“The last invaders chronicled in the Book of Invasions were the Gaels, the first Celts, speakers of a Goidelic language. According to the mythic tradition the Gaels were descendants of the Sons of Míl, who came to Ireland from Spain (Hispania). They dispossessed the Tuatha Dé, causing them to create a new kingdom beneath the earth. When the Gaels reached Ireland, they encountered three eponymous goddesses of the land, Banbha, Fódla and Éiru. Each demanded a promise from the invaders that, if they were successful in establishing themselves in Ireland, they would name the land after her. The seer or fili Amhairghin assured Éiru that Ireland would bear her name and, in return, Éiru prophesied that the land would belong to the Gaels for all time,” (Green, 15).
Despite being understood as genuine history for most of modern history, the Leabhar Gabhála Éireann (Book of Invasions) is contemporarily considered to be sheer myth by today's scholars and historians, and is one of the seminal works of Celtic civilization as well as an early example of Western European literature in a local language. Appearing in the 11th century, it presents itself as an Irish history of pre-Christian society and despite it's contemporary identity as a book depicting legend, it survives as a singular source of knowledge about all happenings pre-historic on the Isle. The tome details the "taking" of Ireland by various peoples over a vast span of time. The penultimate of these people groups, meant to be the pagan Gods of ancient times, later fairy-folk to the Gales, and remaining so in modern Irish society, are the Tuatha Dé Danann who were defeated and forced into an underground realm by the current residents, the Gales of today, a group previously known as Milesians, said to have peopled Ireland after migrating from Iberia around 500 BC, if not long before. The Celts, whose name originates as a Greek exonym "keltoi" originally meant barbarian or foreigner, refers to a wide range of ancient tribal peoples culturally and genetically related to the modern Gales of Ireland, to the residents of Wales (Welsh for Gales), the rest of Britain, and other areas. Among those are the Galicians of Galicia in the Northwestern reaches of the Iberian peninsula, a place known to the Romans as Finisterra, the end of the Earth. Their traditional language, Galego, is a romance language (neo-latin) very closely related to Portuguese and Spanish, but the local cultural identity is that of a Celtic province. On the map, one can see that this part of the world is straight south from other Celtic speaking areas such as Brittany in western France and the British Isles, suggesting that the Atlantic in fact served as a highway for migration between these communities in pre-history. Considering the linguistic diversion from Latin which took place on Iberia, it remains a fascinating question how the linguistic substrates of Celtic peoples affected the way that Latin developed into modern Romance languages like Galego, Português and Español. Just as fascinating are archeological features of Galicia and the folklore that surrounds them in relation to those of Ireland and other identifiably Celtic cultural areas. Although the collection of reliable archeological evidence is rather out of the immediate reach of this author, what remains to be investigated is the surviving folklore and literary references thereto. Thus, the importance of the myth and legend, whether referencing reliable histories or not, survive as epistemological wealth to humankind and persevere across centuries to shed light upon an orally ingenious society, kept secret and sacred by its druidic class, even more so as the threat of Greco-Roman cultural domination loomed and proved itself worthy of pause. What cannot be under estimated, is the vast cultural influence that Celtic cultures had on the rest of Europe in ancient days as well as at the present. Citation: Green, Miranda Jane. Celtic Myths: The Legendary Past. Third University of Texas Press, 1998.
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Aaron BurnsI'm an entrepreneurial linguist and musician, a European in a former life, and an indefatigable conversationalist (like June). I'm available for hire as coach, teacher, writer, editor, analyst, consultant, marketeer, content specialist, translator, interpreter, MC, facilitator or performer. This blog is a portfolio of my interest and abilities in various languages of which I have extensive knowledge. I am also a student of several other languages that I am less intimately familiar with and they all bring me great joy. I currently hold degrees in Language and Literature as well as in Vocal Music Performance, both fields in which poetics and interpretation are no strangers. Archives
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