Celtic

Brochure descriptive du Master international "Langues et cultures celtiques en contact" / "Celtic Languages and Cultures in Contact" - Mention "Langues et sociétés" proposé à l'université de Bretagne Occidentale (Brest).
Deux options sont proposées:
- Celtique médiéval : apprentissage notamment du moyen-gallois, moyen-breton et vieil irlandais couplé à celui de l'ancien français et/ou du latin médiéval
- Celtique moderne: apprentissage notamment du breton, du gallois et de l'irlandais modernes

Exploring the tales of many of the mysterious and captivating Faerie Queens, this exceptional anthology contains eighteen essays exploring the diverse accounts and themes associated with the Faerie Queens and their influence in magic, literature and folklore. From the Arthurian mythos to Scandinavia, from ancient Greece to Renaissance poetry and beyond, the awesome power of the Faerie Queens to inspire, challenge and transform is investigated and discussed from both scholarly and personal perspectives.

A lot has been written about the Celts and about their faith and beliefs. Generally this means the druid beliefs that were present in England just before the Romans turned up. The big problem is that the only contemporary reports of this are those written by the Romans themselves. These reports wouldn‟t exactly have been unbiased and wouldn‟t tell us anything about the faith and practices of the Celts further back into history

A quick review of some evidence we do have that may give us some insight into the beliefs and practices of these ancient and half mythical people.

Part of Palgrave's Critical Approaches to Children's Literature series

This book examines the creative uses of “Celtic” myth in contemporary fantasy written for children or young adults from the 1960s to the 2000s. Its scope ranges from classic children’s fantasies such as Lloyd Alexander’s The Chronicles of Prydain and Alan Garner’s The Owl Service, to some of the most recent, award-winning fantasy authors of the last decade, such as Kate Thompson (The New Policeman) and Catherine Fisher (Darkhenge). The book focuses on the ways these fantasy works have appropriated and adapted Irish and Welsh medieval literature in order to highlight different perceptions of “Celticity.” The term “Celtic” itself is interrogated in light of recent debates in Celtic studies, in order to explore a fictional representation of a national past that is often romanticized and political.

The book was published in Prague in 1955
*
Annotation:
1. Findings of Celtic coins (Pavel Radoměrský)
2. Findings of Ancient coins (Eugen Pochitonov)
*
1. Würdigung durch Kelten (Pavel Radoměrský)
2. Würdigung von antiken Münzen (Eugen Pochitonov)

The selection of articles collected in this volume is based on an assumption that the fringes of Celtic Studies still represent a challenge and that established areas are worth revisiting. Peripheries and borderlands are always an exciting object of study: with their blank spots and unexplored territories they capture the attention of researchers. The chapters in this collection, by both established and young scholars, deal with a wide range of phenomena connected with the language, literature and history of the broadly speaking Celtic world, ranging widely over time, space and subject matter. One thing that the analyses share, however, is their focus on uncharted or little explored waters, which confirms that Celtic Studies, especially in their literary and cultural aspect, are an exciting and expanding discipline. The contributors’ expeditions to remote or undiscovered areas include the design of autobiographies in the early years of the Irish republic, an overview of the controversy over a sex scene in a Welsh-language novel by John Rowlands, the poetry of the somewhat neglected Irish poet Francis
Ledwidge, Irish-language science-fiction and comics, a cognitive ethological perspective on Niall Griffiths’s novel Sheepshagger, and possible Polish origins of Irish-language modernist fiction. Other chapters offer a periodisation of medieval Welsh law, insightful analyses of Pádraig Ó Cíobháin’s landmark novel The Brightness Out There and the work of Seán Ó Ríordáin – a poet little known outside the Irish-language world – as well as contemporary Irish-language poetry in
the context of language loss. (from the Introduction)

This essay provides an analysis of how and when St Winefride’s cult became popular; how personal and political motives lead to the promotion of the cult (particularly at Holywell, Shrewsbury and Basingwerk) and also how her popularity extended beyond Wales. It includes interesting discussions of cures at the well, royal visitors and the post-reformation cult, and traces the origins of the cult and its development in a chronological fashion.

The grammatical feminine gender was developed by Indo-European in relatively recent times, and was superimposed on an older system of two genders (animate / inanimate). The virtual totality of Indo-Europeanists would agree with this affirmation; but there is no agreement between researchers over the factors which led to the emergence of this new gender.
By analyzing the diverse uses of the suffix * eH2 , Karl Brugmann managed to explain why the feminine grammatical gender includes many words which are not semantically feminine. Brugmann’s perspective is still substantially correct, but, in the exact terms in which he formulated this theory (more than a hundred years ago), it cannot give a satisfactory explanation to three important questions: (1) How did the diversity of uses of the suffix * (e)H2 originate? (2) How did some adjectives develop specific forms for feminine agreement? (3) Why are the ā stems and the thematic declension in complementary distribution?
The different theories that have been proposed since Brugmann can some-times answer one or (at best) two of these questions, but there is not a theory which can resolve the three questions simultaneously. Such a theory is, precisely, the object of the present study.

The subject of this study are gold coins, formerly attributed to the coinage of the Menapii, which in the seventies of the 20th century Karel Castelin referred to as staters of the Cracovian type, struck by Celts near Kraków. When the latest publications connected with them appeared, the number of known specimens of the type amounted to seven, and currently it has increased to seventeen. The aim of this study is to use the new possibilities of modification of the former findings concerning staters of the Cracovian type. The present study has discussed the problems concerning the definition of this type, its origin and changes it has undergone with the passage of time — both in respect of iconography and metrology. This is connected with a suggestion as to a new typological division of the discussed coins. Also the issues concerning their circulation and data were not omitted, as the finds from recent years throw a new light on them. The summary includes reflection of historical nature, including an attempt to connect the Cracovian type with Lugii.

This essay highlights the main characteristics of the architecture of the Welsh house and provides an analysis of the influences on its design over the centuries. The various terms involved in the field are clearly explained before the discussion is expanded, and pertinent examples are used of different forms of architecture in Wales and their locations, demonstrating effectively the factors that influenced design and its development over the years.

Throughout history, the Druids have always been seen as sorcerers who had a strong bond with nature. Ancestral knowledge holders within Celtic society, directed all religious activity as the highest authority linked to the gods, practiced human sacrifices and festivals organized as Imbolc, Beltaine, Lugnasad or Samain, etc.. all aspects of which are discussed in this article.

Celtic Christianity or Insular Christianity refers broadly to certain features of Christianity that were practiced across the Celtic-speaking world during the Early Middle Ages. [1] Some historians have described a distinct Celtic Church, embodying Chalcedonian Christianity, that united the Celtic peoples and distinguished them from what would become the Roman Catholic Church after the Great Schism. Other historians classify it as merely a set of distinctive religious practices occurring in those areas. [2] Scholars now reject the former notion, but note that there were certain traditions and practices used in both the Irish and British churches but not in the wider Christian world. [3] These include a distinctive system for determining the dating of Easter, a style of monastic tonsure, a unique system of penance, and the popularity of going into "exile for Christ". [3] Additionally, there were other practices that developed in certain parts of Britain or Ireland, but which are not known to have spread beyond a particular region. The term therefore denotes regional practices among the insular churches and their associates, rather than actual theological differences.

The subject of this study is a stater found in Masłów (Lower Silesia) in 1704: the oldest documented find of a Celtic coin from the area of the present-day Poland. The coin, which has been regarded as missing until recently, was successfully identified with a high degree of likelihood in the collection of the Staatliche Museen in Berlin. The present study has carried out an analysis of the unit and the records concerning it, particularly emphasising the issues related to iconography, examined against a broad comparative background. The summary includes conclusions concerning the place of striking and dating of this unique coin.

Researching the fiction of Morgan Llywelyn encourages immersion in Celtic culture and knowledge of Celtic mythology that is both unusual and challenging. Basically, it involves two stages: identifying the characters, the events, and the ancient artifacts and monuments in the fiction and understanding their context from a fictional standpoint. Below are four suggested pathways to discover the complexity of Llywelyn's novel entitled "Only the Stones Survive."

More than two millennia after the Roman conquest that marked the beginning of the fading away of the Gaulish tongue and culture, traces of the world of the Gauls still pervade their land. The Gauls obstinately refused to put their worldview into writing, but they nonetheless left a foundation, buried into the soil in the form of artifacts or written in the manuscripts of their neighbors. The artworks of the Gauls, in particular, represent an invaluable source concerning the way the early Celts viewed the creation: more than mere folklore, it is also a philosophy that can be seen behind the images that they carved on rocks, stamped on coins, or cast in bronze. The world of the Gauls is gone, but its foundations remain, and they can become the basis for the edification of something new, a philosophy that will not be a reconstruction of the philosophy of the ancient Celts, but rather only one that shares roots with it. The present work examines these foundations and uses them as the starting point of a modern Celtic philosophy. The backbone of the old foundation is the tripartition of the creation into three realms: the first is the Dubnos, which is the Dark and the Deep, the earth, the waters, and the shadows of the night. The " middle realm " is Bitu, Life and Being, which is characterized by the color of blood: the one of the dawn and the dusk. Finally, the last one is the Albios, which is the Bright, the light of the skies that illuminates the day, and all that cannot be touched with the hands, that is, the metaphysical world. The three realms of nature, to which the Gauls associated different gods, are themselves constantly at war with one another, as reflected in their central myth, and it is through this harmonious strife that the creation can flourish and that man can accomplish his destiny. This book represents an encounter between the traces of the essence of the Gaulish world and the works of ancient and modern philosophers such as Heraclitus and Heidegger, an encounter that offers a new vision of the world in which man lives.

Knihu vydalo v roce 2001  v Praze vydavatelství Libri / The book was published in 2001 in Prague, Libri Publishing. /

Poznámka:

Vážení kolegové,

knihu na našem profilu vystavujeme s důvodu jejího významu pro studium danné problematiky a její nedostupnost zejména pro kolegy z východní Evropy.

Prosíme Vás aby při jejím studiu a dalším použití respektovali veškerá autorská práva pana Dr. Jiřího Waldhausera a vydavatelství Libri.

Upřimně děkujeme

Správci profilu

/

Note:

Dear colleagues,

book on our profile exhibiting with because of its significance for the study of danny issues and their unavailability especially for colleagues from Eastern Europe.

We ask you to study and when it is next used to respect all copyrights Dr. George Waldhauser and Publishing Libri.

I sincerely thank

Manager profile

The strong contaminations between Celts and Scythians, which occurred in the past, also attested by the latest archaeological researches and discoveries in Eastern Europe, indicate the possibility of a significant cultural-symbolic influence between Celts and Scythians, which may have been later transferred to Britannia following the Celtic invasion from the eighth century. BC, in multiple migratory waves. To this end, a review and synthesis of the most authoritative articles on the subject was carried out, confirming the hypothesis of the presence of Celts in Eastern Europe. From this the possible influence on the mythological aspects of the Arthurian legend with respect to the symbolism of the Nomads of the Steppes (Scythians), conveyed in British territory by the Celtic population.

This thesis examines language variation and change in a context of minority language revitali- sation. In particular, I concentrate on young fluent speakers of Scottish Gaelic, a minority language of Scotland that is currently undergoing revitalisation. Data from three groups of speakers are presented: older speakers in the Isle of Lewis, a Gaelic heartland area in north-west Scotland; adolescent Gaelic-speakers in Lewis learning the language in immersion schooling; and adolescent Gaelic-speakers in immersion schooling in Glasgow, an urban centre where Gaelic has not traditionally been spoken as a widespread community language.

The sociolinguistic analysis examines potential language changes, explores patterns of linguistic variation, and uncovers the role that Gaelic plays in identity formation for each of the participants. In order to gain an insight into the role of Gaelic in different speakers’ lives, I report on ethnographic studies carried out in Lewis and in Glasgow. The phonetic analysis then explores patterns of variation in the production of laterals, vowels, and tone and intonation.
The results indicate large differences between the speech of older and adolescent speakers in Lewis, while differences between young speakers in Lewis and Glasgow suggest that Glasgow Gaelic is developing as a phonetically and socially distinct variety of the language. For example, older speakers in Lewis speak Gaelic as a partial tone language, unlike young people in Lewis and in Glasgow. Differences are also present between young people in Lewis and in Glasgow, such as in the acoustics of the vowel [ʉ], the production of the lateral system, and intonation patterns.

The developments detailed in this thesis are the result of a complex interaction between the internal sound structure of Gaelic, language contact with varieties of English, identity construction, and differing conceptions of the self. All of these factors are conditioned by the status of Gaelic as a minority endangered and revitalised language. In exploring these avenues, I advance an account of language variation and change and apply it to a context of minority language revitalisation.

The following dissertation is a description of Celtic languages in the Indo-European context, where a brief statement about this linguistic phylum is presented, along with the families and languages composing it. Subsequently, an explanation about the origin theories of Celts and their languages will be provided, as well as a classification of the languages belonging to this family. Additionally, the main features that distinguish this phylum from the rest, and the ones which are more relevant, will be presented in a concise manner, as far as its phonology, morphology and syntax are concerned. To conclude, the case of Irish Gaelic will be deeply explained, as well as the example of Hiberno-Irish, including a comparison of borrowings between Irish and English.

The subject of the present analysis are new finds from the settlement at Nowa Cerekwia in Upper Silesia – one of the earliest Celtic sites investigated in Poland. Until recently it seemed that re- searchers have learnt all there was to know about this site, located at the outlet of the Moravian Gate. According to the generally accepted view the role of this site was that of a “special rural set- tlement of production and agricultural type”. However, discoveries made over the past few years – by treasure hunters, and later by qualified archaeologists – have changed this view. In the 3rd–2nd century BC (LT C1-C2) the settlement functioned as a “central place”, a centre of produc- tion and trade/exchange of interregional significance and a mustering point for mercenaries. The finds from Nowa Cerekwia closely resemble those from the already famous sites of Němčice nad Hanou (Moravia) and Roseldorf (Lower Austria).

The settlement at Nowa Cerekwia (Głubczyce district, Opole Voivodeship) is the only of the oldest and – as it seemed until recently – the best investigated Celtic sites in Poland. The first reports about finds made in its area from 1870 when the site, then lying within the locality Bieskau, started to be quarried for stone. In 1925-1938 the site was investigated in advance of extraction of basalt by German archaeologists. In the post-war period fieldwork was carried out in the still intact fragment of the site by B. Czerska. Although the excavated materials were never published in full the function and dating of the Celtic settlement at Nowa Cerekwia was discussed on many occasions in archaeological literature. The generally accepted interpretation of the settlement was “outstanding rural settlement of production and agricultural type”. This interpretation was formulated basing on the relatively rich finds inventory which comprised e.g., some 67 glass objects and 4 coins.
Until recently it seemed that all what could be achieved when it comes to understanding the site at Nowa Cerekwia had already been achieved by the researchers who investigated there. However, in early 2007 I came across information about new finds made by treasure hunters in the area of the settlement site investigated in the past by archaeologists. After some serious detective work I was able to learn that among the materials obtained by amateur prospectors there were thirty or so early Boii coins. Although there was no reason to doubt the reliability of my informers, knowing how rare similar coin finds were then in Poland, I suspected that their reports were vastly exaggerated. To confirm this information, in the autumn of 2007, with a group of amateur treasure hunters I went to Nowa Cerekwia to make a surface survey of the site. The results of our search, continued a year later also in the form of stationary archaeological excavation, surpassed our boldest expectations.
The finds from Nowa Cerekwia closely resemble materials discovered in the already famous sites at Němčice (Moravia) and Roseldorf (Lower Austria), although with some small differences, mainly chronological ones. The settlement at Nowa Cerekwia goes back in its origin to phase LT B1. However, early La Tène finds from this site are relatively few, suggesting that its function then was different than in the later period. The majority of small finds can be dated to the middle La Tène (LT C1-C2). At this time, the settlement functioned as a “central place” – centre of production and trade exchange with an interregional significance, centre of distribution of goods produced locally or imported from the South; its recipients were mostly the Celtic communities in Lower Silesia and Lesser Poland but also – Germanic populations from the North.

Die gute Erhaltung alter Wegeführungen im stark bewaldeten Gebiet des Schwarzwälder Hochwaldes
erlaubt eine ansatzweise Rekonstruktion keltischer und gallorömischer Wege im Umfeld des keltischen Zentralortes
“Hunnenring” bei Otzenhausen. Auf Basis der mittels der Laser Airborne Scanning Methode erkannten Wegetrassen
konnte in Kombination mit bekannten Bodendenkmäler ein erster Datierungsansatz für antike Strassen gewonnen
werden. In Kombination, bzw. im Vergleich verschiedener Zeitabschnitte konnten sowohl Wandel als auch Kontinuität
im Verkehrswegenetz der Hunsrückregion zwischen den Hunsrückhochflächen bei Hermeskeil und dem Primsknie bei
Wadern nachvollzogen werden. Durch Bezugnahme auf die Region tangierende Fernwege erhält das gewonnene Bild
eine Einbindung in die überregionalen existenten, politischen und wirtschaftlichen Gegebenheiten der untersuchten
Zeitepochen.

La riconoscenza dell'Acqua come principio primo e fonte originale, per delle popolazioni mobili, la cui sopravvivenza proviene dai suoi benefici, viene espressa tramite la consacrazione delle fonti dei principali fiumi dell'Europa; quelli che divennero dei santuari della dea celtica della fertilità. Evocata dalla toponimia celtica, questa consacrazione viene attinta da un grandissimo numero di offerte votive-statuette, metalli preziosi, armi e oggetti domestici-scoperti un po' ovunque in Europa lungo il corso d'acqua e presso i santuari situati alle loro sorgenti. Il fiume o il corso d'acqua rappresenta un'espressione mobile della Madre Terra, che rende le acque sacre. È la combinazione particolare delle diverse proprietà minerali, vegetali e volativi che emanano certe sorgenti in certe ore del giorno e della fase lunare che ne crea i poteri rigeneratori. Ogni luogo sacro ha il suo spirito guardiano che veglia si di lui, osserva i riti quotidiani secondo il cerimoniale voluto che si può materializzare sotto forma di canto, di uccello, di pesce, in onore della dea. A volte la dea appare come essere dei sogni, come strega, in funzione delle circostanze o delle predisposizioni del visitatore o dell'intruso. Questi luoghi rappresentano il grembo della Madre Terra invocata sotto nomi e aspetti differenti. Esistono numerose iscrizioni galliche (Gallia Transalpina e Cisalpina-iscrizioni leponzie), indirizzate a Gwena, Belisama (antichi nomi della Dea), Brida, Brii, Bria (divenuto poi Brighit), la Madre rappresentata sotto forma di triade-modello che spesso viene richiamato nell'arte e nella letteratura celtica-assieme al suo bambino e ad un cesto di frutta (simbolo di fertilità ed abbondanza). Un'altra rappresentazione popolare è quella della dea Epona, abitualmente a cavallo e a volte accompagnata da un rapace. La Luna, con i suoi poteri sulle maree e sui cicli mestruali, rappresenta un insieme universale di simboli; presiede ai riti notturni legati ai canti degli animali, come il serpente ed il lupo. La mitologia celtica la identifica con la triplice dea che presiede le nascite, alla Vita e alla morte: triade delle giovani, delle spose e delle donne anziane; Morrigan, Macha, Badh, Arianrhodd, Sequana. Gli antichi Celti, la cui teologia è scomparsa assieme alle loro tradizioni orali, hanno lasciato delle statue anonime a due o tre teste, che però rappresentano chiaramente simboli celtici. Nel nord Italia abbiamo numerosi reperti e testimonianze di tali divinità che in alcuni casi assumono anche vesti solari, in quanto la Dea Madre rappresenta anche queste qualità. A Milano, ad esempio sono state di recente scoperte statuette votive, e basso rilievi di Belisama, divinità luni-solare, che reca accanto a sé una scrofa semi lanuta, animale-simbolo delle sue peculiarità: dono della guida oltre il mondo visibile, per individuare il nemeton per costruire il santuario. La chiesetta di S. Calimero, come quella di S.Calogero, in via Quadronno, erano "votate" alla Dea Belisama. La leggenda milanese

Rhŷs’  Hibbert Lectures (1886, publ. 1888) are a very important stage in Mabinogi Studies. But his Mabinogi/on commentary is taken for granted, typically not referenced at all. This A-Z Index corrects that problem. It also gathers out the Welsh material, particularly if Mabinogi related. This is extremely useful as, contrary to the impression Mabinogi citations give, Rhŷs did not prioritise Welsh material. It is hidden in footnotes, or a brief comment following after a passage on Irish material, for that is his main Celtic focus. Here it is gathered together, organised and cross referenced A-Z.
Rhŷs was influenced by the political forcces of his times, a supremacist British empire, its partner Christianity, and gender inequality. He used the methods of the successful German school of mythology, a resourceful strategy but it also donated a theory of primal Sun God/ heroes. Rhŷs gives a great deal of attention to this but shows scholarly integrity in assessing it as inappropriate to Welsh material. (The theory was later discredited.)
It should be noted that Rhŷs’ mabinog (bardic apprentice) theory does not appear in the Lectures. I reproduce its appearance (1887) in the Introduction below.
Rhŷs was a generous mentor to a new generation of scholars, during the challenging foundational period when Wales was first developing its own universities. It is not well known that Rhŷs’ struggle to apply the Sun God theory to the Mabinogi, resulted in his proposal to split Pwyll into two personages. His pupil W. J. Gruffydd duly did this and more, taking reconstruction to extremes Rhŷs  would never have approved. The work of another Rhŷs protégé, Gwenogvryn Evans, proved of inestimable value for the transcription of the two main Mabinogi manuscript sources (Llyfr Gwyn Rhydderch and Llyfr Coch Rhydderch). EdwardAnwyl also benefited from the academic culture Rhŷs pioneered, but Anwyl’s death at a relatively early age in 1914 allowed WJG to take an unfortunately dominant position. Mabinogi Studies did not in my opinion find ita feet again until the 1970s.
Rhŷs’ writing is fluent and readable, and he makes great efforts to support his proposals with evidence. Some of this has been overtaken by new information but a browse through this Index shows how many ideas which seem modern actually trace back to him.