Celtic mythology & origin

hahahahahaha
wow man

 

So something that has always confused me... who was the very first people in great britain? like the very very first?

 

That's difficult question. It's widely accepted that the first settlers were following the retreating ice age northward. Approximately 400 generations passed between the first settlements and the beginning of recorded history, or about 100 centuries.

The people who inhabited Albion in the first century were widely accepted as Celtic people of Gaulish origin until about 20 years ago. Now, some archaeologists and anthropologists are saying that there is no relation between the Celts of Continental Europe and the tribes of Albion other than perhaps a very distant common ancestor.

Source: BBC

 

first century bc? You mean the Britons? or the Cruinthe?

the Britons were definatly Celtic, so I assume you
mean the Cruinthe, who were a waay earlier immigration
of the "Celtic" people that mixed with the old europeans there.

 

No, first century AD, the time of the Tinovantes, the Cornovii, the Silures and the first invasion of Albion by Julius Gaius Ceasar (you know, the time I really really wish I'd lived).

Article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/prehistory/peoples_01.shtml

Edit: And to be clear, I don't consider every article I read on the intarweb to be the ultimate truth, but I give the BBC a bit more creedence than PBS.

 

I don't really buy that argument. After reading the article, it seems like they are doing what can be said of all "Celtic" societies.

Gaul wasn't "Celtic" to the Gauls, Eire wasn't "Celtic" to the Milesians, and so forth.

The article is right, the "Celtic" was a 19th century umbrella term. But to say
that there were no "Britons" under a similarly unified culture is ridiculous.

Caesar himself called them the Britons, especially when he said that "All Britons
paint themselves blue". Did the Gaulish tribes consider the Britons of the same
"ethnicity"? no, they rarely had that kind of unity in themselves.

The Romanized "Brits" left most of their "celtic" culture for Roman, but
the fringes of Cymraeg and the Lowlands of Scotland remained just as it
was, with the "wild Brit" keeping their way. The Brits of Scotland had a
forest culture and were indeed the wild men, and were considered the same
as the Gaels of Ireland.

The Gaels and Cymraeg differed in some traditions, but mainly because
we dont know much of the Gaels of this time first hand, because Caesar
never really got to know them.

It can be argued that the "Picts" were of Scandinavian origin, but not
the "Picts" that Caesar spoke of. The "Picts" of north scotland were
most likely either not Celtic or just a very old strand.

But as to the Picts, or painted Brits, they had the same myths
and deities and mythical origins as the Gauls and the Gaels,
and they spoke their own dialect of a language, not like
a Gaulish dialect of a conquering majority, but their own
evolved dialect.

I think BBC is full of shit lol.

 

the internet is as good a place as any to start researching Linkages

I'd start with Joseph Jacobs if yer really interested in semi-accurate traslations of myths and legends in book form tho'....

At the height of their trade-power the celts were running a trade route from Ireland to Greece, you'll find many (especially Classical Greek) echoes in their mythology

 

Heron, I didn't say I agreed with it, just that I'd listen to the BBC before PBS. As far as I'm concerned the tribes of Albion united under Caradoc ap Cunobelin of the Catavellauni in 54AD and they almost, almost drove the entire Roman Empire out of Brittania. They were Celts. No archaeologist, anthropologist or revisionist can change that part of history.

Anyway, it's their history first, they can say what they want. You know, like we liberated our country from the natives and elevated them from savagery to humanity .

 

LOL, yeah yeah.

The winners write history.

I would believe the History Channel over them both =P

 

I think you guys should go deeper into this... the whole origins of the Celts and stuff.

 

Pretty much yeah, which can still be seen in the similarity in the Gaelic and Gallic languages. Welsh on the other hand is completely different.

 

The Celts Channel 4 tonight @ 7:10

Should be a good watch, t'is about their origins.

 

My favourite part of the Celts story is when they became Christians.
Out of these people came some of the greatest Christian thinkers, theologians, reformers and apologists the world has ever known.

The least favourite part.. about 30 years ago most of them converted to goggle-eyed footy worshippers.
Crazy world.

 

It was a Celtic theologian that came up with the concept of the Holy Trinity, based on the sacred number 3 and that the older celtic deities had three aspects in one.

 

More evidence that Christianity is like a mosaic of various pagan beliefs/traditions.