The Element Encyclopedia of the Celts. Rodney Castleden
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Название: The Element Encyclopedia of the Celts
Автор: Rodney Castleden
Издательство: HarperCollins
Жанр: Историческая литература
isbn: 9780007519439
isbn:
The boys started at the age of five, learning the alphabet. There were no set fees: Illtud relied on customary “donations.”
Illtud’s teaching method was gentle and lenient. He did not believe it was sensible for growing boys to go in for excessive fasting. He also tried to dissuade the 15-year-old Paul Aurelian from going off to a desert hermitage, but in the end left the decision to the boy.
The monastery was Illtud’s own property, which his nephews expected to inherit. He died some time after 525.
JULIUS CAESAR
By no means a Celt himself, Gaius Julius Caesar earns his place here as a destroyer of Celts. He made a greater negative impact on the Celts than anyone else in history.
Caesar came from an old patrician family. In 85 BC, when he was only 16, his father died suddenly. Caesar was young to be head of the family, but he started at once working his way up the cursus honorum, the ladder of offices and appointments that would enhance his social status. In pursuing his political career and lobbying for offices, he ran up debts and was accused of corruption.
When he was appointed Governor of Cisalpine Gaul (northern Italy), with Transalpine Gaul (southern France) added later, he was glad to get out of Rome. He was deeply in debt: a great spur to military adventure.
From a variety of motives, including self-glorification and ultimate political triumph, Caesar worked his way through Gaul, attacking the Gallic tribes one by one and defeating them. Once he had conquered the tribes along the coast of the English Channel, the way was clear to cross and take Britain.
In 55 BC, Caesar blocked an attempt by two Germanic tribes to invade Gaul. Then, in late summer, he crossed the Channel into Britain. But his geographical and political knowledge of Britain was not good enough. He managed to establish a bridgehead on the coast in Sussex, but could not go further. He withdrew to Gaul for the winter.
In 54 BC he returned to Britain with a larger force and achieved more, setting up some alliances that would prove useful later. But there were poor harvests in Gaul, and a widespread revolt there forced Caesar to withdraw from Britain again.
What Caesar did, unintentionally, was to set down a challenge for future emperors who wanted to make a name for themselves. Could they succeed in conquering Britain, where great Caesar himself had failed?
In 52 BC there was a new and larger revolt in Gaul, led by Vercingetorix. This was well-coordinated and Caesar was defeated several times before the revolt was put down at the Battle of Alesia.
Plutarch claimed that in Caesar’s Gallic Wars one million Gauls had died and another million had been enslaved. Caesar had subjugated 300 tribes and destroyed 800 towns. The figures may have been exaggerated, but it is no exaggeration to see this as little short of a Celtic genocide.
KENTIGERN
St. Kentigern was the son of Owain, son of King Urien of Rheged. His mother was Thynoy.
Kentigern traveled to David at Menevia. He founded St. Asaph’s and was attacked by Maelgwn of Degannwy. He visited Europe and went to Rome seven times. It seems that he was Bishop of Senlis, near Paris, from 549–65.
While he was abroad, Riderch became King of Alclud (see Alcluith), and Kentigern returned to Glasgow. He taught that Woden was a mortal man, a Saxon king, not a god. He preached widely, visiting Pictland, and was visited by Columba of Iona, who gave him a staff, which is still preserved at Ripon. Kentigern died in around 603.
KYNGAR OF CONGRESBURY
See Docco.
LANGUAGE
The old languages still spoken in the Atlantic Celtic lands are related to one another, though they are not all as closely related as once believed. The current view among linguists is that historically there are two families of Celtic languages. The Q-Celtic family, known as Goidelic, has a western Gaelic branch from which Irish is descended and an eastern Gaelic branch from which Scottish Gaelic and Manx Gaelic are descended. Then there is a P-Celtic family, known as Brittonic, with a northern Brittonic branch from which Welsh developed and a southern Brittonic branch from which Cornish and Breton are descended. This division may help to explain why Welsh-speakers cannot understand Gaelic-speakers.
The “Q” and “P” families were first identified in the early eighteenth century by Edward Lhuyd. Q-Celtic is recognized from the presence of the “Q” sound in the word Mac, “son of.” P-Celtic has the “P” sound in the corresponding position: Map. This “P/Q” exchange is found in other words as well.
The relationship between the Cornish and Breton languages is the closest. This is explained by the exodus of Britons, via Cornwall, in the Dark Ages, as they were driven out by the advancing Anglo-Saxons. These British refugees fled westward through southern Britain to Cornwall, then crossed to Brittany in considerable numbers, and they took their language with them.
In the Middle Ages, Scotland was divided culturally between Highlands and Lowlands. The Highlanders spoke Gaelic (Irish “Celtic” or Erse), while the Lowlanders spoke Scots, which was a Germanic language close to English. This difference was perhaps a legacy of the Anglo-Saxon colonization of the Scottish Lowlands in the Dark Ages.
In the late 1980s Professor Colin Renfrew put forward the view that Celtic speech evolved from its Indo-European ancestor in the British Isles and the adjacent continent at some time after 4000 BC. Professor Renfrew believes that the Celtic language was not taken to Britain at all, but developed in situ. This is very much in line with the general view emerging of Celtic culture as a whole.
Much of what was passed on to others was learned by listening. Little was written down (See Writing). There were nevertheless the means to write. The Ogham alphabet was made of combinations of short and long marks, often chipped along the edges of stones. It was an ideal method for recording someone’s name on a gravestone. Ogham was widely used in southern Ireland, and more than 900 examples have been found in Britain and Ireland as a whole.
It is widely believed that the Celtic language was completely wiped out СКАЧАТЬ