Celtic Studies

Celtic Canons: Craft and craftsmen in Manx traditional music

by Cinzia Afra Yates

Paper given at the British Forum for Ethnomusicology Conference at CArdiff University 2008.

On compound epithets in early Irish poetry

by Dmitry Nikolaev

A manuscript with uncertain perspectives.

Fír flathemon in the Russian Primary Chronicle? The legend of the summoning of the Varangians and the prefatory matter to Audacht Morainn (ms.)

by Dmitry Nikolaev

Revised version. To appear in Celto-Slavica 5.

A Celtic dedication from Olbia? A Reassesment, in: Stephanèphoros. De l’économie antique à l’Asie Mineure. Hommages à Raymond Descat, éd. K. Konuk (Ausonius – Mémoires, 28). Bordeaux, 2012, 335-340, with A. Falileyev.

by Askold Ivantchik

Dating Peredur: New Light on Old Problems

by Natalia Petrovskaia

Published in the Proceedings of the Harvard Celtic Colloquium 29 (2009), pp. 223-243

The instrumental case in the thematic noun inflection of Continental Celtic

by Blanca María Prósper

HS 124, 2011, pp. 224-41.

Introduction to Thógamar le Gaeilge Iad

by Brian Ó Broin

Irish as a home language has come a long way since the seventies, when the vast majority of Irish-speaking families... more Irish as a home language has come a long way since the seventies, when the vast majority of Irish-speaking families lived in officially-recognised Gaeltacht areas on the western seaboard of Ireland. A very significant number of Irish-speaking families now live in towns and cities, and are becoming increasingly vocal in their demands for recognition and rights.
Such families were first represented by Na Teaghlaigh Gaelacha, a Conradh na Gaeilge-sponsored organisation, and then by Comhluadar, a government-sponsored Dublin-based organisation.
An increasing number of Irish-speaking households include parents who were themselves raised speaking English, and this raises important linguistic questions about the standard of Irish spoken in such homes and the influence of Ireland's education system on children who then go on to become Irish-speaking parents themselves.
A major challenge for such households is found in Gaelscoileanna. Since only about 3% of Gaelscoil children speak Irish at home, they are in great danger of being subsumed by the English-speaking majority who attend these schools on an immersion basis. There is some evidence that the Irish spoken by such children becomes an interlingual pidgin (although the children do seem to develop fluency in it).
The phenomenon of Urban Irish is partially causing a split among speakers. Household users of the language tend to speak an ad-hoc English-coloured variety often disdained as Gaeilge lofa líofa ("Rotten fluent Irish"), while hobbyists and purists continue to pedestalise a standardised written variety which is increasingly at variance with both urban and Gaeltacht spoken Irish.
There is no doubt that modern Irish is increasingly being influenced by English, and therefore changing rapidly, but there is little evidence as yet that the language is dying out as a result of this. In fact, while there is some evidence that Irish-speaking parents are afraid to speak Irish with those they consider "good" speakers, the very persistence of Gaeilge lofa líofa suggests that this new urban dialect may be garnering support.
Since most new native speakers of Irish will be coming from households in which the parents are not themselves natives, it is necessary for current speakers to adjust to this new variety of Irish.
Since Irish remains a minority language, however, and English is the undisputed default language of Ireland, Irish-speaking parents must be watchful activists and advocates for their children's linguistic welfare, particularly in a world where English-language media are available globally, for free, and around the clock.

Celtic Clothing During the Iron Age- A Very Broad and Generic Approach

by heather smith

Draft copy

While few archaeological finds remain concerning dress during the Iron Age of the Celtic Tribes in Europe, if we... more While few archaeological finds remain concerning dress during the Iron Age of the Celtic Tribes in Europe, if we consider historical commentary, Celtic art, oral traditions and archaeological data together we can amass a generic idea what might have been available and worn by them. This broad approach to dress is not with out bias however and it must be noted that regional differences must have existed. The document tries to amass not just the generic view of dress but also emphasizes the issues of lack of evidence and culture and region differences that impact this information.

Celtic Beads from the British Isles

by heather smith

Draft Copy

Questioning what types of beads would have been in use during the Iron Age in Britain and drawing deeply from the work... more Questioning what types of beads would have been in use during the Iron Age in Britain and drawing deeply from the work of the late bead researcher Margaret Guido I’ve amassed a collocation of information which one can draw from not just for bead information concerning the Iron Age Celts in the Isles, but also for those interested in Celtic adornment and bead reproduction.  Please note, my citing is poor the majority of information and many of the pictures have come from Guido’s work ‘The Glass Beads of the Prehistoric and Roman Periods in Britain and Ireland’, (London:  The Society of Antiquaries of London, 1978).  I want to thank not just Guido for her amass of research, but also a wealth of museums and other sources for their invaluable photos, many of which I have to note are copyright protected. 

Celtic and Romano British Foods from the Isles- a General Approach

by heather smith

Draft Copy

Confronting the question, ‘what did the Celtic tribes eat in the British Isles’ the paper gathers information from a... more Confronting the question, ‘what did the Celtic tribes eat in the British Isles’ the paper gathers information from a variety of sources to answer this inquiry which draws mainly from sources concerning Britain, but other areas of research have been gleamed from the Continent and taken from Roman and Greek commentary to better round out this subject.  The resulting report is a suggestion of the possibility of food sources and their uses that may have been enjoyed by the Celtic peoples living in the Isles. 

I would like to specially thank Dr. Peter Renyolds and David Freeman from Buster Farm, Jacqui Wood from Cornwall Celtic Village and Jane Renfrew in their unlimited resource of research and hands on knowledge I was able to draw from during my work for food sources, prep and storage.

Dr Bettina Arnold from the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee and independent researcher Merryn Dineley for their fascinating takes on the importance and use of alcoholic drinks during the Bronze and Iron Ages. 

Dr Francis Pryor archaeologist of Flag Fen and Camilla and James Dickson, Philippa Tomlinson and Allan R. Hall’s review of the Archaeobotanical Computer Database (ABCD) food Plants from the British Isles which helped me better grasp the farming technology and what was available to Iron Age Britain. 

The 'Strath Caruin' awdl and the Welsh Annals

by Philip Dunshea

forthcoming

1992 El Sacrificio Lusitano. Estudio Comparativo

by Marco García Quintela

Latomus 51, 2, (Bruselas), págs. 337-354

En este artículo se estudiarán los sacrificios celebrados por los lusitanos. Se pondrán de relieve tres argumentos. 1.... more En este artículo se estudiarán los sacrificios celebrados por los lusitanos. Se pondrán de relieve tres argumentos. 1. Se mostrará cómo en Lusitania se conservaba la jerarquía de víctimas sacrificables identificada en Roma y entre los indoeuropeos orientales. 2. Se verá que no parece haber una contaminación entre los usos romanos y los lusitanos : estos presentan rasgos específicos elaborados a partir del fondo tradicional común. 3. Como en la mayor parte de los casos carecemos de fuentes emanadas de los lusitanos, tendremos que partir de la percepción que romanos o griegos podían hacerse de determinados ritos exóticos. En este sentido se pondrá de relieve la importancia del testimonio directo de un romano conocedor y conquistador de lusitanos : S. Sulpicio Galba y, por otra, de un pequeño pasaje de Polibio en el contexto de su discusión sobre el October equus, que debe entrar en la discusión de los ritos lusitanos (y célticos).

‘Cuir Dhachaidh E’ (‘Send It Home’): The Gifts of the Little People, the Bob of Fettercairn and the aesthetics of a tale and a tune

by Tiber Falzett

2012 [Forthcoming]. In Proceedings of Rannsachadh na Gàidhlig 6. Eds. Colm Ó Baoill and Nancy McGuire.

My research on the nature of Scottish Gaelic performance culture has focused mainly around seanchas or discourse on... more My research on the nature of Scottish Gaelic performance culture has focused mainly around seanchas or discourse on tradition and the semiotics of words contained in such discourse (Falzett 2007-2010; 2010; 2012).  However, as John Shaw has argued, much can be learned by applying such contextual knowledge from the field to the analysis of verbal art forms (i.e. songs, stories, etc.) themselves: “Ideally, informants’ perceptions may eventually be correlated with analysis of texts—permitted variants and other materials—to form a coherent description” (1992/1993: 40). Therefore, this paper hopes to provide insights regarding the dynamic relationships between language and music in varied performative contexts of Scottish Gaelic cultural expression. This will be done by examining the role of ‘genre reinforcement’ (Shaw 1992/3: 38-40) in two Scottish Gaelic versions of ATU  503 (The Gifts of the Little People): one from Kate Dix of Berneray, Uist and the other from Donald (Danny) Cameron of Malden, Massachusetts, who grew up in Beaver Meadow, Antigonish County on the Nova Scotia mainland. In turn, the association of these two versions to the dance-tune ‘The Bob of Fettercairn’ and a related port-à-beul  version of it, beginning with the phrase “Cuir dhachaidh e,” will form the basis of our examination here.

The second part of this paper looks more abstractly at the symbolic nature of the narrative and examines the language contained within various Scottish Gaelic recitations of it. The Gifts of the Little People is well attested throughout the Gaelic-speaking regions of Scotland, Ireland and Nova Scotia. Lillis Ó Laoire’s (2009) groundbreaking discussions on the semiotic significance of this popular narrative have elucidated our understanding of its relevance to the inner mechanics of Gaelic aesthetic criteria and modes of transmission. Following Ó Laoire’s approach, the narrative’s aesthetic symbolism will be further explored through the lenses of emerging theoretical trends in the study of metaphor and other tropes from various scholarly disciplines, including cognitive linguistics and anthropology. This will incorporate a discussion concerning embodied understandings of abstract thought as demonstrated by the seemingly intangible nature of the aural and its ability to be made sense of through its associations with more concrete forms of sensory-motor experience, including vision, motion, and taste.

2011 El mito de fundación de Lugdunum: ensayo de lectura estructural

by Marco García Quintela

en Alain Meurant (ed.), Routes et parcours mythiques : des textes à l’archéologie. Actes du Septième colloque international d’anthropologie du monde indo-européen et de mythologie comparée (Louvain la Neuve 19-21 mars 2009), Bruselas, 2011, págs. 115-138

Le mythe de fondation de Lugdunum, que nous lisons dans le traité du Ps-Plutarque, Sur les fleuves, a été étudié... more Le mythe de fondation de Lugdunum, que nous lisons dans le traité du Ps-Plutarque, Sur les fleuves, a été étudié traditionnellement sans tenir compte de son rapport avec l'autre partie du texte sur le fleuve Arar, ni avec l'ensemble de rceuvre. Une étude de G. Charriére et A. Audin nous méne vers les possibilités qu'offre une lecture structurale du récit. Les deux parties du récit étant dominées par l'alose (un poisson) et des corbeaux, des espéces migratoires dans la région de Lyon oil elles sont présentes pendant la canicule pour les premiéres et en hiver pour les seconds. Ceci, relié á d'autres traits anatomiques
et éthologiques de ces animaux, permet de soutenir que le mythe s'inspire de certaines des caractéristiques remarquables du calendrier celtique (celui de Coligny a été trouvé á 100 km au nord de Lyon) comme éléments structurant le récit de fondation.

2005 Celtic Elements in Northwest Preroman Spain

by Marco García Quintela

The aim of this article is to present a synthetic overview of the state of knowledge regarding the Celtic cultures in... more The aim of this article is to present a synthetic overview of the state of knowledge regarding the Celtic cultures in the northwestern Iberian Peninsula. It reviews the difficulties linked to the fact that linguists and archaeologists do not agree on this subject, and that the hegemonic view rejects the possibility that these populations can be considered Celtic. On the other hand, the examination of a range of direct sources of evidence, including literary and epigraphic texts, and the application of the method of historical anthropology to the available data, demonstrate the validity of the consideration of Celtic culture in this region, which can be described as a protohistorical society of the Late Iron Age, exhibiting a hierarchical organization based on ritually chosen chiefs whose power was based in part on economic redistribution of resources, together with a priestly elite more or less of the druidic type. However, the method applied cannot on its own answer the questions of when and how this Celtic cultural dimension of the proto-history of the northwestern Iberian Peninsula developed.

1997 Las puertas del infierno y el río del olvido

by Marco García Quintela

2000 Petroglifos podomorfos del Noroeste Peninsular: nuevas comparaciones e interpretaciones

by Marco García Quintela

en colaboración con MANUEL SANTOS ESTÉVEZ, “Petroglifos podomorfos del Noroeste Peninsular: nuevas comparaciones e interpretaciones”, Revista de Ciências Históricas, XV (Porto), 2000, págs. 7-40.

2004 From rock carvings to celtic weltanschauung in a ferradura: A sanctuary of the hillfort culture in Northwest Spain

by Marco García Quintela

en colaboración con MANUEL SANTOS ESTÉVEZ, “From Rock Carvings to Weltanschauung in A Ferradura: Sanctuary of the Hillfort Culture in NW Spain”, The Journal of Indoeuropean Studies (Washington), 32 nos 3/4, 2004, págs. 319-336.

The rock carving site known as ‘A Ferradura’ (the horseshoe) in Amoeiro (Ourense, NW Spain) situated in a local Iron... more The rock carving site known as ‘A Ferradura’ (the horseshoe) in Amoeiro (Ourense, NW Spain) situated in a local Iron Age archaeological context, has two main carved rocks. The iconographic features represented are interpreted in the light of comparable Gallic archaeology and Celtic religion. This explanation suggests that the site may be considered as an Iron Age sanctuary or meeting point, where some important elements of Celtic myth and ritual, such as royal inaugurations, inspired its sculptors.

2003 Le programme d'accès à la royauté dans le monde celtique: pour une anthropologie politique celtique

by Marco García Quintela

“Le programme d’accès à la royauté dans le monde celtique : pour une anthropologie politique celtique”, Études celtiques (París), 35, 2003, págs. 261-291

J’essaierai d’abord de montrer une forme particulière d’accumulation des trois fonctions chez les rois celtiques. Plus... more J’essaierai d’abord de montrer une forme particulière d’accumulation des trois fonctions chez les rois celtiques. Plus précisément, les aspirants à la royauté doivent faire preuve d’aptitudes, de capacités, de gestes, etc. qui s’articulent selon l’ordre fonctionnel, indépendamment du fait qu’ils atteignent ou pas leur objectif. A l’inverse, dans deux cas, l’un hispanique et l’autre irlandais, nous verrons comment l’incapacité d’un roi, incapacité accumulée dans des situations articulées selon l’idéologie des trois fonctions, en provoque la déchéance.
D’autre part je prétends répondre à deux questions distinctes mais liées à l’interprétation historico-institutionnelle qui peut être élaborée à partir des faits recueillis. La première a pour origine la constatation que nombre d’auteurs et de sources consultés font référence à des personnages historiques et que la diversité des auteurs et des époques rend peu probable qu’il s’agisse d’un lieu commun littéraire ou qu’il y ait eu une copie successive d’un même motif d’un auteur à l’autre. Il faudrait donc suggérer que le thème dévoilé était présent dans l’activité pratique des aspirants à la royauté et dans l’idéologie qui conditionnait celle-ci. Mais, nous constatons aussi, sous une autre perspective, que ces situations sont attribuées à des personnages et des peuples historiques avec un degré de développement socio-politique différent (voire très différent). Comment articuler une idéologie et des gestes répétés et vraisemblables de la même manière pour définir des rois de milieux temporels et politiques divers ?

2003 Arte rupestre y santuarios

by Marco García Quintela

“Imágenes, Textos, Paisajes e Ideas: Los santuarios castreños en contexto” en M.A. Castiñeiras González y F. Díez Platas (eds.), Profano y pagano en el arte gallego, Sémata (Santiago de Compostela), 14, págs. 37-149

Los dos trabajos que siguen (“Arte Rupestre y Santuarios en la Edad del Hierro” y “Imágenes, Textos, Paisajes e Ideas:... more Los dos trabajos que siguen (“Arte Rupestre y Santuarios en la Edad del Hierro” y “Imágenes, Textos, Paisajes e Ideas: Los santuarios castreños en contexto”) aunque concebidos de forma autónoma y presentados de acuerdo con una lógica interna específica e independiente, son estrechamente solidarios. En ellos se estudian los mismos hechos del registro arqueológico gallego conocidos y presentados desde hace poco tiempo. En el primer trabajo se presentan esos datos arqueológicos justificativos de la definición de un tipo de yacimiento nuevo, que tiene una finalidad sagrada: un santuario. Además se presentan los argumentos que apuntan a su datación en la Edad del Hierro. En el segundo trabajo se parte de motivos iconográficos presentes en esos mismos santuarios y se analizan de acuerdo con el método comparativo para mostrar, por un lado, la continuidad conceptual entre petroglifos prerromanos e iconografía en bulto redondo de influjo mediterráneo y, por otro lado, la solidaridad de esos santuarios y motivos con otros mejor conocidos en la Edad del Hierro europea que, culturalmente, es en buena parte céltica.