other, lest reliance upon writing +should lessen the cultivation of the memory. To this risk Cæsar +could testify from his own knowledge. Their cardinal doctrine +was that souls did not perish, but that after death they passed from +one person to another; and this they regarded as a supreme incentive +to valour, since, with the prospect of immortality, the fear of death +counted for nothing. They carried on, moreover, many discussions +about the stars and their motion, the greatness of the universe and +the lands, the nature of things, the strength and power of the immortal +gods, and communicated their knowledge to their pupils. In another +passage Cæsar says that the Gauls as a people were extremely devoted +to religious ideas and practices. Men who were seriously ill, +who were engaged in war, or who stood in any peril, offered, or promised +to offer, human sacrifices, and made use of the Druids as their agents +for such sacrifices. Their theory was, that the immortal gods +could not be appeased unless a human life were given for a <!-- page 51--><a name="page51"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 51</span>human +life. In addition to these private sacrifices, they had also similar +human sacrifices of a public character. Cæsar further contrasts +the Germans with the Gauls, saying that the former had no Druids to +preside over matters of religion, and that they paid no attention to +sacrifices.</p> +<p>In his work on divination, Cicero, too, refers to the profession +which the Druids made of natural science, and of the power of foretelling +the future, and instances the case of the Æduan Divĭciācus, +his brother’s guest and friend. Nothing is here said by +Cicero of the three classes implied in Diodorus, but Timagenes (quoted +in Ammianus) refers to the three classes under the names ‘bardi,’ +‘euhages’ (a mistake for ‘vates’), and ‘drasidæ’ +(a mistake for ‘druidæ’). The study of nature +and of the heavens is here attributed to the second class of seers (vates). +The highest class, that of the Druids, were, he says, in accordance +with the rule of Pythagoras, closely linked together in confraternities, +and by acquiring a certain loftiness of mind from their investigations +into things that were hidden and exalted, they despised human affairs +and declared the soul immortal. We see here the view expressed +that socially as well as intellectually the Druids lived according to +the Pythagorean philosophy. Origen <!-- page 52--><a name="page52"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 52</span>also +refers to the view that was prevalent in his time, that Zamolxis, the +servant of Pythagoras, had taught the Druids the philosophy of Pythagoras. +He further states that the Druids practised sorcery. The triple +division of the non-military aristocracy is perhaps best given by Strabo, +the Greek geographer, who here follows Posidonius. The three classes +are the Bards, the Seers (ouateis=vates), and Druids. The Bards +were hymn-writers and poets, the Seers sacrificers and men of science, +while the Druids, in addition to natural science, practised also moral +philosophy. They were regarded as the justest of men, and on this +account were intrusted with the settlement of private and public disputes. +They had been the means of preventing armies from fighting when on the +very verge of battle, and were especially intrusted with the judgment +of cases involving human life. According to Strabo, they and their +fellow-countrymen held that souls and the universe were immortal, but +that fire and water would sometime prevail. Sacrifices were never +made, Strabo says, without the intervention of the Druids. Pomponius +Mela says that in his time (c. 44 <span class="smcap">a.d.</span>), +though the ancient savagery was no more, and the Gauls abstained from +human sacrifices, some traces of their former practices <!-- page 53--><a name="page53"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 53</span>still +remained, notably in their habit of cutting a portion of the flesh of +those condemned to death after bringing them to the altars. The +Gauls, he says, in spite of their traces of barbarism, had an eloquence +of their own, and had the Druids as their teachers in philosophy. +These professed to know the size and form of the earth and of the universe, +the motions of the sky and stars, and the will of the gods. He +refers, as Cæsar does, to their work in education, and says that +it was carried on in caves or in secluded groves. Mela speaks +of their doctrine of immortality, but says nothing as to the entry of +souls into other bodies. As a proof of this belief he speaks of +the practice of burning and burying with the dead things appropriate +to the needs of the living. Lucan, the Latin poet, in his <i>Pharsalia</i>, +refers to the seclusion of the Druids’ groves and to their doctrine +of immortality. The Scholiasts’ notes on this passage are +after the manner of their kind, and add very little to our knowledge. +In Pliny’s <i>Natural History</i> (xvi, 249), however, we seem +to be face to face with another, though perhaps a distorted, tradition. +Pliny was an indefatigable compiler, and appears partly by reading, +partly by personal observation, to have noticed phases of Celtic <!-- page 54--><a name="page54"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 54</span>religious +practices which other writers had overlooked. In the first place +he calls attention to the veneration in which the Gauls held the mistletoe +and the tree on which it grew, provided that that tree was the oak. +Hence their predilection for oak groves and their requirement of oak +leaves for all religious rites. Pliny here remarks on the consonance +of this practice with the etymology of the name Druid as interpreted +even through Greek (the Greek for an oak being <i>drūs</i>). +Were not this respect for the oak and for the mistletoe paralleled by +numerous examples of tree and plant-worship given by Dr. Frazer and +others, it might well have been suspected that Pliny was here quoting +some writer who had tried to argue from the etymology of the name Druid. +Another suspicious circumstance in Pliny’s account is his reference +to the serpent’s egg composed of snakes rolled together into a +ball. He states that he himself had seen such an ‘egg,’ +of about the size of an apple. Pliny, too, states that Tiberius +Cæsar abolished by a decree of the Senate the Druids and the kind +of seers and physicians the Gauls then had. This statement, when +read in its context, probably refers to the prohibition of human sacrifices. +The historian Suetonius, in his account <!-- page 55--><a name="page55"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 55</span>of +the Emperor Claudius, also states that Augustus had prohibited ‘the +religion of the Druids’ (which, he says, ‘was one of fearful +savagery’) to Roman citizens, but that Claudius had entirely abolished +it. What is here also meant, in view of the description given +of Druidism, is doubtless the abolishing of its human sacrifices. +In later Latin writers there are several references to Druidesses, but +these were probably only sorceresses. In Irish the name <i>drúi</i> +(genitive <i>druad</i>) meant a magician, and the word <i>derwydd</i> +in mediæval Welsh was especially used in reference to the vaticinations +which were then popular in Wales.</p> +<p>When we analyse the testimony of ancient writers concerning the Druids, +we see in the first place that to different minds the name connoted +different things. To Cæsar it is the general name for the +non-military professional class, whether priests, seers, teachers, lawyers, +or judges. To others the Druids are pre-eminently the philosophers +and teachers of the Gauls, and are distinguished from the seers designated +<i>vates</i>. To others again, such as Pliny, they were the priests +of the oak-ritual, whence their name was derived. In view of the +variety of grades of civilisation then co-existing in Gaul and Britain, +it is not <!-- page 56--><a name="page56"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 56</span>improbable +that the development of the non-military professional class varied very +considerably in different districts, and that all the aspects of Druidism +which the ancient writers specify found their appropriate places in +the social system of the Celts. In Gaul and Britain, as elsewhere, +the office of the primitive tribal medicine-man was capable of indefinite +development, and all the forms of its evolution could not have proceeded +<i>pari passu</i> where the sociological conditions found such scope +for variation. It may well be that the oak and mistletoe ceremonies, +for example, lingered in remote agricultural districts long after they +had ceased to interest men along the main routes of Celtic civilisation. +The bucolic mind does not readily abandon the practices of millennia.</p> +<p>In addition to the term Druid, we find in Aulus Hirtius’ continuation +of Cæsar’s <i>Gallic War</i> (Bk. viii., c. xxxviii., 2), +as well as on two inscriptions, one at Le-Puy-en-Velay (Dep. Haute-Loire), +and the other at Mâcon (Dep. Saône-et-Loire), another priestly +title, ‘gutuater.’ At Mâcon the office is that +of a ‘gutuater Martis,’ but of its special features nothing +is known.</p> +<h2><!-- page 57--><a name="page57"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 57</span>CHAPTER +VII—THE CELTIC OTHER-WORLD</h2> +<p>In the preceding chapter we have seen that the belief was widely +prevalent among Greek and Roman writers that the Druids taught the immortality +of the soul. Some of these writers, too, point out the undoubted +fact, attested by Archæology, that objects which would be serviceable +to the living were buried with the dead, and this was regarded as a +confirmation of the view that the immortality of souls was to the Celts +an object of belief. The study of Archæology on the one +hand, and of Comparative Religion on the other, certainly leads to the +conclusion that in the Bronze and the Early Iron Age, and in all probability +in the Stone Age, the idea prevailed that death was not the end of man. +The holed cromlechs of the later Stone Age were probably designed for +the egress and ingress of souls. The food and the weapons that +were buried with the dead were thought to be objects of genuine <!-- page 58--><a name="page58"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 58</span>need. +Roman religion, too, in some of its rites provided means for the periodical +expulsion of hungry and hostile spirits of the dead, and for their pacification +by the offer of food. A tomb and its adjuncts were meant not merely +for the honour of the dead, but also for the protection of the living. +A clear line of distinction was drawn between satisfied and beneficent +ghosts like the Manes, and the unsatisfied and hostile ghosts like the +Lemures and Larvæ. To the Celtic mind, when its analytical +powers had come to birth, and man was sufficiently self-conscious to +reflect upon himself, the problem of his own nature pressed for some +solution. In these solutions the breath, the blood, the name, +the head, and even the hair generally played a part, but these would +not in themselves explain the mysterious phenomena of sleep, of dreams, +of epilepsy, of madness, of disease, of man’s shadow and his reflection, +and of man’s death. By long familiarity with the scientific +or quasi-scientific explanations of these things, we find it difficult +to realise fully their constant fascination for early man, who had his +thinkers and philosophies like ourselves. One very widely accepted +solution of early man in the Celtic world was, that within him there +was another self which could live a <!-- page 59--><a name="page59"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 59</span>life +of its own apart from the body, and which survived even death, burial, +and burning. Sometimes this inner self was associated with the +breath, whence, for example, the Latin ‘anima’ and the Welsh +‘enaid,’ both meaning the soul, from the root <i>an</i>-, +to breathe. At other times the term employed for the second self +had reference to man’s shadow: the Greek ‘skia,’ the +Latin ‘umbra,’ the Welsh ‘ysgawd,’ the English +‘shade.’ There are abundant evidences, too, that the +life-principle was frequently regarded as being especially associated +with the blood. Another tendency, of which Principal Rhŷs +has given numerous examples in his Welsh folk-lore, was to regard the +soul as capable of taking a visible form, not necessarily human, preferably +that of some winged creature. In ancient writers there is no information +as to the views prevalent among the Celts regarding the forms or the +abodes of the spirits of the dead, beyond the statement that the Druids +taught the doctrine of their re-birth. We are thus compelled to +look to the evidence afforded by myth, legend, and folk-lore. +These give fair indications as to the types of earlier popular belief +in these matters, but it would be a mistake to assume that the ideas +embodied in them had remained entirely unchanged from remote times. +<!-- page 60--><a name="page60"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 60</span>The +mind of man at certain levels is quite capable of evolving new myths +and fresh folk-lore along the lines of its own psychology and its own +logic. The forms which the soul could take doubtless varied greatly +in men’s opinions in different districts and in different mental +perspectives, but folk-lore tends to confirm the view that early man, +in the Celtic world as elsewhere, tended to emphasise his conception +of the subtlety and mobility of the soul as contrasted with the body. +Sooner or later the primitive philosopher was bound to consider whither +the soul went in dreams or in death. He may not at first have +thought of any other sphere than that of his own normal life, but other +questions, such as the home of the spirits of vegetation in or under +the earth, would suggest, even if this thought had not occurred to him +before, that the spirits of men, too, had entrance to the world below. +Whether this world was further pictured in imagination depended largely +on the poetic genius of any given people. The folk-lore of the +Celtic races bears abundant testimony to their belief that beneath this +world there was another. The ‘annwfn’ of the Welsh +was distinctly conceived in the folk-lore embodied in mediæval +poetry as being ‘is elfydd’ (beneath the world). In +mediæval Welsh legend, again, <!-- page 61--><a name="page61"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 61</span>this +lower world is regarded as divided into kingdoms, like this world, and +its kings, like Arawn and Hafgan in the Mabinogi of Pwyll, are represented +as being sometimes engaged in conflict. From this lower world +had come to man some of the blessings of civilisation, and among them +the much prized gift of swine. The lower world could be even plundered +by enterprising heroes. Marriages like that of Pwyll and Rhiannon +were possible between the dwellers of the one world and the other. +The other-world of the Celts does not seem, however, to have been always +pictured as beneath the earth. Irish and Welsh legend combine +in viewing it at times as situated on distant islands, and Welsh folk-lore +contains several suggestions of another world situated beneath the waters +of a lake, a river, or a sea. In one or two passages also of Welsh +mediæval poetry the shades are represented as wandering in the +woods of Caledonia (Coed Celyddon). This was no doubt a traditional +idea in those families that migrated to Wales in post-Roman times from +Strathclyde. To those who puzzled over the fate of the souls of +the dead the idea of their re-birth was a very natural solution, and +Mr. Alfred Nutt, in his <i>Voyage of Bran</i>, has called attention +to the occurrence of this idea in Irish legend. It <!-- page 62--><a name="page62"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 62</span>does +not follow, however, that the souls of all men would enjoy the privilege +of this re-birth. As Mr. Alfred Nutt points out, Irish legend +seems to regard this re-birth only as the privilege of the truly great. +It is of interest to note the curious persistence of similar ideas as +to death and the other-world in literature written even in Christian +times and by monastic scribes. In Welsh, in addition to Annwfn, +a term which seems to mean the ‘Not-world,’ we have other +names for the world below, such as ‘anghar,’ the loveless +place; ‘difant,’ the unrimmed place (whence the modern Welsh +word ‘difancoll,’ lost for ever); ‘affwys,’ +the abyss; ‘affan,’ the land invisible. The upper-world +is sometimes called ‘elfydd,’ sometimes ‘adfant,’ +the latter term meaning the place whose rim is turned back. Apparently +it implies a picture of the earth as a disc, whose rim or lip is curved +back so as to prevent men from falling over into the ‘difant,’ +or the rimless place. In modern Celtic folk-lore the various local +other-worlds are the abodes of fairies, and in these traditions there +may possibly be, as Principal Rhŷs has suggested, some intermixture +of reminiscences of the earlier inhabitants of the various districts. +Modern folk-lore, like mediæval legend, has its stories of the +inter-marriages <!-- page 63--><a name="page63"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 63</span>of +natives of this world with those of the other-world, often located underneath +a lake. The curious reader will find several examples of such +stories in Principal Rhŷs’s collection of Welsh and Manx +folk-lore. In Irish legend one of the most classical of these +stories is that of the betrothal of Etain, a story which has several +points of contact with the narrative of the meeting of Pwyll and Rhiannon +in the Welsh Mabinogi. The name of Arthur’s wife, Gwenhwyfar, +which means ‘the White Spectre,’ also suggests that originally +she too played a part in a story of the same kind. In all these +and similar narratives, it is important to note the way in which the +Celtic conceptions of the other-world, in Britain and in Ireland, have +been coloured by the geographical aspects of these two countries, by +their seas, their islands, their caves, their mounds, their lakes, and +their mountains. The local other-worlds of these lands bear, as +we might have expected, the clear impress of their origin. On +the whole the conceptions of the other-world which we meet in Celtic +legend are joyous; it is a land of youth and beauty. Cuchulainn, +the Irish hero, for example, is brought in a boat to an exceedingly +fair island round which there is a silver wall and a bronze palisade. +<!-- page 64--><a name="page64"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 64</span>In +one Welsh legend the cauldron of the Head of Annwfn has around it a +rim of pearls. One Irish story has a naïve description of +the glories of the Celtic Elysium in the words—‘Admirable +was that land: there are three trees there always bearing fruit, one +pig always alive, and another ready cooked.’ Occasionally, +however, we find a different picture. In the Welsh poem called +‘Y Gododin’ the poet Aneirin is represented as expressing +his gratitude at being rescued by the son of Llywarch Hen from ‘the +cruel prison of the earth, from the abode of death, from the loveless +land.’ The salient features, therefore, of the Celtic conceptions +of the other-world are their consonance with the suggestions made by +Celtic scenery to the Celtic imagination, the vagueness and variability +of these conceptions in different minds and in different moods, the +absence of any ethical considerations beyond the incentive given to +bravery by the thought of immortality, and the remarkable development +of a sense of possible inter-relations between the two worlds, whether +pacific or hostile. Such conceptions, as we see from Celtic legend, +proved an admirable stimulus and provided excellent material for the +development of Celtic narrative, and the weird and romantic effect was +further <!-- page 65--><a name="page65"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 65</span>heightened +by the general belief in the possibilities of magic and metamorphosis. +Moreover, the association with innumerable place-names of legends of +this type gave the beautiful scenery of Celtic lands an added charm, +which has attached their inhabitants to them with a subtle and unconquerable +attachment scarcely intelligible to the more prosaic inhabitants of +prosaic lands. To the poetic Celt the love of country tends to +become almost a religion. The Celtic mind cannot remain indifferent +to lands and seas whose very beauty compels the eyes of man to gaze +upon them to their very horizon, and the lines of observation thus drawn +to the horizon are for the Celt continual temptations to the thought +of an infinity beyond. The preoccupation of the Celtic mind with +the deities of his scenery, his springs, his rivers, his seas, his forests, +his mountains, his lakes, was in thorough keeping with the tenour of +his mind, when tuned to its natural surroundings. In dealing with +Celtic religion, mythology, and legend, it is not so much the varying +local and temporal forms that demand our attention, as the all-pervading +and animating spirit, which shows its essential character even through +the scanty remains of the ancient Celtic world. Celtic religion +bears the impress of <!-- page 66--><a name="page66"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 66</span>nature +on earth far more than nature in the heavens. The sense of the +heaven above has perhaps survived in some of the general Indo-European +Celtic terms for the divine principle, and there are some traces of +a religious interest in the sun and the god of thunder and lightning, +but every student of Celtic religion must feel that the main and characteristic +elements are associated with the earth in all the variety of its local +phenomena. The great earth-mother and her varied offspring ever +come to view in Celtic religion under many names, and the features even +of the other-world could not be dissociated for the Celt from those +of his mother-earth. The festivals of his year, too, were associated +with the decay and the renewal of her annual life. The bonfires +of November, May, Midsummer, and August were doubtless meant to be associated +with the vicissitudes of her life and the spirits that were her children. +For the Celt the year began in November, so that its second half-year +commenced with the first of May. The idea to which Cæsar +refers, that the Gauls believed themselves descended from Dis, the god +of the lower world, and began the year with the night, counting their +time not by days but by nights, points in the same <!-- page 67--><a name="page67"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 67</span>direction, +namely that the darkness of the earth had a greater hold on the mind +than the brightness of the sky. The Welsh terms for a week and +a fortnight, <i>wythnos</i> (eight nights) and <i>pythefnos</i> (fifteen +nights) respectively confirm Cæsar’s statement. To +us now it may seem more natural to associate religion with the contemplation +of the heavens, but for the Celtic lands at any rate the main trend +of the evidence is to show that the religious mind was mainly drawn +to a contemplation of the earth and her varied life, and that the Celt +looked for his other-world either beneath the earth, with her rivers, +lakes, and seas, or in the islands on the distant horizon, where earth +and sky met. This predominance of the earth in religion was in +thorough keeping with the intensity of religion as a factor in his daily +pursuits. It was this intensity that gave the Druids at some time +or other in the history of the Western Celts the power which Cæsar +and others assign to them. The whole people of the Gauls, even +with their military aristocracy, were extremely devoted to religious +ideas, though these led to the inhumanity of human sacrifices. +At one time their sense of the reality of the other-world was so great, +that they believed that loans contracted in this world would be repaid +there, <!-- page 68--><a name="page68"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 68</span>and +practical belief could not go much further than that. All these +considerations tend to show how important it is, in the comparative +study of religions, to investigate each religion in its whole sociological +and geographical environment as well as in the etymological meaning +of its terms.</p> +<p>In conclusion, the writer hopes that this brief sketch, which is +based on an independent study of the main evidence for the religious +ideas and practices of the Celtic peoples, will help to interest students +of religion in the dominant modes of thought which from time immemorial +held sway in these lands of the West of Europe, and which in folk-lore +and custom occasionally show themselves even in the midst of our highly +developed and complex civilisation of to-day. The thought of early +man on the problems of his being—for after all his superstitions +reveal thought—deserve respect, for in his efforts to think he +was trying to grope towards the light.</p> +<h2><!-- page 69--><a name="page69"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 69</span>SHORT +BIBLIOGRAPHY</h2> +<p><span class="smcap">Rhŷs</span>, <i>Hibbert Lectures on Celtic +Heathendom</i>.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Rhŷs</span>, <i>Celtic Folk-lore</i>, <i>Welsh +and Manx</i>.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Reinach</span>, S., <i>Cultes</i>, <i>Mythes +et Religion</i>.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Nutt</span>, <span class="smcap">Alfred</span>, +<i>The Voyage of Bran</i>.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Squire</span>, <i>Mythology of the British Islands</i>.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Gaidoz</span>, <i>Esqiusse de Mythologie gauloise</i>.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Bertrand</span>, <i>La Religion des Gaulois</i>, +<i>les Druides et le Druidisme</i>.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Frazer</span>, <i>The Golden Bough</i>.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Joyce</span>, <i>The Social History of Ireland</i>.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">D’Arbois de Jubainville</span>, <i>Les +Druides et les dieux celtiques à forme d’animaux</i>.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Windisch</span>, <i>Irische Texte mit Wörterbuch</i>.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Cynddelw</span>, <i>Cymru Fu</i>.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Foulkes</span>, <i>Enwogion Cymru</i>.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Campbell</span>, <i>Popular Tales of the West +Highlands</i>.</p> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CELTIC RELIGION***</p> +<pre> + + +***** This file should be named 18041-h.htm or 18041-h.zip****** + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/0/4/18041 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Celtic Religion + in Pre-Christian Times + + +Author: Edward Anwyl + + + +Release Date: March 23, 2006 [eBook #18041] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CELTIC RELIGION*** + + + + + + +Transcribed from the 1906 Archibald Constable & Co. Ltd. edition by David +Price, ccx074@coventry.ac.uk + + + + + +CELTIC RELIGION +IN PRE-CHRISTIAN TIMES + + +By +EDWARD ANWYL, M.A. + +LATE CLASSICAL SCHOLAR OF ORIEL COLLEGE, OXFORD +PROFESSOR OF WELSH AND COMPARATIVE PHILOLOGY AT +THE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF WALES, ABERYSTWYTH +ACTING-CHAIRMAN OF THE CENTRAL WELSH BOARD +FOR INTERMEDIATE EDUCATION + +LONDON +ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE & CO LTD +16 JAMES STREET HAYMARKET +1906 + +Edinburgh: T. and A. CONSTABLE, Printers to His Majesty + + + + +FOREWORD + + +It is only as prehistoric archaeology has come to throw more and more +light on the early civilisations of Celtic lands that it has become +possible to interpret Celtic religion from a thoroughly modern viewpoint. +The author cordially acknowledges his indebtedness to numerous writers on +this subject, but his researches into some portions of the field +especially have suggested to him the possibility of giving a new +presentation to certain facts and groups of facts, which the existing +evidence disclosed. It is to be hoped that a new interest in the +religion of the Celts may thereby be aroused. + +E. ANWYL. + +ABERYSTWYTH, +_February_ 15, 1906. + + + + +CHAPTER I--INTRODUCTORY: THE CELTS + + +In dealing with the subject of 'Celtic Religion' the first duty of the +writer is to explain the sense in which the term 'Celtic' will be used in +this work. It will be used in reference to those countries and districts +which, in historic times, have been at one time or other mainly of Celtic +speech. It does not follow that all the races which spoke a form of the +Celtic tongue, a tongue of the Indo-European family, were all of the same +stock. Indeed, ethnological and archaeological evidence tends to +establish clearly that, in Gaul and Britain, for example, man had lived +for ages before the introduction of any variety of Aryan or Indo-European +speech, and this was probably the case throughout the whole of Western +and Southern Europe. Further, in the light of comparative philology, it +has now become abundantly clear that the forms of Indo-European speech +which we call Celtic are most closely related to those of the Italic +family, of which family Latin is the best known representative. From +this it follows that we are to look for the centre of dissemination of +Aryan Celtic speech in some district of Europe that could have been the +natural centre of dissemination also for the Italic languages. From this +common centre, through conquest and the commercial intercourse which +followed it, the tribes which spoke the various forms of Celtic and +Italic speech spread into the districts occupied by them in historic +times. The common centre of radiation for Celtic and Italic speech was +probably in the districts of Noricum and Pannonia, the modern Carniola, +Carinthia, etc., and the neighbouring parts of the Danube valley. The +conquering Aryan-speaking Celts and Italians formed a military +aristocracy, and their success in extending the range of their languages +was largely due to their skill in arms, combined, in all probability, +with a talent for administration. This military aristocracy was of +kindred type to that which carried Aryan speech into India and Persia, +Armenia and Greece, not to speak of the original speakers of the Teutonic +and Slavonic tongues. In view of the necessity of discovering a centre, +whence the Indo-European or Aryan languages in general could have +radiated Eastwards, as well as Westwards, the tendency to-day is to +regard these tongues as having been spoken originally in some district +between the Carpathians and the Steppes, in the form of kindred dialects +of a common speech. Some branches of the tribes which spoke these +dialects penetrated into Central Europe, doubtless along the Danube, and, +from the Danube valley, extended their conquests together with their +various forms of Aryan speech into Southern and Western Europe. The +proportion of conquerors to conquered was not uniform in all the +countries where they held sway, so that the amount of Aryan blood in +their resultant population varied greatly. In most cases, the families +of the original conquerors, by their skill in the art of war and a +certain instinct of government, succeeded in making their own tongues the +dominant media of communication in the lands where they ruled, with the +result that most of the languages of Europe to-day are of the Aryan or +Indo-European type. It does not, however, follow necessarily from this +that the early religious ideas or the artistic civilisation of countries +now Aryan in speech, came necessarily from the conquerors rather than the +conquered. In the last century it was long held that in countries of +Aryan speech the essential features of their civilisation, their +religious ideas, their social institutions, nay, more, their inhabitants +themselves, were of Aryan origin. + +A more critical investigation has, however, enabled us to distinguish +clearly between the development of various factors of human life which in +their evolution can follow and often have followed more or less +independent lines. The physical history of race, for instance, forms a +problem by itself and must be studied by anthropological and ethnological +methods. Language, again, has often spread along lines other than those +of race, and its investigation appertains to the sphere of the +philologist. Material civilisation, too, has not of necessity followed +the lines either of racial or of linguistic development, and the search +for its ancient trade-routes may be safely left to the archaeologist. +Similarly the spread of ideas in religion and thought is one which has +advanced on lines of its own, and its investigation must be conducted by +the methods and along the lines of the comparative study of religions. + +In the wide sense, then, in which the word 'Celtic religion' will be used +in this work, it will cover the modes of religious thought prevalent in +the countries and districts, which, in course of time, were mainly +characterised by their Celtic speech. To the sum-total of these +religious ideas contributions have been made from many sources. It would +be rash to affirm that the various streams of Aryan Celtic conquest made +no contributions to the conceptions of life and of the world which the +countries of their conquest came to hold (and the evidence of language +points, indeed, to some such contributions), but their quota appears to +be small compared with that of their predecessors; nor is this +surprising, in view of the immense period during which the lands of their +conquest had been previously occupied. Nothing is clearer than the +marvellous persistence of traditional and immemorial modes of thought, +even in the face of conquest and subjugation, and, whatever ideas on +religion the Aryan conquerors of Celtic lands may have brought with them, +they whose conquests were often only partial could not eradicate the +inveterate beliefs of their predecessors, and the result in the end was +doubtless some compromise, or else the victory of the earlier faith. + +But the Aryan conquerors of Gaul and Italy themselves were not men who +had advanced up the Danube in one generation. Those men of Aryan speech +who poured into the Italian peninsula and into Gaul were doubtless in +blood not unmixed with the older inhabitants of Central Europe, and had +entered into the body of ideas which formed the religious beliefs of the +men of the Danube valley. The common modifications of the Aryan tongue, +by Italians and Celts alike, as compared with Greek, suggests contact +with men of different speech. Among the names of Celtic gods, too, like +those of other countries, we find roots that are apparently irreducible +to any found in Indo-European speech, and we know not what pre-Aryan +tongues may have contributed them. Scholars, to-day, are far more alive +than they ever were before to the complexity of the contributory elements +that have entered into the tissue of the ancient religions of mankind, +and the more the relics of Celtic religion are investigated, the more +complex do its contributory factors become. In the long ages before +history there were unrecorded conquests and migrations innumerable, and +ideas do not fail to spread because there is no historian to record them. + +The more the scanty remnants of Celtic religion are examined, the clearer +it becomes that many of its characteristic features had been evolved +during the vast period of the ages of stone. During these millennia, men +had evolved, concomitantly with their material civilisation, a kind of +working philosophy of life, traces of which are found in every land where +this form of civilisation has prevailed. Man's religion can never be +dissociated from his social experience, and the painful stages through +which man reached the agricultural life, for example, have left their +indelible impress on the mind of man in Western Europe, as they have in +every land. We are thus compelled, from the indications which we have of +Celtic religion, in the names of its deities, its rites, and its +survivals in folk-lore and legend, to come to the conclusion, that its +fundamental groundwork is a body of ideas, similar to those of other +lands, which were the natural correlatives of the phases of experience +through which man passed in his emergence into civilised life. To +demonstrate and to illustrate these relations will be the aim of the +following chapters. + + + + +CHAPTER II--THE CHIEF PHASES OF CELTIC CIVILISATION + + +In the chief countries of Celtic civilisation, Gaul, Cisalpine and +Transalpine, Britain and Ireland, abundant materials have been found for +elucidating the stages of culture through which man passed in prehistoric +times. In Britain, for example, palaeolithic man has left numerous +specimens of his implements, but the forms even of these rude implements +suggest that they, too, have been evolved from still more primitive +types. Some antiquarians have thought to detect such earlier types in +the stones that have been named 'eoliths' found in Kent, but, though +these 'eoliths' may possibly show human use, the question of their +history is far from being settled. It is certain, however, that man +succeeded in maintaining himself for ages in the company of the mammoth, +the cave-bear, and other animals now extinct. Whether palaeolithic man +survived the Ice Age in Britain has not so far been satisfactorily +decided. In Gaul, however, there is fair evidence of continuity between +the Palaeolithic and Neolithic periods, and this continuity must +obviously have existed somewhere. Still in spite of the indications of +continuity, the civilisation of primitive man in Gaul presents one aspect +that is without any analogues in the life of the palaeolithic men of the +River Drift period, or in that of man of the New Stone Age. The feature +in question is the remarkable artistic skill shown by the cave men of the +Dordogne district. Some of the drawings and carvings of these men reveal +a sense of form which would have done credit to men of a far later age. A +feature such as this, whatever may have been its object, whether it arose +from an effort by means of 'sympathetic magic' to catch animals, as M. +Salomon Reinach suggests, or to the mere artistic impulse, is a standing +reminder to us of the scantiness of our data for estimating the lines of +man's religious and other development in the vast epochs of prehistoric +time. + +We know that from the life of hunting man passed into the pastoral stage, +having learned to tame animals. How he came to do so, and by what +motives he was actuated, is still a mystery. It may be, as M. Salomon +Reinach has also suggested, that it was some curious and indefinable +sense of kinship with them that led him to do so, or more probably, as +the present writer thinks, some sense of a need of the alliance of +animals against hostile spirits. In all probability it was no motive +which we can now fathom. The mind of early man was like the unfathomable +mind of a boy. From the pastoral life again man passed after long ages +into the life of agriculture, and the remains of neolithic man in Gaul +and in Britain give us glimpses of his life as a farmer. The ox, the +sheep, the pig, the goat, and the dog were his domestic animals; he could +grow wheat and flax, and could supplement the produce of his farm by +means of hunting and fishing. Neolithic man could spin and weave; he +could obtain the necessary flint for his implements, which he made by +chipping and polishing, and he could also make pottery of a rude variety. +In its essentials we have here the beginnings of the agricultural +civilisation of man all the world over. In life, neolithic man dwelt +sometimes in pit-dwellings and sometimes in hut-circles, covered with a +roof of branches supported by a central pole. In death, he was buried +with his kin in long mounds of earth called barrows, in chambered cairns +and cromlechs or dolmens. The latter usually consist of three standing +stones covered by a cap-stone; forming the stony skeleton of a grave that +has been exposed to view after the mound of earth that covered it has +been washed away. In their graves the dead were buried in a crouching +attitude, and fresh burials were made as occasion required. Sometimes +the cromlech is double, and occasionally there is a hole in one of the +stones, the significance of which is unknown, unless it may have been for +the ingress and egress of souls. Graves of the dolmen or cromlech type +are found in all the countries of Western Europe, North Africa, and +elsewhere, wherever stone suitable for the purpose abounds, and in this +we have a striking illustration of the way in which lines of development +in man's material civilisation are sooner or later correlated to his +geographical, geological, and other surroundings. The religious ideas of +man in neolithic times also came into correlation with the conditions of +his development, and the uninterpreted stone circles and pillars of the +world are a standing witness to the religious zeal of a mind that was +haunted by stone. Before proceeding to exemplify this thesis the +subsequent trend of Celtic civilisation may be briefly sketched. + +Through the pacific intercourse of commerce, bronze weapons and +implements began to find their way, about 2000 B.C. or earlier, from +Central and Southern Europe into Gaul, and thence into Britain. In +Britain the Bronze Age begins at about 1500 or 1400 B.C., and it is +thought by some archaeologists that bronze was worked at this period by +the aid of native tin in Britain itself. There are indications, however, +that the introduction of bronze into Britain was not by way of commerce +alone. About the beginning of the Bronze period are found evidences in +this island of a race of different type from that of neolithic man, being +characterised by a round skull and a powerful build, and by general +indications of a martial bearing. The remains of this race are usually +found in round barrows. + +This race, which certainly used bronze weapons, is generally believed to +have been the first wave that reached Britain of Aryan conquerors of +Celtic speech from the nearest part of the continent, where it must have +arrived some time previously, probably along the Rhine valley. As the +type of Celtic speech that has penetrated farthest to the west is that +known as the Goidelic or Irish, it has not unreasonably been thought that +this must have been the type that arrived in Britain first. There are +indications, too, that it was this type that penetrated furthest into the +west of Gaul. Its most marked characteristic is its preservation of the +pronunciation of U as 'oo' and of QU, while the 'Brythonic' or Welsh +variety changed U to a sound pronounced like the French 'u' or the German +'u' and also QU to P. There is a similar line of cleavage in the Italic +languages, where Latin corresponds to Goidelic, and Oscan and Umbrian to +Brythonic. Transalpine Gaul was probably invaded by Aryan-speaking Celts +from more than one direction, and the infiltration and invasion of new- +comers, when it had once begun, was doubtless continuous through these +various channels. There are cogent reasons for thinking that ultimately +the dominant type of Celtic speech over the greater part of Gaul came to +be that of the P rather than the QU type, owing to the influx from the +East and Northeast of an overflow from the Rhine valley of tribes +speaking that dialect; a dialect which, by force of conquest and culture, +tended to spread farther and farther West. Into Britain, too, as time +went on, the P type of Celtic was carried, and has survived in Welsh and +Cornish, the remnants of the tongue of ancient Britain. We know, too, +from the name Eporedia (Yvrea), that this dialect of Celtic must have +spread into Cisalpine Gaul. The latter district may have received its +first Celtic invaders direct from the Danube valley, as M. Alexandre +Bertrand held, but it would be rash to assume that all its invaders came +from that direction. In connection, however, with the history of Celtic +religion it is not the spread of the varying types of Celtic dialect that +is important, but the changes in the civilisation of Gaul and Britain, +which reacted on religious ideas or which introduced new factors into the +religious development of these lands. + +The predatory expeditions and wars of conquest of military Celtic tribes +in search for new homes for their superfluous populations brought into +prominence the deities of war, as was the case also with the ancient +Romans, themselves an agricultural and at the same time a predatory race. +The prominence of war in Celtic tribal life at one stage has left us the +names of a large number of deities that were identified with Mars and +Bellona, though all the war-gods were not originally such. In the Roman +calendar there is abundant evidence that Mars was at one time an +agricultural god as well as a god of war. The same, as will be shown +later, was the probable history of some of the Celtic deities, who were +identified in Roman times with Mars and Bellona. Caesar tells us that +Mars had at one time been the chief god of the Gauls, and that in Germany +that was still the case. In Britain, also, we find that there were +several deities identified with Mars, notably Belatucadrus and Cocidius, +and this, too, points in the direction of a development of religion under +military influence. The Gauls appear to have made great strides in +military matters and in material civilisation during the Iron Age. The +culture of the Early Iron Age of Hallstatt had been developed in Gaul on +characteristic lines of its own, resulting in the form now known as the +La Tene or Marnian type. This type derives it name from the striking +specimens of it that were discovered at La Tene on the shore of Lake +Neuchatel, and in the extensive cemeteries of the Marne valley, the +burials of which cover a period of from 350-200 B.C. It was during the +third century B.C. that this characteristic culture of Gaul reached its +zenith, and gave definite shape to the beautiful curved designs known as +those of Late-Celtic Art. Iron appears to have been introduced into +Britain about 300 B.C., and the designs of Late-Celtic Art are here +represented best of all. Excellent specimens of Late-Celtic culture have +been found in Yorkshire and elsewhere, and important links with +continental developments have been discovered at Aylesford, Aesica, +Limavady, and other places. Into the development of this typical Gaulish +culture elements are believed to have entered by way of the important +commercial avenue of the Rhone valley from Massilia (Marseilles), from +Greece (_via_ Venetia), and possibly from Etruria. Prehistoric +archaeology affords abundant proofs that, in countries of Celtic speech, +metal-working in bronze, iron, and gold reached a remarkably high pitch +of perfection, and this is a clear indication that Celtic countries and +districts which were on the line of trade routes, like the Rhone valley, +had attained to a material civilisation of no mean character before the +Roman conquest. In Britain, too, the districts that were in touch with +continental commerce had, as Caesar tells us, also developed in the same +direction. The religious counterpart of this development in civilisation +is the growth in many parts of Gaul, as attested by Caesar and by many +inscriptions and place-names, of the worship of gods identified with +Mercury and Minerva, the deities of civilisation and commerce. It is no +accident that one of the districts most conspicuous for this worship was +the territory of the Allobrogic confederation, where the commerce of the +Rhone valley found its most remarkable development. From this sketch of +Celtic civilisation it will readily be seen how here as elsewhere the +religious development of the Celts stood closely related to the +development of their civilisation generally. It must be borne in mind, +however, that all parts of the Celtic world were not equally affected by +the material development in question. Part of the complexity of the +history of Celtic religion arises from the fact that we cannot be always +certain of the degree of progress in civilisation which any given +district had made, of the ideas which pervaded it, or of the absorbing +interests of its life. Another difficulty, too, is that the accounts of +Celtic religion given by ancient authorities do not always harmonise with +the indisputable evidence of inscriptions. The probability is that the +religious practices of the Celtic world were no more homogeneous than its +general civilisation, and that the ancient authorities are substantially +true in their statements about certain districts, certain periods, or +certain sections of society, while the inscriptions, springing as they do +from the influence of the Gallo-Roman civilisation, especially of Eastern +Gaul and military Britain, give us most valuable supplementary evidence +for districts and environments of a different kind. The inscriptions, +especially by the names of deities which they reveal, have afforded most +valuable clues to the history of Celtic religion, even in stages of +civilisation earlier than those to which they themselves belong. In the +next chapter the correlation of Celtic religious ideas to the stages of +Celtic civilisation will be further developed. + + + + +CHAPTER III--THE CORRELATION OF CELTIC RELIGION WITH THE GROWTH OF CELTIC +CIVILISATION + + +In dealing with the long vista of prehistoric time, it is very difficult +for us, in our effort after perspective, not to shorten unduly in our +thoughts the vast epochs of its duration. We tend, too, to forget, that +in these unnumbered millennia there was ample time for it to be possible +over certain areas of Europe to evolve what were practically new races, +through the prepotency of particular stocks and the annihilation of +others. During these epochs, again, after speech had arisen, there was +time enough to recast completely many a language, for before the dawn of +history language was no more free from change than it is now, and in +these immense epochs whatever ideas as to the world of their surroundings +were vaguely felt by prehistoric men and formulated for them by their +kinsmen of genius, had abundant time in which to die or to win supremacy. +There must have been aeons before the dawn even of conscious animism, and +the experiment of trying sympathetic magic was, when first attempted, +probably regarded as a master-stroke of genius. The Stone Age itself was +a long era of great if slow progress in civilisation, and the evolution +of the practices and ideas which emerge as the concomitants of its +agricultural stage, when closely regarded, bear testimony to the mind's +capacity for religious progress in the light of experience and +intelligent experiment, and at the same time to the errors into which it +fell. The Stone Age has left its sediment in all the folk-lore of the +world. To the casual observer many of the ideas embedded in it may seem +a mass of error, and so they are when judged unhistorically, but when +viewed critically, and at the same time historically, they afford many +glimpses of prehistoric genius in a world where life was of necessity a +great experiment. The folk-lore of the world reveals for the same stages +of civilisation a wonderful uniformity and homogeneity, as Dr. J. G. +Frazer has abundantly shown in his _Golden Bough_. This uniformity is +not, however, due to necessary uniformity of origin, but to a great +extent to the fact that it represents the state of equilibrium arrived at +between minds at a certain level and their environment, along lines of +thought directed by the momentum given by the traditions of millennia, +and the survival in history of the men who carefully regarded them. The +apparently unreasoned prohibitions often known as 'taboos,' many of which +still persist even in modern civilised life, have their roots in ideas +and experiences which no speculation of ours can now completely fathom, +however much we may guess at their origin. Many of these ancient +prohibitions have vanished under new conditions, others have often +survived from a real or supposed harmony with new experiences, that have +arisen in the course of man's history. After passing through a stage +when he was too preoccupied with his material cares and wants to consider +whether he was haunted or not, early man in the Celtic world as +elsewhere, after long epochs of vague unrest, came to realise that he was +somehow haunted in the daytime as well as at night, and it was this sense +of being haunted that impelled his intellect and his imagination to seek +some explanation of his feelings. Primitive man came to seek a solution +not of the Universe as a whole (for of this he had no conception), but of +the local Universe, in which he played a part. In dealing with Celtic +folk-lore, it is very remarkable how it mirrors the characteristic local +colouring and scenery of the districts in which it has originated. In a +country like Wales, for example, it is the folk-lore of springs, caves, +mountains, lakes, islands, and the forms of its imagination, here as +elsewhere, reflect unmistakably the land of its origin. Where it depicts +an 'other world,' that 'other world' is either on an island or it is a +land beneath the sea, a lake, or a river, or it is approachable only +through some cave or opening in the earth. In the hunting-grounds of the +Celtic world the primitive hunter knew every cranny of the greater part +of his environment with the accuracy born of long familiarity, but there +were some peaks which he could not scale, some caves which he could not +penetrate, some jungles into which he could not enter, and in these he +knew not what monsters might lurk or unknown beings might live. In +Celtic folk-lore the belief in fabulous monsters has not yet ceased. Man +was surrounded by dangers visible and invisible, and the time came when +some prehistoric man of genius propounded the view that all the objects +around him were no less living than himself. This animistic view of the +world, once adopted, made great headway from the various centres where it +originated, and man derived from it a new sense of kinship with his +world, but also new terrors from it. Knowing from the experience of +dreams that he himself seemed able to wander away from himself, he +thought in course of time that other living things were somehow double, +and the world around him came to be occupied, not merely with things that +were alive, but with other selves of these things, that could remain in +them or leave them at will. Here, again, this new prehistoric philosophy +gave an added interest to life, but it was none the less a source of +fresh terrors. The world swarmed with invisible spirits, some friendly, +some hostile, and, in view of these beings, life had to be regulated by +strict rules of actions and prohibitions. Even in the neolithic stage +the inhabitants of Celtic countries had attained to the religious ideas +in question, as is seen not only by their folk-lore and by the names of +groups of goddesses such as the Matres (or mothers), but by the fact that +in historic times they had advanced well beyond this stage to that of +named and individualised gods. As in all countries where the gods were +individualised, the men of Celtic lands, whether aborigines or invaders, +had toiled along the steep ascent from the primitive vague sense of being +haunted to a belief in gods who, like Esus, Teutates, Grannos, Bormanus, +Litavis, had names of a definite character. + +Among the prohibitions which had established themselves among the races +of Celtic lands, as elsewhere, was that directed against the shedding of +the blood of one's own kin. There are indications, too, that some at any +rate of the tribes inhabiting these countries reckoned kinship through +the mother, as in fact continued to be the case among the Picts of +Scotland into historic times. It does not follow, as we know from other +countries, that the pre-Aryan tribes of Gaul and Britain, or indeed the +Aryan tribes themselves in their earliest stage, regarded their original +ancestors as human. Certain names of deities such as Tarvos (the bull), +Moccos (the pig), Epona (the goddess of horses), Damona (the goddess of +cattle), Mullo (the ass), as well as the fact that the ancient Britons, +according to Caesar, preserved the hen, the goose, and the hare, but did +not kill and eat them, all point to the fact that in these countries as +elsewhere certain animals were held in supreme respect and were carefully +guarded from harm. Judging from the analogy of kindred phenomena in +other countries, the practice of respecting certain animals was often +associated with the belief that all the members of certain clans were +descended from one or other of them, but how far this system was +elaborated in the Celtic world it is hard to say. This phenomenon, which +is widely known as totemism, appears to be suggested by the prominence +given to the wild boar on Celtic coins and ensigns, and by the place +assigned on some inscriptions and bas-reliefs to the figure of a horned +snake as well as by the effigies of other animals that have been +discovered. It is not easy to explain the beginnings of totemism in Gaul +or elsewhere, but it should always be borne in mind that early man could +not regard it as an axiomatic truth that he was the superior of every +other animal. To reach that proud consciousness is a very high step in +the development of the human perspective, and it is to the credit of the +Celts that, when we know them in historic times, they appear to have +attained to this height, inasmuch as the human form is given to their +deities. It is not always remembered how great a step in religious +evolution is implied when the gods are clothed with human attributes. M. +Salomon Reinach, in his account of the vestiges of totemism among the +Celts, suggests that totemism was merely the hypertrophy of early man's +social sense, which extended from man to the animals around him. This +may possibly be the case, but it is not improbable that man also thought +to discover in certain animals much-needed allies against some of the +visible and invisible enemies that beset him. In his conflict with the +malign powers around him, he might well have regarded certain animals as +being in some respects stronger combatants against those powers than +himself; and where they were not physically stronger, some of them, like +the snake, had a cunning and a subtlety that seemed far to surpass his +own. In course of time certain bodies of men came to regard themselves +as being in special alliance with some one animal, and as being descended +from that animal as their common ancestor. The existence side by side of +various tribes, each with its definite totem, has not yet been fully +proved for the Gaulish system, and may well have been a developed social +arrangement that was not an essential part of such a mode of thought in +its primary forms. The place of animal-worship in the Celtic religion +will be more fully considered in a later chapter. Here it is only +indicated as a necessary stage in relation to man's civilisation in the +hunting and the pastoral stages, which had to be passed through before +the historic deities of Gaul and Britain in Roman times could have come +into being. Certain of the divine names of the historic period, like +Artio (the bear-goddess), Moccus (the pig), Epona (the mare), and Damona +(the sheep), bear the unmistakable impress of having been at one time +those of animals. + +As for the stage of civilisation at which totemism originated, there is +much difference of opinion. The stage of mind which it implies would +suggest that it reflects a time when man's mind was preoccupied with wild +beasts, and when the alliances and friendships, which he would value in +life, might be found in that sphere. There is much plausibility in the +view put forward by M. Salomon Reinach, that the domestication of animals +itself implies a totemistic habit of thought, and the consequent +protection of these animals by means of taboos from harm and death. It +may well be that, after all, the usefulness of domestic animals from a +material point of view was only a secondary consideration for man, and a +happy discovery after unsuccessful totemistic attentions to other +animals. We know not how many creatures early man tried to associate +with himself but failed. + +In all stages of man's history the alternation of the seasons must have +brought some rudiments of order and system into his thoughts, though for +a long time he was too preoccupied to reflect upon the regularly +recurring vicissitudes of his life. In the pastoral stage, the sense of +order came to be more marked than in that of hunting, and quickened the +mind to fresh thought. The earth came to be regarded as the Mother from +whom all things came, and there are abundant indications that the earth +as the Mother, the Queen, the Long-lived one, etc., found her natural +place as a goddess among the Celts. Her names and titles were probably +not in all places or in all tribes the same. But it is in the +agricultural stage that she entered in Celtic lands, as she did in other +countries, into her completest religious heritage, and this aspect of +Celtic religion will be dealt with more fully in connection with the +spirits of vegetation. This phase of religion in Celtic countries is one +which appears to underlie some of its most characteristic forms, and the +one which has survived longest in Celtic folk-lore. The Earth-mother +with her progeny of spirits, of springs, rivers, mountains, forests, +trees, and corn, appears to have supplied most of the grouped and +individualised gods of the Celtic pantheon. The Dis, of whom Caesar +speaks as the ancient god of the Gauls, was probably regarded as her son, +to whom the dead returned in death. Whether he is the Gaulish god +depicted with a hammer, or as a huge dog swallowing the dead, has not yet +been established with any degree of certainty. + + + + +CHAPTER IV--CELTIC RELIGION AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF INDIVIDUALISED DEITIES + + +Like other religions, those of the Celtic lands of Europe supplemented +the earlier animism by a belief in spirits, who belonged to trees, +animals, rocks, mountains, springs, rivers, and other natural phenomena, +and in folk-lore there still survives abundant evidence that the Celt +regarded spirits as taking upon themselves a variety of forms, animal and +human. It was this idea of spirits in animal form that helped to +preserve the memory of the older totemism into historic times. It is +thus that we have names of the type of Brannogenos (son of the raven), +Artogenos (son of the bear), and the like, not to speak of simpler names +like Bran (raven), March (horse), surviving into historic times. Bronze +images, too, have been found at Neuvy-en-Sullias, of a horse and a stag +(now in the Orleans museum), provided with rings, which were, as M. +Salomon Reinach suggests, probably used for the purpose of carrying these +images in procession. The wild boar, too, was a favourite emblem of +Gaul, and there is extant a bronze figure of a Celtic Diana riding on a +boar's back. At Bolar, near Nuits, there was discovered a bronze mule. +In the museum at Mayence is a bas-relief of the goddess of horses, Epona +(from the Gaulish _Epos_=Lat. _equus_, horse), riding on horseback. One +of the most important monuments of this kind is a figure of Artio, the +bear-goddess (from Celtic _Artos_, a bear), found at Muri near Berne. In +front of her stood a figure of a bear, which was also found with her. The +bull of the Tarvos Trigaranos bas-relief of Notre Dame was also in all +likelihood originally a totem, and similarly the horned serpents of other +bas-reliefs, as well as the boar found on Gaulish ensigns and coins, +especially in Belgic territory. There is a representation, too, of a +raven on a bas-relief at Compiegne. The name 'Moccus,' which is +identified with Mercury, on inscriptions, and which is found inscribed at +Langres, Trobaso, the valley of the Ossola and the Borgo san Dalmazzo, is +undoubtedly the philological equivalent of the Welsh _moch_ (swine). In +Britain, too, the boar is frequently found on the coins of the Iceni and +other tribes. In Italy, according to Mr. Warde Fowler, the pig was an +appropriate offering to deities of the earth, so that in the widespread +use of the pig as a symbol in the Celtic world, there may be some ancient +echo of a connection between it and the earth-spirit. Its diet of +acorns, too, may have marked it out, in the early days of life in forest- +clearings, as the animal embodiment of the oak-spirit. In the legends of +the Celtic races, even in historic times, the pig, and especially the +boar, finds an honoured place. In addition to the animals +aforementioned, the ass, too, was probably at one time venerated in one +of the districts of Gaul, and it is not improbable that Mullo, the name +of a god identified with Mars and regarded as the patron of muleteers, +mentioned on inscriptions (at Nantes, Craon, and Les Provencheres near +Craon), meant originally 'an ass.' The goddess Epona, also, whose +worship was widely spread, was probably at one time an animal goddess in +the form of a mare, and the name of another goddess, Damona, either from +the root _dam_=Ir. _dam_, (ox); or Welsh _daf-ad_ (sheep), may similarly +be that of an ancient totem sheep or cow. Nor was it in the animal world +alone that the Celts saw indications of the divine. While the chase and +the pastoral life concentrated the mind's attention on the life of +animals, the growth of agriculture fixed man's thoughts on the life of +the earth, and all that grew upon it, while at the same time he was led +to think more and more of the mysterious world beneath the earth, from +which all things came and to which all things returned. Nor could he +forget the trees of the forest, especially those which, like the oak, had +provided him with their fruit as food in time of need. The name Druid, +as well as that of the centre of worship of the Gauls of Asia Minor, +Drunemeton (the oak-grove), the statement of Maximus of Tyre that the +representation of Zeus to the Celts was a high oak, Pliny's account of +Druidism (_Nat. Hist_., xvi. 95), the numerous inscriptions to Silvanus +and Silvana, the mention of Dervones or Dervonnae on an inscription at +Cavalzesio near Brescia, and the abundant evidence of survivals in folk- +lore as collected by Dr. J. G. Frazer and others, all point to the fact +that tree-worship, and especially that of the oak, had contributed its +full share to the development of Celtic religion, at any rate in some +districts and in some epochs. The development of martial and commercial +civilisation in later times tended to restrict its typical and more +primitive developments to the more conservative parts of the Celtic +world. The fact that in Caesar's time its main centre in Gaul was in the +territory of the Carnutes, the tribe which has given its name to +Chartres, suggests that its chief votaries were mainly in that part of +the country. This, too, was the district of the god Esus (the eponymous +god of the Essuvii), and in some degree of Teutates, the cruelty of whose +rites is mentioned by Lucan. It had occurred to the present writer, +before finding the same view expressed by M. Salomon Reinach, that the +worship of Esus in Gaul was almost entirely local in character. With +regard to the rites of the Druids, Caesar tells us that it was customary +to make huge images of wickerwork, into which human beings, usually +criminals, were placed and burnt. The use of wickerwork, and the +suggestion that the rite was for purifying the land, indicates a +combination of the ideas of tree-worship with those of early agricultural +life. When the Emperor Claudius is said by Suetonius to have suppressed +Druidism, what is meant is, in all probability, that the more inhuman +rites were suppressed, leading, as the Scholiasts on Lucan seem to +suggest, to a substitution of animal victims for men. On the side of +civil administration and education, the functions of the Druids, as the +successors of the primitive medicine men and magicians, doubtless varied +greatly in different parts of Gaul and Britain according to the progress +that had been made in the differentiation of functions in social life. +The more we investigate the state of the Celtic world in ancient times, +the clearer it becomes, that in civilisation it was very far from being +homogeneous, and this heterogeneity of civilisation must have had its +influence on religion as well as on other social phenomena. The natural +conservatism of agricultural life, too, perpetuated many practices even +into comparatively late times, and of these we catch a glimpse in Gregory +of Tours, when he tells us that at Autun the goddess Berecyntia was +worshipped, her image being carried on a wagon for the protection of the +fields and the vines. It is not impossible that by Berecyntia Gregory +means the goddess Brigindu, whose name occurs on an inscription at Volnay +in the same district of Gaul. The belief in corn-spirits, and other +ideas connected with the central thought of the farmer's life, show, by +their persistence in Celtic as well as other folklore, how deeply they +had entered into the inner tissue of the agricultural mind, so as to be +linked to its keenest emotions. Here the rites of religion, whether +persuasive as in prayer, or compulsory as in sympathetic magic, whether +associated with communal or propitiatory sacrifice, whether directed to +the earth or to the heaven, all had an intensely practical and terribly +real character, due to man's constant preoccupation with the growth and +storage of food for man and beast. In the hunting, the pastoral, and +above all in the agricultural life, religion was not a matter merely of +imagination or sentiment, but one most intimately associated with the +daily practice of life, and this practical interest included in its +purview rivers, springs, forests, mountains, and all the setting of man's +existence. And what is true of agriculture is true also, in a greater or +less degree, of the life of the Celtic metal-worker or the Celtic sailor. +Even in late Welsh legend Amaethon (old Celtic _Ambactonos_), the patron +god of farming (Welsh _Amaeth_), and Gofannon, the patron god of the +metal-worker (Welsh _gof_, Irish _gobha_), were not quite forgotten, and +the prominence of the worship of the counterparts of Mercury and Minerva +in Gaul in historic times was due to the sense of respect and gratitude, +which each trade and each locality felt for the deity who had rid the +land of monsters, and who had brought man into the comparative calm of +civilised life. + + + + +CHAPTER V--THE HUMANISED GODS OF CELTIC RELIGION + + +One of the most striking facts connected with the Celtic religion is the +large number of names of deities which it includes. These names are +known to us almost entirely from inscriptions, for the most part votive +tablets, in acknowledgment of some benefit, usually that of health, +conferred by the god on man. In Britain these votive tablets are chiefly +found in the neighbourhood of the Roman walls and camps, but we cannot be +always certain that the deities mentioned are indigenous. In Gaul, +however, we are on surer ground in associating certain deities with +certain districts, inasmuch as the evidence of place-names is often a +guide. These inscriptions are very unevenly distributed over Gaulish +territory, the Western and the North-Western districts being very +sparsely represented. + +In the present brief sketch it is impossible to enter into a full +discussion of the relations of the names found on inscriptions to +particular localities, and the light thus thrown on Celtic religion; but +it may be here stated that investigation tends to confirm the local +character of most of the deities which the inscriptions name. Out of +these deities, some, it is true, in the process of evolution, gained a +wider field of worshippers, while others, like Lugus, may even have been +at one time more widely worshipped than they came to be in later times. +Occasionally a name like Lugus (Irish _Lug_), Segomo (Irish, in the +genitive, _Segamonas_), Camulos, whence Camulodunum (Colchester), Belenos +(Welsh _Belyn_), Maponos (Welsh _Mabon_), Litavis (Welsh _Llydaw_), by +its existence in Britain as well as in Gaul, suggests that it was either +one of the ancient deities of the Aryan Celts, or one whose worship came +to extend over a larger area than its fellows. Apart from a few +exceptional considerations of this kind, however, the local character of +the deities is most marked. + +A very considerable number are the deities of springs and rivers. In +Noricum, for example, we have Adsalluta, a goddess associated with Savus +(the river Save). In Britain 'the goddess' Deva (the Dee), and Belisama +(either the Ribble or the Mersey), a name meaning 'the most warlike +goddess,' are of this type. We have again Axona the goddess of the river +Aisne, Sequana, the goddess of the Seine, Ritona of the river Rieu, +numerous nymphs and many other deities of fountains. Doubtless many +other names of local deities are of this kind. Aerial phenomena appear +to have left very few clear traces on the names of Celtic deities. +Vintios, a god identified with Mars, was probably a god of the wind, +Taranucus, a god of thunder, Leucetios, a god of lightning, Sulis (of +Bath) a sun-goddess, but beyond these there are few, if any, reflections +of the phenomena of the heavens. Of the gods named on inscriptions +nearly all are identified with Mercury, Mars, or Apollo. The gods who +came to be regarded as culture-deities appear from their names to be of +various origins: some are humanised totems, others are in origin deities +of vegetation or local natural phenomena. As already indicated, it is +clear that the growth of commercial and civilised life in certain +districts had brought into prominence deities identified with Mercury and +Minerva as the patrons of civilisation. Military men, especially in +Britain, appear to have favoured deities like Belatucadros (the brilliant +in war), identified with Mars. + +About fourteen inscriptions mentioning him have been found in the North +of England and the South of Scotland. The goddess Brigantia (the patron- +deity of the Brigantes), too, is mentioned on four inscriptions: +Cocidius, identified with Mars, is mentioned on thirteen: while another +popular god appears to have been Silvanus. Among the most noticeable +names of the Celtic gods identified with Mercury are Adsmerius or +Atesmerius, Dumiatis (the god of the Puy de Dome), Iovantucarus (the +lover of youth), Teutates (the god of the people), Caletos (the hard), +and Moccus (the boar). Several deities are identified with Mars, and of +these some of the most noticeable names are Albiorix (world-king), +Caturix (battle-king), Dunatis (the god of the fort), Belatucadrus (the +brilliant in war), Leucetius (the god of lightning), Mullo (the mule), +Ollovidius (the all-knowing) Vintius (the wind-god), and Vitucadrus (the +brilliant in energy). The large number of names identified with Mars +reflects the prominent place at one time given to war in the ideas that +affected the growth of the religion of the Celtic tribes. Of the gods +identified with Hercules, the most interesting name is Ogmios (the god of +the furrow) given by Lucian, but not found on any inscription. The +following gods too, among others, are identified with Jupiter: Aramo (the +gentle), Ambisagrus (the persistent), Bussumarus (the large-lipped), +Taranucus (the thunderer), Uxellimus (the highest). It would seem from +this that in historic times at any rate Jupiter did not play a large part +in Celtic religious ideas. + +There remains another striking feature of Celtic religion which has not +yet been mentioned, namely the identification of several deities with +Apollo. These deities are essentially the presiding deities of certain +healing-springs and health-resorts, and the growth of their worship into +popularity is a further striking index to the development of religion +side by side with certain aspects of civilisation. One of the names of a +Celtic Apollo is Borvo (whence Bourbon), the deity of certain hot +springs. This name is Indo-European, and was given to the local fountain- +god by the Celtic-speaking invaders of Gaul: it simply means 'the +Boiler.' Other forms of the name are also found, as Bormo and Bormanus. +At Aquae Granni (Aix-la-Chapelle) and elsewhere the name identified with +Apollo is Grannos. We find also Mogons, and Mogounus, the patron deity +of Moguntiacum (Mainz), and, once or twice, Maponos (the great youth). +The essential feature of the Apollo worship was its association in Gallo- +Roman civilisation with the idea of healing, an idea which, through the +revival of the worship of AEsculapius, affected religious views very +strongly in other quarters of the empire. It was in this conception of +the gods as the guides of civilisation and the restorers of health, that +Celtic religion, in some districts at any rate, shows itself emerging +into a measure of light after a long and toilsome progress from the +darkness of prehistoric ideas. What Caesar says of the practice of the +Gauls of beginning the year with the night rather than with the day, and +their ancient belief that they were sprung from Dis, the god of the lower +world, is thus typified in their religious history. + +In dealing with the deities of the Celtic world we must not, however, +forget the goddesses, though their history presents several problems of +great difficulty. Of these goddesses some are known to us by +groups--Proximae (the kinswomen), Dervonnae (the oak-spirits), Niskai +(the water-sprites), Mairae, Matronae, Matres or Matrae (the mothers), +Quadriviae (the goddesses of cross roads). The Matres, Matrae, and +Matronae are often qualified by some local name. Deities of this type +appear to have been popular in Britain, in the neighbourhood of Cologne +and in Provence. In some cases it is uncertain whether some of these +grouped goddesses are Celtic or Teutonic. It is an interesting parallel +to the existence of these grouped goddesses, when we find that in some +parts of Wales 'Y Mamau' (the mothers) is the name for the fairies. These +grouped goddesses take us back to one of the most interesting stages in +the early Celtic religion, when the earth-spirits or the corn-spirits had +not yet been completely individualised. Of the individualised goddesses +many are strictly local, being the names of springs or rivers. Others, +again, appear to have emerged into greater individual prominence, and of +these we find several associated on inscriptions, sometimes with a god of +Celtic name, but sometimes with his Latin counterpart. It is by no means +certain that the names so linked together were thus associated in early +times, and the fashion may have been a later one, which, like other +fashions, spread after it had once begun. The relationship in some cases +may have been regarded as that of mother and son, in others that of +brother and sister, in others that of husband and wife, the data are not +adequate for the final decision of the question. Of these associated +pairs the following may be noted, Mercurius and Rosmerta, Mercurius and +Dirona, Grannus (Apollo) and Sirona, Sucellus and Nantosvelta, Borvo and +Damona, Cicolluis (Mars) and Litavis, Bormanus and Bormana, Savus and +Adsalluta, Mars and Nemetona. One of these names, Sirona, probably meant +the long-lived one, and was applied to the earth-mother. In Welsh one or +two names have survived which, by their structure, appear to have been +ancient names of goddesses; these are Rhiannon (Rigantona, the great +queen), and Modron (Matrona, the great mother). The other British +deities will be more fully treated by another writer in this series in a +work on the ancient mythology of the British Isles. It is enough to say +that research tends more and more to confirm the view that the key to the +history of the Celtic deities is the realisation of the local character +of the vast majority of them. + + + + +CHAPTER VI--THE CELTIC PRIESTHOOD + + +No name in connection with Celtic religion is more familiar to the +average reader than that of the Druids, yet there is no section of the +history of Celtic religion that has given rise to greater discussion than +that relating to this order. Even the association of the name with the +Indo-European root _dru_-, which we find in the Greek word _drus_, an +oak, has been questioned by such a competent Celtic scholar as M. +d'Arbois de Jubainville, but on this point it cannot be said that his +criticism is conclusive. The writers of the ancient world who refer to +the Druids, do not always make it sufficiently clear in what districts +the rites, ceremonies, and functions which they were describing +prevailed. Nor was it so much the priestly character of the Druids that +produced the deepest impression on the ancients. To some philosophical +and theological writers of antiquity their doctrines and their apparent +affinities with Pythagoreanism were of much greater interest than their +ceremonial or other functions. One thing at any rate is clear, that the +Druids and their doctrines, or supposed doctrines, had made a deep +impression on the writers of the ancient world. There is a reference to +them in a fragment of Aristotle (which may not, however, be genuine) that +is of interest as assigning them a place in express terms both among the +Celts and the Galatae. The prominent feature of their teaching which had +attracted the attention of other writers, such as the historian Diodorus +Siculus and the Christian theologian Clement of Alexandria, was the +resemblance of their doctrine concerning the immortality and +transmigration of the soul to the views of Pythagoras. Ancient writers, +however, did not always remember that a religious or philosophical +doctrine must not be treated as a thing apart, but must be interpreted in +its whole context in relation to its development in history and in the +social life of the community in which it has flourished. To some of the +ancients the superficial resemblance between the Druidic doctrine of the +soul's future and the teaching attributed to Pythagoras was the essential +point, and this was enough to give the Druids a reputation for +philosophy, so that a writer like Clement of Alexandria goes so far as to +regard the Druids of the 'Galatae' along with the prophets of the +Egyptians, the 'Chaldaeans' of the Assyrians, the 'philosophers of the +Celts,' and the Magi of the Persians as the pioneers of philosophy among +the barbarians before it spread to the Greeks. The reason for the +distinction drawn in this passage between the 'Druids of the Galatae' and +'the philosophers of the Celts' is not clear. Diodorus Siculus calls +attention to the Druidic doctrine that the souls of men were immortal, +and that after the lapse of an appointed number of years they came to +life again, the soul then entering into another body. He says that there +were certain 'philosophers and theologians' that were called Druids who +were held in exceptional honour. In addition to these, the Celts, he +says, had also seers, who foretold the future from the flight of birds +and by means of the offering of sacrifices. According to him it was +these priestly seers who had the masses in subjection to them. In great +affairs they had, he says, the practice of divination by the slaughter of +a human victim, and the observation of the attitude in which he fell, the +contortions of the limbs, the spurting of the blood, and the like. This, +he states, was an ancient and established practice. Moreover, it was the +custom, according to Diodorus, to make no sacrifice without the presence +of a philosopher (apparently a Druid in addition to the sacrificing +seer), the theory being that those who were authorities on the divine +nature were to the gods intelligible mediators for the offering of gifts +and the presentation of petitions. These philosophers were in great +request, together with their poets, in war as well as in peace, and were +consulted not merely by the men of their own side, but also by those of +the enemy. Even when two armies were on the point of joining battle, +these philosophers had been able, Diodorus says, to step into the space +between them and to stop them from fighting, exactly as if they had +charmed wild beasts. The moral which Diodorus draws from this is, that +even among the wildest of barbarians the spirited principle of the soul +yields to wisdom, and that Ares (the god of war) even there respects the +Muses. It is clear from this account that Diodorus had in mind the three +classes of non-military professional men among the Celts, to whom other +ancient writers also refer, namely, the Bards, the Seers, and the Druids. +His narrative is apparently an expansion, in the light of his reading and +philosophical meditation, of information supplied by previous writers, +notably Posidonius. The latter, too, appears to have been Julius Caesar's +chief authority, in addition to his own observation, but Caesar does not +appear expressly to indicate the triple division here in question. The +account which he gives is important, and would be even more valuable than +it is had he told us how far what he describes was written from his own +personal information, and the degree of variation (if any) of religious +practice in different districts. However, Caesar's statements deserve +the closest consideration. After calling attention to the division of +the Gaulish aristocracy into two main sections, the Druids and the +Knights, he proceeds to speak of the Druids. These were occupied, he +says, with religious matters, they attended to public and private +sacrifices, and interpreted omens. Moreover, they were the teachers of +the country. To them the young men congregated for knowledge, and the +pupils held their teachers in great respect. They, too, were the judges +in public and private disputes: it was they who awarded damages and +penalties. Any contumacy in reference to their judgments was punished by +exclusion from the sacrifices. This sentence of excommunication was the +severest punishment among the Gauls. The men so punished were treated as +outlaws, and cut off from all human society, with its rights and +privileges. Over these Druids there was one head, who wielded the +highest influence among them. On his death the nearest of the others in +dignity succeeded him, or, if several were equal, the election of a +successor was made by the vote of the Druids. Sometimes the primacy was +not decided without the arbitrament of arms. The Druids met at a fixed +time of the year in a consecrated spot in the territory of the Carnutes, +the district which was regarded as being in the centre of the whole of +Gaul. This assembly of Druids formed a court for the decision of cases +brought to them from everywhere around. It was thought, Caesar says, +that the doctrine of the Druids was discovered in Britain and thence +carried over into Gaul. At that time, too, those who wanted to make a +profounder study of it resorted thither for their training. The Druids +had immunity from military service and from the payment of tribute. These +privileges drew many into training for the profession, some of their own +accord, others at the instance of parents and relatives. While in +training they were said to learn by heart a large number of verses, and +some went so far as to spend twenty years in their course of preparation. +The Druids held it wrong to put their religious teaching in writing, +though, in almost everything else, whether public or private affairs, +they made use of Greek letters. Caesar thought that they discouraged +writing on the one hand, lest their teaching should become public +property; on the other, lest reliance upon writing should lessen the +cultivation of the memory. To this risk Caesar could testify from his +own knowledge. Their cardinal doctrine was that souls did not perish, +but that after death they passed from one person to another; and this +they regarded as a supreme incentive to valour, since, with the prospect +of immortality, the fear of death counted for nothing. They carried on, +moreover, many discussions about the stars and their motion, the +greatness of the universe and the lands, the nature of things, the +strength and power of the immortal gods, and communicated their knowledge +to their pupils. In another passage Caesar says that the Gauls as a +people were extremely devoted to religious ideas and practices. Men who +were seriously ill, who were engaged in war, or who stood in any peril, +offered, or promised to offer, human sacrifices, and made use of the +Druids as their agents for such sacrifices. Their theory was, that the +immortal gods could not be appeased unless a human life were given for a +human life. In addition to these private sacrifices, they had also +similar human sacrifices of a public character. Caesar further contrasts +the Germans with the Gauls, saying that the former had no Druids to +preside over matters of religion, and that they paid no attention to +sacrifices. + +In his work on divination, Cicero, too, refers to the profession which +the Druids made of natural science, and of the power of foretelling the +future, and instances the case of the AEduan Diviciacus, his brother's +guest and friend. Nothing is here said by Cicero of the three classes +implied in Diodorus, but Timagenes (quoted in Ammianus) refers to the +three classes under the names 'bardi,' 'euhages' (a mistake for 'vates'), +and 'drasidae' (a mistake for 'druidae'). The study of nature and of the +heavens is here attributed to the second class of seers (vates). The +highest class, that of the Druids, were, he says, in accordance with the +rule of Pythagoras, closely linked together in confraternities, and by +acquiring a certain loftiness of mind from their investigations into +things that were hidden and exalted, they despised human affairs and +declared the soul immortal. We see here the view expressed that socially +as well as intellectually the Druids lived according to the Pythagorean +philosophy. Origen also refers to the view that was prevalent in his +time, that Zamolxis, the servant of Pythagoras, had taught the Druids the +philosophy of Pythagoras. He further states that the Druids practised +sorcery. The triple division of the non-military aristocracy is perhaps +best given by Strabo, the Greek geographer, who here follows Posidonius. +The three classes are the Bards, the Seers (ouateis=vates), and Druids. +The Bards were hymn-writers and poets, the Seers sacrificers and men of +science, while the Druids, in addition to natural science, practised also +moral philosophy. They were regarded as the justest of men, and on this +account were intrusted with the settlement of private and public +disputes. They had been the means of preventing armies from fighting +when on the very verge of battle, and were especially intrusted with the +judgment of cases involving human life. According to Strabo, they and +their fellow-countrymen held that souls and the universe were immortal, +but that fire and water would sometime prevail. Sacrifices were never +made, Strabo says, without the intervention of the Druids. Pomponius +Mela says that in his time (c. 44 A.D.), though the ancient savagery was +no more, and the Gauls abstained from human sacrifices, some traces of +their former practices still remained, notably in their habit of cutting +a portion of the flesh of those condemned to death after bringing them to +the altars. The Gauls, he says, in spite of their traces of barbarism, +had an eloquence of their own, and had the Druids as their teachers in +philosophy. These professed to know the size and form of the earth and +of the universe, the motions of the sky and stars, and the will of the +gods. He refers, as Caesar does, to their work in education, and says +that it was carried on in caves or in secluded groves. Mela speaks of +their doctrine of immortality, but says nothing as to the entry of souls +into other bodies. As a proof of this belief he speaks of the practice +of burning and burying with the dead things appropriate to the needs of +the living. Lucan, the Latin poet, in his _Pharsalia_, refers to the +seclusion of the Druids' groves and to their doctrine of immortality. The +Scholiasts' notes on this passage are after the manner of their kind, and +add very little to our knowledge. In Pliny's _Natural History_ (xvi, +249), however, we seem to be face to face with another, though perhaps a +distorted, tradition. Pliny was an indefatigable compiler, and appears +partly by reading, partly by personal observation, to have noticed phases +of Celtic religious practices which other writers had overlooked. In the +first place he calls attention to the veneration in which the Gauls held +the mistletoe and the tree on which it grew, provided that that tree was +the oak. Hence their predilection for oak groves and their requirement +of oak leaves for all religious rites. Pliny here remarks on the +consonance of this practice with the etymology of the name Druid as +interpreted even through Greek (the Greek for an oak being _drus_). Were +not this respect for the oak and for the mistletoe paralleled by numerous +examples of tree and plant-worship given by Dr. Frazer and others, it +might well have been suspected that Pliny was here quoting some writer +who had tried to argue from the etymology of the name Druid. Another +suspicious circumstance in Pliny's account is his reference to the +serpent's egg composed of snakes rolled together into a ball. He states +that he himself had seen such an 'egg,' of about the size of an apple. +Pliny, too, states that Tiberius Caesar abolished by a decree of the +Senate the Druids and the kind of seers and physicians the Gauls then +had. This statement, when read in its context, probably refers to the +prohibition of human sacrifices. The historian Suetonius, in his account +of the Emperor Claudius, also states that Augustus had prohibited 'the +religion of the Druids' (which, he says, 'was one of fearful savagery') +to Roman citizens, but that Claudius had entirely abolished it. What is +here also meant, in view of the description given of Druidism, is +doubtless the abolishing of its human sacrifices. In later Latin writers +there are several references to Druidesses, but these were probably only +sorceresses. In Irish the name _drui_ (genitive _druad_) meant a +magician, and the word _derwydd_ in mediaeval Welsh was especially used +in reference to the vaticinations which were then popular in Wales. + +When we analyse the testimony of ancient writers concerning the Druids, +we see in the first place that to different minds the name connoted +different things. To Caesar it is the general name for the non-military +professional class, whether priests, seers, teachers, lawyers, or judges. +To others the Druids are pre-eminently the philosophers and teachers of +the Gauls, and are distinguished from the seers designated _vates_. To +others again, such as Pliny, they were the priests of the oak-ritual, +whence their name was derived. In view of the variety of grades of +civilisation then co-existing in Gaul and Britain, it is not improbable +that the development of the non-military professional class varied very +considerably in different districts, and that all the aspects of Druidism +which the ancient writers specify found their appropriate places in the +social system of the Celts. In Gaul and Britain, as elsewhere, the +office of the primitive tribal medicine-man was capable of indefinite +development, and all the forms of its evolution could not have proceeded +_pari passu_ where the sociological conditions found such scope for +variation. It may well be that the oak and mistletoe ceremonies, for +example, lingered in remote agricultural districts long after they had +ceased to interest men along the main routes of Celtic civilisation. The +bucolic mind does not readily abandon the practices of millennia. + +In addition to the term Druid, we find in Aulus Hirtius' continuation of +Caesar's _Gallic War_ (Bk. viii., c. xxxviii., 2), as well as on two +inscriptions, one at Le-Puy-en-Velay (Dep. Haute-Loire), and the other at +Macon (Dep. Saone-et-Loire), another priestly title, 'gutuater.' At +Macon the office is that of a 'gutuater Martis,' but of its special +features nothing is known. + + + + +CHAPTER VII--THE CELTIC OTHER-WORLD + + +In the preceding chapter we have seen that the belief was widely +prevalent among Greek and Roman writers that the Druids taught the +immortality of the soul. Some of these writers, too, point out the +undoubted fact, attested by Archaeology, that objects which would be +serviceable to the living were buried with the dead, and this was +regarded as a confirmation of the view that the immortality of souls was +to the Celts an object of belief. The study of Archaeology on the one +hand, and of Comparative Religion on the other, certainly leads to the +conclusion that in the Bronze and the Early Iron Age, and in all +probability in the Stone Age, the idea prevailed that death was not the +end of man. The holed cromlechs of the later Stone Age were probably +designed for the egress and ingress of souls. The food and the weapons +that were buried with the dead were thought to be objects of genuine +need. Roman religion, too, in some of its rites provided means for the +periodical expulsion of hungry and hostile spirits of the dead, and for +their pacification by the offer of food. A tomb and its adjuncts were +meant not merely for the honour of the dead, but also for the protection +of the living. A clear line of distinction was drawn between satisfied +and beneficent ghosts like the Manes, and the unsatisfied and hostile +ghosts like the Lemures and Larvae. To the Celtic mind, when its +analytical powers had come to birth, and man was sufficiently +self-conscious to reflect upon himself, the problem of his own nature +pressed for some solution. In these solutions the breath, the blood, the +name, the head, and even the hair generally played a part, but these +would not in themselves explain the mysterious phenomena of sleep, of +dreams, of epilepsy, of madness, of disease, of man's shadow and his +reflection, and of man's death. By long familiarity with the scientific +or quasi-scientific explanations of these things, we find it difficult to +realise fully their constant fascination for early man, who had his +thinkers and philosophies like ourselves. One very widely accepted +solution of early man in the Celtic world was, that within him there was +another self which could live a life of its own apart from the body, and +which survived even death, burial, and burning. Sometimes this inner +self was associated with the breath, whence, for example, the Latin +'anima' and the Welsh 'enaid,' both meaning the soul, from the root _an_-, +to breathe. At other times the term employed for the second self had +reference to man's shadow: the Greek 'skia,' the Latin 'umbra,' the Welsh +'ysgawd,' the English 'shade.' There are abundant evidences, too, that +the life-principle was frequently regarded as being especially associated +with the blood. Another tendency, of which Principal Rhys has given +numerous examples in his Welsh folk-lore, was to regard the soul as +capable of taking a visible form, not necessarily human, preferably that +of some winged creature. In ancient writers there is no information as +to the views prevalent among the Celts regarding the forms or the abodes +of the spirits of the dead, beyond the statement that the Druids taught +the doctrine of their re-birth. We are thus compelled to look to the +evidence afforded by myth, legend, and folk-lore. These give fair +indications as to the types of earlier popular belief in these matters, +but it would be a mistake to assume that the ideas embodied in them had +remained entirely unchanged from remote times. The mind of man at +certain levels is quite capable of evolving new myths and fresh folk-lore +along the lines of its own psychology and its own logic. The forms which +the soul could take doubtless varied greatly in men's opinions in +different districts and in different mental perspectives, but folk-lore +tends to confirm the view that early man, in the Celtic world as +elsewhere, tended to emphasise his conception of the subtlety and +mobility of the soul as contrasted with the body. Sooner or later the +primitive philosopher was bound to consider whither the soul went in +dreams or in death. He may not at first have thought of any other sphere +than that of his own normal life, but other questions, such as the home +of the spirits of vegetation in or under the earth, would suggest, even +if this thought had not occurred to him before, that the spirits of men, +too, had entrance to the world below. Whether this world was further +pictured in imagination depended largely on the poetic genius of any +given people. The folk-lore of the Celtic races bears abundant testimony +to their belief that beneath this world there was another. The 'annwfn' +of the Welsh was distinctly conceived in the folk-lore embodied in +mediaeval poetry as being 'is elfydd' (beneath the world). In mediaeval +Welsh legend, again, this lower world is regarded as divided into +kingdoms, like this world, and its kings, like Arawn and Hafgan in the +Mabinogi of Pwyll, are represented as being sometimes engaged in +conflict. From this lower world had come to man some of the blessings of +civilisation, and among them the much prized gift of swine. The lower +world could be even plundered by enterprising heroes. Marriages like +that of Pwyll and Rhiannon were possible between the dwellers of the one +world and the other. The other-world of the Celts does not seem, +however, to have been always pictured as beneath the earth. Irish and +Welsh legend combine in viewing it at times as situated on distant +islands, and Welsh folk-lore contains several suggestions of another +world situated beneath the waters of a lake, a river, or a sea. In one +or two passages also of Welsh mediaeval poetry the shades are represented +as wandering in the woods of Caledonia (Coed Celyddon). This was no +doubt a traditional idea in those families that migrated to Wales in post- +Roman times from Strathclyde. To those who puzzled over the fate of the +souls of the dead the idea of their re-birth was a very natural solution, +and Mr. Alfred Nutt, in his _Voyage of Bran_, has called attention to the +occurrence of this idea in Irish legend. It does not follow, however, +that the souls of all men would enjoy the privilege of this re-birth. As +Mr. Alfred Nutt points out, Irish legend seems to regard this re-birth +only as the privilege of the truly great. It is of interest to note the +curious persistence of similar ideas as to death and the other-world in +literature written even in Christian times and by monastic scribes. In +Welsh, in addition to Annwfn, a term which seems to mean the 'Not-world,' +we have other names for the world below, such as 'anghar,' the loveless +place; 'difant,' the unrimmed place (whence the modern Welsh word +'difancoll,' lost for ever); 'affwys,' the abyss; 'affan,' the land +invisible. The upper-world is sometimes called 'elfydd,' sometimes +'adfant,' the latter term meaning the place whose rim is turned back. +Apparently it implies a picture of the earth as a disc, whose rim or lip +is curved back so as to prevent men from falling over into the 'difant,' +or the rimless place. In modern Celtic folk-lore the various local other- +worlds are the abodes of fairies, and in these traditions there may +possibly be, as Principal Rhys has suggested, some intermixture of +reminiscences of the earlier inhabitants of the various districts. Modern +folk-lore, like mediaeval legend, has its stories of the inter-marriages +of natives of this world with those of the other-world, often located +underneath a lake. The curious reader will find several examples of such +stories in Principal Rhys's collection of Welsh and Manx folk-lore. In +Irish legend one of the most classical of these stories is that of the +betrothal of Etain, a story which has several points of contact with the +narrative of the meeting of Pwyll and Rhiannon in the Welsh Mabinogi. The +name of Arthur's wife, Gwenhwyfar, which means 'the White Spectre,' also +suggests that originally she too played a part in a story of the same +kind. In all these and similar narratives, it is important to note the +way in which the Celtic conceptions of the other-world, in Britain and in +Ireland, have been coloured by the geographical aspects of these two +countries, by their seas, their islands, their caves, their mounds, their +lakes, and their mountains. The local other-worlds of these lands bear, +as we might have expected, the clear impress of their origin. On the +whole the conceptions of the other-world which we meet in Celtic legend +are joyous; it is a land of youth and beauty. Cuchulainn, the Irish +hero, for example, is brought in a boat to an exceedingly fair island +round which there is a silver wall and a bronze palisade. In one Welsh +legend the cauldron of the Head of Annwfn has around it a rim of pearls. +One Irish story has a naive description of the glories of the Celtic +Elysium in the words--'Admirable was that land: there are three trees +there always bearing fruit, one pig always alive, and another ready +cooked.' Occasionally, however, we find a different picture. In the +Welsh poem called 'Y Gododin' the poet Aneirin is represented as +expressing his gratitude at being rescued by the son of Llywarch Hen from +'the cruel prison of the earth, from the abode of death, from the +loveless land.' The salient features, therefore, of the Celtic +conceptions of the other-world are their consonance with the suggestions +made by Celtic scenery to the Celtic imagination, the vagueness and +variability of these conceptions in different minds and in different +moods, the absence of any ethical considerations beyond the incentive +given to bravery by the thought of immortality, and the remarkable +development of a sense of possible inter-relations between the two +worlds, whether pacific or hostile. Such conceptions, as we see from +Celtic legend, proved an admirable stimulus and provided excellent +material for the development of Celtic narrative, and the weird and +romantic effect was further heightened by the general belief in the +possibilities of magic and metamorphosis. Moreover, the association with +innumerable place-names of legends of this type gave the beautiful +scenery of Celtic lands an added charm, which has attached their +inhabitants to them with a subtle and unconquerable attachment scarcely +intelligible to the more prosaic inhabitants of prosaic lands. To the +poetic Celt the love of country tends to become almost a religion. The +Celtic mind cannot remain indifferent to lands and seas whose very beauty +compels the eyes of man to gaze upon them to their very horizon, and the +lines of observation thus drawn to the horizon are for the Celt continual +temptations to the thought of an infinity beyond. The preoccupation of +the Celtic mind with the deities of his scenery, his springs, his rivers, +his seas, his forests, his mountains, his lakes, was in thorough keeping +with the tenour of his mind, when tuned to its natural surroundings. In +dealing with Celtic religion, mythology, and legend, it is not so much +the varying local and temporal forms that demand our attention, as the +all-pervading and animating spirit, which shows its essential character +even through the scanty remains of the ancient Celtic world. Celtic +religion bears the impress of nature on earth far more than nature in the +heavens. The sense of the heaven above has perhaps survived in some of +the general Indo-European Celtic terms for the divine principle, and +there are some traces of a religious interest in the sun and the god of +thunder and lightning, but every student of Celtic religion must feel +that the main and characteristic elements are associated with the earth +in all the variety of its local phenomena. The great earth-mother and +her varied offspring ever come to view in Celtic religion under many +names, and the features even of the other-world could not be dissociated +for the Celt from those of his mother-earth. The festivals of his year, +too, were associated with the decay and the renewal of her annual life. +The bonfires of November, May, Midsummer, and August were doubtless meant +to be associated with the vicissitudes of her life and the spirits that +were her children. For the Celt the year began in November, so that its +second half-year commenced with the first of May. The idea to which +Caesar refers, that the Gauls believed themselves descended from Dis, the +god of the lower world, and began the year with the night, counting their +time not by days but by nights, points in the same direction, namely that +the darkness of the earth had a greater hold on the mind than the +brightness of the sky. The Welsh terms for a week and a fortnight, +_wythnos_ (eight nights) and _pythefnos_ (fifteen nights) respectively +confirm Caesar's statement. To us now it may seem more natural to +associate religion with the contemplation of the heavens, but for the +Celtic lands at any rate the main trend of the evidence is to show that +the religious mind was mainly drawn to a contemplation of the earth and +her varied life, and that the Celt looked for his other-world either +beneath the earth, with her rivers, lakes, and seas, or in the islands on +the distant horizon, where earth and sky met. This predominance of the +earth in religion was in thorough keeping with the intensity of religion +as a factor in his daily pursuits. It was this intensity that gave the +Druids at some time or other in the history of the Western Celts the +power which Caesar and others assign to them. The whole people of the +Gauls, even with their military aristocracy, were extremely devoted to +religious ideas, though these led to the inhumanity of human sacrifices. +At one time their sense of the reality of the other-world was so great, +that they believed that loans contracted in this world would be repaid +there, and practical belief could not go much further than that. All +these considerations tend to show how important it is, in the comparative +study of religions, to investigate each religion in its whole +sociological and geographical environment as well as in the etymological +meaning of its terms. + +In conclusion, the writer hopes that this brief sketch, which is based on +an independent study of the main evidence for the religious ideas and +practices of the Celtic peoples, will help to interest students of +religion in the dominant modes of thought which from time immemorial held +sway in these lands of the West of Europe, and which in folk-lore and +custom occasionally show themselves even in the midst of our highly +developed and complex civilisation of to-day. The thought of early man +on the problems of his being--for after all his superstitions reveal +thought--deserve respect, for in his efforts to think he was trying to +grope towards the light. + + + + +SHORT BIBLIOGRAPHY + + +RHYS, _Hibbert Lectures on Celtic Heathendom_. + +RHYS, _Celtic Folk-lore_, _Welsh and Manx_. + +REINACH, S., _Cultes_, _Mythes et Religion_. + +NUTT, ALFRED, _The Voyage of Bran_. + +SQUIRE, _Mythology of the British Islands_. + +GAIDOZ, _Esqiusse de Mythologie gauloise_. + +BERTRAND, _La Religion des Gaulois_, _les Druides et le Druidisme_. + +FRAZER, _The Golden Bough_. + +JOYCE, _The Social History of Ireland_. + +D'ARBOIS DE JUBAINVILLE, _Les Druides et les dieux celtiques a forme +d'animaux_. + +WINDISCH, _Irische Texte mit Worterbuch_. + +CYNDDELW, _Cymru Fu_. + +FOULKES, _Enwogion Cymru_. + +CAMPBELL, _Popular Tales of the West Highlands_. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CELTIC RELIGION*** + + +******* This file should be named 18041.txt or 18041.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/0/4/18041 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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