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My stance is that I don't believe in a true celtic culture existing today and that if what you are saying is that you are a part of a true celtic culture I would like to see the evidence in support of this.
While it is true that much ancient information about the Celts relies on obviously biased Roman works, in recent times, much more has been discovered about these astounding peoples who dominated the pre Roman world from Ireland and possibly Iceland/North America in the West to Asia Minor in the East, possibly as far as Turjistan, South through to Italy, and even into Africa as Mercenaries to the Pharaohs, archeology has revealed so much in the last few years, and the place names still in existence have helped historians to reach a much deeper understanding of the organizational abilities of the many tribes and confederations that made up the Celtic Empire. Forest dwelling they were in some places, but the agricultural developement of Europe owes much to them, and who was not savage in those times,?
Though there are few Celtic writings in existence, they commonly used latin or the language of the countries they dominated to record ordinary every day affairs, and more of those revealing documents are coming to light.
Much of their pre- Christian past was strangely mis-laid, and the Celtic renaissance of the 19th century only did them a disservice by romanticizing the ancient Celts, but that misinformation is no reason to reject the part they played across the known world in Pre-Roman and Roman times. When for instance in reading of the feats of Hannibel did you read he was a Celt.
Many peoples who had not been recognized as part of the Celtish races are now thought to be so. Today the inheritors of nearly 3000 years of unbroken cultural tradition are the Irish, Scots, Manx, Welsh, Bretons, and Cornish though they struggle to maintain their individuality and soon may disappear amongst the increasing political and cultural uniformities of Europe, as did the Etruscan civilization, now also considered by some to be Celts. Only 2 million or so Europeans now speak the Celtic language.
No they were not saints, they had some nasty beliefs, and fighting habits, (who did not even up to recent times possess what is today considered savage, shall I make mention of Prisons in Iraq, (IMG:
style_emoticons/default/tomato.gif) possibly not).
But to reject the evidence of their existence is to display only ignorance of updated information coming to light all the time, and to say that they adopted Christianity or Roman rule quite peacefully, is clearly not borne out by the evidence, some hoped to survive by doing so but generally they fought viciously and long in resisting any such control. Allowing for the fact that the Romans may have exaggerated their figures to enhance their own victories, many hundreds of thousands of Celts obviously died
defending their culture and way of life.
Their pantheons included both male and female deities, but without doubt the Great Triple Goddess led the field, and women were held as equels in battle and politics, some being elected leaders of their tribes.
May I suggest one could do well to start to catch up by reading `The Celtic Empire, 1000BC - 51AD', by Peter Berresford Ellis.
Out Of The Shadows, An Exploration of Dark Paganism & Magick
Grim Fandango Out Of The Shadows Jan 28 2005, 08:02 PM
Jan 28 2005, 08:02 PM
