Celts and all that shizz.
since i'm bored i thought i would enlighten others with the impressive knowledge of Peter Berresford Ellis. and so i have stolen from his book, "The Mammoth Book of Celtic Myths and Legends" the introduction, there was some impressive shizz<3
Introduction:-
The Mythology, legends and folklore of the Celtic peoples are amongst the oldest and most vibrant of Europe. The Celts were, in fact, the first european people north of the Alps to emerge into recorded history. They were delineated from their fellow europeans by virtue of the languages they spoke and which we now identify as the term "Celtic".
This linguistic group is a brance of the greater Indo-european family. The Indo-European family fo languages encompasses most of the languages spoken in europe, with a few notable exceptionssuch as Basque, Finnish, Estonian and Hungarian. The Indo-European group also covers Iran and northern India.
Since the old classical language of India, Sanskrit, was identified in the eighteenth century, the concept of linguistic evolution and language relationships has become a science. What this means is that we can see from the linguistic relationship of the Indo-European languages that, at some pointin remote antiquity, there was a single parent language, which we call Indo-European, for want of a better designation. This parent language diversified into dialects, as its speakers began to migrate from the geographic location where it was originally spoken. These dialects then became the ancestors of the present major European and Northern Indian language groups - Italic or Latin (now called Romance), Germanic, Slavonic, Baltic, Celtic, Iranian, Indo-Aryan and so forth.
Even today, there remain relative forms of construction and vocabulary among the Indo-European languages which are not found in other languages; features which help us identify them as such. Features common to Indo-European include clear and formal distinction of noun and verb, a basically inflective structure and decimal numeration. an experiment which demonstrates the relationship is to note the cardinal numbers - one to ten- in each Indo-European language and one will find the same sound values indicating the common parent.
Where was the Indo-European parent spoken and when did it break up? it is probable, and only probable, that the speakers of the parenttongue originated somewhere between the baltic and the black sea. it also seems probable the the original tongue was already breaking into dialects before waves of migrants carried them westward into Europe and eastward into asia.
the first indo-european literature that we have records of is Hittite, a language spoken in what is now eastern turkey. the hittites formed an empire which eventually incorporated babylonia and even briefly exerted authority over Egypt. Hittite writing emerged from 1900 BC and vanished around 1400BC. Hittite literature survives on tablets written in cuneform syllabic which were not deciphered until 1916.
scholars argue that the celtic dialect of indo-european, which became the parent of all celtic languages, emerged at about 2000BC. the celtic peoples began to appear as a distinctive culture in the area of the headwaters of the Danube, the Rhine, and the Rhone. In other words, in what is now switzerland and south-west germany.
a study of the early place names of this region show that rivers, mountains, woodland and even some of the towns still retainthe celtic original. the three great rivers we have mentionedretain their celtic names. the danube, first recorded as the danuvius, was named after the celtic goddess danu,whose names mean "divine waters". the rhone, first recordedas phodanus, also incorporates the name of the goddessprefixed by the celtic ro, or "great". the rhine, originally recorded as rhenus, is a celtic word for "sea way".
this sis the area, then, where the celts developed their distinctive culture. archeologists now date that identifiable culture through the medium of artifacts, called the hallstatt culture, from 1200BC to 475BC. this was so called because the first identifiable artifacts were found on the west bank of lake hallstatt in upper austria. previously, archaeologists only dated the culture from 750BC, but new finds have made them revise their dating. a later distinctive celtic culture, developing out of hallstatt, was called la tene, from the finds found at la tene on the northern edge of lake neuchatel.
the discovery of iron smelting by the celts around the start of the first millennium BC gave them a superiority over their neighbours. Celtic smithies assumed a new role in society and artisans were considered among the nobility. with iron spear, swords, sheild fittings, axes, saws, hammers and billhooks, the celts started their expasion throughthe previously inpenetrable forests of northern europe. as an agricultural society, they had a new weapon to tame the earth in the iron ploughshare. the celts were even able to develop threshing machines. their iron axes and saws helpedthe to build roads throughout europe. it is interesting that the old irish word for road was slighe, from sligin, "i hew". over-population and perhaps conflict between the tribes seems a reasonable cause for the start of the celtic expansion from their original homelands.
th-th-th-th-th-thats all for now folks (btw... i'm not even halfway there yet for the intro, i just feel too tired and CBA <3
Introduction:-
The Mythology, legends and folklore of the Celtic peoples are amongst the oldest and most vibrant of Europe. The Celts were, in fact, the first european people north of the Alps to emerge into recorded history. They were delineated from their fellow europeans by virtue of the languages they spoke and which we now identify as the term "Celtic".
This linguistic group is a brance of the greater Indo-european family. The Indo-European family fo languages encompasses most of the languages spoken in europe, with a few notable exceptionssuch as Basque, Finnish, Estonian and Hungarian. The Indo-European group also covers Iran and northern India.
Since the old classical language of India, Sanskrit, was identified in the eighteenth century, the concept of linguistic evolution and language relationships has become a science. What this means is that we can see from the linguistic relationship of the Indo-European languages that, at some pointin remote antiquity, there was a single parent language, which we call Indo-European, for want of a better designation. This parent language diversified into dialects, as its speakers began to migrate from the geographic location where it was originally spoken. These dialects then became the ancestors of the present major European and Northern Indian language groups - Italic or Latin (now called Romance), Germanic, Slavonic, Baltic, Celtic, Iranian, Indo-Aryan and so forth.
Even today, there remain relative forms of construction and vocabulary among the Indo-European languages which are not found in other languages; features which help us identify them as such. Features common to Indo-European include clear and formal distinction of noun and verb, a basically inflective structure and decimal numeration. an experiment which demonstrates the relationship is to note the cardinal numbers - one to ten- in each Indo-European language and one will find the same sound values indicating the common parent.
Where was the Indo-European parent spoken and when did it break up? it is probable, and only probable, that the speakers of the parenttongue originated somewhere between the baltic and the black sea. it also seems probable the the original tongue was already breaking into dialects before waves of migrants carried them westward into Europe and eastward into asia.
the first indo-european literature that we have records of is Hittite, a language spoken in what is now eastern turkey. the hittites formed an empire which eventually incorporated babylonia and even briefly exerted authority over Egypt. Hittite writing emerged from 1900 BC and vanished around 1400BC. Hittite literature survives on tablets written in cuneform syllabic which were not deciphered until 1916.
scholars argue that the celtic dialect of indo-european, which became the parent of all celtic languages, emerged at about 2000BC. the celtic peoples began to appear as a distinctive culture in the area of the headwaters of the Danube, the Rhine, and the Rhone. In other words, in what is now switzerland and south-west germany.
a study of the early place names of this region show that rivers, mountains, woodland and even some of the towns still retainthe celtic original. the three great rivers we have mentionedretain their celtic names. the danube, first recorded as the danuvius, was named after the celtic goddess danu,whose names mean "divine waters". the rhone, first recordedas phodanus, also incorporates the name of the goddessprefixed by the celtic ro, or "great". the rhine, originally recorded as rhenus, is a celtic word for "sea way".
this sis the area, then, where the celts developed their distinctive culture. archeologists now date that identifiable culture through the medium of artifacts, called the hallstatt culture, from 1200BC to 475BC. this was so called because the first identifiable artifacts were found on the west bank of lake hallstatt in upper austria. previously, archaeologists only dated the culture from 750BC, but new finds have made them revise their dating. a later distinctive celtic culture, developing out of hallstatt, was called la tene, from the finds found at la tene on the northern edge of lake neuchatel.
the discovery of iron smelting by the celts around the start of the first millennium BC gave them a superiority over their neighbours. Celtic smithies assumed a new role in society and artisans were considered among the nobility. with iron spear, swords, sheild fittings, axes, saws, hammers and billhooks, the celts started their expasion throughthe previously inpenetrable forests of northern europe. as an agricultural society, they had a new weapon to tame the earth in the iron ploughshare. the celts were even able to develop threshing machines. their iron axes and saws helpedthe to build roads throughout europe. it is interesting that the old irish word for road was slighe, from sligin, "i hew". over-population and perhaps conflict between the tribes seems a reasonable cause for the start of the celtic expansion from their original homelands.
th-th-th-th-th-thats all for now folks (btw... i'm not even halfway there yet for the intro, i just feel too tired and CBA <3