The Element Encyclopedia of the Celts

Like the Battersea shield, also found in the Thames (See Art), this was almost certainly not an accidental loss, but a deliberate deposit in water. The horns may have been intended to combine ferocity and potency symbolism. The bronze was originally enameled. It is a masterpiece of the armorer’s craft, and it is possible that it was made to adorn a wooden statue of a god rather than to be worn by a mortal in battle; it would scarcely protect the wearer from a well-aimed sword blow. The Romans had an equivalent to this in their decorative parade helmets.

HENGIST AND HORSA

See Vortigern.

HUNTING

See Religion: Headhunting; Helis; Symbols: Dog, Stag.

HUSSA

See Urien.

ICENI

A British tribe living in East Anglia. Its tribal focus or capital was at Caistor St. Edmund, for which the Roman name was Venta Icenorum. In the 1930s, when it was partially excavated, the evidence showed that the Iceni had adopted very little Roman culture. They were few opulent houses and few substantial public buildings. The surrounding area had few Roman villas, they were few mosaics, and there were few oil amphorae. All this was interpreted as showing that the Iceni were poor and backward. We now see the same evidence as showing that the tribe was consciously retaining its Celtic identity and resisting a takeover by the Roman way of life—not a sign of poverty or backwardness at all.

The Iceni famously engaged in a revolt against Rome in AD 60–61, after their queen, Boudicca, suffered maltreatment by Roman soldiers.

ILLTUD

Illtud was a Breton, a cousin of King Arthur, and converted to the monastic life by Cadoc of Lancarfan. He may, as claimed, have been baptized by St. Germanus. He was ordained by St. Dubricius in the time when Merchiaun the Wild was King of Glamorgan.

Not long after his death he was described as “an exceptional teacher of the British, in the tradition of St. Germanus.” He is still remembered chiefly for his remarkable school at Llantwit Fawr in Glamorgan, where he taught some remarkable boys: David, Leonorus, Gildas, Samson, Paul Aurelian, and Maelgwn—all became saints except the last, who became the infamous King Maelgwn of Gwynedd.

The boys started at the age of five, learning the alphabet. There were no set fees: Illtud relied on customary “donations.”

Illtud’s teaching method was gentle and lenient. He did not believe it was sensible for growing boys to go in for excessive fasting. He also tried to dissuade the 15-year-old Paul Aurelian from going off to a desert hermitage, but in the end left the decision to the boy.

The monastery was Illtud’s own property, which his nephews expected to inherit. He died some time after 525.

JULIUS CAESAR

By no means a Celt himself, Gaius Julius Caesar earns his place here as a destroyer of Celts. He made a greater negative impact on the Celts than anyone else in history.

Caesar came from an old patrician family. In 85 BC, when he was only 16, his father died suddenly. Caesar was young to be head of the family, but he started at once working his way up the cursus honorum, the ladder of offices and appointments that would enhance his social status. In pursuing his political career and lobbying for offices, he ran up debts and was accused of corruption.

When he was appointed Governor of Cisalpine Gaul (northern Italy), with Transalpine Gaul (southern France) added later, he was glad to get out of Rome. He was deeply in debt: a great spur to military adventure.

From a variety of motives, including self-glorification and ultimate political triumph, Caesar worked his way through Gaul, attacking the Gallic tribes one by one and defeating them. Once he had conquered the tribes along the coast of the English Channel, the way was clear to cross and take Britain.

In 55 BC, Caesar blocked an attempt by two Germanic tribes to invade Gaul. Then, in late summer, he crossed the Channel into Britain. But his geographical and political knowledge of Britain was not good enough. He managed to establish a bridgehead on the coast in Sussex, but could not go further. He withdrew to Gaul for the winter.

In 54 BC he returned to Britain with a larger force and achieved more, setting up some alliances that would prove useful later. But there were poor harvests in Gaul, and a widespread revolt there forced Caesar to withdraw from Britain again.

What Caesar did, unintentionally, was to set down a challenge for future emperors who wanted to make a name for themselves. Could they succeed in conquering Britain, where great Caesar himself had failed?

In 52 BC there was a new and larger revolt in Gaul, led by Vercingetorix. This was well-coordinated and Caesar was defeated several times before the revolt was put down at the Battle of Alesia.

Plutarch claimed that in Caesar’s Gallic Wars one million Gauls had died and another million had been enslaved. Caesar had subjugated 300 tribes and destroyed 800 towns. The figures may have been exaggerated, but it is no exaggeration to see this as little short of a Celtic genocide.

KENTIGERN

St. Kentigern was the son of Owain, son of King Urien of Rheged. His mother was Thynoy.

Kentigern traveled to David at Menevia. He founded St. Asaph’s and was attacked by Maelgwn of Degannwy. He visited Europe and went to Rome seven times. It seems that he was Bishop of Senlis, near Paris, from 549–65.

While he was abroad, Riderch became King of Alclud (see Alcluith), and Kentigern returned to Glasgow. He taught that Woden was a mortal man, a Saxon king, not a god. He preached widely, visiting Pictland, and was visited by Columba of Iona, who gave him a staff, which is still preserved at Ripon. Kentigern died in around 603.

KYNGAR OF CONGRESBURY

See Docco.

LANGUAGE

The old languages still spoken in the Atlantic Celtic lands are related to one another, though they are not all as closely related as once believed. The current view among linguists is that historically there are two families of Celtic languages. The Q-Celtic family, known as Goidelic, has a western Gaelic branch from which Irish is descended and an eastern Gaelic branch from which Scottish Gaelic and Manx Gaelic are descended. Then there is a P-Celtic family, known as Brittonic, with a northern Brittonic branch from which Welsh developed and a southern Brittonic branch from which Cornish and Breton are descended. This division may help to explain why Welsh-speakers cannot understand Gaelic-speakers.

The “Q” and “P” families were first identified in the early eighteenth century by Edward Lhuyd. Q-Celtic is recognized from the presence of the “Q” sound in the word Mac, “son of.” P-Celtic has the “P” sound in the corresponding position: Map. This “P/Q” exchange is found in other words as well.

The relationship between the Cornish and Breton languages is the closest. This is explained by the exodus of Britons, via Cornwall, in the Dark Ages, as they were driven out by the advancing Anglo-Saxons. These British refugees fled westward through southern Britain to Cornwall, then crossed to Brittany in considerable numbers, and they took their language with them.

In the Middle Ages, Scotland was divided culturally between Highlands and Lowlands. The Highlanders spoke Gaelic (Irish “Celtic” or Erse), while the Lowlanders spoke Scots, which was a Germanic language close to English. This difference was perhaps a legacy of the Anglo-Saxon colonization of the Scottish Lowlands in the Dark Ages.

In the late 1980s Professor Colin Renfrew put forward the view that Celtic speech evolved from its Indo-European ancestor in the British Isles and the adjacent continent at some time after 4000 BC. Professor Renfrew believes that the Celtic language was not taken to Britain at all, but developed in situ. This is very much in line with the general view emerging of Celtic culture as a whole.

Much of what was passed on to others was learned by listening. Little was written down (See Writing). There were nevertheless the means to write. The Ogham alphabet was made of combinations of short and long marks, often chipped along the edges of stones. It was an ideal method for recording someone’s name on a gravestone. Ogham was widely used in southern Ireland, and more than 900 examples have been found in Britain and Ireland as a whole.

It is widely believed that the Celtic language was completely wiped out in England, but there are many surviving Celtic place-names. For a long time after the Anglo-Saxon colonization period (about AD 400–700), Celtic and Anglo-Saxon names existed side by side. Sometimes it is the Celtic name rather than the English name that we know today. The Cotswold Windrush River had an English name, Dikler, which died out as late as the sixteenth century; we now call the river by its older Celtic name, even though it has (or had) an Anglo-Saxon name. The Cotswold Hills take their name from a Celtic word and an Anglo-Saxon word. Cuda was a goddess of the Dobunni tribe; wold was the Anglo-Saxon word for a wooded upland.

In the Roman occupation and the post-Roman period, Celtic kings and princes thought it smart to use Latin. Grave markers from the fifth and sixth centuries are often inscribed in Latin. A gravestone at Penmacho in North Wales reads CARAVSIVS HIC IACIT IN HOC CONGERIES LAPIDVM, “Here lies Carausius in this heap of stones.”

LEARNING

Celtic society was highly structured and it allowed for the cultivation of learning and literature. There were professional classes who were responsible for their maintenance: the Druids, the bards, and a third order between them, known in Ireland as “the poets.”

In Ireland by the seventh century AD the Druids had disappeared, as they bore the brunt of the Church’s opposition, and the intermediate group, known as the filidh, were the sole inheritors of the druidic tradition. The filidh managed to establish a remarkable modus vivendi with the Church that enabled the two authorities to continue running side by side and were therefore able to maintain many of their ancient functions. The Irish bards suffered an eclipse too, as they limped on with a reputation as inferior rhymers.

In Wales, it was again the poets, or filidh, who emerged from the clash with Christianity in a position of strength, or at least with an enhanced and dignified reputation. Confusingly, the Welsh equivalents of the filidh were called bards.

According to Julius Caesar’s description, the Druids in Gaul were teachers and disciples of learning. They distrusted the written word, committing vast amounts of poetry to memory. Caesar said the period of study necessary to become a Druid lasted 20 years. Similarly in Ireland, it took at least seven years to qualify for the filidh.

We know the Druids had views about the size and nature of the universe, but unfortunately we do not know what those views were.

LEONORUS

Leonorus (510–61) was a pupil at Illtud’s school and confirmed by Dubricius at the age of 15. He emigrated to Brittany with 72 disciples and many servants, landing near Dinard.

They cleared a wooded site of trees, but the seed corn they had brought from Britain had been lost on the voyage. Fortunately, they were miraculously helped by a robin and Leonorus also dug up a golden ram.

The king of the Breton territory, Rigaldus, died and the land was annexed by Conomorus. To escape persecution by Conomorus, Leonorus and others escaped to Paris. There, Leonorus presented the golden ram he had found to Childebert, in exchange for confirmation of his rights to land in Brittany.

Conomorus was defeated in 560, and Leonorus died soon afterward.

LEUDONUS

Leudonus, or Llew mac Cynvarch, was a brother of Urien, King of Rheged. He was ruler of Lodoneis and the father of Gwalchmai (Gawain).

LINDOW MAN

See Places: Lindow Moss.

LLEW MAC CYNVARCH

See Leudonus.

LLYWARCH HEN

See Rhun, Son of Maelgwn.

LOEGAIRE

See Ciaran of Saigar, Fiacc of Sletty, Patrick.

LUERNIOS

See Arverni, Bards.

LUGID

See Aillel Molt.

MACLOVIUS

See Malo.

MAELGWN

The great king of Gwynedd, who ruled in North Wales from about 517 until his death in 547. His father was Caswallon Lawhir, son of Einion Urdd, son of Cunedda Gwledig, son of Edeyrn. He is mentioned in an inscription made in about 540 at Penmachno; there he appears as MAGLO MAGISTRATUS—“King Maelgwn.” He appears in Gildas’s Ruin of Britain as Maglocunus and of the five kings Gildas singled out for condemnation, it was Maelgwn he dealt with most harshly:

What of you, dragon of the island [Anglesey, where Maelgwn’s home was], you who have removed many of these tyrants from their country and even this life? You are last in my list, but first in evil, mightier than many both in power and malice, more profuse in giving, more extravagant in sin, strong in arms but stronger still in what destroys a soul, Maglocunus. Why wallow like a fool in the ancient ink of your crimes like a man drunk on wine pressed from the vine of the Sodomites? The king of all kings has made you higher than almost all the generals of Britain.

Maelgwn died in the Yellow Plague of Rhos in 547, and was succeeded by his son Rhun by his concubine Gwalltwen (See Arthur; Myths: The History of Taliesin).

MAGICIANS

The Druids, ovates, and bards were in some ways part of the public religious cult, because they formed colleges or fraternities. But there were others who were on the fringes: the magicians or sorcerers. These were secret dealers in rituals and beliefs that had come down from remote times and had little to do with mainstream Celtic religion.

The underground cult of magic was scarcely visible to travelers and other outsiders. There were probably many magicians and sorcerers living far from the oppida (See Oppidum), far from the mainstream cult centers, out in the countryside, where they trafficked in cures and magic charms.

MALO

St. Malo or Maclovius was a native of Gwent and a cousin of Samson. He was a pupil of Brendan of Clonfert at Nantcarvan. He was ordained by Brendan and sailed with him and a crew of 95 in a single ship on a seven-year voyage to the Island of Yma. On the way he encountered an island that looked as if it was made of glass—it was an iceberg. He reached Yma and found a bush that sounds like acanthus. He celebrated mass on the back of a whale. Then he returned home to plant his bush at Nantcarvan.

On a second voyage, he failed to find Yma but reached the Orkneys and other northern isles.

On yet another voyage, Malo left Nantcarvan for Brittany, revived a corpse, and celebrated mass in the presence of Conomorus, King of Dumnonie.

After many more travels and adventures, he died in 599 or 604.

MANDUBRACIUS

See Cassivellaunus, Catuvellauni.

MAUCENNUS

Maucennus of Rosnat was the abbot of Ninian’s monastery, which was at Whithorn in south-west Scotland. Maucennus and Mugentius are the only two named abbots of Rosnat: one in the late fifth century, and the other in the sixth. Maucennus was referred to as a great teacher (librarius) from the far north, and who lived three days’ journey from the home of Samson’s parents in Demetia. The balance of evidence points to Maucennus being the abbot of Whithorn, which was also known as Rosnat.

MEDB OF CONNAUGHT

See Chariots; Myths: The Ulster Cycle; Religion: Coligny Calendar, Mother Goddess; Symbols: Magic.

MEDRAUT

See Arthur.

MELOR

See Religion: Headhunting.

MELWAS

A Dark Age king of Somerset. Later tradition associates him with Glastonbury Tor.

MERCHIAUN

King of Rheged in the early sixth century.

MERCHIAUN VESANUS

“Merchiaun the Wild” was King of Glevissig (Glamorgan) in the early sixth century. He may have been given his nickname to distinguish him from his contemporary namesake: the much more important King Merchiaun of Rheged.

Mark Conomorus, the south Dumnonian king, was a son of Merchiaun the Wild; he was exiled to the Breton kingdom of Dumnonie.

MERLIN

The wizard who was King Arthur’s legendary mentor.

It is generally and understandably assumed that Merlin never existed, and he was to an extent an invention of Geoffrey of Monmouth, but the character was based on a collection of old poems, riddles, and triads preserved in Wales but relating to a real sixth-century Celtic bard, or carminator, called Myrddin, the Celtic form of Martin, who lived in the north close to Hadrian’s Wall. The aristocratic Norman-French readers for whom Geoffrey was writing would have pronounced Myrddin Merdin, and probably sniggered at a name so close to merde (= excrement). The Latin form of Myrddin, Merdinus, was no better—merda means “excrement” too, so Geoffrey had little choice but to change it. He chose Merlin.

In the Dark Ages, kings regularly employed bards to compose praise poems, occasional pieces on great victories or disastrous defeats, and funeral odes. The bards memorized their compositions for recitation in the feast halls (See Food and Feasting, Memory). A major role of the bard of the war-band was to entertain the warriors, often with stirring tales of their own great deeds. The impression given by the surviving fragments of Dark Age Celtic poetry is of ceaseless warfare, feasting, drinking, boasting, and showing off. Occasionally, bards confronted warriors with uncomfortable truths, perhaps to shame them into trying harder. In Rheged arise, Taliesin writes, “Not too well did they fight around their king [Urien]: to lie would be wrong.”

Taliesin served at least three and possibly four kings in succession—Cynan of Powys, Urien of Rheged, Gwallawg of Elmet, and Owain of Rheged—and seems always to have had the greater cause of the British—the Cymry, as they called one another—at heart, even if that meant deserting white-haired Urien for the younger Gwallawg. This element of unpredictability is one distinctive trait of the legendary Merlin.

We have no direct evidence of Arthur’s bard, but he too would have had such a figure to sing of his exploits: in part to entertain and in part to condition his companions and warriors to see his as the greatest cause and inspire their unswerving loyalty.

Yet Arthur’s Merlin has been portrayed by tradition as more than a bard. He is a magus. It is often assumed that this is an invention of the high Middle Ages, perhaps specifically an invention by Geoffrey of Monmouth, but there is plenty of evidence that sixth-century kings invariably had spiritual advisers or chaplains at their sides so that supernatural help was always on call. Muirchetach mac Erca, High King of Ireland from 503 onward, was a contemporary of Arthur’s and very much an Arthur-like figure himself. He leaned heavily on a British monk.

Bridei, King of the pagan Picts in the years after Arthur’s death, had a chief magician called Broichan, who also functioned as a foster father and tutor to the king in true Celtic tradition. The relationship between these two real, documented, and truly historical figures is very similar to that described as existing between Arthur and Merlin in the fully developed medieval romances.

Arthur’s “Merlin” may have even been based on a priest-companion. The Dark Age saints were a law unto themselves—wayward, volatile, intensely committed to their mission, fiercely jealous and competitive, and ever on the alert for the voice of God telling them to pack up and move on. This eccentric and unpredictable behavior is very much what we see in Merlin’s character, even to the disappearing and reappearing. One tradition is that St. Piran was Arthur’s chaplain. Another possibility is that Merlin might be loosely based on St. Dubricius: the bishop credited with crowning Arthur.