The Element Encyclopedia of the Celts. Rodney Castleden

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СКАЧАТЬ formed. At other times it shrank to relatively small pockets, cells, or refuges.

      The waxing and waning of other cultures have sometimes inhibited the development of Celtic culture; at other times they have stimulated it. There was a long period of stasis and conservatism in Europe in the Bronze Age. Much of what happened was a response to the more dynamic and aggressive cultures of south-eastern Europe. In Anatolia (modern Turkey) there was the great Hittite Empire, and adjacent to that were the thriving Minoan and Mycenaean civilizations of the Aegean region. In about 1200 BC the Hittite Empire collapsed. The Minoan civilization was already weakened and subsumed by the Mycenaean civilization, then that too collapsed. Whether these collapses were to do with fundamental inherent weaknesses—time-bombs embedded within the cultures—or were precipitated by invasions or raids from outside, perhaps by the mysterious Sea Peoples, archeologists continue to debate. What is certain is that the pace of cultural development in Europe was suddenly no longer wholly governed from its south-eastern threshold.

      The collapse of the Hittite Empire meant that the secrets of ironworking, which had until then been a Hittite monopoly, spread across Europe. The “barbarians” of Europe learned a new technology, which involved beating bronze into thin sheets that could be made into cups, shields, and helmets. They also acquired a taste for wine, which led to an opening of trade routes south to the Mediterranean so that wine could be acquired. Finally, the opening of contact between northern and southern Europe led to a fruitful interchange of ideas between the two regions.

      The Bronze Age Europeans who underwent these major changes were the Urnfielders: the people who were the central European (Iron Age) Celts’ immediate precursors.

      Even within the Iron Age, what happened in central Europe was affected by what was happening in, and to, Greece. In 540 BC the Phocaean Greeks were in conflict with Carthage, and the two forces fought for supremacy in the western Mediterranean region in a sea battle off the Italian coast. The Carthaginians won and blockaded Greek trade in the Mediterranean. This in turn meant that the Celtic communities developing north of the Alps were cut off from Greek goods, and therefore from Greek models and standards. Those trading relationships were not recovered for 50 years. When they were, developments in Iron Age Celtic culture had taken it elsewhere. A new and more advanced Celtic culture was evolving, the La Tène culture, with a focus on the Rhône and middle Marne valleys.

      Later, in the first century BC, came the major inhibiting force of Rome, as the Roman Empire spread northward and westward into the territories of the Celts, conquering, subduing, and Romanizing.

      REAL PEOPLE

      When the Romans left Britain in the fifth century AD, the Dark Age Celts (the Romanized Britons left behind) had a new battle for survival on their hands, this time against an incursion of Anglo-Saxon invaders.

      This was the time of Arthur, the legendary Arthur, the Dark Age Celtic king who rallied the Britons and led them into battle, halting the westward advance of the Saxons across Britain for a quarter of a century, until he too fell in battle at Camlann in 547—if indeed he existed. There are some who believe that he really did. If so, how many of the stories about him are true?

      There is a wide spectrum of views about Arthur. Some people believe that he was everything the legends of the high Middle Ages say he was—a noble, true, and Christian king who rallied the native Britons at a time when they were being overwhelmed by the westward march of the Saxons. Others believe that he never existed at all, that there was no such king, and that he was invented in retrospect long after the British struggle for survival had been lost. Was he perhaps a typically Celtic keening for a lost might-have-been history?

      King Arthur does seem to represent the essence of Celticness in the same way as a bagpipe lament. Complex and enigmatic, resonant with visionary ideals, noble failure, and a wistful nostalgia for what might have been, his story represents a dark, vibrant, inspiring, and wonderful past that we desperately want to believe in.

      For centuries, myth, mystery, magic, and mysticism have been associated with the Celts. I hope this book will satisfy any curiosity regarding that spiritual side of the Celtic personality. But it is also important to remind ourselves that the Celts ate and drank and lived in houses, worked for their living, played music, told stories, and liked playing games. This everyday side needs to be sketched in, however lightly, to round out the picture of a remarkable, inventive, and longenduring people—a real people, as real as we are.

ADDEDOMARUS

      A king of the Trinovantes tribe at the end of the first century BC. His territory consisted of what is now Essex and south Suffolk. Although this area is now part of England, Addedomarus and his people were not English but native Celtic Britons. He was the first British king north of the Thames River to mint inscribed coins.

      Addedomarus moved the Trinovantes’ tribal capital from Braughing in Hertfordshire to Camulodunum (Colchester) in Essex. In about 30 BC, Tasciovanus, king of the neighboring Catuvellauni tribe to the west, seized his territory from him and began issuing his own coins from Camulodunum. The two kingdoms were apparently then run jointly from the Trinovantian capital by the Catuvellaunian king.

      Addedomarus somehow regained control in about 20 BC and reigned over the Trinovantes until his death in 10 BC (approximate dates). He is thought to be the king who was buried in the Lexden Tumulus in Camulodunum. On his death, he was succeeded by Dubnovellaunus.

      In the Welsh Triads, Addedomarus is remembered as one of the founders of Britain.

      ADOMNÁN

      Abbot of Iona 686–704. He was the main northern Irish advocate of support for the Roman Easter. With others, in 697, he was responsible for setting up the Cain Adomnain, a code of war designed to protect non-combatants. He went to Northumbria in 686 to negotiate the release of 60 Irish prisoners abducted by the Northumbrians in a raid.

      AED

      Sixth-century Irishman, brought up in Meath without any education. His brothers divided their father’s inheritance, giving him nothing. To force their hand, he abducted a young woman. He was rebuked by Bishop Illand for his action and promised something better if he entered the Church, which he did.

      Aed was consecrated bishop in Meath, where he founded monasteries and performed miracles. He also secured the release of many slaves and prisoners who wanted to enter monasteries: it was a recruitment drive.

      AEDAN

      Aedan was a sixth-century monk sent from Iona to Lindisfarne as bishop. He was abbot of the Columban house of Lindisfarne (north of Bamburgh) and bishop of the Northumbrians. The chronicler Bede emphasized the singleminded simplicity of his life.

      AEDAN СКАЧАТЬ