King of the Celts: Arthurian Legends and Celtic Tradition

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Mediterranean writers were keen to emphasise that the Celts practiced human sacrifice, something Romans found particularly abhorrent, and suggested that Celtic priests consulted human entrails for messages from the gods. Were it not for the archaeological evidence recovered from the bogs of northwestern Europe, we could explain all this as negative propaganda, examples of the Romans demonising their enemy. However, a variety of prehistoric bodies that have been dredged from the wetlands of Ireland, Denmark and southern Scandinavia have shown that human sacrifice was indeed carried out at times; the broad similarity of injuries recorded suggest that these executions were all part of the same ritual practice. The origins of the Celtiberians might provide a key to understanding the Celticisation process in the rest of the Peninsula. The process of Celticisation of the southwestern area of the peninsula by the Keltoi and of the northwestern area is, however, not a simple Celtiberian question. Recent investigations about the Callaici [90] and Bracari [91] in northwestern Portugal are providing new approaches to understanding Celtic culture (language, art and religion) in western Iberia. [92]

According to Plutarch, Caes. 27.8-10, Vercingetorix surrendered in a dramatic fashion, riding his beautifully adorned horse out of Alesia and around Caesar's camp before dismounting in front of Caesar, stripping himself of his armor and sitting down at his opponent's feet, where he remained motionless until he was taken away. [15] [16] Caesar provides a first-hand contradiction of this account, De Bell. Gal. 7.89, describing Vercingetorix's surrender much more modestly. [17] Imprisonment and death [ edit ] A plaque in the museum at the Mamertine Prison indicates Vercingetorix was beheaded there in 49 BC. The revolt that Vercingetorix came to lead began in early 52 BC while Caesar was raising troops in Cisalpine Gaul. Believing that Caesar would be distracted by the turmoil in Rome following the death of Publius Clodius Pulcher, the Carnutes, under Cotuatus and Conetodunus, made the first move, slaughtering the Romans who had settled in their territory.It is these islands off Europe’s western coast in which Celtic culture was allowed to survive and thrive, as the Roman Empire expanded on the European continent. Beginning with the reign of Julius Caesar in the first century B.C., the Romans launched a military campaign against the Celts, killing them by the thousands and destroying their culture in much of mainland Europe.

Lugh uses his sorcery skills to give his army special weapons & the powers of magic. Family & Descendants Of course, the bagpipes, the musical instrument for which Scotland is arguably best known, can also trace their origin to Celtic times. Celtic Religion Ancient Celtic settlement Chysauster Village, a late Iron Age and Romano-British village of courtyard houses in Cornwall, England. A Latin name for the Gauls, Galli ( pl.), may come from a Celtic ethnic name, perhaps borrowed into Latin during the Celtic expansion into Italy from the early fifth century BC. Its root may be Proto-Celtic *galno, meaning "power, strength" (whence Old Irish gal "boldness, ferocity", Welsh gallu "to be able, power"). The Greek name Γαλάται ( Galatai, Latinized Galatae) most likely has the same origin, referring to the Gauls who invaded southeast Europe and settled in Galatia. [35] The suffix -atai might be a Greek inflection. [36] Linguist Kim McCone suggests it comes from Proto-Celtic *galatis ("ferocious, furious"), and was not originally an ethnic name but a name for young warrior bands. He says "If the Gauls' initial impact on the Mediterranean world was primarily a military one typically involving fierce young *galatīs, it would have been natural for the Greeks to apply this name for the type of Keltoi that they usually encountered". [28] DNA studies have found native Cornish people are genetically different from their counterparts across the Tamar. The study, by researchers at Oxford University, drew up a genetic map of the British Isles based on an analysis of DNA variations in thousands of people in rural areas. It found the Welsh, followed by the Cornish, could claim to be the most ancient Britons and the most genetically distinct of all the groups on mainland Britain.In some regards the Atlantic Celts were conservative: for example, they still used chariots in combat long after they had been reduced to ceremonial roles by the Greeks and Romans. However, despite being outdated, Celtic chariot tactics were able to repel the invasions of Britain attempted by Julius Caesar. [136] Commentaries on the Gallic Wars, Everyman's Edition, 1953 (Trans: John Warrington); Book VII, sect. 89. Like Welsh, the Irish language of Gaelic is a Celtic language. Gaelic largely disappeared in the 19th century, but the language is still spoken in the western part of the country. Celtic Designs

Mentioned by the Roman historians Dio Cassius and Suetonius, who, in his life of the emperor Caligula, refers to Cunobelinus as 'Britannorum rex' (King of the Britons). Many of the coins minted during his reign have been discovered. Consider adding a topic to this template: there are already 5,822 articles in the main category, and specifying |topic= will aid in categorization. The first recorded use of the name 'Celts' – as Κελτοί ( Keltoi) in Ancient Greek – was by Greek geographer Hecataeus of Miletus in 517 BC, [24] when writing about a people living near Massilia (modern Marseille), southern Gaul. [25] In the fifth century BC, Herodotus referred to Keltoi living around the source of the Danube and in the far west of Europe. [26] The etymology of Keltoi is unclear. Possible roots include Indo-European * kʲel 'to hide' (seen also in Old Irish ceilid, and Modern Welsh celu), * kʲel 'to heat' or * kel 'to impel'. [27] It may come from the Celtic language. Linguist Kim McCone supports this view and notes that Celt- is found in the names of several ancient Gauls such as Celtillus, father of Vercingetorix. He suggests it meant the people or descendants of "the hidden one", noting the Gauls claimed descent from an underworld god (according to Commentarii de Bello Gallico), and linking it with the Germanic Hel. [28] Others view it as a name coined by Greeks; among them linguist Patrizia de Bernardo Stempel, who suggests it meant "the tall ones". [29] For Venceslas Kruta, Galatia in central Turkey was an area of dense Celtic settlement. [ citation needed]Linguists have debated whether a Celtic language came to the British Isles and then split, or whether the two branches arrived separately. The older view was that Celtic influence in the Isles was the result of successive migrations or invasions from the European mainland by diverse Celtic-speaking peoples over several centuries, accounting for the P-Celtic vs. Q-Celtic isogloss. This view has been challenged by the hypothesis that the islands' Celtic languages form an Insular Celtic dialect group. [118] In the 19th and 20th centuries, scholars often dated the "arrival" of Celtic culture in Britain (via an invasion model) to the 6th century BC, corresponding to archaeological evidence of Hallstatt influence and the appearance of chariot burials in what is now England. Cunliffe and Koch propose in their newer 'Celtic from the West' theory that Celtic languages reached the Isles earlier, with the Bell Beaker culture c.2500 BC, or even before this. [119] [120] More recently, a major archaeogenetics study uncovered a migration into southern Britain in the Bronze Age from 1300 to 800 BC. [121] The newcomers were genetically most similar to ancient individuals from Gaul. [121] From 1000 BC, their genetic marker swiftly spread through southern Britain, [122] but not northern Britain. [121] The authors see this as a "plausible vector for the spread of early Celtic languages into Britain". [121] There was much less immigration during the Iron Age, so it is likely that Celtic reached Britain before then. [121] Cunliffe suggests that a branch of Celtic was already spoken in Britain, and the Bronze Age migration introduced the Brittonic branch. [123] In 825 a battle was fought between the "Welsh", presumably those of Cornwall, and the Anglo-Saxons. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle states:- "The Wealas (Cornish) and the Defnas (men of Devon) fought at Gafulforda" (perhaps Galford in west Devon). However, there is no mention of who won or who lost, or whether the men of Cornwall and Devon were fighting each other or on the same side. This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Preservation is, in certain individuals, so good that we can tell what their last meal was. In the case of Lindow Man, his stomach contained traces of mistletoe. See also: Castro culture, Pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula, Prehistoric Iberia, Hispania, Lusitania, Gallaecia, Celtici, and Vettones

Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Even though the Celtic tribes never unified politically under one kingdom, their oral traditions helped to create and maintain a cultural unity across great geographical distances. That explains why Celts were most easily identified by their shared language. Celtic languages are still spoken in parts of the UK and France, including Welsh, Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Cornish and Breton.

Evans, D. Ellis (1967). Gaulish Personal Names: A Study of Some Continental Celtic Formations. Clarendon Press. OCLC 468437906.