We will examine Irish, Scottish, and Welsh history and culture from 500 BC to the present. Osher Lifelong Learning at UNM Continuing Education offers classes specifically for learners age 50+.

1. Irish, Welsh, and Scottish Myth and
Religion
• Druids as the learned class
– Physicians, astronomers, philosophers, seers, priests, and
keepers of tradition
• Druidic place names
–
–
–
–
Drunemeton (Galatia)
Nemetobriga (northern Spain)
Medionemeton (southern Scotland)
Nemed in Irish = sacred place
• Meaning of the word druid
– From Indo-European words for ‘oak’ (drus) and ‘know’
(wid)
• Attested in the works of Julius Caesar and Pliny

2. Nemeton place names

3. Head cults and human sacrifice
Pillars from site at Roquepertuse
• Entremont
• Roquepertuse
– Both sites destroyed
c. 120 BCE
• Continuing
evidence of heads
– The head of Bran
the Blessed, in
Branwen ferch Llyr,
Second Branch of
the Mabinogi
– The head of Finn
MacCumhail

4. • Lindow Man, Britain
(circa 3rd-2nd century
BC)
• Danebury Fort burial,
Britain (3rd-2nd century
BC)
• Gordion, Galatia
• Wicker Men

5. Gordion, Turkey burials
Photos by Mary M. Voigt, Gordion Project. Left—two women buried in one
grave, the bottom under grinding stones, top with neck broken and blows to
the head; right—skull of a teenager placed next to the remains of a dog.

6. Image from The Wicker Man (1973),
British Lion Films

7. Stonehenge
Constructed c. 2500 BC (pre-Celtic)

8. Modern druidism
• Dr. William Price,
d. 1893
– Welsh nationalist,
Chartist, and neo-druid

9. Modern druidism
•
Modern druids commemorating a
solstice at Tower Hill, London, 1964
•
Winston Churchill’s initiation of the
Albion Lodge of the Ancient Order of
Druids, 1908

10. Epona
Top carving from Hesse, Germany;
bottom from Auvergne, France
• A horse goddess but also
associated with fertility
• Attested in art in Europe and
in myth in the British Isles
– Welsh Rhiannon
– Irish Macha (Emain
Macha/Armagh)
• Popular with Roman troops,
who may have spread the
image

11. Mercury (center) flanked by Epona
Carving from Alsace, France

12. The Uffington Horse,
Chalk carving from Wiltshire, England, dated to 1200-800 BC (by optical
stimulated luminescence (OSL))

13. Lugus, Lugh, Lleu
Statue from Berlin Staatliche Museum
• Associated with the sun
and crafts
• Place names associated
with Lugh
– Lugdunum (Lyon, France)
– Lugdunum Batavorum
(Leiden, Netherlands)
– Luguvallium (Carlisle,
England)
• Equated by Romans to
Mercury and Apollo

14. Cernunnos, the horned god
Carving from Cluny Museum, Paris, France
• Known as the
horned god
• Associated
with animals of
the forest
• Attested in
images from
India, Turkey,
Greece, Gaul
and in Irish
character
Conall Cernach

15. Cernunnos
Detail from Gundestrup Cauldron, Denmark

16. Aquae Sulis (Bath, England)
• Sulis linked to
Sequana, a Gaulish
goddess associated
with the River Seine
• A goddess associated
with healing
• Sulis equated by
Romans to Minerva

17. Brigindo, Brigantia, Brigit
Carving in National Museum of Scotland
• Associated with fertility
• Tribal names
– Brigantes of northern
Britain
• Possibly Christianized in
Irish St. Brigit
– Imbolc, February 1st

18. Dagda
Detail from the Gundestrup Cauldron, Denmark
• Irish god of destruction
and regeneration
• Associated with a
cauldron of rebirth
• Name means “the good
god”

19. The Morrigan
Painting by Laura Cameron, Northwest Visions Studio
• The Morrigan, the
Phantom Queen, Irish
goddess of war
– Often depicted as a trinity
with goddesses Nemain
and Badb, who represent
Panic and Death
– Irish Badb associated with
Cathabodua in Continental
Celtic lore
– Other battle goddesses
include Welsh Agrona
(River Aeron) and British
Andraste

20. Medb (Maeve)
Painting by Joseph Christian Leyendecker, 1916
• A character in the Irish Táin Bó
Cualinge (Cattle Raid of Cooley)
• Said to have been Queen of
Connaught
• Sovereignty goddess?
– Her name translates as
“drunkenness”
• Similar names
– Asvamedha (PIE ekwo-meydho),
“horse-drunk”
– Gaulish personal name
Epomeduos, “horse mead”
• Rosmerta (Continental goddess)
also a sovereignty goddess, linked
to Esus

21. Esus
Carving from Cluny Museum, Paris, France
• Known as Lord and
Master
• Associated with
sovereignty goddess
Rosmerta
• Equated by Romans to
Mercury

22. Taranis
Statue from National Archaeological Museum, France
• God of thunder and
storms
• Associated with human
sacrifice on Continent
• Equated by Romans to
Jupiter

23. Tarvus Trigarantes
Carving from Cluny Museum, Paris, France
• A Continental Celtic
bull god

24. What Irish and Welsh myths and
histories tell us
• Irish Lebor Gebála, 7th-8th century AD
– Book of Invasions
• Tuatha de Danaan (people of the goddess Danu)
versus the Milesians
– Tuatha de Danaan driven out/underground, becoming the
Sidh (pronounced Shee)
– Burial mounds as home of the Sidh
• Welsh mythology speaks of the Twyleth Teg (the fair
folk)
– Caer Sidi (fortress of the Sidh), a name for the Otherworld
– God, goddesses, and the Otherworld in the Welsh
Mabinogi

25. What Irish and Welsh myths tell us about the
Otherworld
• Where to find it
– Mists or fog
• The Mists of Avalon
– Hostels (The Destruction of Da Derga’s Hostel)
– Wilderness areas—mountains, islands, lakes
• The Lady of the Lake and Excalibur
• La Tene and Lake Neuchâtel, Switzerland
– Burial mounds
• Newgrange, Ireland
– Associated with white animals with red ears or red people
• When to find it
– Samhain (Sov-whin), October 31st
– Beltaine (Bel-tinne), May 1st

26. British White calf with red points

27. Important heroes
• CuChulainn, the hound of Ulster
– The Ulster Cycle and Táin Bó Cualinge
• Finn Mac Cumaill and the Fianna
– The Finn Cycle
• King Arthur
– Origin of name?
• Roman—Lucius Artorius Castus, fl. 2nd century AD
• Welsh/British—Artos/Artaius, the Celtic bear god
– Evidence of 5-6th century AD British warleaders
• Gildas mentions Ambrosius Aurelianus as “descended from the purple”
• Sidonius Apollinarus writes a letter to Riothamus, a British warleader
active in Gaul/France
• First mention of Arthur by name comes in early 7th century poems Y
Goddoddin, written in north Britain: “he glutted ravens on the wall though
he was no Arthur.”

28. Left—Statue of CuChulainn in Dublin post office, Oliver Sheppard, 1911.
Right—Clive Owen as King Arthur in King Arthur (2004), Touchstone Pictures