Irish, Welsh, and Scottish Myth and Religion

• Druids as the learned class– Physicians, astronomers, philosophers, seers, priests, and

keepers of tradition• Druidic place names– Drunemeton (Galatia)– Nemetobriga (northern Spain)– Medionemeton (southern Scotland)– Nemed in Irish = sacred place

• Meaning of the word druid– From Indo-European words for ‘oak’ (drus) and ‘know’

(wid)• Attested in the works of Julius Caesar and Pliny

Nemeton place names

Head cults and human sacrificePillars from site at Roquepertuse

• Entremont• Roquepertuse

– Both sites destroyed c. 120 BCE

• Continuing evidence of heads– The head of Bran

the Blessed, in Branwen ferch Llyr, Second Branch of the Mabinogi

– The head of Finn MacCumhail

• Lindow Man, Britain (circa 3rd-2nd century BC)

• Danebury Fort burial, Britain (3rd-2nd century BC)

• Gordion, Galatia• Wicker Men

Gordion, Turkey burialsPhotos by Mary M. Voigt, Gordion Project. Left—two women buried in one grave, the bottom under grinding stones, top with neck broken and blows to

the head; right—skull of a teenager placed next to the remains of a dog.

Image from The Wicker Man (1973), British Lion Films

StonehengeConstructed c. 2500 BC (pre-Celtic)

Modern druidism

• Dr. William Price, d. 1893– Welsh nationalist,

Chartist, and neo-druid

Modern druidism• Modern druids commemorating a

solstice at Tower Hill, London, 1964• Winston Churchill’s initiation of the

Albion Lodge of the Ancient Order of Druids, 1908

EponaTop carving from Hesse, Germany;

bottom from Auvergne, France

• A horse goddess but also associated with fertility

• Attested in art in Europe and in myth in the British Isles– Welsh Rhiannon– Irish Macha (Emain

Macha/Armagh)

• Popular with Roman troops, who may have spread the image

Mercury (center) flanked by EponaCarving from Alsace, France

The Uffington Horse,Chalk carving from Wiltshire, England, dated to 1200-800 BC (by optical

stimulated luminescence (OSL))

Lugus, Lugh, LleuStatue from Berlin Staatliche Museum

• Associated with the sun and crafts

• Place names associated with Lugh– Lugdunum (Lyon, France)– Lugdunum Batavorum

(Leiden, Netherlands)– Luguvallium (Carlisle,

England)

• Equated by Romans to Mercury and Apollo

Cernunnos, the horned godCarving from Cluny Museum, Paris, France

• Known as the horned god

• Associated with animals of the forest

• Attested in images from India, Turkey, Greece, Gaul and in Irish character Conall Cernach

CernunnosDetail from Gundestrup Cauldron, Denmark

Aquae Sulis (Bath, England)

• Sulis linked to Sequana, a Gaulish goddess associated with the River Seine

• A goddess associated with healing

• Sulis equated by Romans to Minerva

Brigindo, Brigantia, BrigitCarving in National Museum of Scotland

• Associated with fertility• Tribal names– Brigantes of northern

Britain

• Possibly Christianized in Irish St. Brigit– Imbolc, February 1st

DagdaDetail from the Gundestrup Cauldron, Denmark

• Irish god of destruction and regeneration

• Associated with a cauldron of rebirth

• Name means “the good god”

The MorriganPainting by Laura Cameron, Northwest Visions Studio

• The Morrigan, the Phantom Queen, Irish goddess of war– Often depicted as a trinity

with goddesses Nemain and Badb, who represent Panic and Death

– Irish Badb associated with Cathabodua in Continental Celtic lore

– Other battle goddesses include Welsh Agrona (River Aeron) and British Andraste

Medb (Maeve)Painting by Joseph Christian Leyendecker, 1916

• A character in the Irish Táin Bó Cualinge (Cattle Raid of Cooley)• Said to have been Queen of Connaught• Sovereignty goddess?

– Her name translates as “drunkenness” • Similar names

– Asvamedha (PIE ekwo-meydho), “horse-drunk”– Gaulish personal name Epomeduos, “horse mead”

• Rosmerta (Continental goddess) also a sovereignty goddess, linked to Esus

EsusCarving from Cluny Museum, Paris, France

• Known as Lord and Master

• Associated with sovereignty goddess Rosmerta

• Equated by Romans to Mercury

TaranisStatue from National Archaeological Museum, France

• God of thunder and storms

• Associated with human sacrifice on Continent

• Equated by Romans to Jupiter

Tarvus TrigarantesCarving from Cluny Museum, Paris, France

• A Continental Celtic bull god

What Irish and Welsh myths and histories tell us

• Irish Lebor Gebála, 7th-8th century AD– Book of Invasions

• Tuatha de Danaan (people of the goddess Danu) versus the Milesians– Tuatha de Danaan driven out/underground, becoming the

Sidh (pronounced Shee)– Burial mounds as home of the Sidh

• Welsh mythology speaks of the Twyleth Teg (the fair folk)– Caer Sidi (fortress of the Sidh), a name for the Otherworld– God, goddesses, and the Otherworld in the Welsh

Mabinogi

What Irish and Welsh myths tell us about the Otherworld

• Where to find it– Mists or fog

• The Mists of Avalon

– Hostels (The Destruction of Da Derga’s Hostel)– Wilderness areas—mountains, islands, lakes

• The Lady of the Lake and Excalibur• La Tene and Lake Neuchâtel, Switzerland

– Burial mounds• Newgrange, Ireland

– Associated with white animals with red ears or red people

• When to find it– Samhain (Sov-whin), October 31st – Beltaine (Bel-tinne), May 1st

British White calf with red points

Important heroes• CuChulainn, the hound of Ulster

– The Ulster Cycle and Táin Bó Cualinge• Finn Mac Cumaill and the Fianna

– The Finn Cycle• King Arthur

– Origin of name?• Roman—Lucius Artorius Castus, fl. 2nd century AD• Welsh/British—Artos/Artaius, the Celtic bear god

– Evidence of 5-6th century AD British warleaders• Gildas mentions Ambrosius Aurelianus as “descended from the purple”• Sidonius Apollinarus writes a letter to Riothamus, a British warleader

active in Gaul/France• First mention of Arthur by name comes in early 7th century poems Y

Goddoddin, written in north Britain: “he glutted ravens on the wall though he was no Arthur.”

Left—Statue of CuChulainn in Dublin post office, Oliver Sheppard, 1911. Right—Clive Owen as King Arthur in King Arthur (2004), Touchstone Pictures