Celtic Mythology Amazing Myths and Legends of Gods, Heroes and Monsters from the Ancient Irish and Welsh

By Adam McCarthy

In the early centuries, Celtic mythology survived as a primarily oral tradition, influenced significantly by the geography of its lands. Sagas and legends were passed down from one generation to the next through storytelling; only after the Roman conquest were some of these myths recorded in writing. This was often done by Christian monks closer to the 11th century, who recorded the stories themselves but stripped away the original beliefs and earlier religious overtones.

The ancient Celts were neither a race nor a nation. They were a varied people bound together by language, customs, and religion rather than any centralized government.

We are talking about a vast and variegated culture that made its presence felt from the Iberian peninsula (Spain and Portugal) and Ireland to the frontiers of Liguria in Italy and the upper Danube. Suffice it to say, their mythology instead mirrored this multifarious scope, with various tribes, chiefdoms, and even later kingdoms having their own set of folklore and pantheons.

Basically, that means that 'the Celts' doesn't describe a single cohesive group of people.

The existence of the Celts was first documented in the seventh or eighth century B.C. The Roman Empire, which ruled much of southern Europe at that time, referred to the Celts as "Galli," meaning barbarians.

However, the Celts were anything but barbarians, and many aspects of their culture and language have survived through the centuries.

The ancient Celts had rich mythology made up of hundreds of tales. Adventure, heroism, romance, and magic are a few of the elements that make Celtic mythology one of the most fascinating mythologies of Europe.

Celtic mythology comes from several regions and different tribes. The bulk of them are from Ireland and also Wales.

Early Irish myths blend mythology and history by describing how Ireland was settled by different Celtic deities and humans. Filled with magic and excitement, the tales tell of battles between forces of light and darkness. They described a time when gods lived not in the heavens but on earth, using their powers to create a civilization in Ireland and bring fertility to the land.

There are four cycles, or groups, of connected stories. The Mythological Cycle focuses on the activities of the Celtic gods, describing how five races of supernatural beings battled to gain control of Ireland. The chief god was Dagda, whose magic cauldron could bring the dead back to life. The Ulster Cycle recounts the deeds of warriors and heroes, especially Cuchulain, the warrior and champion of Ireland. The Historical Cycle tells of the adventures and battles of legendary Irish kings. The Fenian Cycle deals with the heroic Finn Mac Cumhail, or Finn Mac Cool, leader of a band of bold warriors known as the Fianna. This cycle is filled with exciting adventures and tales of hand-to-hand combat.

Welsh mythology is found in the Mabinogion, a collection of 11 tales. In the Welsh myths, as in Ireland, the heroes often are half human and half divine and may have magical powers. Many of the stories in the Mabinogion deal with Arthurian legends, accounts of the deeds of Britain's heroic King Arthur and his knights.

• Language: English
• Publisher: vincenzo nappi
• Release date: Aug 31, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201456924

Book preview

IRELAND

Ireland's Irish oral tradition began to be preserved in written form in the 6th century A.D. There are three collections of Irish tales that are of particular importance to the Celtic world of the supernatural. One is the Mythological Cycle, which includes the Leabhar Gabhala , or the Book of Invasions , and the Dinnshenchas, or the History of places , both composed in the 12th century A.D. The Book of Invasions originates from earlier compilations by learned monks who wanted to write a History of Ireland in the 6th and 7th centuries A.D. It describes a succession of mythical invasions of Ireland, which occurred before the Lucius and culminating in the arrival of the Gaels or Celts.

Its purpose seems to have been the elaboration of a creation myth, an explanation of the nature of Ireland, and the presence of the Celts. The invasion of greatest interest is that of the Tuatha De Danann, the divine lineage of Ireland, which was made up of numerous gods and goddesses, each endowed with particular functions and interests. The Dinnshenchas is less useful but includes a collection of topographical data, in which the place names are explained in mythical terms. The second group of tales is that contained in the Ulster Cycle, of which the most important part is a collection of stories known as the Tain Bo Cuailnge, Cooley's Cattle Raid. It tells the story of the great conflict that broke out between the two northernmost provinces of the five ancient ones: Ulster and Connacht. The collection speaks of supernatural events: the Ulster is populated by superhuman heroes, such as Cu Chulainn, and by Druids, such as Cathbadh; Connacht is dominated by a euhemerized goddess-queen (ie a divine being considered a historical figure), Medb; and the fate of the two kingdoms lies in the hands of the two goddesses of war and death, Morrigan and Badbh.

The Ulster Cycle, as its name suggests, expresses a mythological tradition that belongs only to Ulster; there is nothing like it in any other region of Ireland. Part of the oldest known version of the Tain is contained in a crumpled and ruined manuscript known as Leabar na h Uidre, the Book of the Brown Cow, compiled in the 12th century in the monastery of Clon macnois. Originally, however, Tain is much older: the language of the first versions of the story belongs to the eighth century, but many scholars think - although contradicted by others - that some passages are older than several centuries. The third group of important stories is contained in the Cycle of Fionn, also composed in the 12th century. While including fewer interesting topics for the study of myths, it describes the actions of the hero Finn and his heroic companions, the Fianna, all supernatural beings. These stories reveal a close affinity between the natural world and the supernatural creatures that inhabit it; a similar animistic attitude is common to the archaeological evidence of the Celtic religion.

There is much controversy over the contribution made by ancient Irish sources to the construction of Celtic mythology. Not only were they compiled in the medieval period and a Christian context, but also their language often reveals that the stories were not conceived before the eighth century. Furthermore, some descriptions point to medieval Ireland. But there is, nonetheless, incontrovertible evidence that some Irish materials contain evidence of a pre-Christian Celtic tradition. This archaism is particularly evident in the Ulster Cycle, which describes a situation before the 5th century AD when Ulster's political position in Ireland had fundamentally changed. The ancient pre-Christian political organization highlighted here can be explained by the fact that the compilers wanted to document the past. Other elements speak of a pagan origin. Christianity does not appear prominently in these island legends, and a world is described whose sensitivity to the supernatural belongs to a pre-Christian tradition.

Whatever period they were written, they contain many pagan and mythological elements. However, major problems arise if we try to link the written myths to the archaeological evidence of the pagan Celtic religion, although certain concepts, for example, the sacred power of the number three, are present in both traditions. While in the literature we find citations of Celtic deities, we do not encounter references to the forms of worship and the belief systems connected to them. With a few exceptions, it is impossible to establish a direct identification between the gods of the Tuatha Dé Da nann and the deities whose names were engraved in the stones in the early 1st millennium A.D. The name of the Irish god Nuadu can be philosophically linked to Nodens, whose great sanctuary was erected on the River Severn in the 3rd century A.D, and there are other examples of possible connections, but these are very rare cases. The problem may arise from the recycling that Christians made of insular materials and the pagan tradition: editors who were ignorant or hostile to Irish paganism may have deliberately redefined or restructured the world of the supernatural, to neutralize it. Then the Celtic religion was altered, and all that remained are superhuman heroes or gods cut off from their original theological systems.

WALES

The ancient Welsh vernacular tradition contains elements of rich mythology but is poorly documented compared to that of Ireland, and there is evidence of major modifications. God is invoked constantly, and nowhere, is the large number of deities found, for example, in the Irish Book of Invasions . It is also possible to observe that certain international narrative themes are inserted here and there in the ancient Welsh material. There are also links between the mythological traditions of Wales and the continental cycle of medieval Arthurian legends. Welsh King Arthur is a hero who advocates for noble causes and faces the afterlife in the 13th-century poet Taliesin's The Spoils of Annwn.

Little in the surviving Welsh manuscripts is so ancient that we directly link the myths of Wales to the religion of the pagan Celts. At best, these myths can provide us with a limited contribution to the reconstruction of the Celtic cult. Welsh mythology is present, but it is largely remodeled in a different context so that it is often barely recognizable. The most relevant and oldest elements are contained in the Pedair Ceinc y Mabinogi, the Four Branches of the Mabinogi (also known as the Mabinogion), in the Tale of Culhwch and Olwen, in the Dream of Rhonabwy, and the Peredur. The Tale of Culhwch and Olwen is perhaps the earliest Welsh mythological story, dating back, in its original form, to the 10th century. The Mabinogi was compiled later, in the 11th century. The ancient Welsh tradition is preserved in two collections: the White Book of Rhydderch, written around 1300, and the Red Book of Hergest, which dates back to the late 14th century.

Much of the themes in the Tale of Culhwch and Olwen and the Mabinogi refer to traditions that date back centuries before those in which they were compiled in their present form. All the tales describe the adventures of euhemerized supernatural beings, whose divinity is not evident, rather manifesting themselves in their physical and moral stature. The myths of Wales abound in enchanted and magical animals, in the metamorphosis from the human to the animal state, in heads with divine properties and in pots capable of resurrecting the dead.

The pagan underworld, Arawn-dominated Annwn, is conceived very similar to terrestrial life and is, in fact, very akin to the afterlife described in Irish tradition. As in Irish myths, only tenuous links can be established between Welsh myths and the pagan Celtic religion, as documented by archeology. Sometimes the Welsh characters can be directly related to Celtic gods: Mabon the hunter in the Tale of Culhwch and Olwen is certainly the Maponus of the Celtic-Roman inscriptions of Britain and Gaul. The supernatural qualities of cauldrons, human heads, and animals are very close to those