The Element Encyclopedia of the Celts. Rodney Castleden

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СКАЧАТЬ style="font-size:15px;">      See Natan-Leod.

CERETIC GULETIC

      The King of Alcluith (Clyde) at the end of the fifth century. He appears in the story of St. Patrick as King Coroticus; Patrick claimed to have turned him into a fox.

      Ceretic’s fleet went across to raid the Irish in the middle of the fifth century.

      He died in 500 and was succeeded by his son Dyfnwal.

CHARIOTS

      Chariots were used for showing off before battle. Queen Medb of Connaught, for example, was driven in her chariot around her camp as a prelude to battle.

      Here is what Julius Caesar had to say about the British Celts on the battlefield:

       In chariot fighting the Britons begin by driving all over the field hurling javelins, and generally the terror inspired by the horses and the noise of the wheels are sufficient to throw the opponents’ ranks into disorder. Then, after making their way between the squadrons of their own cavalry, they jump down from the chariots and engage on foot. In the meantime their charioteers retire a short distance from the battle and place the chariots in such a position that their masters, if hard pressed by numbers, have an easy means of retreat to their own lines. Thus they combine the mobility of cavalry with the staying-power of infantry; and by daily training and practice they are able to control the horse at full gallop, and to check and turn them in a moment. They can run along the chariot pole, stand on the yoke, and get back into the chariot as quick as lightning.

      Caesar saw all this first hand and he was impressed by what he saw.

      Chariots could also acquire cult status. Two Gaulish cult vehicles were imported, dismantled, and buried in a mound with a cremation burial at Dejbjerg in Denmark in the first century BC. There was a throne at the center of each wagon, and the bodies buried at the site are believed to have been female. Were they perhaps warrior queens?

      No British Iron Age chariots have survived, though a chariot wheel was found in a second-century rubbish pit. It was a single piece of ash bent in a circle, fixed to an elm hub, with willow spokes. Early Irish folk-tales, such as The Wooing of Emer, from the Ulster Cycle, offer descriptions of working chariots:

       I see a chariot of fine wood with wickerwork, moving on wheels of white bronze. Its frame very high, of creaking copper, rounded and firm. A strong curved yoke of gold; two firm-plaited yellow reins; the shafts hard and straight as sword blades.

      CHILDHOOD

      Very young children had low status in Celtic society, counting as extensions of the family. Individual identity was allowed only as a child grew. Among the nobility, the education of children took place away from the parents. There was a widespread practice of sending children away to be brought up by another family, often with the intention of creating new kinship ties with a group far away. This fostering practice was carried through into the Middle Ages. The Druids took charge of the education of many children.

      Julius Caesar mentions that in Gaul boys were not allowed to appear in public until they were old enough to bear arms. It was considered a disgrace to the father if a son who was still a child stood beside him in public. The change in status marked by bearing arms suggests a rite of passage of some kind, and it is likely that there were complex initiation rites associated with status changes at different ages. In the Irish tales about Cú Chulainn, we hear about the rites of passage he has to undergo with other boys to acquire manly status. In one ritual, he is attacked by 159 boys throwing their hurley sticks at him. The young hero manages to dodge all of them.

      Probably headhunting marked a later rite of passage. In Ireland, killing a foe and taking his head was the signal that a youth’s military instruction was complete.

      A further rite of passage was marriage, which had, in Irish folk-tales at least, to be preceded by an adventure. Cú Chulainn has to undertake a long journey, during the course of which he has to undergo various ordeals. When he returns to take his bride-prize, he finds he has to force his way into her house and abduct her. This is no doubt a heightened version of some real trial by adversity that real-life grooms had to undergo.

CIARAN OF SAIGAR

      An Irish saint, born in Ossory, Ciaran lived for 30 years in Ireland, unbaptized because the community he lived in was pagan. He went to Rome in the time of Pope Hilary (461–68) and was consecrated bishop. He founded a double monastery, for men and women, with his mother in charge of the women.

      Ciaran, Ailbe, Declan, and Ibar were the four bishops of southern Ireland who preached before Patrick.

      Ciaran was abused by Aillel, King of Munster, and stopped a war between Aillel and Loegaire, the Irish High King. He visited Tours and died in Cornwall.

      CIVILIS

      See Religion: Druids.

      CLEMENS

      See Petroc.

      CLYTO

      See Fingar of Gwinnear.

      COEL GODEBOG

      “Coel the Magnificent,” according to one tradition, was a prince of Cornwall, son of Tegvan ap Dehevraint. The tradition is that he took upon himself the kingdom of Britain in 272 and held it for 28 years. The Romans were in power at that time, so it is scarcely possible for Coel to have been in any real sense “King of Britain.” There may, even so, have been some sort of agreement among the native kings and chieftains as to seniority.

      Another tradition has Coel as Lord of Colchester, a local ruler who was allowed to rule under Rome with status of a municipal senator or Decurion.

      COEL HEN

      “Coel the Old” lived around 350–430. According to one tradition he was Coel Godebog’s successor as Lord of Colchester, and was the last ruler there, under Rome, at the time when the Romans left. He earned his nickname because he was long-lived.

      But there was an early tradition, which therefore may be more authentic, that Coel Hen was a powerful king in the north of England. According to this version, he ruled the kingdom of York and perhaps the whole of the north, south of Hadrian’s Wall.

      Coel’s mother went by the extraordinary СКАЧАТЬ