Celts in Space, Or the Lack Thereof
A look at Celticism in Outer Space and Science Fiction
This post is equal parts opinion piece, light scholarly analysis, and call to action (plus some writing advice). The idea for it came to me fairly soon after Senchas Claideb’s start when I was thinking up topics I could write on later down the road. Given that I’ve made June the dedicated month for Sword & Planet, this is the perfect time to give my thoughts about Celts being in space (or the lack of them we see in media).
To quickly define “Celts” or “Celtic” for this post, as I’ve done for previous ones focused on incorporating Celticism into writing, the term most straightforwardly refers to languages and cultural groups. The surviving languages and groups today include speakers in Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man, Cornwall, Wales, and Brittany. Celtic-speaking peoples have historically been misrepresented consciously and unconsciously, with many recent examples being in speculative fiction (namely fantasy) where Celts or Celt-analogues are usually depicted as borderline barbarian hippies with penchants for whisky, brawling, singing, and mumbling about “the old ways” or screaming about freedom. Historically, Celtic-speaking peoples and their cultures were just as complex and sophisticated as the imperialists that tried to break them; outside, contemporary observers of ancient and modern “Celts” are notorious for “dumbing down” customs they observed, many Classical scholars also simply reference previous historians whose works are lost to time without having met a Celt themselves. This frontload is simply part of an ongoing spiel I have to say, “Celts get misrepresented a lot but I’m here to give some tips on how not to muck it up in your own fiction.”
When it comes to preexisting stories with a fictional setting that is aware of itself being in space, there isn’t a lot to go off of when it comes to “purely Celtic” examples. Most are either mixed in with other elements—which is common in other speculative fiction genres using Celtic source material—or left out completely. In Warhammer 40k, for example, there is no faction or sub-faction created by Games Workshop that is representative of a Celtic culture among the Imperium of Man, Xenos, or Chaos. The closest we come based on purely aesthetics is the Space Wolves Space Marine chapters’ use of Celtic-esque knotwork in their armor designs. There is also the Howling Banshees Aspect of the Aeldari faction (40k’s equivalent to elves), which hosts female warriors characterized by white armor and manes of red hair fastened to their uncanny masks. These examples, however, don’t draw anything else from Celtic lore; the Space Wolves draw more inspiration from Norse mythology and the Aeldari lean more into the original lore Games Workshop developed for them rather than any real world analogues.
In one of the Celtic language Facebook groups I’m on, someone posted their opinion comparing the Irish and Scottish Gaels to the Belters from The Expanse Amazon Prime series (adapted from the novels by James S. A. Correy). While I don’t wholly disagree with the original poster’s sentiment, their comparison felt a bit contrived simply because they focused on the fact that both the Gaels and the Belters faced prejudice and diaspora by larger economic, political, and military forces. When looking at the constructed language for the Belters, Belter Creole, which utilizes a mix of various Eastern and Western language families, Celtic is not among them—which, in my mind, has upsetting implications for the fate of Celtic languages in the world of The Expanse. Belters do use the singular, first person pronoun mi (I and me) which is also the first person singular pronoun in the Gaelic languages. Aside from that example, none of the words in the current Belter vocabulary bear any resemblance to Celtic words.
In the medium of video games based on space exploration, there are several examples of titles that have minor references to characters from Celtic (and more specifically, Irish) mythology that are primarily used for the names of planets and sometimes aliens. The second and third Mass Effect games feature a star system that players can travel to called Balor, which is also the name of the dwarf star at its center. Most of the planets and other features surrounding it bear names referencing Celtic and Irish mythology, those being (in order from Balor outwards) Cernunnos, the Fomor Belt, Bres, Elatha, and Parthalon. None of these planets are inhabited—although Bres is said to have had miners on it—and players cannot physically visit any of them. Aside from these (and potentially the life stages of the Asari race),1 there are no other Celtic references in Mass Effect.
Another sci-fi video game that references the Fomorians is Warframe. The name “Fomorian” is used for a special type of space battleship used by the major antagonistic faction, the Grineer, a cyborg-like species. The Fomorian ships are supposedly the strongest enemy vessels in the game. The lore behind them references different characters and instances from Irish mythology, specifically from “The Second Battle of Moytura”; the different Fomorian ships of the base class have names taken from characters in the story, many of whom are Fomorian-blooded: Birog, Bres, Buarainech, Chicol, Conand, Corb, Elatha, Ethniu, Lugh, Neit and Nemed. The most powerful class of these ships are the Balor types. Other references to Irish myth in Warframe pertaining to the Fomorian ships are different mission names, one of which being “Operation Sling Stone” which is a clear reference to how Lugh defeats Balor in “The Second Battle of Moytura.”
One film that I have yet to watch (but may do so for a review at some point) that has an eclectic mix of Celtic references is Garm Wars: The Last Druid (2014), a live action/computer animated movie by the Ghost in the Shell anime director Mamorou Oshii. It stars Lance Henriksen as a character named Wydd (which looks rather Welsh to me) searching for a Druid to acquire godly wisdom on how to free his people from an opposing, oppressive tribe. When I watch it for myself, I’ll be able to get more of a sense as to how Celtic lore is implemented into the story.
Overall, most Celtic references in popular sci-fi media are simply used for their names rather than incorporating mythic, folkloric, or any cultural aspects into stories. Granted, when the idea of spacefaring civilizations come to mind, Celtic-speakers are not normally one of them, perhaps due to lack of popular awareness with most audiences or that Celts are so tied with the planet we currently live on that it would be difficult to imagine applying them elsewhere in the cosmos. As Frank Herbert demonstrated with the Fremen in Dune, however, it could be possible if a similar approach were taken to placing Celts or Celtic-analogues amongst the stars.
What Herbert managed to do with the Fremen is synthesize Islam, Buddhism, and environmentalism into an imagined, far future culture that thrived and became the center of an empire in his series. The key quality of the Zensunni wanderers’ teachings (the ancestors of the Fremen) is that they were portable, tied to themselves as a people and not to one particular place until they landed on Arrakis. Portability is a quality that Celtic cultures have shared centuries. Compared to their Mediterranean neighbors, Celtic art, lore, and technology was always meant to be portable. Rather than writing things down, their bards and druids memorized their history and stories, imparting them on pupils and other tribes. La Tène artefacts are well known for their easy transportability so warriors could carry them into battle and even beyond to the afterlife if they perished; Greeks and Romans, meanwhile, were concerned with permanent fixtures in their households and metropolises. When Celtic-speaking peoples faced diaspora in the face of English imperialism, many took their language and culture to the countries they fled to; Gaeldom is alive and well in Canada, with huge revival and preservation efforts being made in Nova Scotia especially, and there is an entire Welsh-speaking colony in the Chubut Valley of Argentina where customs are preserved and practiced.
Since exploration is such a huge factor in science fiction based in outer space, being able to find what can be transported with a people is important to portraying a culture in these types of stories—language being one of the biggest. Belter Creole is one of the finest, most recent examples of how languages can change, mingle, and be reapplied to new settings and cultures. Although it doesn’t have a lick of Celtic in its lexicon, many of the phrases uttered during in The Expanse relate to the Belters’ life among the stars and stones of space as they struggle to find somewhere to be free and call home. As I previously stated, it can be difficult to divorce Celts (or really any people) from Earth as what we know about them is so tied to our home planet. However, if we can change our perception of space, looking at it from the point of view where the ability to traverse it is common enough to reshape human society, we can go from seeing it as this aetherial plane that tests every boundary of human ability and knowledge to simply a part of the natural world. Although I said Celts are often inaccurately portrayed as “barbaric hippies” with their devotion to nature, historically Celtic-speaking peoples always saw divinity or life in their environments. The natural world has been subject to place-naming stories, religious customs, and songs likely since the dawn of Celtic cultures; applying Celtic views to the aspects of nature to a sci-fi setting would likely involve trading single countries for entire planets, battlefields for drifting wreckage of spaceships, and rivers for pillars of star dust.
As for the more heroic aspects of Celt myth and history, sci-fi, Sword & Planet, Space Opera, and other subgenres of science fiction would be ripe ground for characters and cultures in the distant future. Celtic heroes are often lauded for unwavering skill and boldness in combat, mastery over the arts of war and song, and the uncanny ability to avoid death even in the direst of straits. The most surefire path to immortality in Celtic culture as a warrior was through storytelling, and gaining unfailing recognition from bards, peers, and tenants required warriors to perform increasingly dangerous acts from which they could overcome. As such, heroes often lived short lives but left lifetimes worth of tales to be told long after they had gone. In a space setting, one could imagine swashbuckling heroes (in the style of John Carter) facing hordes of insectoid aliens yet still emerging victorious, or making daring spacewalks on the backs of wayward spaceships, or leaping off meteorites to drive their blades into the hearts of some titanic menace. Another thing to note about these types of warriors is that they often held disdain for ranged weaponry and firearms as they believed such armaments required little to no skill or strength. Celts in a sci-fi setting, therefore, might utilize archaic weaponry (again, like John Carter) not out of ignorance but for the sake of having a better story to tell when they emerge victorious against a battalion of blaster-wielding foes.
This is only a small observation with a few suggestions, but with any luck it may be something that inspires other writers to pick it up and run with it!
Thanks for reading this week’s post! How would you incorporate Celts or Celt-analogues into science fiction? Leave your ideas in the comments!
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The Asari are an all-female species in the Mass Effect series. They live just shy of 1,000 years and have three life stages: Maiden, Mother, and Matriarch. Those familiar with Wicca might compare these stages to the concept of the triple goddess Maiden, Mother, and Crone. However, rather than being an exclusively Celtic concept, the idea of three major phases in female divinities and mythological characters is more of a universal mythic archetype.
I think part of it is generational -- your references are primarily 21st century, but late 20th century fiction, particularly fantasy, was so Celtic-centric that I think there was a backlash against it. Having said that, the one Celto-centric SciFi series I can think of Patricia Keneally's KELTIAD novels, which are Science Fantasy:
https://www.wikiwand.com/en/The_Keltiad
And Julian May's "Plieocene Saga" takes a different tact, arguing the tales of the Tuatha de Danaan and Firbolg are memories of ancient aliens:
https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Saga_of_Pliocene_Exile
Both series were extremely popular in their day.
An interesting read, Ethan. I sometimes slip some Gaelic names or cultural elements into my sci-fi, e.g. in a recent short story I called the dog Dìleas, both for the meaning ("faithful") and because it was a very common name for dogs, especially sheepdogs, when I was growing up in the Hebrides. I don't imagine very many of my readers will pick up on things like that, but I have fun putting them in anyway! I know that's a bit different from the Celticism you're talking about here though.