A very interesting post! One thing I find intriguing is that when one thinks of “Celtic”, they automatically think of the British Isles, yet there were Celtic tribes on the European continent as well stretching from France, Hispania, all the way to Central Europe. Why aren’t there any Celtic stories set in continental Europe?
All of the Continental Celtic languages died out shortly after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, which may contribute to the gross lack of information we have about Continental Celts, their myths, and culture, thus fewer sources of inspiration. However, DMR Books' "Die By the Sword" (2023) anthology does feature a story by Dariel Quiogue called "Ardax of Antillia" featuring a Listuanian Celt.
For the most part. There's a lot of emphasis on human sacrifice and methods of social conduct and government that ran counter to the Roman ideals. A lot of similar things are observed among the British Celts. Dan Carlin probably has the best breakdown of Celtic-Roman interactions in his "Hardcore History" series on them.
My guess is yeah, considering almost all the Continental Celtic language families (Celtiberian, Galatian, Gaulish, Lapontic, and Noric) went extinct by the end of the first century AD, on top of which most of them weren’t written down unless it was by a Roman mercenary.
I've also found that on closer inspection, mythology really is treated poorly (and even disrespected) by a lot of current fiction and fiction authors that use it, so I've become a lot more careful about my own research. And it has made me enjoy some works a lot less, I stopped playing one game after digging into actual mythology made me realize more of its depictions were awful than good.
At least with my secondary world fantasy I loathe the idea of a direct real world counterpart, so even unintentional distinctions from what I use as inspiration can work in my favor, while writing about mythology directly is obviously much more strict on faithfulness. One major misconception people seem to have is that they think the absence of a canon means its impossible to be wrong, when there is a difference between the natural evolution of culture and a comic book writer making something up.
I'm only a hobbyist in terms of research, but google scholar, JSTOR, and looking for proper academic books/PDFs has done a lot to help me move past the basic wikipedia info and get to the real meat of things. Though my own efforts have been mainly focused on the Aztec, the god Tezcatlipoca in particular, whose treatment in/by pop culture I despise and would argue still has traces of colonial attitudes.
Also I had just finished reading The Saga of Hrólf Kraki and His Champions before reading this, so while not Celtic I thought of it when you mentioned the importance of fame for warriors. I think ultimately there needs to be more of an effort from people to understand mythology on its own terms, not conform it to our own.
Agreed wholeheartedly. I'm not at all a fan of postmodern, "meme-y" adaptations or interpretations of any myths (even the more popular ones like Greek). Most people treat it like fantasy novels that happen to be in the public domain; I don't want to see revisions of an actual people's myths played out like a maudlin soap opera. It would be nice for more academic articles and books (along the lines of Jackson Crawford levels of accessibility) to be available to general audiences. The truth is far stranger than fiction, but I find it more interesting than fiction personally.
I enjoy finding connections between Norse and Celtic culture; although they are quite different, they still hold some similarities including ideals of honor and values placed on poets and poetry.
The Norse and Celts seem to cross paths quite a bit culturally and historically. Some of the islands in and around what is Scotland today, were possessed and governed by Norse rulers. For all of their similarities though, they certainly do have unique and distinct mythologies and cultural hallmarks.
A very interesting post! One thing I find intriguing is that when one thinks of “Celtic”, they automatically think of the British Isles, yet there were Celtic tribes on the European continent as well stretching from France, Hispania, all the way to Central Europe. Why aren’t there any Celtic stories set in continental Europe?
All of the Continental Celtic languages died out shortly after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, which may contribute to the gross lack of information we have about Continental Celts, their myths, and culture, thus fewer sources of inspiration. However, DMR Books' "Die By the Sword" (2023) anthology does feature a story by Dariel Quiogue called "Ardax of Antillia" featuring a Listuanian Celt.
What about all the Celtic peoples in Gaul? Is everything we know about them biased through the lens of the Romans?
For the most part. There's a lot of emphasis on human sacrifice and methods of social conduct and government that ran counter to the Roman ideals. A lot of similar things are observed among the British Celts. Dan Carlin probably has the best breakdown of Celtic-Roman interactions in his "Hardcore History" series on them.
Thanks. I need to take another run at that 4+ hour podcast of his on the Celtic Holocaust.
My guess is yeah, considering almost all the Continental Celtic language families (Celtiberian, Galatian, Gaulish, Lapontic, and Noric) went extinct by the end of the first century AD, on top of which most of them weren’t written down unless it was by a Roman mercenary.
I've also found that on closer inspection, mythology really is treated poorly (and even disrespected) by a lot of current fiction and fiction authors that use it, so I've become a lot more careful about my own research. And it has made me enjoy some works a lot less, I stopped playing one game after digging into actual mythology made me realize more of its depictions were awful than good.
At least with my secondary world fantasy I loathe the idea of a direct real world counterpart, so even unintentional distinctions from what I use as inspiration can work in my favor, while writing about mythology directly is obviously much more strict on faithfulness. One major misconception people seem to have is that they think the absence of a canon means its impossible to be wrong, when there is a difference between the natural evolution of culture and a comic book writer making something up.
I'm only a hobbyist in terms of research, but google scholar, JSTOR, and looking for proper academic books/PDFs has done a lot to help me move past the basic wikipedia info and get to the real meat of things. Though my own efforts have been mainly focused on the Aztec, the god Tezcatlipoca in particular, whose treatment in/by pop culture I despise and would argue still has traces of colonial attitudes.
Also I had just finished reading The Saga of Hrólf Kraki and His Champions before reading this, so while not Celtic I thought of it when you mentioned the importance of fame for warriors. I think ultimately there needs to be more of an effort from people to understand mythology on its own terms, not conform it to our own.
Agreed wholeheartedly. I'm not at all a fan of postmodern, "meme-y" adaptations or interpretations of any myths (even the more popular ones like Greek). Most people treat it like fantasy novels that happen to be in the public domain; I don't want to see revisions of an actual people's myths played out like a maudlin soap opera. It would be nice for more academic articles and books (along the lines of Jackson Crawford levels of accessibility) to be available to general audiences. The truth is far stranger than fiction, but I find it more interesting than fiction personally.
I enjoy finding connections between Norse and Celtic culture; although they are quite different, they still hold some similarities including ideals of honor and values placed on poets and poetry.
The Norse and Celts seem to cross paths quite a bit culturally and historically. Some of the islands in and around what is Scotland today, were possessed and governed by Norse rulers. For all of their similarities though, they certainly do have unique and distinct mythologies and cultural hallmarks.